Beirut, Oct 30: Israel’s parliament has passed two laws that could prevent the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, a main provider of aid to Gaza, from being able to continue its work.The laws ban the agency, UNRWA, from operating and cut all ties between the agency and the Israeli government. It’s the culmination of a long-running campaign against the agency, which Israel contends has been infiltrated by Hamas. But supporters say Israel’s real aim is to sideline the issue of Palestinian refugees.
The agency is the major distributor of aid in Gaza and provides education, health and other basic services to millions of Palestinian refugees across the region, including in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
The head of the agency, Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini, called the move âunprecedentedâ on X following the vote and said the bills âwill only deepen the suffering Palestinians, especially in Gaza where people have been going through more than a year of sheer hell.â
Israel accuses the agency of turning a blind eye to staff members it says belong to Hamas, divert aid and use UNRWA facilities for military purposes. Israel says around a dozen of its 13,000 employees in Gaza participated in the October 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel. The agency denies it knowingly aids armed groups and says it acts quickly to purge any suspected militants among its staff.
The bills severely hamper UNRWA