The Albany Gazette - Israel bans main UN Gaza aid agency, says pursuing hostage deal talks

Despite objections from the United States and warnings from the UN Security Council, Israeli lawmakers overwhelmingly passed the bill banning the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, from working in Israel and occupied east Jerusalem.

"There is a deep connection between the terrorist organisation (Hamas) and UNRWA and Israel cannot put up with it," Yuli Edelstein, a Likud party lawmaker and one of the sponsors of the bill, said in parliament as he presented the proposal.

Palestinian militant group Hamas, locked in conflict with Israel in Gaza, called the bill an act of "Zionist aggression" towards Palestinians, while its ally Islamic Jihad described the ban as "an escalation in the genocide".

Even several of Israel's staunch Western allies voiced disquiet at the ban, with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer saying Britain was "gravely concerned" by the legislation.

Germany -- which has made Israel's security among its reasons of state -- warned it would "effectively make UNRWA's work in Gaza, the West Bank and east Jerusalem impossible... jeopardising vital humanitarian aid for millions of people".

UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini called the ban part of "an ongoing campaign to discredit the agency".

The agency's spokeswoman, Juliette Touma, said the agency is the lead provider of "shelter, food and primary health care" in Gaza and if the ban is implemented it would be a "disaster".

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on X that Israel was "ready" to continue providing aid to Gaza after the ban by working with international partners "in a way that does not threaten Israel's security".

The UNRWA ban comes with Israeli forces continuing a more than three-week-old air and ground assault against Hamas in north Gaza which has left the area without food and water supplies, the civil defence agency there said.

As fighting rages in Gaza and Lebanon, where a second full-scale war front opened last month, Netanyahu's office earlier Monday said Mossad intelligence chief David Barnea had met US and Qatari officials in Doha.

They agreed they should talk to Hamas about a deal to free Israelis seized in last year's October 7 attack by Palestinian militants that triggered the war in Gaza.

"During the meeting, the parties discussed a new unified framework that combines previous proposals and also takes into account key issues and recent developments in the region," Netanyahu's office said.

"In the coming days, discussions will continue between the mediators and Hamas to assess the feasibility of talks and to further efforts to promote a deal," it added.

The statement came two days after Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi proposed a two-day truce and limited hostage-prisoner exchange that Sisi said could lead to a permanent ceasefire.

But Netanyahu later said he had not received the Egyptian proposal.

US President Joe Biden, asked about the possibility of a Gaza ceasefire, said: "We need a ceasefire. We should end this war. It should end, it should end, it should end."

After the October 7 attack, the bloodiest in Israel's history, the military launched a massive offensive into Gaza to root out Hamas.

Israel has killed the Islamist group's top leadership.

But the war has left tens of thousands of Palestinians dead and driven almost all Gazans from their homes, with much of the territory's residential and other infrastructure reduced to rubble.

- Hostage family pressure -

During their attack, Palestinian militants seized 251 hostages, both soldiers and civilians. The only previous truce in the war allowed some to be released in exchange for Palestinians held by Israel, but 97 are still in Gaza. The Israeli ministry says 34 of these are dead.

Pressure has mounted on Netanyahu's government from both hostage families and the international community to agree a ceasefire to allow the rest of the captured to come home.

Under the plan announced by Sisi, "four hostages would be exchanged for some prisoners in Israeli jails", followed by more negotiations within 10 days aiming to secure "a complete ceasefire and the entry of aid" into the Gaza Strip.

Renewed talk of a possible ceasefire came as violence continued to rage.

Lebanon's health ministry said at least 48 people were killed on Monday in Israel raids on several areas in Baalbek in the eastern Bekaa Valley, where Iran-backed Hezbollah holds sway.

The region's governor Bachir Khodr decried what he called the "most violent" raids on the area since the Israel-Hezbollah war began about one month ago, following a year of low-intensity exchanges and cross-border attacks that the Lebanese group said were in support of Hamas.

Israeli bombing in the southern Lebanese city of Tyre killed at least seven people and wounded 17, according to the health ministry.

Hezbollah said it ambushed and clashed with Israeli troops near Lebanon's southern border and fired rockets at a naval base inside Israel near Haifa.

Israel did not immediately confirm the targets, but said 115 projectiles had been fired over the frontier.

According to an AFP tally based on official figures, at least 1,634 people have been killed in Lebanon since September 23 when Israel escalated air strikes on Hezbollah strongholds across Lebanon and launched ground operations.

- 'Unbearable' -

In Gaza, rescuers reported fresh strikes on Monday, while the Israeli military said it hit Jabalia, in the north, killing dozens of militants.

Since October 6, the military has been carrying out a fresh air and ground assault in north Gaza to destroy operational capabilities it says Hamas is trying to rebuild there.

An Israeli military official, briefing reporters on condition of anonymity, said the goal is to clear the Jabalia refugee camp of militants, which "will take us at least (several) weeks" to achieve.

The official said Israel was not forcing residents to leave, claiming that "the safer zone in the Gaza Strip is in the south, but it's up to them" to decide whether to go.

The process has left 100,000 people trapped in a "siege", Gaza civil defence agency's spokesman, Mahmud Bassal said late Sunday.

"For 22 days, not a drop of water or bread has entered the northern Gaza Strip," Bassal said in a statement.

Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, said: "The plight of Palestinian civilians trapped in North Gaza is unbearable."

burs-dc/it/sbk

(A.Thompson--TAG)