JERUSALEM — Israeli lawmakers passed two laws on Monday it could threaten the job of the main United Nations agency providing aid to the people of Gaza by banning it from operating on Israeli soil, severing ties with it and labeling it a terrorist organization.

The laws, which do not take effect immediately, mark a new low point for a long-troubled relationship between Israel and the United Nations. Israel’s international allies have expressed deep concern about their potential impact on Palestinians as the Gaza war continues. the humanitarian toll worsens.

Under the first law, the United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugeesor UNRWA, would be prohibited from conducting “any activity” or providing any service in Israel. The second law would sever Israel’s diplomatic relations with the agency.

The laws risk derailing Gaza’s already fragile aid distribution process at a time when Israel is under increased pressure from the United States to increase aid. The head of UNRWA called them a “dangerous precedent”.

Israel alleged that some of the thousands of UNRWA personnel participated in Hamas attacks last year who started the war in Gaza. He also said hundreds of UNRWA personnel had links to militants and that he had discovered Hamas military assets in or beneath the agency’s facilities.

The agency fired nine employees after investigation but denied it knowingly aids armed groups and said it acted quickly to eliminate any suspected militants from its ranks. Some of Israel’s allegations have prompted major international donors to cut funding for the agency, although some of it has been restored.

Israel has at times during the war raided or raided schools or other UNRWA facilities, claiming militants were operating there. UNRWA says more than 200 of its employees were killed during the war.

“The law we passed today is not just another bill. This is a cry for justice and a wake-up call,” said lawmaker Boaz Bismuth, co-sponsor of one of the bills. “UNRWA is not a refugee agency. It is an aid agency for Hamas.

UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said the new laws were part of an “ongoing campaign to discredit UNRWA.”

“These bills will only worsen the suffering of Palestinians, especially in Gaza,” he said on the social platform X.

The first vote was obtained by 92 votes to 10 and followed a heated debate between supporters of the law and its opponents, most of them members of Arab parliamentary parties. The second law was approved 87-9.

An English-language account on X of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was ready to work with international partners to ensure it “continues to facilitate humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza.” The post did not specify how, and it was unclear how the flow of aid would be affected once these bills take effect.

Together, these laws would effectively sever ties with the UN agency, strip it of its 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 supervise its work.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said UNRWA could not carry out the work mandated by the UN General Assembly if the laws were enforced. “There is no alternative to UNRWA,” he said in a statement released Monday evening.

Guterres called on Israel “to act consistently with its obligations” under the United Nations Charter and international law, as well as with the privileges and immunities of the United Nations. “National legislation cannot modify these obligations,” stressed António Guterres in a press release.

These changes could be a major blow for 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 humanitarian groups and a handful of Israel’s Western allies, including the United States, have expressed strong opposition.

U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller, speaking to reporters in Washington before the votes, said the administration was “deeply concerned” about the legislation. “No one can replace them right now, in the middle of a crisis,” he said.

UNRWA provides education, health care and other basic services to millions of Palestinian refugees in the region, including in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

The laws would take effect 60 to 90 days after Israel’s Foreign Ministry notifies the United Nations, according to the lawmaker’s spokesman Dan Illouz, a co-sponsor of one of the laws.

The death toll from more than a year of fighting has surpassed 43,000, Gaza officials reported Monday. The Palestinian Health Ministry’s count does not distinguish between civilians and combatants, but indicates that more than half of the dead are women and children.

The rising death toll comes as Israel refocuses its offensive on hard-hit northern Gaza, including a hospital where the army says the militants were operating from.

Israeli forces attacked Kamal Adwan Hospital on Friday. An Israeli military official, speaking on condition of anonymity in accordance with regulations, said there was heavy fighting around the hospital, but not inside, and that weapons had been found inside. inside the establishment. The army announced Monday that the raid was over.

Israel attacked several hospitals in Gaza during the year-long war, saying Hamas and other militants were using them for military purposes. Palestinian medical officials deny the allegations and accuse the army of recklessly endangering civilians.

The Israeli military said it arrested 100 suspected Hamas militants in the latest raid. The Israeli official said medical staff were stopped and searched because some activists had disguised themselves as doctors.

The World Health Organization has accused Israel of detaining 44 male hospital workers. It is not immediately clear why there is a discrepancy between the figures. Palestinian medical officials said the hospital, which treated some 200 patients, was badly damaged in the raid.

The Israeli army has called on the Palestinians to evacuate northern Gaza, where it has been carrying out a vast offensive for more than three weeks. The official said the operation in the northern Gaza town of Jabaliya would last “several more weeks.”

THE The UN said earlier this month that at least 400,000 people are in northern Gaza, an area that was one of the first targets of Israel’s retaliatory war. Hunger is endemic there as the volume of humanitarian aid arriving in the north has plummeted over the past month.

THE Israel-Hamas War started after Hamas militants and other groups stormed into Israel, killing some 1,200 people – mostly civilians – and kidnapping 250 others. The war has rocked the Middle East, sparking fighting between Israel and Hezbollah as well as Israel and Iran, sworn enemies who had long made their conflict a shadow war but are now engaging in open combat .

After their failure at the end of the summer, international mediators tried to relaunch ceasefire efforts between Israel and Hamas. Israel said it would continue talks on stopping fighting after Mossad agency chief David Barnea returned from a meeting in Qatar with CIA chief David Burns and the prime minister Qatari.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has offered a two-day ceasefire in exchange for the release of four hostages. Israel seems sensitive to this idea.

An Israeli official said Israel was discussing the proposal both internally and with Egyptian officials. A second official said Netanyahu expressed enthusiasm for the proposal during a meeting with his Likud party on Monday.

The two officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss internal deliberations.

Hamas has not yet officially responded to the plan and its officials could not be reached for comment Monday.

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Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers Matthew Lee in Washington, Michelle Chapman in New York, and Julia Frankel and Tia Goldenberg in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

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