begin with the rapidly unfolding developments in the Middle East Hamas emergency officials in Gaza say an Israeli strike on the northern town of B lahia has killed at least 60 Palestinians just a warning that the pictures were about to show you contain some graphic images of the aftermath of the attack well the footage shows bodies wrapped in blankets alongside the rubble of the multi-story Residential Building others remain Beed Rescuers say that locals and displaced people were killed including many women and children children well Israel has recently intensified its military operations in Northern Gaza where it
says it's trying to stop Hamas from regrouping it also comes as the United Nations Secretary General has warned Israel that its decision to ban the UN Agency for Palestinian refugees unra from operating in the country could have quote devastating consequences for Gaza and the West Bank two laws were passed by a large majority in the Israeli Parliament which will ban unra from carrying out any of its activities in Israel and also restricts its communication with the Israeli government which are seen as crucial especially in allowing the aid to cross into Gaza well the Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said onra workers must be held accountable for what he called their terrorist activities against the country well there's been widespread condemnation of the move by Israel the US says it's urged Israel not to pass the law while the UK prime minister Sakia stama said he was Gravely concerned well to take us through all the developments coming out of the Middle East I'm going to hand it over to uh my colleague Ben Brown in Jerusalem yes thank you very much indeed and the uh Israeli Parliament the knesset passed this legislation these two separate
bills absolutely overwhelmingly last night despite a wave of international pressure uh on them not to do so now we're talking here about a United Nations Refugee agency that has been around since 194 9 helping millions of Palestinians uh in Gaza and the West Bank especially but Israel says claims that uh anra this agency has colluded with Hamas and that some of its staff were involved in the October 7th attacks well my colleague earlier Karen goni was speaking to shanon Haskell who is a member of Israel's parliament and was proposing this legislation when we understand that
sta honorous staff have participated in the 7th of October Massacre where many of them are activists or first family members of Kamas members where just three months ago the head of the of the Union of the teachers of anra was appointed knowingly his a high commander in Hamas and the United Nation hasn't done anything about it we had to act I think that even in London if an international organization would have participated ated in a massacre of English people in London I don't believe it would take more than 24 hours until the British government would
kick them out of the country the US state department has said that the US has contacted Israel to express its deep concern so has the UK but what is going to be the impact of this the humanitarian situation as we know is desperate well I think I think that part of the problem was anra when Hamas has stolen more than 50% of the humanitarian Goods and then sold it in the market to people who couldn't afford it that's when the humanitarian crisis really started we need real organization with real capability with the logistic capability like
the real United Nation agency who are looking after the disaster areas in Syria and in Sudan and with millions of people who were affected by it they have the logistic they have the capability they have the resources to actually provide humanitarian Aid well that was Shan Hill member of the uh Israeli Parliament the knesset speaking a little bit earlier on there's no doubt um that this legislation and it takes effect in 90 days will have devastating consequences for an's work uh in Gaza and the West Bank and in fact that's exactly what the United Nations
Secretary General has said that it will be devastating um lots of other world leaders have also condemn this move anra has said that this legislation this vote uh last night is a breach of international law and we've been talking we can talk now and hear from Sam Rose who's the senior deputy director for gara at uh that UN agency unra we're not an intelligence operation we have investigatory capability but we have taken immediate and strong and direct action against any allegations that that we have received this is proven in terms of the actions that the
honor commissioner General has has taken and the actions of that have been referred to other bodies within the United Nation I refute any claim that we do not take these actions seriously and that we have not taken action I mean what we've seen in this conflict over the past 13 months is all sorts of red lines crossed in terms of the brutality that's being Meed out on a civilian population here as a result of the horrific events of the 7th of October we call constantly and cons consistently for for for a ceasefire the immediate and
unconditional release of of hostages but but but I can tell you without any doubt that the plights of the civilian population inside Gaza will get immeasurably worse if these bills if and when these bills are implemented there's absolutely no doubt about that there are no other organizations that could that can pick up the bulk of what unra does in terms of its operations here no one has 13,000 staff 75 years of knowledge of understanding of of the community here it simply will not be possible so that was Sam Rose from uh anra and let's speak
to our Middle East correspondent Yan Nell who's here with me in Jerusalem you now youan just explain then how this legislation that was passed last night by the knesset will have an impact on this key United Nations agency well the Israeli Prime Minister's office is underlining that it says there'll be 3 months before this takes effect and it's going to work in that time it says uh with World Partners to try to sort out this Aid situation but if you look at the legislation there are two parts to it uh one which basically bans unra
in Israel and in Israeli Annex territory that's in East Jerusalem and then there's another part which bans the Israeli authorities from really having anything to do um with the organization and that's where it's going to have a big impact on Gaza and the West Bank under Israeli military occupation because in order to get Aid into those places in order for uh International staff to move around that all requires coordination especially uh with the Israeli military and if you look at Gaza in particular well that is where unra is the biggest UN Agency on the ground
so we've seen uh during the war that it has become the biggest distributor of Aid and it's also of course running these um wartime shelters with so many um premises in Gaza turning them over to displaced people um so that's why you know this is really causing such a lot of alarm Okay Yan thank you very much indeed Elan Nelda our Middle East correspondent let's just talk briefly now about the latest situation in Lebanon where there have been more Israeli air strikes now um the government's Health Ministry in Lebanon says at least 60 people have
been killed in those latest air strikes uh mainly in the east of the country they hit five areas in the balbach region north east of the capital Beirut the local Governor called the attacks the most violent in the area since Israel escalated the conflict against Hezbollah last month at the Eastern Becka Valley stronghold of Hezbollah another seven people killed in Israeli strikes in the coastal city of Ty and Hezbollah has also announced that Naim km who's the group's deputy secretary General will become its new head its new leader that's replacing the long-term leader Hass nazarella
who you remember was killed in an Israeli air strike in Beirut last month let's get the latest then from our bayout correspondent Hugo Basher who can join me now from the Lebanese Capital uh Hugo just talk us through the latest Israel action in Lebanon and another large death toll overnight yeah Ben it was a very violent night of Israeli air strikes in the east of the country in the Bea Valley 16 are were hit and those attacks happened with no Warning by the Israeli military there hasn't been reaction from the Israeli Army explaining those attacks
what was being targeted uh with those air strikes last night but the Lebanese Health Ministry is saying that at least 60 people were killed including two children and images that have been posted on social media show widespread destruction in some of those areas also fires uh that were sparked by those uh air strikes and the head of the civil defense in bowback said that those air strikes happened at the same time last night that residential buildings were hit and in one Village uh the village of budai residents overnight pled on pleaded on social media for
uh heavy equipment to be sent to the area to help in those rescue efforts so that gives you a sense of of the desperate situation there following those air strikes and this morning in another Village a rescue effs continued uh for five people who are still missing following those air strikes this is an area of the country that has been repeatedly hit by the Israeli military it is an area where Hezbollah has a very strong presence it is a strategic route uh connecting Hezbollah to its allies in Iraq and Syria and also to Iran which
is obviously hezbollah's main supporter but as you mentioned in the introduction the governor of Bach saying that the attacks last night were the most violent in his region since the beginning of this conflict and Hugo not surprisingly given that level of uh military activity in Lebanon by the Israelis a lot of Lebanese civilians on the Move uh who have been displaced who've had to get out of their various towns and cities to try and seek safety exactly 1.2 million people have been forced to flee their homes because of this conflict since the escalation of this
uh conflict uh f weeks ago and many of these people have left the south of the country where we've seen this uh massive uh campaign by the Israeli military against Hezbollah not only with intense air strikes but also with a ground Invasion so villages in the country now occupied by the Israeli military uh also a huge uh displacement of residents from the east of the country from the bicar valley and also from the city Southern subbs uh here in Beirut uh once hezbollah's Beating Heart here in the capital uh where Hezbollah is based again now
it goes down because of those Israeli air strikes and also a number of evacuation orders by the Israeli military so uh this has obviously put a lot of pressure on the local authorities here on public services has exacerbated uh sectarian divisions uh in this country and again the authorities are saying that if there's no ceasefire this and if this conflict continues this is going to obviously put even even more pressure on the authorities and on cities and towns across the country having now to absorb this huge wave of of residents who have been displaced because
of this conflict okay Hugo thank you very much Hugo BGA there for us in beu let's go back now to that highly controversial vote in the Israeli Parliament last night where members of the parliament the knesset voted overwhelmingly essentially to have nothing more to do with the United Nations Refugee a gency anra which has been working with Palestinian refugees since 1949 and helped millions of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank so Israel effectively cutting off all cooperation with anra the UN General Secretary has said that it will have devastating consequences in terms of Aid
and this was a parliamentary vote carried out really in defiance of international pressure and once it went through it has caused an international outcry well we can talk more about it to ngga tanoli who's a journalist who's based here in Jerusalem and just talk us through NGA the thinking of those parliamentary members in the knesset why were they so Keen to push this legislation through in defiance of international calls for them not to do so hi um I think there are many reasons one is that um this government has very successfully turned unra into a
kind of bet Noir uh of the entire mishandled situation in Gaza over the last many years and I have to say that in some respects unra has not done itself any favors because it does appear that they accommodated Hamas um and have taken very lightly some of Israel's accusations that said Israel has provided little evidence for all of its accusations against unra so we find ourselves in a situation in which um unra has become a kind of de facto governing Authority for Palestinians not just in Gaza also in Lebanon Palestinian refugees everywhere in the West
Bank in Jordan and it's the one Refugee agency the only one that doesn't resettle refugees it simply maintains them and so Israel um has increasingly complained against it and yesterday you had members of Nan's government even you know really screeching in Parliament that un itself is a terror organization um in part I have to say I do think in part this is a way of not addressing the Prime Minister netanyahu's own responsibility for having chosen to support Hamas for many years as against the Palestinian Authority okay NGA thank you very much indeed nger tulsky they're
a journalist based here in Jerusalem the legislation by the way won't take effect for 3 months and as we were hearing earlier from y Yan Nell um the Israeli government are saying they'll work with other Aid agencies in the meantime to try and fill the Gap left behind by anr's work
