The Israeli parliament, Knesset, has announced preliminary approval to a bill that brands the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, as a terrorist organization. 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."