JERUSALEM — 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 and labeling 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 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 that 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.”
