Warning as Israel shuts down UN aid agency

The main UN agency serving Palestinians in the occupied territories, including Gaza, looks likely to be shut down today as Israel defies widespread international support for the agency in a move Unrwa predicts will "sabotage Gaza's recovery and political transition".

- Peter Beaumont

Unrwa's banning looked certain as Israel's high court of justice refused a last-minute request to intervene to suspend the law forbidding the agency from operating in Israel.

Palestinians in the war-devastated Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, are expected to be hardest hit by the ban, including about 30,000 Unrwa workers.

It comes after Egypt's president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, emphatically rejected suggestions from Donald Trump that Palestinians from Gaza should be "cleaned out" to Egypt and Jordan, describing the idea as an "act of injustice".

Israel, with the backing of the Trump administration, will cut ties with Unrwa from today, amid condemnation from aid groups as well as US allies, including the UN secretarygeneral, António Guterres, who demanded that Israel retract its order and said Unrwa was "irreplaceable".

The agency has brought in about 60% of the food aid that has reached Gaza since the war began with Hamas's 7 October 2023 attack on Israel. Its closure comes as three Israelis held by Hamas in Gaza are due to be handed over in exchange for Palestinians held in Israeli jails as part of the ceasefire. A soldier, Agam Berger, and two Israeli civilian hostages, Arbel Yehoud and Gadi Moses, are due to be handed over today.

Moses, 80, is the first male civilian hostage to be released under the ceasefire deal. There was speculation that five Thai citizens held by Hamas could also be released today.