MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Video from Gaza shows people in orange vests digging through the remnants of a building, believing someone under the wreckage is alive after an Israeli airstrike.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Non-English language spoken).
MARTIN: At the end of the video, the rescuers bring up a little girl in pigtails. You can hear them calling her Miriam (ph). She was alive, a rare, bright spot in a war that has claimed so many lives.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
One of the latest moves in that war comes from Israel, which says it will stop cooperating with the United Nations Agency. NPR's international correspondent Aya Batrawy is with us. Hi, good morning.
AYA BATRAWY, BYLINE: Hi, Steve.
INSKEEP: Why does Israel say it'll stop working with the U.N. Relief Agency?
BATRAWY: So Israel says UNRWA, which employs around 13,000 people in Gaza, has been infiltrated by Hamas. Here's Israeli government spokesman David Mencer.
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DAVID MENCER: The state of Israel will continue to cooperate with humanitarian organizations, but not with organizations that promote terrorism against us.
BATRAWY: So UNRWA's chief, Philippe Lazzarini, says Israel has not provided the agency with evidence to address these allegations. And he notes that Israel has killed at least 237 UNRWA staffers in Gaza in this war. Now, the agency did let nine people go out of its staff of 13,000. And the U.N.'s investigative body says those nine may have been involved in attacking Israel, but that they could not authenticate the information used by Israel in their allegations. And, to be clear, the U.S. says it is concerned about the implications of these Israeli laws that were passed last week, banning contact between Israel and this U.N. agency and banning it from operating in Israel, which would impact the West Bank as well. And so whoever wins this White House will also have an impact on how this moves forward.
INSKEEP: I'm trying to understand what this Israeli move means on the ground for people in Gaza.
BATRAWY: Well, in short, people are going to suffer because there's already hunger and starvation across Gaza. UNRWA says that last month in October, Israel permitted just 30 trucks of humanitarian aid into Gaza on average per day. If you look at markets and shelves anywhere in Gaza from the south to the north, they are bare. Now, UNRWA is seen as a key element to staving off famine because they're the main agency distributing whatever little aid is trickling in and coordinating with Israeli forces over how and when to pick up that aid that's entering Gaza, including fuel supplies from Egypt that keep hospitals running, bakeries, water desalination plants. Now, UNRWA's senior emergency officer in Gaza, Louise Wateridge, told me a major problem now is what comes next. There's less than 90 days for this legislation to come into effect.
LOUISE WATERIDGE: We're talking about people's lives, you know? This is - so there are systems in place, there's mechanisms in places, there's - you know, 13 months, it's kind of got a rhyme and a rhythm going. And if you change everything now, if you pull the cord now, it's going to take a while to find other ways of doing it.
BATRAWY: So what is the alternative to UNRWA, right? Well, Israel hasn't offered a plan. Some in Israel say Israeli soldiers should take the lead. Others say that aid agencies could fill the gap, but every U.N. agency in Gaza is saying they cannot replace UNRWA.
INSKEEP: NPR's Aya Batrawy, thanks so much.
BATRAWY: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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