Israel’s attempt to destroy Unrwa is part of its starvation strategy in Gaza | Kenneth Roth

This attack could not come at a worse time for Palestinians. Hunger is widespread in Gaza, and famine is projected in the north by May

Israel's vendetta against United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (Unrwa) illustrates the callousness with which Benjamin Netanyahu's far-right government has fought the war in Gaza. It also reflects an effort to use Hamas's 7 October attack as an opportunity for demographic reengineering.

Formally called the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, Unrwa was established by the UN general assembly in December 1949 to address the 700,000 Palestinian refugees whom Israeli troops had forced from their homes during the war that led to the creation of the state of Israel in May 1948. Palestinians refer to this expulsion as the nakba, or catastrophe. Today, Unrwa provides education, healthcare and social services to the surviving refugees and their descendants. They number nearly 7 million, scattered among Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria as well as the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza.

Kenneth Roth, former executive director of Human Rights Watch (1993-2022), is a visiting professor at Princeton's School of Public and International Affairs