By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
JERUSALEM (Worthy News) – Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, voted Monday for legislation banning the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNWRA), which services Palestinian refugees in east Jerusalem, Gaza, and the West Bank.
The UNRWA was outlawed several months after an internal U.N. investigation concluded that nine employees “may have been involved” in the October 7, 2023, Hamas massacre in Israel of some 1,200 people.
The vote passed 92-10 and followed a fiery debate between supporters of the law and its opponents, primarily members of Arab parliamentary parties.
A second bill severing diplomatic ties with UNRWA was also being voted on later Monday.
Knesset Foreign Affairs Committee chairman MK Yuli Edelstein said both bills were needed as UNWRA’s operations “eternalized” the issue of Palestinian refugees.
He mentioned that the U.N. agency has provided aid and assistance across Palestinian territories and to Palestinian refugees for more than seven decades.
BANNING UNWRA
Edelstein said banning UNWRA was also not necessary as “employees had participated in, and even served as commanders, in the October 7 Hamas massacre.”
Additionally, Edelstein mentioned “incitement in UNWRA school curriculums.” He said, “The time had come to ban the agency from Israel.”
Yet critics say the legislation, which won’t take effect immediately, risks collapsing the already “fragile aid distribution process” while Gaza faces a humanitarian crisis.
Israel has denied starving Palestinians but says Hamas is stealing aid and selling goods at high prices.
However, the U.N. says hundreds of its workers were killed in Israeli strikes hitting Gaza.
It was unclear how many had ties to Hamas. However, Israel says it targets Iran’s proxies, including Hamas.
Copyright 1999-2025 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
Latest News from Worthy News
Christian farmer and evangelist Paul Jongas tells Worthy News that his Christian neighbor has been kidnapped in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, and that he, too, fears for his life.
Nigeria’s government was under pressure Sunday to end massacres in the country’s central Benue state after at least 100 people, many believed to be Christians, were reportedly killed there over the weekend.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a stark warning Saturday that Israeli Air Force jets would soon be a common sight above Tehran, pledging to strike “every site and every target of the ayatollah regime” as Israel ramps up its unprecedented military campaign against Iran.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin held a lengthy phone conversation on Saturday, focusing heavily on the escalating war between Israel and Iran. The call, which lasted nearly an hour, came as tensions in the Middle East soared following Israel’s strike on Iranian nuclear sites and Iran’s deadly retaliation.
The governor of the U.S. State of Minnesota says a gunman posing as a police officer has killed a senior Democratic Minnesota lawmaker and her husband on Saturday in an apparent “politically motivated assassination.
Residents in the U.S. city of San Antonio plunged into mourning Saturday after record-breaking rainfall triggered severe flash flooding, leaving at least 11 people dead, dozens injured, and causing widespread damage in the area.
U.S. Evangelist Franklin Graham urged Christians on Saturday to “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem” after Iran fired a barrage of missiles towards Israel that killed several and injured scores of Israelis.