The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said it has been facing a coordinated media disinformation campaign for more than two years aimed at dismantling it, noting that this campaign has reached "unprecedented levels".
The agency added - in a post on the "X" platform on Sunday evening - that "one of the common myths is that UNRWA keeps Palestine refugees in a perpetual state of refuge", affirming that "refugees, wherever they are, remain refugees in the absence of just and permanent political solutions to their plight".
UNRWA emphasized that dismantling it "will not end the refugee status of Palestinians in the absence of a political solution", warning that the most affected will be "the poorest among the Palestine refugees, those who live in camps and have no alternative to UNRWA for accessing basic services such as education and healthcare".
It clarified that "the spread of media disinformation will lead to distraction and inflict real harm on one of the most vulnerable groups in the Middle East", pointing out that the real alternative involves "serious investment in peace and in future, viable, and qualified Palestinian institutions".
UNRWA was established in December 1949 by United Nations Resolution 302 to provide relief and employment for Palestinian refugees displaced by the 1948 war.
Since its establishment, the agency has become an international umbrella dedicated to Palestinian refugees and their descendants, providing educational, health, and relief services across its operational fields (Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, West Bank, Gaza Strip).
During the two years of the war waged by Israel on the Gaza Strip, UNRWA faced escalating Israeli pressures, as Tel Aviv accused it at the start of the war of supporting attacks against it and employing militants, which UNRWA denied, and as the Israeli military targeted several of its headquarters and facilities in Gaza, including schools and healthcare facilities that became shelters.
In 2024, the Knesset passed legislation banning UNRWA's operations, and Israel formally notified the United Nations of the cancellation of the agreement regulating their relations with the agency since 1967. Afterwards, Tel Aviv escalated its targeting of the main UNRWA headquarters in Jerusalem, where the army stormed two weeks ago "by force, seizing properties, and replacing the United Nations flag with the Israeli flag", according to the agency.
Israel also prevented and obstructed UNRWA's activities in the Gaza Strip and restricted access to its humanitarian aid, while an Israeli campaign to discredit the agency and reduce its resources preceded the war on Gaza, according to Palestinian officials' assertions.
The need for UNRWA among Palestinians has increased due to the consequences of the war waged by Israel with American support on the Gaza Strip over the past two years, from October 8, 2023, until the ceasefire came into effect on October 10.
