News - Middle East: Knesset, the Israeli parliament, has lent its preliminary approval to a bill branding the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees as a “terrorist organization,” mounting Tel Aviv’s unrelenting attacks against the body.

The bill was approved in a first reading on Monday, Israeli media outlets reported.

The legislature also rubberstamped two other bills banning the organization from operating on Tel Aviv-occupied territories, and stripping UNRWA personnel of the legal immunities and privileges that are afforded to the United Nations staff.

The bills will be returned to the parliament’s so-called Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee for further deliberation.

UNRWA, short for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees, renders vital services to millions of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, the occupied West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria.

Earlier this year, the Israeli regime claimed that 12 employees of the agency were involved in a retaliatory attack that was staged by Gaza’s resistance groups against the occupied Palestinian territories on October 7.

Ever since, UNRWA staff have been the subject of increasingly violent protests and virulent misinformation and disinformation campaigns led by the regime.

“Some have been detained by Israeli security forces, and subsequently reported mistreatment and even torture,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said earlier this month.

Reacting to the Knesset vote, UNRWA spokesperson Juliette Touma called it "another attempt in a wider campaign to dismantle the agency," adding, "Such steps are unheard of in the history of the United Nations."

Palestinian groups also strongly denounced the vote.

“We consider this action to be invalid and illegal, issued by an occupying power that seeks to end the Palestinian cause, foremost among which is the issue of refugees and their right to return to their homes,” Gaza-based resistance group Hamas said in a statement.

The Islamic Jihad, another resistance movement that is headquartered in the coastal sliver, said the move “warns that the criminal entity is preparing to wage a starvation war against Palestinian refugees.”

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a major component of the Palestine Liberation Organization umbrella group, also voiced strong rejection of the vote.

The front, however, asserted, “All attempts by the occupation to end UNRWA’s work will fail and will break on the rock of our people’s steadfastness and determination to protect this institution.”

Source: Press TV