In the overcrowded Qalandia refugee camp, the UNRWA training center is an island of calm where young people from the occupied West Bank are mastering the trade, but a recent Israeli ban on cooperation with the UN agency has left the center in the blur.

On the spacious campus, a stone’s throw from the wall separating the West Bank and Israel, plumbers in training assemble pipes, future electricians wire circuits and carpenters assemble frames.

But the duration of these scenes remains an open question after Israel last month banned UNRWA, founded in 1949, from operating on Israeli soil or coordinating with Israeli authorities.

UNRWA’s ban on Israel and occupied East Jerusalem has raised fears that its West Bank employees will face problems not only accessing those areas, but also moving more generally, as they would lose the ability to coordinate with Israeli authorities manning the checkpoints.

The same fears apply to visas and permits issued by Israeli authorities.

Ahmed Naseef, 18, a refugee from the Jalazone camp north of Ramallah, said he did not know what he and his classmates would do if the Qalandia training center had to close due to the law.

“It would disturb my classmates. Many do not have the financial means to study in another institute. Here, it is almost free,” he told AFP during a course where he was learning to install light in a room.

“We imagine that we are setting up a bedroom and a bathroom, installing lights, sockets and electrical outlets,” says the student, who has been an intern for two months after graduating from high school.

“If the university closes, I might consider going to college,” he said, adding that that was his original intention, but his current situation “doesn’t allow it.”

– ‘Left without options’ –

Jonathan Fowler, UNRWA spokesperson in Jerusalem, warned that if some services could not continue, the socio-economic consequences could be “potentially disastrous”.

“If these services are not able to function… who will provide education for the children and adolescents in this camp?”

Baha Awaad, the school’s director, said it educates 350 students but cannot accommodate more due to lack of permission to expand the buildings.

When asked if students would be able to complete their school year, Awaad admitted: “Frankly, we don’t know.”

“We are operating as usual, without wanting to sow fear. We are reassuring students that we are doing our best to continue teaching here,” he said, adding that worried students had already contacted.

As for what would happen if the school closed, Awaad said: “It depends. If this is a permanent closure, they will have no options. »

Fowler said there is no sustainable alternative to his agency’s varied work on such a large scale.

“You can’t just flip a switch and UNRWA disappears and someone else steps in,” he said.

“The law is very unclear on many fronts,” he continued, so “what the intent is and how it will be implemented is extremely uncertain.”

Tensions between UNRWA and Israel began after Israel accused a dozen agency personnel of participating in the unprecedented Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023.

A series of investigations revealed “neutrality-related issues” at UNRWA and determined that nine employees “may have been involved” in the October 7 attack, but found no evidence to support the allegations power plants of Israel.

– Clinics, schools –

A quarter of the West Bank’s 912,000 refugees live in 19 camps, according to UNRWA, and many of them rely on a variety of services provided by the agency’s 3,800 employees in the West Bank.

One of these beneficiaries, teenager Naseef, graduated from an UNRWA school and received health care at one of its clinics.

In his camp, he said, “the situation is particularly difficult for the clinic, on which many people depend for their medicines and treatments. If it closes, they will be cut off.”

In the narrow alleys of Qalandia camp, among murals of fallen Palestinian fighters, a nurse at the crowded UNRWA clinic said there was no viable alternative for residents if her facility closed .

At the nearby UNRWA Girls’ Primary School, headmistress Rana Nabhan said she “doesn’t know” if her students will complete the school year.

Unaware of the challenges, a crowd of laughing schoolgirls run around in brightly colored bibs during gym class, bringing the playground to life.

Just above their shoulders is another mural in Arabic: “I love my beautiful school,” it reads.