Knesset tightens restrictions on UNRWA operations in Israel

A new law cuts utilities, banking and communications to all facilities linked to the agency.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

The Knesset passed a new law Monday that drastically tightened the screws on UNRWA operations in Israel to help force the discredited body to leave the country.

The law, passed 59-7, prohibits the provision of basic services to any of the organization’s facilities.

No electricity, water, gas, or telecommunications can be provided, and all financial institutions must cease their banking or payment services to any of UNRWA’s employees.

In addition, the law states that UNRWA’s two leased properties in Jerusalem, which serve as its headquarters and main vocational training center, can be expropriated “without the need to initiate legal or administrative proceedings.”

The legislation amends a law passed in October 2024 that formally banned UNRWA from operating in Israel and from all contact with Israeli authorities.

The amendment expands the definition of “contact” to include all the banned services.

The bill’s sponsor, MK Limor Son Har-Melech (Otzma Yehudit), welcomed its passage.

“UNRWA is a terrorist organization that was a full partner in the massacre, abduction and murder on October 7,” she said. “Today, the State of Israel made it clear in no uncertain terms that it has no place within its borders.”

“We didn’t come to make declarations,” she added, “but to change reality on the ground and restore national sovereignty and honor.”

The original legislation was prompted by evidence uncovered by the IDF in Gaza indicating that about 10% of UNRWA employees there were affiliated with Hamas, testimony from hostages who said they were held by UNRWA personnel, and the discovery of terror tunnels running beneath UNRWA’s Gaza headquarters, supplied with electricity from the facility.

Despite the evidence, UNRWA denied that more than a handful of its staff were affiliated with Hamas and insisted on its UN-mandated right to continue providing services and aid to the Palestinians.

UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini swiftly condemned the new law, calling it “outrageous” in a post on X and claiming it violates international law.

He cited an October advisory opinion by the International Court of Justice that rejected Israel’s allegations that UNRWA was violating its mandate to be an impartial body and urged Jerusalem to allow the agency’s work to continue.

Israel has long accused UNRWA — originally established to aid Palestinian refugees from the 1948 War of Independence and uniquely extending refugee status to their descendants — of perpetuating the conflict through incitement to terror and antisemitism in its educational materials across Gaza, the West Bank and the wider Arab world.