Israel restricts UN agency UNRWA in Gaza from conducting ‘any activity’, including providing aid, on Israeli soil

Israeli MPs have passed legislation that could threaten the work of the main UN agency providing aid to people in Gaza by barring it from operating on Israeli soil.

The bill bans the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, or UNRWA, from conducting “any activity” or providing any service inside Israel.

The legislation, which wouldn’t take effect immediately, risks collapsing the already fragile aid distribution process at a moment when the humanitarian crisis in Gaza is worsening and Israel is under increased US pressure to ramp up aid.

The vote passed 92-10 and followed a fiery debate between supporters of the law and its opponents, mostly members of Arab parliamentary parties.

A second bill severing diplomatic ties with UNRWA was also being voted on later on Monday.

Taken together, these bills would signal a new low in relations between Israel and UNRWA, which Israel accuses of maintaining close ties with Hamas militants.

The changes would also be a serious blow to the agency and to Palestinians in Gaza who have become reliant upon it for aid throughout more than a year of devastating war.

The bills risk crippling the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza.

More than 1.9 million Palestinians are displaced from their homes and Gaza faces widespread shortages of food, water and medicine.

Israel has alleged that some of UNRWA’s thousands of staff members participated in the October 7, 2023, Hamas’ attacks that sparked the war in Gaza.

It also has said hundreds of its staff have militant ties and that it has found Hamas military assets near or under UNRWA facilities.

The agency denies it knowingly aids armed groups and says it acts quickly to purge any suspected militants from its ranks.

The bills, which do not include provisions for alternative organisations to oversee its work, have been strongly criticised by international aid groups and a handful of Israel’s Western allies.

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

The bills would go into effect 60 to 90 days after Israel’s Foreign Ministry notifies the UN, according to the spokesperson of lawmaker Dan Illouz, one of the co-sponsors of one of the bills.

“If it passes and if it’s implemented, it’s a disaster” said Juliette Touma, communications director for the agency.

“UNRWA is the largest humanitarian organisation in Gaza ... Who can do its job?”

With no end in sight to the war, officials in Gaza reported Monday that the death toll from the yearlong fighting surpassed 43,000.

The Palestinian Health Ministry’s count does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but it says more than half of the dead are women and children.