Knesset to prepare bill designating UNRWA a terror organization, terminating all relations

Four hostage bodies discovered under UNRWA building last week

Knesset Member Yulia Malinovksy of the Yisrael Beytenu party is advancing a bill intended to designate the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) as a terror organization, The Jerusalem Post reported on Sunday.

“The purpose of this bill is to declare UNRWA as a terrorist organization for all intents and purposes, as well as order the termination of the relations [and the cooperation] of the State of Israel with the agency, either directly or indirectly,” Malinovksy explained in the introduction to the bill, which she authored.

In a first legislative step, Israel’s parliament will soon hold a preliminary vote on the bill.

Israel has strongly criticized the UN organization throughout the ongoing war and has called for the disbanding of UNRWA after citing numerous indications of its deep involvement with Hamas and other terror organizations in the Gaza Strip.

“At least 12 UNRWA employees were connected to the terrorist attack” on Oct. 7 and “took part in acts of murder [and] kidnapping, including the abduction of bodies, and [gave] orders on behalf of the terrorist organization Hamas,” Malinovsky wrote.

“About 10% of UNRWA’s staff in the Gaza Strip are connected to terrorist organizations. It was also announced that two teachers from the organization kept Israeli hostages in their home, 130 teachers praised the massacre in public, and 3,000 teachers, on behalf of the organization, glorified the massacre in the Telegram group in response.”

After Israel presented evidence of these connections, several countries announced they would stop funding the organization.

“Without a shadow of a doubt, the UNRWA agency proved in the October 7 massacre that it is a terrorist organization that it is no different from the terrorist organization Hamas,” Malinovsky stressed.

In the most recent confirmation of its deep ties to Hamas, Army Radio reported that the bodies of four hostages recently recovered by the IDF were found in a tunnel shaft under a UNRWA building in Jabaliya.

However, in the past months, several countries announced they would resume funding UNRWA, which provides humanitarian aid to 5.9 million Palestinians it considers “refugees” across the Middle East, including around 2 million in the Gaza Strip and Judea and Samaria.

On Saturday, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani announced the Italian government would resume funding UNRWA as part of a 35-million-euro aid package, during a meeting with Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa in Rome.