Daysofpal – The United Nations has firmly defended its agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared that the organization would be excluded from future humanitarian operations in the Gaza Strip.
Speaking at a news conference in Israel on Friday, Rubio said that while Washington was willing to coordinate aid efforts with the UN, “UNRWA will not be able to play any role in the Gaza Strip.” He added that “eight to ten relief organizations” would operate in Gaza, but UNRWA would not be among them.
Rubio claimed that UNRWA was “affiliated with and funded by Hamas,” repeating long-standing Israeli allegations that some of the agency’s employees were under the group’s influence.
Responding to the remarks, Farhan Haq, deputy spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, dismissed Rubio’s assertions.
“UNRWA is not linked to Hamas. UNRWA is the backbone of our humanitarian operations in Gaza,” Haq said. “There was a small number of staff members of UNRWA who were credibly linked to Hamas, and we have handled that situation and fired those personnel. Others were not found to have any links, or there was no evidence provided to back up any allegations.”
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) also issued a statement rejecting Rubio’s comments, emphasizing that its presence “remains vital to meeting urgent humanitarian needs throughout the occupied Palestinian territories.”
In a post on X, UNRWA pointed to a recent International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling issued on Wednesday, which underscored that “no organization can replace UNRWA in supporting the people of the Gaza Strip.”
Rubio’s position also appears to contradict the framework of the Trump administration’s plan to end the war in Gaza.
Paragraph 8 of the agreement stipulates that “aid will be brought into and distributed in the Gaza Strip without interference from Israel and Hamas, but rather solely through the United Nations, its agencies, the Red Crescent, and other international organizations not affiliated in any way with either party.”
UN officials and humanitarian actors say removing UNRWA from aid delivery would severely undermine relief efforts, as the agency has decades of experience, a functioning infrastructure, and data on millions of registered Palestinian refugees.
For now, the UN continues to insist that UNRWA is irreplaceable. As Haq put it, the agency “is not only central to humanitarian operations in Gaza, it is essential to ensuring aid is delivered with accountability, structure, and dignity.”
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