JERUSALEM—Israel is crippling the ability of NGOs and human rights organizations to address the dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the West Bank, by smearing, threatening and torturing existing aid workers, while limiting or denying visas to people who want to come and help.
The U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the backbone of aid, education and support to millions of Palestinians, has been hard hit by bombing attacks on its staff and infrastructure in Gaza, and by the iniquity of red-tape facing its international staff in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories.
The U.N. said its first foreign aid worker was killed this week in an Israeli tank attack on his marked vehicle.
