Jerusalem — Israeli lawmakers passed two laws on Monday which could threaten work of the main UN agency providing aid to the people of Gaza, banning it from operating on Israeli soil, severing ties with it and labeling it a terrorist organization.

The laws, which do not go into effect immediately, signal a new low for a long-strained relationship between Israel and Israel’s international UN allies have said they are deeply concerned about their potential impact on Palestinians since the Gaza war. the humanitarian toll is getting worse.

According to the first law, UN agency for Palestine refugeesor UNRWA, would be prohibited from carrying out “any activity” or providing any service inside Israel. The second bill would cut Israel’s diplomatic ties to the agency.

The laws risk collapsing the already fragile process of distributing aid to Gaza at a time when Israel is under increasing pressure from the US to step up aid. The head of UNRWA called them “a dangerous precedent”.

Israel stated that some of the thousands of UNRWA staff members participated in Hamas attacks last year which started the war in Gaza. It also said that hundreds of UNRWA staff had links to the militants and that it had found Hamas military assets in or under the agency’s facilities.

The agency fired nine employees after an investigation but denied knowingly aiding armed groups and said it was moving quickly to remove any suspected militants from its ranks. Some of Israel’s accusations have led major international donors to cut funding to the agency, although some has been restored.

At times during the war, Israel raided or attacked UNRWA schools or other facilities, saying militants were operating there. UNRWA says more than 200 of its staff have been killed during the war.

“The law we passed now is not just another bill. It’s a call to justice and a wake-up call,” said Rep. Boaz Bismuth, who co-sponsored one of the bills. “UNRWA is not a refugee aid agency. It is an aid agency for Hamas.”

UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said the new laws were part of an “ongoing campaign to discredit UNRWA”.

“These bills will only deepen the suffering of Palestinians, especially in Gaza,” he said on the social platform X.

The first vote passed 92-10 and followed a heated debate between supporters of the law and its opponents, mostly members of Arab parliamentary parties. The second bill was approved 87-9.

An English account on X for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was ready to work with international partners to ensure it “continues to facilitate humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza.” The post did not say how and it was unclear how the flow of aid would be affected once these bills take effect.

Together, the laws would effectively sever ties with the UN agency, strip it of its legal immunities and curtail its ability to support Palestinians in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. The legislation does not provide for alternative organizations to supervise their activity.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said UNRWA would be prevented from doing the work mandated by the UN General Assembly if the laws were implemented. “There is no alternative to UNRWA,” he said in a statement issued late Monday.

Guterres called on Israel to “act consistently with its obligations” under the UN Charter and international law, as well as the privileges and immunities of the United Nations. “National legislation cannot change these obligations,” Guterres stressed in a statement.

The changes could be a serious blow to the Palestinians in Gaza. More than 1.9 million Palestinians are displaced from their homes, and Gaza faces widespread shortages of food, water and medicine.

International aid groups and a handful of Israel’s Western allies, including the US, have voiced strong opposition.

US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller, speaking to reporters in Washington before the vote, said the administration was “deeply concerned” about the legislation. “There is no one who can replace them right now in the midst of a crisis,” he said.

UNRWA provides education, health care and other basic services to millions of Palestinian refugees in the region, including in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

The laws would take effect 60 to 90 days after Israel’s Foreign Ministry notifies the UN, according to a spokesman for lawmaker Dan Illouz, one of the co-sponsors of one of the laws.

The death toll from more than a year of fighting has topped 43,000, Gaza officials reported Monday. The Palestinian Health Ministry count does not distinguish between civilians and combatants, but says more than half of the dead are women and children.

The rising death toll comes as Israel refocuses its offensive on Gaza’s hard-hit north, including a hospital where the army says the militants are.

Israeli forces attacked the Kamal Adwan hospital on Friday. An Israeli military official, speaking on condition of anonymity in accordance with regulations, said there had been heavy fighting around the hospital, though not inside it, and that weapons had been found inside the facility. The military said on Monday that the raid was over.

Israel has attacked several hospitals in Gaza during the year-long war, saying Hamas and other militants are using them for military purposes. Palestinian medical officials deny the allegations and accuse the army of recklessly endangering civilians.

The Israeli military said it detained 100 suspected Hamas militants in the latest raid. The Israeli official said medical personnel were detained and searched because some of the militants disguised themselves as doctors.

The World Health Organization accused Israel of detaining 44 male hospital staff. It was not immediately clear why there was a discrepancy in the numbers. Palestinian medical officials said the hospital, which was treating about 200 patients, was badly damaged in the raid.

The Israeli army has called on Palestinians to evacuate northern Gaza, where it has been waging an offensive for more than three weeks. The official said the operation in the northern Gaza town of Jabaliya would last “a few more weeks”.

The The UN said earlier this month that at least 400,000 people it is in northern Gaza, an area that was an early target of Israel’s war of reprisals. Hunger there is widespread as the amount of humanitarian aid reaching the north has dwindled in the past month.

The Israel-Hamas war started after militants from Hamas and other groups entered Israel, killing about 1,200 people – mostly civilians – and kidnapping another 250. The war rocked the Middle East, sparking fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, as well as between Israel and Iran, enemies who have long kept their conflict a war in shadow, but now engages in open combat.

After collapsing in late summer, international mediators were trying to jump-start ceasefire efforts between Israel and Hamas. Israel said it would continue talks on ending the fighting after Mossad chief David Barnea returned from a meeting in Qatar with CIA chief David Burns and the Qatari prime minister.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi has suggested a two-day ceasefire in exchange for the release of four hostages. Israel seemed receptive to the idea.

An Israeli official said Israel was discussing the proposal both internally and with Egyptian officials. A second official said Netanyahu expressed his enthusiasm for the proposal in a meeting with his Likud party on Monday.

Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss internal deliberations.

Hamas has yet to formally respond to the plan, and Hamas officials could not be reached for comment Monday.

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Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers Matthew Lee in Washington, Michelle Chapman in New York and Julia Frankel and Tia Goldenberg in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

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