The January 14 announcement of a new Palestinian technical committee to oversee Gaza’s reconstruction came at a critical moment. While countries debate the governance and reconstruction of Gaza, the basic survival of 2.1 million people there is at stake. This moment demands immediate action to lift the ongoing stifling restrictions that are systematically dismantling the very means of survival for Palestinians.
Although the hunger situation in Gaza has stabilized to some extent, the humanitarian devastation continues to worsen. Families remain displaced without adequate shelter. Children still go to bed hungry. And basic health care is out of reach for hundreds of thousands of people.
Winter rains have turned displacement camps into oceans of mud, exacerbating suffering and significantly increasing the risk of disease outbreaks. Daily air attacks and shelling by Israel continue, killing more than 480 Palestinians since the cease-fire agreement was announced in October. This month alone, seven UNRWA school facilities in eastern Gaza were destroyed by Israeli forces.
UNRWA is Gaza’s largest and most comprehensive service provider, effectively functioning as the public sector for more than half of the population. Our 11,000 staff have continued to work every day since October 7, 2023, despite immense risks.
They provide medical care to around 100,000 people each week across Gaza and provide education to 70,000 children at damaged school sites. Our schools also shelter tens of thousands of displaced families.
The UNRWA team essentially functions like a local government. We distribute water and collect solid waste from across the community, covering the needs of more than half the population. When we talk about “service delivery,” these are not abstract programs. We are talking about clinics where children are vaccinated, classrooms where traumatized boys and girls receive collective care, and distribution points where families receive basic food.
However, our ability to respond remains severely hampered by systemic barriers. What are we to make of this total and complete attack on the most basic services that communities need to survive?
Our goods are being blocked from entering Gaza. Due to the “no contact” law passed by the Israeli parliament in October 2024, we are unable to communicate with the Israeli authorities, the occupying force that controls all land, air and sea routes in Gaza.
Our foreign staff, including myself, are prohibited from entering Gaza to support our team’s operations on the ground.
Nowhere is the inhumanity of these restrictions more evident than in the denial of children’s fundamental rights. Approximately 700,000 Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip are systematically denied the right to education. Before the war, UNRWA educated 300,000 of these children, accounting for two-thirds of all primary school education.
Only UNRWA has the capacity, expertise and reach to resume this operation at scale across Gaza, but we are hampered by the same restrictions that cover our wide range of operations.
We launched the Back to Learning campaign to bring hope and normalcy to children who have known nothing but war, displacement, and loss for over two years. But instead of supporting this effort, the restrictions we face will leave most children in the rubble-strewn streets. This is a continuous and deliberate attack on their future.
We are not alone in facing unacceptable challenges that violate an occupying power’s most fundamental obligations under international law. The registration process for international NGOs has become a virtual blockade, and most existing aid systems are now on the brink of closure.
So-called dual-use goods restrictions have turned basic shelter, building materials and other necessities into contraband, exposing families to the elements and making it impossible to rebuild as harsh winter weather continues.
This brings us to an uncomfortable truth. These limitations are not just bureaucratic hurdles. These appear to be part of an ongoing effort to systematically dismantle Palestinians’ means of survival. Every restriction, every obstacle, every denial of basic material adds new evidence to South Africa’s case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). So too are attacks on UNRWA, the only United Nations agency capable of providing basic education and health care on a large scale, but which has been blocked from doing so.
UNRWA has a proven capacity to provide continuing education, health care, social services, sanitation, humanitarian assistance and other assistance. It enjoys the trust and confidence of the Gaza residents, whose world has been erased since October 2023.
Maintaining UNRWA until durable peace is achieved is a realistic solution for anyone serious about Gaza’s future. It is essential to the health and recovery of more than two million people who have suffered unimaginable suffering.
Don’t get me wrong. This goes far beyond the future of a single UN agency. This is to protect the order based on international rules. When states put pressure on humanitarian workers, restrict access to humanitarian operations, and ignore ICJ decisions, they are simultaneously targeting Palestinians and attacking the very foundations of international law.
This has become a test case for the viability of humanitarian work and international law beyond the Palestinian context and around the world.
The era of half-hearted measures and diplomatic ambiguity is over. The survival of Gaza is intrinsically linked to the continued operation of UNRWA. Defending this means defending humanity, international law, and the possibility that the world will continue to favor mercy over brutality, even in the darkest of circumstances.
An overwhelming majority of countries voted to renew UNRWA’s mandate at the United Nations General Assembly in December 2025. But that decision is being blocked by the perpetrators of what the ICJ has labeled an illegal occupation and the United Nations Commission of Inquiry has concluded was genocide. The choice must now be clear. We can either stand by as Gaza’s lifelines are systematically severed, or we can act collectively to protect what remains and rebuild what has been destroyed.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial policy.
