Israel bans main UN Gaza aid agency

FILE PHOTO: A picture taken on November 27, 2023, shows a heavily damaged UNWRA school after Israeli strikes in the village of Khuzaa, near Abasan east of Khan Yunis near the border fence between Israel and the southern Gaza Strip, amid a truce in battles between Israel and Hamas. (Photo by SAID KHATIB / Agence France-Presse)

JERUSALEM, Undefined — Israel’s parliament on Monday approved a bill banning the main UN aid agency in the war-devastated Gaza Strip, as the government said it was mulling proposed talks with Hamas on a hostage release deal.

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.

“There is a deep connection between the terrorist organisation (Hamas) and UNRWA and Israel cannot put up with it,” Yuli Edelstein, a Likud party lawmaker and one of the sponsors of 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.”

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Even several of Israel’s staunch Western allies voiced disquiet at the ban, with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer saying Britain was “gravely concerned” by the legislation.

Germany – which has made Israel’s security among its reasons of state – warned it would “effectively make UNRWA’s work in Gaza, the West Bank and east Jerusalem impossible… jeopardising vital humanitarian aid for millions of people.”

UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini called the ban part of “an ongoing campaign to discredit the agency.”

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The agency’s spokeswoman, Juliette Touma, said the agency is the lead provider of “shelter, food and primary health care” in Gaza and if the ban is implemented it would be a “disaster.”

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on X that Israel was “ready” to continue providing aid to Gaza after the ban by working with international partners “in a way that does not threaten Israel’s security.”

The UNRWA ban comes with Israeli forces continuing a more than three-week-old air and ground assault against Hamas in north Gaza which has left the area without food and water supplies, the civil defence agency there said.