Hamas accuses Board of Peace of aligning with Israel after excluding UN agency for Palestinians from Gaza operations.

Palestinian group Hamas has condemned the Board of Peace’s decision not to work with the United Nations agency for Palestinians, UNRWA, and for saying that the agency will have no role in Gaza.

The US-created Board’s decision is “a complete alignment with the Zionist [Israeli] position”, aimed at ending UNRWA’s operations, preventing it from delivering aid to Palestinians and eliminating the right of return, Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem said on Saturday.

On Friday, the Board of Peace said that “UNRWA’s involvement in Gaza is unchanged.”

“We will only work with trusted partners who will deliver for the people of Gaza and contribute to a deradicalized Strip,” it said in a post on X, adding that “UNRWA fails on those litmus tests”.

In his statement, Qassem said it was “strange for the Peace Council to adopt this hostile stance towards UNRWA while simultaneously failing to provide aid to Gaza or compel the occupation to abide by the ceasefire agreement and halt the daily killings of Palestinians in the Strip”.

UNRWA, set up in 1949, has for decades provided aid and education services to Palestinian refugees and preserved their national rights.

Palestinians see the agency as safeguarding their right of return to their homeland, while Israel wants it dismantled.

The Associated Press reported on Friday that Board of Peace members had been more willing to work with UNRWA behind the scenes than their public stance suggested.

At the Board of Peace briefing to the UN General Assembly on Wednesday, officials named several UN agencies as partners. UNRWA was not among them.

Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/9/26/hamas-slams-board-of-peace-for-refusal-to-work-with-unrwa-in-gaza?traffic_source=rss