UN chief warns Israel of ICJ action over UNRWA ban and seized property

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Israel could face proceedings at the International Court of Justice if it does not roll back laws targeting the UN Palestinian refugee agency and return seized UN property.

In a January 8 letter to Netanyahu, Guterres said the United Nations could not remain indifferent to “actions taken by Israel, which are in direct contravention of the obligations of Israel under international law. They must be reversed without delay.”

At the centre of the dispute is UNRWA, which Israel’s parliament effectively outlawed last October. The legislation banned UNRWA from operating in Israel and prohibited Israeli officials from having contact with the agency. That law was amended last month to also cut electricity and water to UNRWA facilities.

Israeli authorities have since seized UNRWA’s offices in occupied East Jerusalem. While Israel considers all of Jerusalem part of its sovereign territory, the United Nations regards East Jerusalem as occupied land.

Guterres stressed that UNRWA is “an integral part of the United Nations” and reminded Israel that it “remains under an obligation to accord UNRWA and its personnel the privileges and immunities specified in the 1946 Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the UN”. Under that convention, “the premises of the United Nations shall be inviolable”.

Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, rejected the warning outright.

“We are not fazed by the Secretary-General’s threats,” Danon wrote on X on Tuesday. “Instead of dealing with the undeniable involvement of UNRWA personnel in terrorism, the Secretary-General chooses to threaten Israel. This is not defending international law, this is defending an organization marred by terrorism.”

Israel has long pushed for UNRWA’s dissolution. The agency was established by the UN General Assembly in 1949 following the war surrounding the founding of Israel and has since provided education, healthcare and humanitarian aid to millions of Palestinians in Gaza, the occupied West Bank, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan.

Israeli officials have accused a small number of UNRWA employees of involvement in the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel, in which 1,139 people were killed and about 240 taken captive. In response, Israel launched a devastating genocidal war on Gaza that has killed more than 71,400 Palestinians, according to local health authorities.

The UN has said nine UNRWA staff members suspected of involvement in the October 7 attack were dismissed and that it continues to investigate all allegations. UN officials say Israel has yet to provide evidence to substantiate broader claims against the agency.

According to a UN report published on January 5, Israel’s war on Gaza has killed 382 UNRWA employees, the highest number of UN staff fatalities since the organisation was founded in 1945. Many were killed when Israeli forces repeatedly struck UNRWA schools and hospitals sheltering more than one million displaced Palestinians.

Senior UN officials and the UN Security Council have repeatedly described UNRWA as the backbone of the humanitarian response in Gaza, where Israel’s military campaign has triggered a catastrophic collapse of civilian life.

In October 2025, the ICJ reiterated that Israel is legally bound to respect the privileges and immunities of the United Nations and its agencies, including UNRWA, and must ensure that the basic needs of Gaza’s civilian population are met. That advisory opinion was requested by the 193-member UN General Assembly.