JERUSALEM — Israeli lawmakers passed two laws Monday 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, severing ties with it and labeling it a terror 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 their potential impact on Palestinians as the war's humanitarian toll worsens.
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. The second law would sever Israel's diplomatic ties with the agency.
The laws risk collapsing the already fragile process for distributing aid in Gaza at a moment when Israel is under increased U.S. pressure to ramp up aid. UNRWA's chief called them "a dangerous precedent."
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Palestinians line up Dec. 21 for food in Rafah, Gaza Strip.
Israel claims some of UNRWA's thousands of staff members participated in the Hamas attacks last year that sparked the war in Gaza. It also says hundreds of UNRWA staff have militant ties and that it found Hamas military assets in or under the agency's facilities.
The agency fired nine employees after an investigation but denied it knowingly aids armed groups and said 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, though some of it has been restored.
Israel has at times during the war raided or attacked UNRWA schools or other facilities, claiming militants operated there. UNRWA says that more than 200 of its employees have been killed during the war.
"The law that we passed now is not just another bill. It is a call for justice and a wake up call," said lawmaker Boaz Bismuth, who co-sponsored one of the bills. "UNRWA is not an aid agency for refugees. It is an aid agency for Hamas."
Journalists film Monday as smoke rises from buildings hit in Israeli airstrikes in Tyre, southern Lebanon.
The head of UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, said the new laws were part of an "ongoing campaign to discredit UNRWA."
"These bills will only deepen the suffering of Palestinians, especially in Gaza," he said on social media.
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.
Together, the laws would effectively sever ties with the U.N. agency, strip it of legal immunities and restrict its ability to support Palestinians in east Jerusalem and the West Bank. The legislation does not include provisions for alternative organizations to oversee its work.
Smoke rises Monday next to a destroyed building hit in an Israeli airstrike in Tyre, southern Lebanon.
Allies of Israel oppose the move
The changes could be a serious blow to Palestinians in Gaza. More than 1.9 million Palestinians are displaced from their homes, and Gaza faces widespread shortages of food, water and medicine.
International aid groups and a handful of Israel's Western allies, including the U.S., voiced opposition.
U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller, speaking to reporters in Washington before the votes, said the administration was "deeply concerned" by the legislation. "There's nobody that can replace them right now in the middle of the crisis," he said.
UNRWA provides education, health care and other basic services to millions of Palestinian refugees across the region, including in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
The laws would go into effect 60 to 90 days after Israel's Foreign Ministry notifies the U.N., according to the spokesperson of lawmaker Dan Illouz, one of the co-sponsors of one of the laws.
Palestinians grab humanitarian aid from a truck Dec. 17 after it crossed into the Gaza Strip in Rafah.
Death toll surpasses 43,000
With no end in sight to the war, officials in Gaza reported Monday that the death toll from the yearlong fighting surpassed 43,000. The Palestinian Health Ministry's count does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but it says more than half of the dead are women and children.
The rising death toll comes as Israel refocuses its offensive on Gaza's hard-hit north, including on a hospital where the military claims militants operated from.
Israeli forces raided the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza on Friday. The military said Monday the raid ended.
Israel has raided several hospitals in Gaza over the course of the yearlong war, claiming Hamas and other militants use them for military purposes. Palestinian medical officials deny those allegations and accuse the military of recklessly endangering civilians.
The Israeli military said it detained 100 suspected Hamas militants in the latest raid. The Israeli official said medical staff were detained and searched because some of the militants disguised themselves as medics.
The World Health Organization accused Israel of detaining 44 male hospital staff. It was not immediately clear why there was a discrepancy in the figures. Palestinian medical officials said the hospital, which was treating some 200 patients, was heavily damaged in the raid.
The Israel-Hamas war began after militants from Hamas and other groups stormed into Israel, killing some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducting 250 others. The war roiled the Middle East, setting off fighting between Israel and Hezbollah as well as between Israel and Iran, archenemies who long kept their conflict a shadow war but are now engaging in open fighting.
Election Day rideshare data indicates where, how, and when Americans get to the polls
Election Day rideshare data indicates where, how, and when Americans get to the polls
This year, citizens across the country will take time out of their busy days to vote. Lyft's Election Day rideshare data provides a preview of how, and when, millions of them will be getting to the polls. (If you'd rather , absentee, or by mail, .) takes a look at which states' voters go the extra mile (sometimes literally) to make sure their voices are heard.
Where Voters Travel the Farthest
A recent study estimated that even a in distance to polling locations can reduce turnout by up to 20%. On Election Day 2022, the typical (median) voter using Lyft traveled four miles to poll-like locations (see Methodology section below). But voters in Texas, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, and New Jersey traveled significantly farther—five miles or more—to cast a ballot. And the riders of Clayton County, Georgia, and Tarrant County, Texas, traveled more than seven miles to vote in 2022.
Where Voters Have the Shortest Waits
Of course, between drop-off and pickup, voters do more than wait in line. All told, the typical (median) Lyft rider spent 50 minutes at a poll-like location in 2022 and more than an hour in D.C., New York, and Illinois.
How Long It Takes to Vote
Things generally moved twice as fast in upper Midwestern states like Minnesota, Michigan, and Wisconsin (around 30 minutes).
When Voters Go to Vote
One way to avoid anxiety around lines at polls is to vote before Election Day, by mail, or—failing that—as early in the day as possible. That seems to be the practice in Alabama, Oklahoma, and Tennessee, where voters are most likely to go to poll-like locations before 9 a.m. Meanwhile, in D.C. and New York, where the polls close on the , the most popular time to vote is after 5 p.m.
Where Voters Use Lyft
Over the course of the 2022 election, an estimated 2 million people took Lyft rides to the polls — but it was more common in some states than others.
Where the Number of First-Time Rides to Polls Increased Most
In Georgia, there was an 18% increase in rides to poll-like locations on Election Day in 2022, and in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, a 12% increase. Notably, these states had some of the during the last election cycle, suggesting that voters might use rideshare when they feel more is at stake. Meanwhile, Western states like Nevada, New Mexico, and Alaska were much less likely to use rideshare to vote: Activity at poll-like locations increased by only 5% on Election Day.
Methodology
The sample includes all Lyft rides in the U.S. on November 8, 2022 to/from poll-like locations (see below) by riders who had not previously been dropped off at or picked up from that location. States with an insufficient number of observations in the Lyft data were excluded, as were states where less than 25% of voters did so in person, per the 2022 Report.
Definitions
- Poll-like locations: Libraries, schools, and civic and religious buildings.Ìý
- How far people travel to the polls: median distance, in miles, to/from the poll-like locations.
- When people vote: The most common time at which riders are dropped off / picked up at poll-like locations.Ìý
- E-day bump: The share of rides to poll-like locations from new riders that year relative to a typical Tuesday in October or November 2022.ÌýÂ
- How long it takes to vote: Median amount of time (in minutes) between drop-off and request for pickup from the same location (excluding requests occurring over three hours after initial dropoff) for riders using one of Lyft's voting coupon codes on November 8, 2022.Ìý
was produced by and reviewed and distributed by Stacker Media.
Where Voters Wait the Longest
What do the TSA, theme parks, and democracy have in common? Lines—sometimes long ones. The Bipartisan Policy Center estimates that in 2016 failed to vote because of poor management of polling places (which includes long waits). And while many states have their mail-in voting options over the past decade, for those who still choose to vote in person, lines over 30 minutes long .Ìý
The dedicated voters in Cumberland County, North Carolina (home to Fayetteville), and Duval County, Florida (Jacksonville), took, on average, 80 minutes out of their day to practice democracy.
