The Federal Foreign Office is deeply concerned by yesterday’s adoption of two laws against the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Middle East (UNRWA) in the Israeli Knesset.

UNRWA provides life-saving humanitarian assistance and basic support to Palestinian refugees in Gaza, East Jerusalem, the West Bank and across the region. Without the work of UNRWA, essential humanitarian aid to Gaza would be on the verge of collapse.

Currently, 2.2 million people in Gaza face a dramatic state of emergency, and 86 percent of the population suffers from acute malnutrition. In the West Bank and East Jerusalem, the schooling of nearly 50,000 people would be compromised and in Gaza, hundreds of thousands of children would no longer have any hope of receiving an education. The health care of tens of thousands of people would also be at risk.

The Israeli government must now ensure that UNRWA can continue to fulfill the mandate of the UN General assembly. To do this, UNRWA must, in the future, be able to provide vital humanitarian assistance and access to education and health care to Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Palestinians, like the Israeli people, have the right to live in security and dignity in their own state.