The U.N. Palestinian relief agency UNRWA said on Friday that if its humanitarian work in Gaza is forced to halt, it would put a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas at risk.

Khamis and Ahmad Imarah knew they wouldn’t find much more than rubble when returning to their home in northern Gaza. But they had to go. Their father and brother are still buried under the debris, more than a year after their home was struck by Israeli forces.

The law that bans the United Nations agency that aids Palestinian refugees in Gaza went into effect on Wednesday.

The ban effectively cuts off the UN aid agency from delivering critical aid to Gaza, putting millions of Palestinians at risk after 15 months of war have devastated the region.

Millions of Palestinians rely on the UN agency, not only in Gaza but also across the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem. | ITV National News

Talking to media, UNRWA Communications Director Juliette Touma said that agency will continue to deliver assistance and services to the communities. She said that its clinics across the occupied West Bank including East Jerusalem are open while the humanitarian operation in Gaza continues.

In the Shuafat refugee camp, a hardscrabble district in east Jerusalem surrounded by a hulking concrete wall, intense security checks make venturing out exasperating.

Tens of thousands of Palestinian refugees in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem were set to lose education, healthcare and other services provided by U.N. agency UNRWA as an Israeli ban on the organisation takes effect on Thursday.

Israel, backed by Washington, will cease contact with the UN's Palestinian humanitarian relief agency UNRWA and any body acting on its behalf, its UN envoy said Tuesday, drawing condemnation from aid groups.

Even those of us who have long emphasized the importance of the Palestinian people’s voice, experience, and collective action in Palestinian history must

Israel has formally banned the main United Nations aid agency for Palestinian refugees from operating on its territory despite heavy diplomatic backlash.