Two Israeli laws in force since January 2025 bar UNRWA from operating in territory under Israeli sovereignty and prohibit state contact with it; a December 2025 amendment extends that to electricity, water and banking. The ICJ found in October 2025 that Israel must facilitate relief including by UNRWA.
UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East subject to restrictions by Israel and the Levant. A directional arrangement: the two parties do not hold the same position in it. Authored once and read from both ends.
The arrangement
- Status
- ActiveIn force and operating. Says nothing about how well it is working, or about which way it is heading.Last material change: 2025-12-29.
- What it covers
- HumanitarianInstitutionalLegal and treatyCategories the arrangement is documented to include. Not a measure: a relationship covering more of them is described in more detail, not held more firmly.
Summary
On 28 October 2024 the Knesset passed two laws: one barring UNRWA from operating in territory under Israeli sovereignty, the other prohibiting contact between Israeli state bodies and the agency. They took effect at the end of January 2025. An amendment passed on 29 December 2025 defines the supply of electricity, water and banking services to UNRWA facilities as prohibited contact, and in January 2026 it was applied to the agency's East Jerusalem sites, which a rights organisation challenged in court. Israel's position is that the agency is compromised by Hamas; a UN internal oversight review made findings concerning nine staff members. The ICJ's advisory opinion of 22 October 2025 found that Israel, as occupying power, must ensure the population's basic needs and facilitate relief, including by UNRWA, and rejected Israel's allegations about the agency's neutrality; the opinion is not binding, and Israel has rejected its findings. UNRWA has since cut staff in Gaza.
Why it matters
UNRWA runs schools, clinics and services for refugees in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and the laws turn its operation into a question of Israeli law at every crossing and site Israel controls. Resolution 2803 routes Gaza's aid through the UN, the Red Cross and the Red Crescent without naming UNRWA, so the agency's place in Gaza's recovery is not settled by the arrangements now in force.
Related events
- The Knesset passes two laws against UNRWA 28 Oct 2024 (in force Jan 2025)
Humanitarian · Political
What remains unknown
- The texts of the 2024 laws and the December 2025 amendment were not read; their provisions come from the event record and reporting.
- Which UNRWA operations continue in Gaza and the West Bank, and with what international staff, is not established from a current UNRWA figure.
Readings the evidence also supports
- Israel presents the laws as security measures against an agency it says Hamas penetrated; the agency treats them as obstruction of relief, and the ICJ found Israel obliged to facilitate it. The record states the measures and attributes both positions.
Listed because the record's own assessment is not the only one its sources permit — not as a hedge on the assessment above.
Watch questions this relationship bears on
Standing analytical questions whose evidence runs through this relationship, each with its latest review. Derived from the Watch object, never restated here.
All Levant relationships Open in Explore
Assessed as of — 2026-01 Last reviewed — 2026-10-11