Israel's ban on UNRWA sparks global condemnation over potentially devastating impact on Palestinians

Israel has faced international backlash after its parliament approved a bill banning the main UN aid and relief agency for Palestian refugees, especially since it operates in the devastated Gaza Strip, where dozens of people are being killed by Israeli forces every day. Despite global concerns, including from Israel's ally the US, Israeli Knesset last night overwhelmingly voted to ban UNRWA from working in Israel and annexed East Jerusalem. Israeli lawmakers passed the bill with 92 votes in favour and 10 against, after years of harsh Israeli criticism of UNRWA, which has only increased since the start of the war in Gaza on October 7 last year. The lawmakers also passed a measure prohibiting Israeli officials from working with UNRWA and its employees. The ban on the UN agency would be a blow to humanitarian work in Gaza if implemented, analysts have said. Israel strictly controls all humanitarian aid shipments to Gaza, where its brutal military offensive has killed over 43,000 people - mostly civilians, since October last year. UNRWA has provided essential aid, schooling, and healthcare across the Palestinian territories and to Palestinian refugees elsewhere for more than seven decades. These include some six million Palestinian refugees who were made stateless after they were uprooted from their homes by the establishment of Israel in 1948 and have been living in refugee camps both in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, as well as in neighbouring Lebanon, Syria and Jordan. Around three-quarters of the Gaza Strip's population is made up of refugees from areas taken over by Israel in 1948 and their descendants. Israel recently accused several UNRWA staff members of involvement in the October 7 attacks without substantiating evidence.