Israeli lawmakers passed two laws on Monday that could threaten the work of the main UN agency providing aid to people in Gaza by barring it from operating on Israeli soil, severing ties with it.
The laws, which do not immediately take 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 their potential impact on Palestinians as the Gaza war’s humanitarian toll worsens.
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. The second law would sever Israel's diplomatic ties with the agency.
The laws risk collapsing the already fragile process for distributing aid in Gaza at a moment when Israel is under increased US pressure to ramp up aid. UNRWA’s chief called them “a dangerous precedent.”
Israel has alleged that some of UNRWA’s thousands of staff members participated in the Hamas attacks last year 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 in or under the agency’s facilities.
The agency fired nine employees after an investigation but denied it knowingly aids armed groups and said 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.
Israel has at times during the war raided or attacked UNRWA schools or other facilities, saying militants were operating there. UNRWA says more than 200 of its employees have been killed during the war.
“The law that we passed now is not just another bill. It is a call for justice and a wake up call,” said lawmaker Boaz Bismuth, who co-sponsored one of the bills. “UNRWA is not an aid agency for refugees. It is an aid agency for Hamas.”
The head of UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, said the new laws were part of an “ongoing campaign to discredit UNRWA.”
"These bills will only deepen the suffering of Palestinians, especially in Gaza,” he said on the social platform X.
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, which initially included a move to label UNRWA a terror organization but was later amended, was approved 87-9.
An English language account on X for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was ready to work with international partners to ensure it “continues to facilitate humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza.” The post did not say how, and it was not clear how the flow of aid would be affected once these bills take effect.
Together, the laws would effectively sever ties with the UN agency, strip it of legal immunities and restrict its ability to support Palestinians in east Jerusalem and the West Bank. The legislation does not provide for alternative organizations to oversee its work.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said UNRWA would be prevented from doing UN General Assembly-mandated work if the laws are implemented. “There is no alternative to UNRWA,” he said in a statement issued Monday night.
Guterres called on Israel “to act consistently with its obligations” under the UN Charter and international law, as well as the privileges and immunities of the United Nations. “National legislation cannot alter those obligations,” Guterres stressed in a statement.
International allies of Israel’s have opposed the moves
The changes could be a serious blow to Palestinians in Gaza. More than 1.9 million Palestinians are displaced from their homes, and Gaza faces widespread shortages of food, water and medicine.
International aid groups and a handful of Israel’s Western allies, including the US, have voiced strong opposition.
US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller, speaking to reporters in Washington before the votes, said the administration was “deeply concerned” by the legislation. “There’s nobody that can replace them right now in the middle of the crisis,” he said.
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 laws 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 laws.
