JERUSALEM (Reuters): Israel’s parliament passed a law on Monday to ban the UN relief agency UNRWA from operating inside the country, alarming some of Israel’s Western allies who fear it will worsen the already dire humanitarian situation in Gaza.
Israeli officials cited the involvement of a handful of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees’ 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.
The vote 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 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.
The Gaza Strip’s health ministry said at least 19 people were killed by Israeli airstrikes and bombardment on Monday.
The Palestinian Civil Emergency Service said around 100,000 people were marooned in Jabalia, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun without medical or food supplies. Reuters could not verify the number 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.
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