Outcry as Israel bans main UN Palestinian aid agency

JERUSALEM - Israel faced an international backlash on Oct 28 after its Parliament approved a Bill banning the main UN aid agency for the devastated Gaza Strip, where deadly bombing continues.

Despite global concern, including by Israel’s ally the United States, Israeli lawmakers overwhelmingly voted to ban the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, from working in Israel and occupied east Jerusalem.

The lawmakers also passed a measure prohibiting Israeli officials from working with UNRWA and its employees.

Israel strictly controls all humanitarian aid shipments to Gaza, where its forces have been fighting Palestinian militant group Hamas for more than a year in a conflict that the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry says has killed more than 43,000 Palestinians.

The danger faced by residents of the densely populated territory was underlined when an Israeli strike destroyed a five-storey residential block and killed more than 55 people, Gaza’s civil defence agency said.

There was no immediate comment from Israel on the reported bombing in Beit Lahia, but the Israeli military said its air and ground forces had continued operations in Gaza and south Lebanon.

Aid jeapordised

UNRWA has provided essential aid, schooling and healthcare across the Palestinian territories and to Palestinian refugees elsewhere for over seven decades.

“There is a deep connection between the terrorist organisation (Hamas) and UNRWA and Israel cannot put up with it,” lawmaker Yuli Edelstein said in Parliament as he presented the proposal.

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

Germany – a staunch defender of Israel’s security – 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”.

UN chief Antonio Guterres said the Israeli law could have “devastating consequences” if implemented and “would likely prevent UNRWA from continuing its essential work”.

UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini warned that the vote “sets a dangerous precedent”.

UN agencies said the ban could result in the deaths of more children and represent a form of collective punishment for Gazans if fully implemented.

“If UNRWA is unable to operate, it’ll likely see the collapse of the humanitarian system in Gaza,” said Unicef spokesman James Elder. “So, a decision such as this suddenly means that a new way has been found to kill children.”

Other UN agencies said it would be impossible to fill the void.

“It is indispensable, and there is no alternative to it at this point,” said UN humanitarian office spokesman Jens Laerke.

In response to a question about whether the ban represented a form of collective punishment against Gazans, he said: “I think it is a fair description of what they have decided here, if implemented, that this would add to the acts of collective punishment that we have seen imposed on Gaza”.

The foreign ministry of Israel’s neighbour Jordan, which also hosts UNRWA offices, condemned the ban as a “continuation of Israel’s frantic efforts to assassinate the UN agency politically”.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on social media that Israel was “ready” to continue providing aid to Gaza “in a way that does not threaten Israel’s security”.

The ban comes as fighting rages in Gaza and Lebanon, where a second full-scale front opened in September.

Earlier on Oct 28, Mr Netanyahu’s office said Mossad intelligence chief David Barnea had met US and Qatari officials in Doha, where they agreed they should talk to Hamas about a deal to free Israelis seized in

last year’s Oct 7 attack by Palestinian militants.

“In the coming days, discussions will continue between the mediators and Hamas to assess the feasibility of talks and to further efforts to promote a deal,” it added.

The statement came two days after Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi proposed a two-day truce and limited hostage-prisoner exchange that he said could lead to a permanent ceasefire. But Mr Netanyahu later said he had not received the Egyptian proposal.

US President Joe Biden, asked about the possibility of a Gaza ceasefire, said: “We need a ceasefire. We should end this war. It should end, it should end, it should end.”

Hostage family pressure

During the Oct 7 attack, Palestinian militants seized 251 hostages, both soldiers and civilians, of whom 97 are still in Gaza. The Israeli ministry says 34 of these are dead.

Mr Netanyahu’s government is under mounting pressure from both hostage families and the international community to agree to a ceasefire that would allow the rest of the captured to come home.

Under the plan announced by Mr Sisi, “four hostages would be exchanged for some prisoners in Israeli jails”, followed by more negotiations within 10 days aiming to secure “a complete ceasefire and the entry of aid” into Gaza.

Meanwhile, at least 60 Palestinians were killed and dozens others wounded in an Israeli strike on a residential building in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya on Oct 29, according to the Palestinian Civil Emergency Service.

Video footage obtained by Reuters showed several bodies wrapped in blankets on the ground outside a bombed four-storey building.

More bodies and survivors were being retrieved from under the rubble, as neighbours rushed to help with the rescue.

“There are tens of martyrs (dead). Tens of displaced people were living in this house. The house was bombed without prior warning. As you can see, martyrs are here and there, with body parts hanging on the walls,” Mr Ismail Ouaida, an eyewitness who was helping to recover bodies, said in the video. AFP, REUTERS