AMSTERDAM — Israel cannot be forced to allow the United Nations Palestinian refugee agency, UNRWA, to operate in Gaza, the United States argued Wednesday at an International Court of Justice (ICJ) hearing in The Hague.

Israel last year passed a law that banned UNRWA from operating in the country, as it said the organization had employed members of Hamas who took part in the October 7, 2023, onslaught, among a series of other accusations including that the organization runs schools that incite to terrorism and perpetuates Palestinians’ refugee status by passing it by generation unlike the rest of the world’s refugees.

The ban officially came into effect in late January, prohibiting the agency from operating on Israeli soil and forbidding contact between it and Israeli officials.

Despite the ban, The Times of Israel reported in early April that, according to Palestinian sources and UNRWA itself, the agency was still operating in East Jerusalem almost entirely uninterrupted. Additionally, the........

© The Times of Israel