Israel has asked the United States not to withhold funds from the U.N. agency responsible for assisting Gazans out of concern that this would exacerbate the already dire humanitarian situation in the Hamas-ruled enclave and increase the probability of armed conflict.
Sources familiar with the details told Israel Hayom on Sunday that the Israeli position was presented to the Trump administration several months ago, and remains unchanged.
Officially, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East provides educational, health and social services to some 5 million Palestinian "refugees" living in the Gaza Strip, West Bank, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.
However, the agency has been accused of engaging in anti-Semitic incitement, and Hamas terrorists have used UNRWA facilities in Gaza to target Israeli civilians.
In January, the Trump administration cut tens of millions of dollars in funding for UNRWA, demanding that it undertake a "fundamental re-examination."
The State Department notified UNRWA then that the U.S. was withholding $65 million of its planned $125 million funding, and said that additional U.S. donations would be contingent on major changes by UNRWA.
According to sources in Washington, the administration is expected to conclude its re-examination of UNRWA's activities in the coming weeks.
The U.S. administration also requested Israel's opinion on the matter. Israeli defense officials relayed that cutting UNRWA's budget could be extremely problematic, saying that while Israel had no objection to cutting the agency's budget in the West Bank because other organizations would fill the void, no such organizations could do the same in Gaza.
Israel's declared position, as expressed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is that "UNRWA needs to pass from this world" and that responsibility for the Palestinian refugee issue should be transferred to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, the body that deals with all other refugee matters in the world.
With that, Israeli defense officials and politicians have expressed concern about the humanitarian situation in Gaza, in part because any health or sanitation crisis there would immediately affect Israel. Netanyahu has repeatedly stated that contamination does not stop at the border.
