EBN- Israeli parliament voted on Monday to ban UNRWA from Israel within 90 days, declaring the UN relief agency a terror group and banning any direct interaction with Israeli state
In a 92-10 vote late, the Knesset banned the agency, which operates in Israel according to a 1967 treaty, from conducting “any activity” or providing any service inside Israel, including the areas of annexed East Jerusalem, Gaza and the West Bank.
The Israeli parliament also voted to declare UNRWA a terror group, effectively banning any direct interaction between the UN agency and the Israeli state.
UNRWA — short for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East — provides education, health care and aid to millions of Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.
Responding to the “unprecedented” vote, UNRWA warned that the legislation “sets a dangerous precedent,” breaches the UN charter “and violates the State of Israel’s obligations under international law.”
“These bills will only deepen the suffering of Palestinians, especially in Gaza where people have been going through more than a year of sheer hell… and are nothing less than collective punishment,” the agency said in a statement.
Keir Starmer, the prime minister, said the UK was “gravely concerned” that the bill had passed, adding: “This legislation risks making Unrwa’s essential work for Palestinians impossible, jeopardising the entire international humanitarian response in Gaza and delivery of essential health and education services in the West Bank.
