The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) is now in a full and very public international diplomatic fight with the Israeli government, as well as the United States and new Trump administration. Israel has just announced that it will cut all contact with UNRWA and any other body acting on its behalf. The UN envoy for the organization was the first to reveal the Israeli statement. The UN has also said that Washington is supportive of Israel’s new ban. But at a moment some 300,000 Palestinians have returned to their homes in largely destroyed northern Gaza, as videos have demonstrated, the UNRWA has said Israel’s impending ban on the agency is “harming the lives and future of Palestinians” and could serve to thwart the ongoing ceasefire agreement with Hamas as the change is “jeopardizing any prospect for peace and security.” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is demanding that Israel retract its order for the relief agency to leave its main office in Jerusalem. “I regret this decision and request that the Government of Israel retract it,” he wrote in a letter issued Monday, underscoring the “irreplaceable nature”. The UN also doesn’t recognize Israel’s longtime claims of sovereignty over East Jerusalem where the UNRWA office is headquartered. Like […]