Israel Cracks Down on UNRWA

On January 30, two new Israeli laws will go into effect intended to prevent the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) from operating in areas under Israel’s control. The proximate cause for the legislation is the widespread participation of UNRWA employees in the October 7 attacks, and the determination that over 2,000 of them are also members of Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad. But Israelis have also come to realize a far more serious problem: the group’s purpose is to prolong the Israel-Palestinian conflict. Worse still, in Gaza—as Shany Mor has written—UNRWA takes the responsibilities of education and welfare out of the hands of Hamas, allowing it to focus entirely on terror.