Israel’s parliament has passed two laws that could prevent the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Gaza’s main aid provider, from continuing its work.

The laws ban the agency, UNRWA, from operating in Israel, designate it a terrorist organization, and cut all ties between the agency and the Israeli government.

It is the culmination of a long-running campaign against the agency, which Israel claims was infiltrated by Hamas. But supporters say Israel’s real goal is to sidestep the Palestinian refugee issue.

The agency is the main distributor of aid in Gaza and provides education, health and other basic services to millions of Palestinian refugees in the region, including in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

The agency’s chief, Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini, called the move “unprecedented” on X, formerly of Twitter, following the vote and said the bills “will only deepen Palestinian suffering, especially in Gaza, where people have been through more than a year of pure hell.”

Israel accuses the agency of turning a blind eye to staff it says belong to Hamas, embezzling aid and using UNRWA facilities for military purposes.

Israel says about a dozen of its 13,000 personnel in Gaza participated in the October 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel. The agency denies knowingly aiding armed groups and says it is moving quickly to remove any suspected militants from its staff.

– How will the bills hinder UNRWA?

One of the bills passed Monday night bans all UNRWA activities and services on Israeli soil and is set to take effect in three months.

The second bill designates UNRWA as a terrorist organization, cuts all ties between government employees and UNRWA, and strips staff of legal immunities.

Together, the bills likely bar the agency from operating in Israel and the Palestinian territories, as Israel controls access to both Gaza and the West Bank. It could force the agency to move its headquarters from Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem.

Mr Lazzarini warned earlier this month that humanitarian operations in Gaza “may disintegrate” if the legislation is passed, disrupting the provision of food, shelter and medical aid as winter approaches.

Gaza’s population of about 2.3 million is almost entirely dependent on aid to survive. About 90% of the population was displaced.

Hundreds of thousands live in tent camps and schools converted into shelters, most of them run by UNRWA. Experts say hunger is widespread.

Israel’s campaign in Gaza in retaliation for the Oct. 7 attack has killed more than 43,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health, whose number does not distinguish between civilians and militants.

Israel is reportedly considering taking over the distribution of aid itself or subcontracting it, but has yet to present a concrete plan. Any such effort would likely require large numbers of troops and other resources at a time when Israel is at war on two fronts in Gaza and Lebanon.

Other UN agencies and aid groups say there is no substitute for UNRWA, which also runs 96 schools housing some 47,000 students, three vocational training centers and 43 health centers in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

– What is the history of UNRWA?

The UN agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East was established to help the approximately 700,000 Palestinians who fled or were driven from what is now Israel during the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation.

Supporters of UNRWA say Israel hopes to erase the Palestinian refugee problem by dismantling the agency. Israel says the refugees should be permanently resettled in other countries, and Israeli opponents of the agency have suggested ending UNRWA services would force them to do so.

The Palestinians say the refugees and their descendants, who now number nearly six million, should be allowed to exercise their right under international law to return home. Israel refuses, saying the result would be a Palestinian majority within its borders.

The issue was among the thorniest in the peace process, which stalled in 2009.

UNRWA operates schools, health clinics, infrastructure projects and aid programs in refugee camps that have developed in urban neighborhoods in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan.

– Why is there a dispute about the neutrality of UNRWA?

Israel says hundreds of Palestinian militants work for UNRWA, without providing evidence, and that more than a dozen staff took part in the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack.

UNRWA immediately fired staff accused of taking part in the attack, in which Hamas-led militants killed around 1,200 people and kidnapped around 250.

An independent investigation earlier this year found that UNRWA had “robust” mechanisms in place to ensure its neutrality, but highlighted gaps in implementation, including staff expressing political views publicly and textbooks with “problematic content” in schools it runs. UNRWA.

UNRWA says it thoroughly investigates any allegations of wrongdoing and holds staff accountable, and provides lists of all its staff to Israel and host countries. It says Israel has largely ignored its requests to provide evidence for its claims against the employees.

Israel has repeatedly struck UN schools turned into shelters, claiming that Hamas fighters are operating inside them. It also says it has discovered tunnels running near or under UNRWA facilities.

UNRWA has long been the largest single employer in Gaza, where the population has been impoverished by years of Israeli and Egyptian blockades.

Hamas has ruled the territory since 2007 and has civilian political operations alongside its military wing.

The militant wings of Hamas and other groups are highly secretive, their members virtually unknown outside of intelligence agencies. This complicates efforts by civilian organizations to vet employees.

Fatah Sharif, a UNRWA teacher in southern Lebanon, was killed last month along with his family in an Israeli airstrike. It then emerged that he was a senior Hamas commander, something he had kept secret.

Mr. Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, said Sharif was suspended without pay in March after the agency learned he belonged to the Hamas political party and launched an investigation. He said he did not know Mr Sharif was a militant commander until after his death.

– Does UNRWA have international support?

Several Western countries suspended funding for UNRWA after the allegations related to the October 7 attack. All but the United States, which had been its largest donor, have since restored it.

The Biden administration recently warned Israel that if it did not allow more aid into Gaza, it could lose some of the crucial US military assistance it has relied on throughout the war.

The letter sent by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to their Israeli counterparts said they shared Israeli concerns about the “serious allegations” of UNRWA employees who participated in the October 7 attack and that “Hamas misused the facilities UNRWA”.

But he said passing the restrictive laws “would devastate the humanitarian response in Gaza at this critical time … which could have implications for relevant US law and policy.”

A joint statement from Canada, Australia, France, Germany, Japan, South Korea and the United Kingdom last week expressed “serious concern” about the legislation.

It said the agency provides “essential and life-saving humanitarian aid”, the delivery of which would be “severely hampered, if not impossible” without it.