Middle East latest: Israel passes 2 laws restricting UN agency that distributes aid in Gaza
Israeli lawmakers passed two laws Monday that could threaten the work of the main United Nations agency providing aid to people in Gaza by barring it from operating on Israeli soil and severing ties with the organization.
The laws, which do not immediately go into effect, signal a new low for a long-troubled relationship between Israel and the U.N. Israel’s international allies said they were deeply worried about its potential impact on Palestinians as the war’s humanitarian toll is worsening.
Under the first law, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, or UNRWA, would be banned from conducting “any activity” or providing any service inside Israel, while the second would sever diplomatic ties with it. The legislation risks collapsing the already fragile process for distributing aid in Gaza at a moment when Israel is under increased pressure from the United States to ramp up aid.
Israel has alleged that some of UNRWA’s thousands of staff members participated in the October 2023 Hamas attacks that sparked the war in Gaza. It also has said hundreds of UNRWA staff have militant ties and that it has found Hamas military assets near or under the agency’s facilities.
The agency fired nine employees after an investigation but denies it knowingly aids armed groups, and says it acts quickly to purge any suspected militants from its ranks. Some of Israel’s allegations prompted major international donors to cut funding to the agency, although some of it has been restored.
The first vote passed 92-10 and followed a fiery debate between supporters of the law and its opponents, mostly members of Arab parliamentary parties. The second law was approved 87-9.
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UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations chief is warning that if two laws adopted by Israel’s parliament are implemented, the U.N. agency providing essential services to Palestinian refugees in Gaza and the West Bank would likely be prevented from continuing work that is mandated by the U.N. General Assembly.
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called the work of the agency known as UNRWA “indispensable,” and said implementing the laws “could have devastating consequences for Palestinian refugees in the occupied Palestinian territories, which is unacceptable.”
“There is no alternative to UNRWA,” he said in a statement issued Monday night.
UNRWA was established by the General Assembly in 1949 to provide relief for Palestinians who fled or were expelled from their homes before and during the 1948 war that followed Israel’s establishment, as well as their descendants.
The laws adopted Monday by Israel’s parliament, which do not immediately go into effect, bar UNRWA from operating on Israeli soil and severs ties with the agency. They were approved amid an escalating humanitarian crisis in Gaza, now in the second year of Israel’s military retaliation following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks in southern Israel.
Guterres called on Israel “to act consistently with its obligations” under the U.N. Charter and international law, as well as the privileges and immunities of the United Nations.
“National legislation cannot alter those obligations,” Guterres stressed. He said implementing the laws would be detrimental to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and more broadly for peace and security in the region.
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This version has corrected that the Israeli legislation did not designated the U.N. agency a terrorist organization.
The United States warned Iran on Monday that there will be “severe consequences” if it attacks Israel or U.S. personnel in the region again, while Russia accused Israel and its U.S. ally of stoking “the flames of war” in the Mideast.
The latest escalation in Iran-Israeli military actions was front and center at an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council called by Iran after Israel’s airstrikes on the country early Saturday.
U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the council the United States, Israel’s closest ally, doesn’t want any further escalation in Israel-Iran retaliatory airstrikes. But she said if Iran takes further military action, the United States will help secure Israel from its attacks as well as those from its proxies — a reference to Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Thomas-Greenfield called on Iran “to stop its attacks against Israel and reign in its terrorist proxies.” And she urged council members with influence to press Iran “to stop pouring gasoline on the fire of regional conflict, and instead contribute to de-escalation.”
Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia accused the United States of provoking “a new spiral of violence in the Middle East” by supporting Israel’s airstrikes and providing Israel with weapons and needed intelligence.
Israel was retaliating for Iran’s Oct. 1 launch of more than 180 missiles at the country.
Nebenzia warned that Israel’s latest airstrikes were destabilizing “an already charged situation in the Middle East, which is already balancing on the brink of war.”
Iran “is showing unprecedented restraint,” and has signaled “that they are ready to refrain from further spiraling confrontation,” he said, but Israel’s aggressive actions appear aimed “at further stoking the flames of war” which is unacceptable.
UNITED NATIONS — Iran on Monday warned the United States that it is “complicit” in Israel’s attacks against the country by providing technical expertise and advanced military equipment “and will bear its consequences.”
Iran’s U.N. Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani delivered the warning at an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council called by his government following Israeli airstrikes against the country early Saturday.
While Iran has consistently “championed diplomacy” to address regional challenges and foster peace, Iravani said, it reserves the right “to respond at a time of its choosing to this act of aggression” by Israel.
Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon, speaking immediately afterward, called Iran “the puppet master” behind Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon and pointed to its Oct. 1 launch of at least 180 missiles into Israel.
“We promised that their actions would not go unanswered,” he said. “Iran’s leaders chose to assault Israel, to destabilize the region and unleash chaos. They promised us destruction. We have answered with strength” but also with “restraint.”
But Danon warned that any further Iranian military action “will be met with consequences that are swift and decisive.”
Danon urged Iran to stop its “reckless pursuit of dominance through violence and terror,” saying Israel will not hesitate to protect its people and sovereignty.
BEIRUT —Israeli strikes killed at least 60 people and wounded 58 more in various locations in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley amid a surge of intensified airstrikes Monday, Lebanese state media reported.
The highest death toll was in the town of Sahl Allak in the Baalbeck province, where 16 people were killed, according to the National News Agency, which listed deaths in 12 different locations in the Bekaa.
In Ramm, also in Baalbeck, an Israeli airstrike killed nine people, including a mother and her four children, and left one other person wounded, according to NNA.
Baalbeck’s Mayor Bachir Khodr described the strikes as “the most violent day in Baalbeck since the beginning of the aggression,” in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. He said people remained trapped under the rubble.
Israeli bombardment of the Bekaa Valley in eastern Lebanon, as well as of southern Lebanon and Beirut’s southern suburbs, has intensified over the past several weeks as part of an offensive against the Hezbollah militant group that has also killed hundreds of civilians.
UNITED NATIONS — The dangerous escalation of attacks between Israel and Iran risks plunging the Middle East “into the unknown” at a time when it urgently needs de-escalation and peace, a senior U.N. official said Monday.
Assistant Secretary-General Khaled Khiari condemned all acts of escalation at an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council called by Iran after Israeli airstrikes on its territory early Saturday. They followed Iran’s launch of at least 180 missiles into Israel on Oct. 1.
“These acts must stop. Belligerent and threatening rhetoric must cease,” Khiari said. “Both sides must stop testing the limits of each other’s restraint and act in the interest of peace and stability for the region.”
In calling for the emergency meeting, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi accused Israel of violating Iran’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and “a flagrant breach of international law and the United Nations Charter. He said Iran reserves the right to respond “at the appropriate time.”
Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon said Israel’s attack was in response to an Iranian attack and said in a statement that “We will stand up for Israel’s right to defend itself.”
LONDON — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer welcomed his Lebanese counterpart to London on Monday and offered condolences for the deaths of citizens killed in Israeli attacks.
Lebanon’s Health Ministry reported that more than 2,700 people had been killed and nearly 12,600 wounded in a year of fighting between Hezbollah and Israel. A quarter of those killed were women and children.
Starmer and Prime Minister Najib Mikati agreed an immediate cease-fire was needed to protect civilians and critical infrastructure, according to a readout of the meeting provided by Starmer’s office.
“On the wider regional conflict, the prime minister outlined the need for all parties to de-escalate and work towards a long-term, sustainable peace in the Middle East,” a Starmer spokesperson said.
The meeting came after U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy told British lawmakers that his Israeli counterpart, Israel Katz, said the military effort in Lebanon would end shortly.
Israeli lawmakers on Monday passed legislation that could threaten the work of the main U.N. agency providing aid to people in Gaza by barring it from operating on Israeli soil.
The bill bans the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, or UNRWA, from conducting “any activity” or providing any service inside Israel.
The legislation, which wouldn’t take effect immediately, risks collapsing the already fragile aid distribution process at a moment when the humanitarian crisis in Gaza is worsening and Israel is under increased U.S. pressure to ramp up aid.
The vote passed 92-10 and followed a fiery debate between supporters of the law and its opponents, mostly members of Arab parliamentary parties.
A second bill severing diplomatic ties with UNRWA was also being voted on later Monday.
Taken together, these bills would signal a new low in relations between Israel and UNRWA, which Israel accuses of maintaining close ties with Hamas militants. The changes would also be a serious blow to the agency and to Palestinians in Gaza who have become reliant upon it for aid throughout more than a year of devastating war.
LONDON — Britain’s top diplomat says the Israeli government has told him that its military operation in Lebanon will end soon.
Foreign Secretary David Lammy told lawmakers on Monday that he spoke to his Israeli counterpart, Israel Katz, on Sunday and “he sought to reassure me that the operation that is currently under way, the targeted operation by the Israelis, would come to an end shortly, as he put it.”
Britain has called for cease-fires in Israel’s campaigns against Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza. Lammy conceded that peace efforts had failed so far, but said “it is never too late for peace, never too late for hope. This government will not give up on the people of the region.”
He urged Israel to let more aid into Gaza, saying “there is no excuse for Israel’s government’s ongoing restrictions on humanitarian assistance.”
Prime Minister Keir Starmer was meeting Lebanese premier Najib Mikati at 10 Downing St. on Monday to express U.K. support for Lebanon.
JERUSALEM — Israel’s Defense Ministry said Monday it has signed a $500 million deal to begin production of a laser interception system that can strike down incoming rockets, missiles and drones.
The Iron Beam will be produced by two Israeli companies and is expected to be ready in a year’s time, the ministry said.
Israel already has an elaborate, multilayered aerial defense system that relies on interceptors to strike down incoming missile fire and drones. But Israel has said the Iron Beam system will be a game changer because it would be much cheaper to operate than existing systems. It is expected to be operational within a year
The aerial defense array includes the Iron Dome, which intercepts short range missiles and drones, David’s Sling, which intercepts medium-range missiles, and The Arrow, which intercepts long-range ballistic missiles.
“The Iron Beam will complement the Iron Dome, and the combination of laser and missile interception will further strengthen our defense systems against rockets, missiles, UAVs, cruise missiles, and additional threats,” the ministry said.
The vast majority of missiles and drones fired at Israel during the ongoing Mideast wars have been intercepted. However, some have made it through and drones have become a particular challenge to shoot down.
BEIRUT — Lebanon’s Health Ministry reported Monday that 38 people were killed and 124 wounded over the past 24 hours, bringing the total toll from a year of conflict between Hezbollah and Israel to 2,710 killed and 12,592 wounded. One quarter of those killed were women and children.
The highest number of casualties has been recorded in the South province, followed by Nabatiyeh, the Baalbeck region and Bekaa Valley.
The health ministry reported that over the past year, 2,041 men have been killed and 9,881 wounded. Women account for 532 fatalities and 2,351 injuries, while 157 children have been killed and 1,129 injured.
In the health care sector, the ministry said that 168 health workers have been killed, 232 wounded and 239 medical vehicles damaged since Oct. 8. Additionally, 79 medical and ambulatory centers have been affected, along with 38 hospitals.
On Monday, intense airstrikes have continued to pummel various villages across South Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley. In one case, two Israeli strikes killed six members of a single family in the town of Bodai in the Baalbeck province, according to the state-run National News Agency.
JERUSALEM — An airstrike on a street in central Gaza’s Nuseirat Refugee Camp killed 10 people and injured 20 others Monday, according to Palestinian health officials and Associated Press journalists.
The dead and injured were taken to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in nearby Deir al-Balah, where they were counted by AP staff there.
The Israeli military had no immediate comment.
The latest deadly strike comes as Israeli forces intensify their operations across northern Gaza.
The war erupted on Oct. 7. last year when Hamas militants from Gaza stormed southern Israel and killed some 1, 200 people. Israel responded by bombarding and invading the enclave, killing over 43, 000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. The ministry’s tally does not distinguish between combatants and civilians but more than half of the dead are said to be women and children
JERUSALEM — Israel’s government said it would continue its discussion with international mediators about a potential cease-fire deal in its war with Hamas, as the head of the Mossad spy agency returned from Qatar on Monday after taking part in the latest round of in-person talks.
David Barnea met with the head of the CIA, Bill Burns, and the Prime Minister of Qatar in Doha, Israel’s prime minister’s office said in a brief statement.
“In the coming days, the discussions between the mediators and with Hamas will continue to examine the feasibility of talks and the continuation of attempts to advance a deal,” the statement said.
Washington and Qatar have been key mediators in the stalled negotiations between Israel and Hamas. Many of the militant group’s leaders are based in the Qatari capital.
The new round of talks was announced by the U.S Secretary of State Antony Blinken last week.
Neither Hamas nor Israel has shown any sign of softening their demands since the negotiations sputtered to a halt over the summer.
JERUSALEM — Israel’s parliament is scheduled to vote Monday on a pair of bills that would effectively sever ties with the U.N. agency responsible for distributing aid in Gaza, strip it of legal immunities and restrict its ability to support Palestinians in east Jerusalem and the West Bank.
Israel accuses the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, or UNRWA, of turning a blind eye to Hamas militants it says have infiltrated its staff, including a small number of its 13,000 employees in Gaza who participated in the Oct. 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel. The agency denies it knowingly aids armed groups and says it acts quickly to purge any suspected militants from its ranks.
The bills risk crippling humanitarian aid distribution in the Gaza Strip, at a time the United States is pressing Israel to allow in more food and other supplies. More than 1.9 million Palestinians are displaced from their homes and Gaza faces widespread shortages of food, water and medicine.
The bills, which do not include provisions for alternative organizations to oversee its work, have been strongly criticized by international aid groups and a handful of Israel’s Western allies.
UNITED NATIONS — Iran’s foreign minister said in a letter requesting an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council that his country reserves the right to respond to Israel’s recent attacks “at the appropriate time.”
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi accused Israel of violating Iran’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and “a flagrant breach of international law and the United Nations Charter,” which prohibits the use of force against any U.N. member nation.
Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon called Iran’s request “another attempt by Iran to harm us, this time in the diplomatic arena.”
“We will stand up for Israel’s right to defend itself,” he said in a statement, stressing that the Israeli attack was in response to an Iranian attack on Oct. 1.
The Security Council scheduled a meeting Monday afternoon at 3 p.m. EDT (1900 GMT) at Iran’s request, which was supported by Russia, China and Algeria, the Arab representative on the U.N.’s most powerful body.
Araghchi urged the Security Council and Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in the letter obtained by The Associated Press “to take a firm stance and condemn the Israeli regime for committing these acts of aggression strongly and unequivocally.”
Israel’s airstrikes early Saturday followed Iran’s launch of at least 180 missiles into Israel on Oct. 1. The Iranian airstrikes were in retaliation for devastating blows Israel landed against Iran’s ally Hezbollah in Lebanon.
JERUSALEM — Israel is discussing an Egyptian cease-fire proposal that would see four hostages released in exchange for a two-day halt to the fighting in Gaza, an Israel official said Monday.
The official said the discussions were both internal and with Egyptian officials. “We are examining every possible option to advance a deal,” the official said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed enthusiasm for the deal in a meeting with his Likud party on Monday, according to another official.
The official, who attended the meeting, said Netanyahu told lawmakers that he would immediately take the Egyptian proposal. He quoted Netanyahu as saying, "I am ready, even now.”
Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss internal deliberations about the proposal with the media.
Hamas has yet to formally respond to the plan.
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Associated Press writer Tia Goldenberg contributed.
BEIRUT — Successive Israeli airstrikes have pummeled the southern port city of Tyre in Lebanon following an evacuation warning from the Israeli military for parts of the city, Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reported.
Footage aired by local media and the Lebanese Civil Defense showed thick plumes of smoke rising against the Mediterranean skyline, with fires and widespread destruction of residential buildings. No casualties have been reported immediately.
Following the Israeli evacuation warning, Lebanese Civil Defense teams patrolled the city with loudspeakers, urging residents to leave the area immediately.
An Arabic-speaking spokesperson for the Israeli army, Avichay Adraee, said in a post on X that Israel attacked Hezbollah targets in Tyre, including “weapons and anti-tank missile depots, military buildings and reconnaissance sites of various Hezbollah military units, including the Aziz unit.”
The Aziz unit is one of Hezbollah’s three military units and is responsible for the western sector in southern Lebanon. The Israeli army accused Hezbollah of launching operations from the Tyre area into Israeli territory.
CAIRO — Egypt’s president on Monday called for coordinated international efforts to establish a cease-fire in Gaza and Lebanon, a day after he proposed a two-day cease-fire between Hamas and Israel.
President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi’s comments came in a meeting in Cairo with Manfred Weber, the chairman of the European People’s Party, the largest political group in the European Parliament.
“The president stressed the need for all international parties, including the European Union, to combine efforts to push hard for … a cease-fire in Gaza and Lebanon,” el-Sissi’s office said in a statement. He also called for Israel to halt raids in the occupied West Bank, and allow unfettered and immediate delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza.
El-Sissi told reporters Sunday that Egypt, a key mediator between Hamas and Israel, has proposed a two-day cease-fire during which four hostages held in Gaza would be freed.
He said the proposal, which aims to jumpstart the stalled negotiations, also includes the release of some Palestinian prisoners, the delivery of humanitarian aid to besieged Gaza and negotiations on making the cease-fire permanent.
Global oil prices are falling sharply Monday after a retaliatory strike by Israel over the weekend targeted Iranian military sites rather than its energy infrastructure as had been feared.
Prices for crude spiked globally on Oct. 2, after Iran fired nearly 200 missiles into Israel, part of a series of rapidly escalating attacks between Israel and Iran and its Arab allies that threatened to push the Middle East closer to a regionwide war.
Iran is the world’s seventh largest oil producer, but if the conflict in the Middle East were to spread, it could drag in some of the world’s largest energy producers. The United States is the world’s largest producer of crude.
On Monday, the price of benchmark U.S. crude and Brent crude, the international benchmark, tumbled 6%.
The Israeli military said its aircraft targeted facilities that Iran used to make the missiles fired at Israel as well as surface-to-air missile sites. There was no indication that Iran’s oil or nuclear sites were hit.
MOSCOW — Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Monday that Moscow has been doing all it can to prevent the further escalation after Israeli strikes on Iran.
Lavrov said that “we are doing everything possible to help end the escalation and defuse the situation.”
“Of course, Israel’s strikes on Iran, which are presented as a response and that now the response has happened, we are even, no actions needed, is an uneasy situation,” he said. “But we hope that the (U.N.) Security Council will be able somehow to help calm the situation.”
He noted that “at this stage, the worst-case scenario has been avoided” for now, but added that “there are someone who want to heat the flame up to the extent when the U.S. get involved.”
JERUSALEM — The Israeli military said it detained 100 suspected Hamas militants in a raid on a hospital in northern Gaza over the weekend.
Israeli forces raided Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya on Friday, detaining 44 male staff, according to the World Health Organization. Palestinian medical officials said the hospital, which was treating some 200 patients, was heavily damaged in the raid.
Israel has raided several hospitals in Gaza over the course of the yearlong war, saying Hamas and other militants use them for military purposes. Palestinian medical officials deny those allegations and accuse the military of recklessly endangering civilians.
An Israeli military official, speaking on condition of anonymity in keeping with regulations, said there was heavy fighting around Kamal Adwan Hospital, though not inside it, and that weapons were found inside the facility.
The official said medical staff were detained and searched because some of the militants had disguised themselves as medics. The official said the military had helped international organizations relocate 88 patients and medical staff to other hospitals in the weeks leading up to the raid, and that during the raid itself, troops brought medical supplies and 30,000 liters (nearly 8,000 gallons) of fuel from international organizations to help keep the facility running.
The Israeli military has called on Palestinians to evacuate northern Gaza, where it has been waging a large offensive for more than three weeks.
Earlier in October, the U.N. said at least 400,000 people are still in northern Gaza and hunger is rampant as the amount of humanitarian aid reaching the north has plummeted over the past month.
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Associated Press writer Melanie Lidman contributed.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The head of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard made his first public comments Monday after Israel’s weekend attack on the country.
Gen. Hossein Salami, in a condolence message to Iran’s regular military, called Israel’s strike “illegitimate and illegal.” Four soldiers in Iran’s air defense network were killed in the attack on Saturday, as was one civilian, Iranian state media say.
The attack was “a sign of miscalculation and the inability” of Israel on the battlefield with Iranian-backed militants “particularly in Gaza and Lebanon.”
The “bitter consequences will be beyond the imagination of the occupiers,” Salami added, referring to Israel.
BAGHDAD — Iraq has submitted a memorandum of protest to the Secretary-General of the United Nations and the U.N. Security Council saying Israel violated its airspace in carrying out its attack on Iran over the weekend, the Iraqi prime minister’s office said in a statement.
The statement said that Israeli “aggressor aircraft violated Iraq’s airspace and sovereignty and used Iraqi airspace to carry out the attack on the Islamic Republic of Iran on Oct. 26.”
It added that Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani had directed Iraq’s foreign minister to discuss the matter with the United States. The two countries recently reached an agreement to begin winding down the mission of a U.S.-led coalition formed to fight the Islamic State militant group and to withdraw many of the U.S. troops who remain in the country.
On Sunday, the Iran-backed Iraqi militia Kataib Hezbollah issued a statement accusing the U.S. of coordinating with Israel to use Iraqi airspace to launch the attack on Iran and threatening retaliation against U.S. forces.
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