UN chief threatens to refer Israel to World Court over laws targeting UNRWA
In letter to PM, Guterres says legislation violates obligations under international law; UN envoy Danon says UN chief threatening Israel instead of dealing with terror in agency
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UNITED NATIONS — UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned Israel in a letter that he could refer the country to the International Court of Justice if it does not repeal laws targeting the UN Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA and return seized assets and property.
In a January 8 letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Guterres said the United Nations cannot remain indifferent to “actions taken by Israel, which are in direct contravention of the obligations of Israel under international law. They must be reversed without delay.”
The Knesset passed a law in October 2024 banning the agency from operating in the country and prohibiting officials from having contact with the agency. It then amended that law last month to ban electricity or water to UNRWA facilities.
Israeli authorities also seized UNRWA’s East Jerusalem offices last month.
Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon on Tuesday dismissed Guterres’s letter to Netanyahu.
“We are not fazed by the Secretary-General’s threats,” Danon said. “Instead of dealing with the undeniable involvement of UNRWA personnel in terrorism, the Secretary-General chooses to threaten Israel. This is not defending international law; this is defending an organization marred by terrorism.”
UNRWA and Gaza
Israel has long been critical of UNRWA, which was created by the General Assembly in 1949 following the war surrounding the founding of Israel. It provides aid, health and education to millions of Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan.
Top UN officials and the UN Security Council have described UNRWA as the backbone of the aid response in Gaza, where the two-year war between Israel and the Hamas terror group unleashed a humanitarian catastrophe.
Israel has alleged that more than 10 percent of UNRWA’s staff in Gaza have ties to terror groups, and that educational facilities under the organization’s auspices consistently incite hatred of Israel and glorify terror.
In February 2024, the IDF revealed the existence of a subterranean Hamas data center directly beneath UNRWA’s Gaza Strip headquarters. The IDF has also repeatedly targeted Hamas command centers and gunmen hiding out in UNRWA schools.
Freed hostage Emily Damari said after returning to Israel that she was held in captivity in UNRWA schools and facilities, a claim the agency said it took “extremely seriously.”
The United Nations has said that nine UNRWA staff members may have been involved in the October 7, 2023, Hamas massacre in Israel and were fired. A Hamas commander in Lebanon — killed in September by Israel — was also found to have had a UNRWA job.
The Hamas onslaught in 2023 triggered the war between Israel and the Palestinian terrorists in the Gaza Strip.
At the same time, some Israeli politicians and officials saw the relief that the agency provided as a means of keeping the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank from deeper poverty and thus greater violence and terrorism.
The United Nations’ top legal body, the International Court of Justice, in October gave an advisory opinion saying Israel is under the obligation to ensure the basic needs of the civilian population in Gaza are met.
The ICJ opinion was requested by the 193-member UN General Assembly. Advisory opinions of the ICJ, also known as the World Court, carry legal and political weight, but they are not binding, and the court has no enforcement power.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
The Times of Israel Community.