The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) has firmly rejected statements by the so-called Board of Peace in the Gaza Strip and the US administration that seek to sideline the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) and declare it has no role in a future “New Gaza.”

Hamas denounced these positions as fully aligned with the Zionist occupation’s longstanding campaign to target and undermine UNRWA, the vital international agency that serves as both a humanitarian lifeline and a witness to the Palestinian people’s enduring Nakba.

“UNRWA represents an international witness to the Nakba of our Palestinian people and embodies the international community’s responsibility toward Palestinian refugees,” the statement read. Its mandate, rooted in a United Nations General Assembly resolution, stands as a cornerstone of international legitimacy. Any effort to weaken, replace, or eliminate the agency is viewed by Palestinians as a direct assault on their historical rights, particularly the inalienable right of return for millions of refugees displaced since 1948.

Hamas warned that responding to calls to halt funding, shrink UNRWA’s mandate, or substitute it with other entities would constitute a grave betrayal of Palestinian rights and an attempt to liquidate the refugee issue entirely. The movement stressed that UNRWA’s humanitarian and relief operations are more critical than ever amid the catastrophic suffering inflicted on Gaza’s population by the ongoing Israeli aggression.

The statement called upon the United Nations, donor nations, and the broader international community to uphold their legal and moral obligations by fully protecting UNRWA’s mandate and ensuring its uninterrupted work until the Palestinian people achieve their legitimate national rights, including the right of return.

Hamas’s position underscores the deep Palestinian attachment to UNRWA not merely as a relief provider, but as a symbol of global recognition of the Nakba and the justice of the Palestinian cause. As Israel and its allies push forward with plans that many Palestinians see as aimed at permanent displacement and erasure, resistance voices continue to insist that no political arrangement can be accepted if it sacrifices the fundamental rights of refugees. (ILKHA)