Many humanitarian agencies have expressed fears that two measures enacted in Israel on Monday that ban UNRWA, the U.N. agency aiding Palestinians, from operating in the country could cripple its aid deliveries.
The aid has never been more urgently needed. Almost all of Gaza’s 2.2 million people have been displaced over more than a year of war, and face acute and sometimes catastrophic malnutrition.
The laws are to go into full effect in 90 days, and will almost certainly create new hurdles for the agency, formally the United Nations Relief Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees. The agency also works with Palestinians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, Lebanon and Syria.
Legal scholars, diplomats and aid workers were assessing the new laws’ implications on Tuesday. What was clear was that they could create new diplomatic challenges for Israel, with several European governments condemning their passage and the United States — a top UNRWA funder — being on record against the measures.
Here’s a look at the laws and what might happen next.
What do the laws say?
The 120-seat Knesset passed two bills with overwhelming majorities late on Monday, the first day of its winter session.
The first effectively revokes UNRWA’s invitation, first extended in 1967, to operate within Israel. The legislation says that the foreign minister, Israel Katz, will notify the United Nations of this no more than one week after the bill’s passage. It says that “no Israeli government agencies or representatives may have any contact” with the agency.
It also instructs the foreign minister to write an order that effectively excludes UNRWA from the immunities and privileges that apply to other U.N. agencies, which include immunity from prosecution for its staff.
The second bill prohibits UNRWA from “operating any mission, providing any service or conducting any activity, either directly or indirectly, within Israel’s sovereign territory.” An explanatory note says that Israel will stop UNRWA’s activities within its territory. Passage of the laws ends the parliamentary process and effectively sets the 90-day clock ticking.
What is UNRWA’s mission?
UNRWA was set up in 1949 to assist Palestinians who fled or were expelled from their homes during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, during which Israel declared itself a state. In the absence of any solution to the territorial conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, the agency’s mandate has repeatedly been extended — the latest taking it to June 2026.
The agency is a major employer and provides health care, food, emergency loans, housing assistance and education for millions of Palestinians.
Why did the Knesset pass the laws?
For decades, the agency has been a target for some Israeli politicians who argue that its work on behalf of Palestinians further perpetuates the territorial conflict.
Those accusations sharpened in January, when the government accused a handful of the agency’s 13,000 employees in Gaza of participating in the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attacks on Israel last year that triggered the war.
One member of the Knesset, Dan Illouz, said it was a “historic law,” and a “crucial measure in the global fight against terror.” UNRWA is “not an innocent humanitarian organization, as it pretends to be,” he said, adding that it “cooperates” with Hamas — a view that is shared by other supporters of the legislation and that is also widespread, though not universal, within Israeli society.
More than 230 UNRWA workers have been killed in Gaza during the war, the United Nations has said.
Ibrahim Dalalsha, director of the Horizon Center, a political analysis group in Ramallah, West Bank, argued that the legislation’s passage in part reflected the influence of the far right in Israeli politics, which is hostile to any two-state solution.
How will the laws be applied?
At first glance, the laws aim to stop UNRWA from operating in its “sovereign territory,” which to Israelis includes East Jerusalem, an area it annexed in 1967 in a move that many other countries do not recognize as legal. But proponents made clear that the laws also intend to keep UNRWA from functioning in Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
How the laws are implemented may depend on several factors. And their constitutionality could be challenged in the country’s courts.
The legislation also leaves many details unaddressed, including precisely how it should be put into effect and what the penalties would be for violations. That creates potential space for the government to tailor its implementation.
“The legislative process is over, but the way that the laws are drafted leaves room for interpretation and for the government to decide how to implement them,” said Eran Shamir-Borer, the director of the Israel Democracy Institute’s Center for Security and Democracy.
“Under Israeli constitutional law, to the extent possible, parliamentary legislation should be interpreted in such a way that it coincides with Israel’s international legal obligations,” he said, adding that nothing in the language of the legislation itself contradicted international law.
How will the legislation affect UNRWA?
UNRWA said on Tuesday that the legislation carried “no implications at the immediate level,” apparently referring to the 90-day window before most of the provisions go into effect, and that the agency would continue its work.
“Across the region, we continue business as usual,” said Juliette Touma, a spokeswoman for the agency. “We will not abandon the people who depend on us for sheer survival.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said on social media on Monday that it was essential that “sustained humanitarian aid” remain available in Gaza. He gave no details of how that should be accomplished. But Mr. Netanyahu’s office released a statement saying that the government was ready to work with “our international partners to ensure Israel continues to facilitate humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza in a way that does not threaten Israel’s security.”
Aid agencies accuse Israel of severely restricting the amount of aid that comes into Gaza, something Israel denies. They also say that there are no ready alternatives to UNRWA’s network of staff, know-how and command of logistics.
A joint statement on Sunday from several countries, including Japan, Britain and South Korea, said that UNRWA and other U.N. organizations needed to be able to deliver humanitarian aid to those in need.
Humanitarian agencies fear the worst. Amnesty International, for example, said that the legislation would be catastrophic and that it would effectively be a “death sentence” for civilians in Gaza who rely on the aid.
What is the diplomatic fallout?
Several European governments immediately criticized the legislation. Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain reminded Israel that it had international obligations to ensure that sufficient aid reached civilians in Gaza.
A special session of the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday was dominated by criticism of the Israeli move, including from Israeli allies. Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., said that “we have concerns about this legislation being implemented,” saying that “right now, there is no alternative to UNRWA when it comes to delivering food and other life-saving aid in Gaza.”
The Biden administration has clearly opposed the bills. Earlier this month, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III and Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken expressed deep concern about the bills in a letter to senior Israeli officials, warning that failure to allow the delivery of aid to Gaza could trigger a cutoff of U.S. military support. The letter urged the officials to take all possible steps, including using the authority of the prime minister’s office, to ensure that the legislation did not come to pass.
But the full force of the laws will come after the U.S. presidential election and the inauguration of the winner, scheduled for Jan. 20, 2025. It could thus fall to the new president to determine the U.S. stance on application of the laws.
The United States has long been one of the largest funders of UNRWA. Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, has expressed strong support for Israel’s self-defense but also profound concerns about civilian suffering in Gaza. Former President Donald J. Trump, the Republican nominee, recently accused President Biden of trying to hold back Mr. Netanyahu in his wars against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
In 2018, as president, Mr. Trump stopped all U.S. funding for UNRWA, which his Democratic successor, Mr. Biden, restored in 2021.
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