Hamas challenges Gaza board’s refusal to work with UNRWA
Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem criticised the US-created Board of Peace for refusing to work with UNRWA in Gaza. He said the position aligned with Israel’s campaign against the UN agency and threatened relief and refugees’ right of return; those are Hamas’s claims. The board says it will work only with partners it trusts and that UNRWA does not meet its test. The dispute concerns who will deliver aid under the Gaza plan.
Geopolitics··Evening
Hamas opposes the board's UNRWA exclusion
Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem criticised the US-created Board of Peace after it said it would not work with UNRWA in Gaza. UNRWA is the United Nations agency that provides services to Palestinian refugees. Qassem said the board's position matched Israel's long-running effort to remove the agency from the territory. He alleged that excluding it would obstruct aid and erode refugees' right of return; these are Hamas's claims, not independently established consequences of the board's policy. The board had said on Friday that UNRWA's position in Gaza was unchanged, but that it would cooperate only with partners it considered trustworthy and useful to residents. It said UNRWA did not pass that test. Qassem's response on Saturday made the aid partnership an open dispute between the parties.[1], [2]
Private meetings have not changed the public policy
The board's public refusal followed contacts with UNRWA that its own officials acknowledged. An unnamed Board of Peace official confirmed several meetings between board members and agency representatives. The official said individual programmes might continue if they served Gaza residents well, but also maintained that UNRWA's days as an organisation were over. At a Wednesday briefing to the UN General Assembly, board representatives named several UN agencies as partners and left UNRWA off the list. Former UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said the Palestinian technocratic committee appointed to govern Gaza wanted to work with the agency. The contacts therefore did not amount to a public partnership or a reversal of the board's criteria. The board's stated policy, its meetings and the committee's reported wish are separate positions on the same aid arrangement.[1]
Aid delivery and refugee rights remain contested
UNRWA was established in 1949 and has provided aid and education to Palestinian refugees for decades. Its role in Gaza is therefore larger than a single delivery contract under the board's reconstruction plans. Palestinians regard the agency as connected to the right of return, while Israel has sought its dismantling. Qassem accused the board of failing both to bring sufficient relief into Gaza and to secure compliance with the ceasefire; the dpa account independently confirms that he made those accusations, not that the failures were established by its own investigation. Lazzarini separately said Israeli authorities were blocking basic supplies and urged that crossings be opened before winter. The board has offered to work with other partners it trusts, while UNRWA's participation in that plan remains excluded under the board's stated test.[1], [2]
