Israel's parliament passed a law on Monday to ban the U.N. relief agency UNRWA from operating inside the country, alarming some of Israel's Western allies who fear it will worsen the already dire humanitarian situation in Gaza.

The Knesset members who drafted the law cited the involvement of a handful of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees' thousands of staffers in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel and a few staffers' membership in Hamas and other armed groups.

The vote came the same day Israeli tanks thrust deeper into two north Gaza towns and a refugee camp, trapping about 100,000 civilians, the Palestinian emergency service said, in what Israel's military said were operations to eliminate regrouping Hamas militants.