| Submit your comments on this article |
| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| Lawmakers advance bill to deny water, electricity to UNRWA, allow seizure of facilities |
| 2025-12-17 |
| [IsraelTimes] Lawmakers on the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee vote 6-0 to advance a combined bill prohibiting the provision of electricity or water to facilities owned by or operated on behalf of UNRWA, to the final two readings needed for it to pass into law. UNRWA — the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East — provides education, health care and aid to millions of Palestinians and their descendants in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. Israel has barred UNRWA from operating on its soil, saying the aid organization incites violence and its employees participated in the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack on Israel that launched the war in Gaza. The new amendment would formalize a process requiring electricity and water providers to withhold or disconnect service from any property whose registered consumer name is UNRWA, unless the registered party submits a sworn declaration that they do not represent or act on behalf of the agency. The legislation also would allow the government to seize properties in Ma’alot Dafna and Kafr Aqab in Jerusalem, which had been leased to UNRWA by the state and used as the agency’s offices, “without the need to initiate legal or administrative proceedings.” “UNRWA employees were full partners in the cruel massacre carried out against us on October 7 — they didn’t just assist, they led the evil, murdered, and kidnapped. For years UNRWA has posed as a humanitarian aid agency, when in practice it is an arm of Hamas,” says committee chair MK Boaz Bismuth of the Likud party. Israel has alleged that more than 10 percent of UNRWA’s staff in Gaza have ties to terror groups, and that educational facilities under the organization’s auspices consistently incite hatred of Israel and glorify terror. In February 2024, the IDF revealed the existence of a subterranean Hamas data center directly beneath UNRWA’s Gaza Strip headquarters. The IDF has also repeatedly targeted Hamas command centers and gunmen hiding out in UNRWA schools. A number of freed hostages have also testified after returning to Israel that they were held in captivity in UNRWA schools and facilities. At the same time, some Israeli politicians and officials saw the relief that the agency provided as a means of keeping the Gaza Strip, and parts of the West Bank, from deeper poverty and thus greater violence and terrorism. |
| Posted by:trailing wife |
| #1 |
| Posted by: mossomo 2025-12-17 12:49 |