Israel enacts 2 laws restricting UN aid in Gaza amid humanitarian crisis

Israeli lawmakers passed two laws on Monday that could threaten the work of the main United Nations agency providing aid to people in Gaza by barring it from operating on Israeli soil, severing ties with it and deeming it a terror organization.
The laws, which do not immediately go into effect, signal a new low for a long-troubled relationship between Israel and the UN Israel’s international allies said they were deeply worried about its potential impact on Palestinians as the war’s humanitarian toll is worsening, news agency AP reported.
Under the first law, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, or UNRWA, would be banned from conducting ‘any activity’ or providing any service inside Israel, while the second would sever diplomatic ties with it.
India is one of the countries sending aid to Palestine under UNRWA. Earlier this month, India dispatched aid that included 30 tons of vital supplies, such as medicines, surgical items, dental products, general medical necessities, and high-energy biscuits, to be distributed through UNRWA for Palestine Refugees
The Israel legislation risks collapsing the already fragile process for distributing aid in Gaza at a moment when Israel is under increased pressure from the United States to ramp up aid.
Israel has alleged that some of UNRWA’s thousands of staff members participated in the October 2023 Hamas attacks that sparked the war in Gaza. It also has said hundreds of UNRWA staff have militant ties and that it has found Hamas military assets near or under the agency’s facilities.
The agency fired nine employees after an investigation but denies it knowingly aids armed groups, and says it acts quickly to purge any suspected militants from its ranks. Some of Israel’s allegations prompted major international donors to cut funding to the agency, although some of it has been restored.
The first vote passed 92-10 and followed a fiery debate between supporters of the law and its opponents, mostly members of Arab parliamentary parties. The second law was approved 87-9.
The United Nations chief warned that if two laws adopted by Israel’s parliament are implemented, the UN agency providing essential services to Palestinian refugees in Gaza and the West Bank would likely be prevented from continuing work that is mandated by the UN General Assembly.
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called the work of the agency known as UNRWA “indispensable,” and said implementing the laws “could have devastating consequences for Palestinian refugees in the occupied Palestinian territories, which is unacceptable.”
“There is no alternative to UNRWA,” he said in a statement issued Monday night.
UNRWA was established by the General Assembly in 1949 to provide relief for Palestinians who fled or were expelled from their homes before and during the 1948 war that followed Israel’s establishment, as well as their descendants.
The two laws were approved amid an escalating humanitarian crisis in Gaza, now in the second year of Israel’s military retaliation following Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, in southern Israel.
(With AP inputs)