Israeli far right activists deface the sign board in front of the shuttered gate of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency UNRWA's West Bank Field Office in Jerusalem on January 30, 2025. .AFP
"Gaza is in ruins, and UNRWA's help is more necessary than ever," Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said in a statement.
"It is extremely dramatic for Palestine that Israeli laws come into force that in practice can prevent UNRWA from working."
Starting Thursday, UNRWA is banned from operating in Israel and contact between it and Israeli officials is forbidden.
Israel's supreme court rejected late Wednesday a challenge to the ban.
UNRWA has provided support for Palestinian refugees around the Middle East for over 70 years, and it says it has brought in 60 percent of the food aid that has reached Gaza since the start of the Israeli war on Gaza.
But Israeli officials have repeatedly accused it of being a cover for Palestinian militant groups.
The hostility intensified in the wake of Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, with accusations that a small number of UNRWA employees participated in the attack.
A series of investigations, including one led by former French foreign minister Catherine Colonna, found some "neutrality-related issues" at UNRWA, but said Israel had not provided evidence for its headline allegation.
Many donors cut their support for UNRWA following the accusations, though almost all have resumed their funding.
Relations between Norway and Israel have worsened in recent years, especially after the Scandinavian country recognised a Palestinian state last May along with Spain and Ireland.
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