Taoiseach Simon Harris has said all United Nations member states should condemn legislation passed by the Israeli parliament that bans the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) from working in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
The Israeli parliament tonight passed the bill with 92 votes in favour and ten against, after years of harsh Israeli criticism of UNRWA, which has only increased since the start of the war in Gaza following Hamas's deadly 7 October attacks last year.
UNRWA provides healthcare, schooling and aid in both Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
Mr Harris said if the bill is implemented, "it will make it impossible for UNRWA to carry out its vital role across the region, including bringing humanitarian assistance to people in desperate need".
He said the legislation "breaches Israel's obligations in international law".
Tonight's vote in Israel to ban UNRWA is disastrous and shameful. It’ll go down in history as the moment Israel voted to cut off an irreplaceable humanitarian pipeline to a humanitarian disaster zone.
— Simon Harris TD (@SimonHarrisTD) October 28, 2024
"UNRWA saves lives. If it cannot carry out its mission, people will die," the taoiseach added.
Mr Harris said all UN member states should call on Israel to repeal the bill and "redouble their support to UNRWA and the Palestinian people".
UNRWA bill to have 'grave consequences' for Palestinians
Tanáiste Micheál Martin "strongly" condemned the Israeli parliament's approval of the bill.
Mr Martin said it would have "grave consequences" for Palestinians.
He wrote on X: "I strongly condemn the Israeli parliament's approval of a law banning UNRWA from working in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
"Such a move would be unacceptable and have grave consequences for Palestinians.
"The international community must stand against this."
I strongly condemn the Israeli parliament's approval of a law banning UNRWA from working in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
— Micheál Martin (@MichealMartinTD) October 28, 2024
Such a move would be unacceptable and have grave consequences for Palestinians.
The international community must stand against this.
Joint statement: pic.twitter.com/jvulIaop9l
The Governments of Ireland, Spain, Norway and Slovenia jointly condemned Israel's move to prevent UNRWA from operating in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
They said that UNRWA has a mandate from the UN General Assembly and the work of the agency is essential and irreplaceable for millions of Palestinian refugees in the region.
They added that the legislation approved by the Knesset sets a very serious precedent for the work of the UN.
The four countries have pledged to work with donor and host countries to ensure the viability of UNRWA's work and its humanitarian role.
Israeli decision an 'unprecedented escalation'
UNRWA condemned the bill banning its activities in Israel and occupied east Jerusalem, calling the move "outrageous".
"It's outrageous that a member state of the United Nations is working to dismantle a UN agency which also happens to be the largest responder in the humanitarian operation in Gaza," Juliette Touma, spokeswoman for UNRWA, told AFP.
UNRWA's media advisor Adnan Abu Hasna said the ban will mean the collapse of the humanitarian process in Gaza as a whole.
He told Al Jazera's Mubasher TV that the decision is an "unprecedented escalation".
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said UNRWA workers must be held accountable for what he called their "terrorist activities" against the country.
In a post on X, Mr Netanyahu also said sustained humanitarian aid must remain available in Gaza "now and in the future".
US 'deeply concerned' after bill passed
The United States said it was "deeply concerned" about the bill being passed.
"We have made quite clear to the government of Israel that we are deeply concerned by this," State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters, reiterating the "critical" role the agency plays in distributing humanitarian aid in Gaza.
"We continue to urge the government of Israel to pause the implementation of this legislation. We urge them not to pass it at all, and we will consider the next steps based on what happens in the days ahead," Mr Miller said.
The spokesman noted that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken had raised the issue during his recent trip to the region.
Israel has accused some UNRWA employees of taking part in the Hamas attacks.
Following those allegations, the United States suspended its contributions to the UN agency and demanded an investigation.
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Palestinians say 100,000 residents trapped in Israel's north Gaza assault
Israeli tanks have thrust deeper into two north Gaza towns and a historic refugee camp, trapping around 100,000 civilians, the Palestinian emergency service has said, in what the Israeli military said were operations to root out regrouping Hamas militants.
The IDF said soldiers captured around 100 suspected Hamas militants in a raid into Kamal Adwan hospital in the Jabalia camp. Hamas and medics have denied any militant presence at the hospital.
Gaza’s health ministry said at least 19 people were killed by Israeli airstrikes and bombardment, 13 of them in the north of the shattered coastal territory.
The Palestinian Civil Emergency Service said around 100,000 people were marooned in Jabalia, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun without medical or food supplies. Reuters could not verify the number independently.
The emergency service said its operations had ground to a halt because of the three-week-long Israeli assault back into the north, an area where the military said it had wiped out viable Hamas combat forces earlier in the year-long war.
As talks led by the US, Egypt and Qatar to broker a ceasefire resumed yesterday after multiple abortive attempts, Egypt's president proposed an initial two-day truce to exchange four Israeli hostages of Hamas for some Palestinian prisoners, to be followed by talks within 10 days on a permanent ceasefire.
There was no public comment from Israel or Hamas, who have stuck to irreconcilable conditions for ending the war.
Gaza's war has kindled wider Middle East conflict, raising fears of global instability, with Israeli forces invading south Lebanon to stop Hezbollah rocketing northern Israel in support of fellow Iran-backed militant group Hamas in Gaza.
It has also triggered rare direct clashes between Middle East arch-foes Israel and Iran. At the weekend, Israeli warplanes pounded missiles sites in Iran in retaliation for a 1 October Iranian missile volley at Israel.
North Gaza's three hospitals, where officials refused orders by the Israeli army to evacuate, said they were hardly operating. At least two had been damaged by Israeli fire during the assault and run out of medical, food and fuel stocks.
At least one doctor, a nurse and two child patients had died in those hospitals due to a lack of treatment in the past week.
The Gaza health ministry has said there was only one of roughly 70 medical staff - a paediatrician - was left at Kamal Adwan Hospital after Israel "detained and expelled" the others.
The Israeli military said soldiers who raided the hospital "apprehended approximately 100 terrorists from the compound, including terrorists who attempted to escape during the evacuation of civilians. Inside the hospital, they found weapons, terror funds, and intelligence documents".
North Gaza residents said Israeli forces were besieging schools and other shelters housing displaced families, ordering them out before rounding up men and ushering women and children out of the area towards Gaza City and the south.
Only a few families headed to southern Gaza as the majority preferred to relocate temporarily in Gaza City, fearing they could otherwise never regain access to their homes.
Some said they had written their death notices in case they died from the constant bombardment, saying they would prefer death to displacement.
"While the world is busy with Lebanon and new nonsense talk about a few days of ceasefire (in Gaza), the Israeli occupation is wiping out north Gaza and displacing its people," a resident of Jabalia told Reuters by a chat app.
"(But) neither (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu nor Eiland will be able to take us out of northern Gaza."
Giora Eiland, a former head of Israel's National Security Council, was the lead author of a much-debated proposal dubbed "the generals' plan" that would see Israel rapidly clear northern Gaza of civilians before starving out surviving Hamas fighters by cutting off their water and food supplies.
This month's Israeli tank assault drew Palestinian accusations that the military has embraced Eiland's concept, which he envisaged as a short-term step to defeat Hamas in the north but which Palestinians fear is meant to clear the area for good to carve out a buffer zone for the military after the war.
The Israeli military has denied pursuing any such plan. It says its forces operate in keeping with international law and that it targets militants who hide among the civilian population which they use as human shields, a charge Hamas denies.
North Gaza was the first part of the enclave to be hammered by Israel's ground offensive into the territory after Hamas' cross-border attack on 7 October 2023, with intensive bombing largely flattening towns like Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya.
Nevertheless, Hamas-led militants continue to attack Israeli forces in hit-and-run operations with anti-tank rockets, mortar salvoes and bombs planted in buildings, streets and other areas where they anticipate Israeli forces taking up positions.
