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Hamas Condemns Board of Peace Over UNRWA Exclusion in Gaza

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Hamas accuses the US-created Board of Peace of siding with Israel after it ruled out any role for the UN refugee agency UNRWA in Gaza.

Hamas on Saturday denounced a decision by the US-created Board of Peace to shut the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, out of operations in Gaza. Spokesperson Hazem Qassem said the move amounted to "a complete alignment with the Zionist [Israeli] position" and was designed to shut down the agency, cut off its aid to Palestinians and erase their right of return.

The rebuke followed a statement the Board posted on X on Friday. It said UNRWA's standing in Gaza remained the same and that it would cooperate only with "trusted partners who will deliver for the people of Gaza and contribute to a deradicalized Strip". The agency, the Board added, "fails on those litmus tests".

Qassem called it odd that the body would take such a combative line against UNRWA while, in his words, failing to get aid into Gaza or to force Israel to honour the ceasefire and stop the daily killing of Palestinians there.

UNRWA was established in 1949 and has spent decades running aid and schooling programmes for Palestinian refugees. Palestinians regard it as a guardian of their claim to return to their homeland. Israel has pushed for the agency to be shut down entirely.

What the Board told the UN

The Board of Peace briefed the UN General Assembly on Wednesday and listed several UN bodies as partners in its plans for Gaza. UNRWA was left off that list. Its public position, however, appears firmer than its private dealings.

The Associated Press reported on Friday that Board members had shown more openness to working with UNRWA away from public view. A Board official, who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity, said members had sat down with UNRWA representatives on several occasions. The official suggested the agency's programmes might carry on if they genuinely helped Gaza's residents, but insisted that "UNRWA's days are over".

The Board has installed a Palestinian technocratic committee to administer Gaza. Philippe Lazzarini, who ran UNRWA until earlier this year, told the AP that members of that committee wanted to keep the agency involved.

Lazzarini's warning on winter

Lazzarini turned on the Board directly on Thursday, saying it had not lived up to what it was set up to do. In a post on X, he said Israeli authorities were still holding back basic supplies "as part of a wider plan to keep Gaza unlivable for Palestinians".

"Grandiose plans is what the Board of Peace does best," he wrote. "Plans however will not keep the people of Gaza warm this winter." He called for Gaza's crossings to be reopened and for aid to enter in large volumes.

The dispute over who governs Gaza's relief effort played out against continued bloodshed on the ground. Gaza's Ministry of Health said Israeli attacks killed seven Palestinians across the territory over the previous 48 hours. One of the dead had earlier been wounded and later died of those injuries. Reports of further strikes came from northern Gaza.

The standoff leaves the future of the largest aid provider in Gaza unresolved. UNRWA continues to run services on the ground, including schools that reopened for the new academic year, even as the body now tasked with steering Gaza's recovery signals it intends to build a relief network without it.

Hamas UNRWA, Board of Peace Gaza, UNRWA Gaza role, Hazem Qassem, Philippe Lazzarini, Gaza aid, Palestinian right of return, Gaza ceasefire

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