Israel passes laws restricting UN agency that is Gaza’s lifeline

JERUSALEM — Israeli lawmakers passed two laws on Monday it could jeopardize your job the main UN agency providing aid to the people of Gaza, banning it from operating on Israeli soil, severing ties with it and labeling it a terrorist organization.

The laws, which do not take effect immediately, signal a new low in long-troubled relations between Israel and the United Nations. Israel’s international allies have said they are deeply concerned about the potential impact on Palestinians as the war in Gaza humanitarian losses are increasing.

According to the first law, UN Agency for Palestine Refugeesor UNRWA, will be prohibited from conducting “any activity” or providing any services in Israel. The second law would sever Israel’s diplomatic ties with the agency.

The laws risk upending the already fragile aid distribution process in the Gaza Strip at a time when Israel is under increasing US pressure to increase aid. The head of UNRWA called it a “dangerous precedent.”

Israel stated that some of the thousands of UNRWA personnel participated in Hamas attacks last year what triggered the war in the Gaza Strip. It also said hundreds of UNRWA employees have ties to militants and that it has discovered Hamas military assets on or under agency facilities.

Agency fired nine employees after investigation but denies it knowingly helps armed groups and said it is moving quickly to clear its ranks of any suspected militants. Some Israeli accusations have prompted major international donors to cut funding to the agency, although some of it has been restored.

During the war, Israel occasionally carried out raids or attacks on schools and other UNRWA sites, claiming militants were operating there. UNRWA says more than 200 of its staff have died during the war.

“The law that we have now passed is not just another bill. This is a call for justice and a wake-up call,” said lawmaker Boaz Bismuth, who co-authored one of the bills. “UNRWA is not a refugee relief agency. This is an aid agency for Hamas.”

UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said the new laws were part of an “ongoing campaign to discredit UNRWA.”

“These bills will only worsen the suffering of Palestinians, especially in the Gaza Strip,” he said on social platform X.

The first vote passed 92-10 and followed a heated debate between supporters of the law and its opponents, mainly members of Arab parliamentary parties. The second bill was approved 87-9.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s English-language account on X said Israel was ready to work with international partners to ensure it “continues to provide humanitarian assistance to civilians in the Gaza Strip.” The message did not say how, and it is unclear what the impact on the flow of aid will be when these bills take effect.

Taken together, the laws would effectively sever ties with the UN agency, strip it of legal immunities and limit its ability to support Palestinians in east Jerusalem and the West Bank. The legislation does not provide for the presence of alternative organizations to monitor its work.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said UNRWA would be prevented from doing the work mandated by the UN General Assembly if the laws were implemented. “There is no alternative to UNRWA,” he said in a statement released Monday evening.

Guterres called on Israel to “act consistently with its obligations” under the UN Charter and international law, as well as the privileges and immunities of the United Nations. “National legislation cannot change these obligations,” Guterres stressed in his statement.

These changes could be a serious blow to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. More than 1.9 million Palestinians have been displaced from their homes, and Gaza faces widespread shortages of food, water and medicine.

International aid groups and several of Israel’s Western allies, including the United States, have expressed strong opposition.

US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller, speaking to reporters in Washington before the vote, said the administration was “deeply concerned” about the legislation. “There is no one who can replace them right now, in the middle of a crisis,” he said.

UNRWA provides education, health care and other basic services to millions of Palestinian refugees throughout the region, including in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

The laws would take effect 60 to 90 days after Israel’s Foreign Ministry notifies the United Nations.

The death toll from more than a year of fighting has topped 43,000, officials in the Gaza Strip said Monday. The Palestinian Health Ministry’s tally does not differentiate between civilians and combatants, but says more than half of the dead are women and children.

The rising death toll comes as Israel refocuses its offensive on hard-hit northern Gaza, including a hospital where the military said militants were operating.

On Friday, Israeli forces raided Kamal Adwan Hospital. An Israeli military official, speaking Monday on condition of anonymity to comply with regulations, said there was heavy fighting around the hospital but not inside it and that weapons were found inside the facility. On Monday, the military said the raid was over.

Israel has raided several hospitals in the Gaza Strip during the year-long war, saying Hamas and other militants are using them for military purposes. Palestinian medical officials deny the accusations and accuse the military of recklessly endangering civilians.

The Israeli military said it detained 100 suspected Hamas militants in the latest raid. An Israeli official said the medical personnel were detained and searched because some militants disguised themselves as medics.

The World Health Organization has accused Israel of detaining 44 male hospital staff. It was not immediately clear why there was a discrepancy in the numbers. Palestinian medical workers said the hospital, which was treating about 200 patients, was heavily damaged in the raid.

The Israeli military has called on Palestinians to leave northern Gaza, where they have been waging a major offensive for more than three weeks. The official said the operation in the northern Gaza town of Jabaliya would last “several more weeks.”

The UN said earlier this month that at least 400,000 people are in northern Gaza, an area that became one of the first targets of Israel’s retaliatory war. Famine is rampant there as humanitarian aid flowing into the north has dropped sharply over the past month.

War between Israel and Hamas started after militants from Hamas and other groups stormed Israel, killing about 1,200 people (mostly civilians) and kidnapping another 250. The war has roiled the Middle East, sparking fighting between Israel and Hezbollah and between Israel and Iran, sworn enemies who long kept their conflict a shadow war but are now engaged in open fighting.

After failing in late summer, international mediators have tried to give impetus to ceasefire efforts between Israel and Hamas. Israel said it would continue talks to end the fighting after Mossad chief David Barney returned from a meeting in Qatar with CIA chief David Burns and the Qatari prime minister.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi has offered a two-day ceasefire in exchange for the release of four hostages. Israel appears to have responded to the idea.

One Israeli official said Israel was discussing the proposal both internally and with Egyptian officials. A second official said Netanyahu expressed enthusiasm for the proposal in a meeting with his Likud party on Monday.

Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss internal deliberations.

Hamas has not yet officially responded to the plan, and Hamas officials could not be reached Monday.

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Magdi reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers Matthew Lee in Washington, Michelle Chapman in New York and Julia Frankel and Tia Goldenberg in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

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