UN agency says aid shipment blocked at Israeli port

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – The main U.N. agency providing aid to Palestinians in Gaza is facing increasing administrative hurdles from Israel, with the agency’s head saying shipments of a month’s supply of food are blocked at the port.

Israel alleged that 12 staff of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) were involved in the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, prompting several donor countries to suspend funding. UNRWA has dismissed staff accused of involvement in the attack and has launched an investigation.

“We have an environment that is currently very hostile to the agency, but now there are some decisions that are beginning to impact the agency’s ability to function properly,” UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said on Friday.

He said UNRWA had been informed by a contractor providing handling services in the port of Ashdod that it could no longer continue working with UNRWA following instructions from the Israeli authorities.

As a result, a shipment from Turkey containing 1,049 containers of supplies including flour, gram, sugar, cooking oil, enough to meet the needs of 1.1 million people for a month, was blocked in the port, Lazzarini said.

He said that UNRWA has informed Turkey about the stoppage. There was no immediate comment from Turkish officials.

A Finance Ministry spokesman said the matter was in the hands of the government’s legal adviser, but had no further comment.

The incident comes as Gaza faces a growing humanitarian emergency, with hundreds of thousands of people facing severe deprivation and hunger, nearly four months after Israel launched an offensive on the blockaded coastal enclave.

Last week, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced on social media platform X that Israel was revoking tax exemptions previously granted to UNRWA. Lazzarini said the decision was not formally communicated to the agency, which only became aware of it when the statement appeared on the platform.

UNRWA was established to help Palestinian refugees who were forced from or fled their homes during the 1948 war that led to the establishment of the State of Israel. It still distributes aid and provides education to residents of Gaza, the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, as well as their descendants in Lebanon, Jordan and Syria.

Israel has long been accused of contributing to the conflict by promoting Palestinian terrorist groups, and the accusations have escalated since the October 7 attack.

(Reporting by James McKenzie; additional reporting by Steve Scheer)

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