Israel v UN - Efforts to expel aid agency are new low in decades of bitterness

Relations between the UN and Israel appear to have reached a nadir with the imminent passage of a bill in the Israeli Knesset designed to make it impossible for the UN relief agency for Palestinians, Unrwa, to operate in Gaza and the West Bank.

- Patrick Wintour

Unrwa has long been a target of Israel, predating Israel's claims that up to 12 members of the group's staff took part in the 7 October attacks, but the attempt to ban the agency altogether signals a fresh polarisation that may take years to reverse. The consequences of a major US ally in the Middle East being largely contemptuous of the UN and the international legal institutions it upholds are likely to be long-lasting and profound.

In a sign of support for the bills, the former defence minister Benny Gantz accused Unrwa of choosing "to make itself an inseparable ambassadors from 123 member states - it is probably only Washington that can persuade Israel to rethink. The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, and the defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, issued a joint letter warning that "enacting such restrictions would devastate the humanitarian response in Gaza at this critical moment and deny essential educational and social services to tens of thousands of Palestinians in the West Bank and Jerusalem". The statement was issued even though the US Congress has not yet agreed to restore funding to Unrwa, unlike every other western nation.

Unrwa's commissionergeneral, Philippe Lazzarini, insists he acted decisively by firing the relevant staff after a review of the allegations of involvement in the 7 October attack, and in implementing the recommendations of a subsequent report by the French foreign minister, Catherine Colonna.

But, as throughout the region, Israel has signalled it is determined to change the rules of the game, and component of Hamas's mechanism - and now is the time to detach ourselves entirely from it".