Israel says law will bar UNRWA from operating in Israel as it takes effect Jan. 30

Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Dani Danon, told a Security Council briefing that Israeli legislation barring the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) from operating in Israel will take effect in 48 hours on Jan. 30 and that Israel will terminate collaboration and contact with the agency.

Danon said the law requires UNRWA to cease operations and evacuate premises it operates in Jerusalem, including properties he named as Malodafna and Kfar Akeb, and forbids UNRWA from maintaining any representative, office, service or activity within Israel. "No sovereign state should facilitate the operation of an agency that threatens its national security and blatantly violate[s] its laws," Danon said. He accused the agency of failing its mandate and of "constant refusal to address the widespread infiltration of its ranks by Hamas and other terrorist organizations."

Danon told reporters that the decision followed "decades of betrayal by an agency that has placed…