Israel bans UNRWA, sparks int’l outcry
JERUSALEM—Israel’s parliament on Monday approved a bill banning the main UN aid agency for the war-devastated Gaza Strip, sparking international outcry.
Despite objections from the United States and warnings from the UN Security Council, Israeli lawmakers overwhelmingly passed the bill banning the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, from working in Israel and occupied east Jerusalem.
Israel’s Western allies fear the ban will worsen the already dire humanitarian situation in Gaza.
Israeli officials cited the involvement of a handful of the UNRWA’s thousands of staffers in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel and a few staffers’ membership in Hamas and other armed groups.
“UNRWA workers involved in terrorist activities against Israel must be held accountable,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
The head of UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, said the vote opposes the U.N. charter and violates international law. “This is the latest in the ongoing campaign to discredit UNRWA and delegitimize its role towards providing human-development assistance and services to #Palestine Refugees,” he wrote on social media platform X.
‘Hamas connection’
Israel strictly controls all humanitarian aid shipments to Gaza, and lawmakers also passed a measure prohibiting Israeli officials from working with UNRWA and its employees.
UNRWA has provided essential aid, schooling, healthcare and assistance across the Palestinian territories and to Palestinian refugees elsewhere for more than seven decades.
“There is a deep connection between the terrorist organization (Hamas) and UNRWA, and Israel cannot put up with it,” Yuli Edelstein, one of the lawmakers who sponsored the bill, said in parliament as he presented the proposal.
Palestinian militant group Hamas, locked in conflict with Israel in Gaza, called the bill an act of “Zionist aggression” towards Palestinians, while its ally Islamic Jihad described the ban as “an escalation in the genocide”.
Even several of Israel’s staunch Western allies voiced disquiet at the ban, with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer saying Britain was “gravely concerned”.
Germany—which has been a staunch defender of Israel’s security—warned it would “effectively make UNRWA’s work in Gaza, the West Bank and east Jerusalem impossible… jeopardizing vital humanitarian aid for millions of people”.
‘Devastating consequences’
UN chief Antonio Guterres warned the Israeli law could have “devastating consequences” if implemented and “would likely prevent UNRWA from continuing its essential work”.
“There is no alternative to UNRWA,” he said in a statement.
“The implementation of these laws would be detrimental for the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and for peace and security in the region as a whole. As I said before, UNRWA is indispensable.”
Guterres said he would bring the matter to the attention of the 193-member UN General Assembly.
Netanyahu said on social media that Israel was “ready” to continue providing aid to Gaza “in a way that does not threaten Israel’s security”.
The ban comes as fighting rages in Gaza and Lebanon, where a second full-scale front opened last month.
The vote to ban UNRWA came the same day Israeli tanks thrust deeper into northern Gaza, trapping 100,000 civilians, the Palestinian emergency service said, in what Israel’s military said were operations to eliminate regrouping Hamas militants.
The Palestinian Civil Emergency Service said those marooned in Jabalia, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun were without medical or food supplies.
Reuters said it could not verify the number of trapped people independently.
The emergency service said its operations had come to a halt because of the three-week Israeli assault into northern Gaza, where Israel had said it wiped out Hamas combat forces earlier in the year-long war.
The Israeli military said soldiers captured around 100 suspected militants in a raid on a hospital in the Jabalia camp. Hamas and medics have denied any militant presence at the hospital.
