UNRWA

Palestinian bodies in a shipping container, near the Karem Abu Salem/Kerem Shalom Crossing in Gaza, January 20, 2024. (Courtesy of Ariel, a UN worker)

Calculated chaos: Inside Israel’s transfer of Palestinian bodies to Gaza

Humanitarian workers describe a haphazard and deliberately opaque system for returning dead and living Gazans during the first months of the genocide — one that helps explain why thousands are still missing.

By Frances Brogan July 15, 2026

Israeli forces operating in the Nur Shams refugee camp, near Tulkarem, January 12, 2026. (Nasser Ishtayeh/Flash90)

Paving military roads, Israel prepares permanent control of West Bank camps

A year after their expulsion from the Jenin, Tulkarem, and Nur Shams camps, refugees wait not only to return, but to reclaim the rights the camps preserved.

By Majd Jawad January 19, 2026

Eight-month-old Salam Wadi at an UNRWA clinic in Gaza City, July 9, 2025. (Hussein Owda/UNRWA)

Aid for Gaza’s starving children is right at the gates. Let it in

Israel is blocking 6,000 UNRWA trucks from entering Gaza while children die of hunger. The world can still prevent further catastrophe if it chooses to act.

By Juliette Touma July 15, 2025

Latest

Palestinian students at an UNRWA school in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan, Jan. 30, 2024. (Jamal Awad/Flash90)

Israel claims to care about Palestinian students — so it shuts down their schools

The Education Ministry ordered UNRWA-run schools in East Jerusalem to close, citing ‘student welfare.’ 800 may lose their classrooms this month.

By Gil Gertel May 6, 2025

Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA Commissioner-General, meets with internally displaced people in Rafah during his visit to the Gaza Strip, Dec. 12, 2023 (UNRWA Photo)

‘If UNRWA implodes tomorrow, there’d be no alternative’

Still functioning despite Israel's ban, UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini explains how the agency is laying the groundwork for future Palestinian institutions.

By Ghousoon Bisharat and Meron Rapoport February 27, 2025

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with U.S. president Donald Trump at the White House in Washington DC, March 5, 2018. (Haim Zach/GPO)

Trump’s unfinished business for ‘Greater Israel’

From annexation to UNRWA, Trump’s Israel advisors should be taken at their word — and Democrats won’t stand in their way, says Lara Friedman.

By Jonathan Adler November 13, 2024

Palestinians at the site of an Israeli airstrike at a UNRWA school in the Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip, June 6, 2024. (Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90)

Israel’s paradoxical crusade against UNRWA

Israeli officials are relying on UNRWA to prevent a polio epidemic — while the Knesset advances laws to expel the agency.

By Jonathan Adler October 10, 2024

Palestinians at the site of a destroyed home from an Israeli air strike in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, March 22, 2024. (Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90)

Even without a UN veto, Gaza remains hostage to American power

The downplaying of the Security Council’s ceasefire resolution shows why the world can no longer look to Washington as the arbiter of a rules-based order.

By Samer Badawi April 2, 2024

Palestinians seen at the port of Gaza City, June 13, 2019. (Hassan Jedi/Flash90)

‘Armchair humanitarianism’: The problem with Gaza’s maritime aid corridor

While aid is desperately needed, critics warn the U.S.-led plan evades the fundamental cause of Gaza’s starvation: Israel’s total control of the Strip.

By Samer Badawi March 16, 2024

Palestinians at a temporary camp set up for people who evacuated from their homes, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, December 4, 2023. (Atia Mohammed/Flash90)

In Gaza ‘safe zone,’ Palestinians are living out their nightmares

Israel ordered thousands to evacuate to the area of Al-Mawasi, where they are struggling to find food, water, and shelter amid the war and winter cold.

By Ruwaida Amer January 4, 2024

Palestinians shelter at a temporary tent camp set up for those who were displaced from their homes by Israel's evacuation orders and airstrikes, Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, October 19, 2023. (Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90)

Inside Gaza’s ‘tent city’ for displaced families

Hundreds of Palestinians are sheltering in a makeshift encampment in Khan Younis, surviving on limited provisions amid Israel's ongoing assault.

By Ruwaida Amer October 23, 2023

A mural in the Jenin refugee camp, West Bank, October 10, 2006. (Anne Paq/Activestills)

Dispelling the myths about Palestinian refugees — in Jenin and beyond

With Israel's Jenin invasion sparking a new round of misinformation, here are the truths behind five hasbara tropes on Palestinian refugees.

By Anne Irfan July 9, 2023

View of an empty school in Nablus, occupied West Bank, during a strike of Palestinian teachers, March 7, 2023. (Nasser Ishtayeh/Flash90)

Defying PA repression, Palestinian teachers lead biggest strike in years

Amid an economic crisis caused by Israeli policies and PA corruption, teachers are bringing schools and streets to a standstill until their demands are met.

By Basel Adra April 18, 2023