Israel’s parliament passed a law on Monday banning the UN aid agency UNRWA from operating inside the country, alarming some of Israel’s Western allies who fear it will worsen the already dire humanitarian situation in Gaza.

Israeli officials have cited the involvement of a few thousand United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the October 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel and the membership of several Hamas personnel and other armed groups.

“UNRWA workers involved in terrorist activities against Israel must be held accountable,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.

UNRWA head Philippe Lazzarini said the vote was against the UN Charter and violated international law. “This is the latest in the ongoing campaign to discredit UNRWA and delegitimize its role in providing assistance and human development services to #Palestine refugees,” he wrote on social media platform X.

The vote came on the same day that Israeli tanks pushed deeper into northern Gaza, trapping 100,000 civilians, the Palestinian emergency service said, in what the Israeli military said were operations to eliminate the regrouping of Hamas fighters.

The Israeli military said soldiers captured about 100 suspected fighters in a raid on a hospital in the Jabalia camp. Hamas and doctors have denied any presence of fighters at the hospital.

The Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip said on Monday that at least 19 people were killed by Israeli airstrikes and shelling.

The Palestinian Civil Emergency Service announced that approximately 100,000 people were stranded in Jabalia, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun without medical or food supplies. Reuters could not independently verify the number.

The emergency service said its operations had ground to a halt because of Israel’s three-week offensive in northern Gaza, where Israel said it had destroyed Hamas fighting forces at the start of the year-long war.

Ceasefire Talks

Talks led by the US, Egypt and Qatar to negotiate a ceasefire resumed on Sunday after several failed attempts. Egypt’s president proposed a two-day truce to exchange four Israeli hostages held by Hamas for Palestinian prisoners, followed by talks within 10 days on a permanent ceasefire.

Netanyahu said mediators would resume talks in the coming days “in a continued attempt to advance an agreement.”

Israel has repeatedly said the war will continue until Hamas is eradicated, while the Islamist movement has ruled out any cessation of fighting until Israeli forces leave Gaza.

The Gaza war has ignited a wider conflict in the Middle East, raising concerns about global oil supplies, with Israel bombing Lebanon and sending forces to its south to disable Iran-backed Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas.

At least 16 people were killed in Israeli attacks on three villages in the eastern Lebanese city of Baalbek, the Lebanese Health Ministry said on Monday.

The conflict has also sparked rare direct clashes between regional foes Israel and Iran. Israeli warplanes struck Iranian missile production sites over the weekend in retaliation for an October 1 Iranian missile salvo on Israel.

Iran’s foreign ministry said Tehran would “use all available tools” to respond.

“EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY”

Israel continued to attack Lebanon on Monday, including an early morning airstrike on a district in the southern port of Tire that killed seven, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said.

Lebanon’s health authority said Israeli attacks in Lebanon have killed at least 2,710 people and injured 12,592 others in the past year.

The Israeli military later issued an evacuation order for much of Tyre, including areas that include neighborhoods near a seaside hotel where journalists usually stay.

Images circulated online of civil defense workers urging people to leave. “For your safety, due to the warning, evacuate immediately!” shouted one into a megaphone attached to a car.

Israel’s ever-increasing evacuation warnings have made ghost towns out of much of southern Lebanon, including Tyre, and the bombing campaign has left many cities in ruins.

Hezbollah has carried out attacks on Israeli troops on Lebanese soil and on military targets in Israel.