Fund­ing deal that Biden said he’d sign ‘imme­di­ate­ly’ includes ban on UNRWA aid

A mas­sive fund­ing deal between Con­gress and the White House includes a ban on fund­ing for the pri­ma­ry human­i­tar­i­an aid orga­ni­za­tion in Gaza for one year.
The deal, which was sup­port­ed by Pres­i­dent Joe Biden on Tues­day, would cost the Unit­ed Nations agency mil­lions of dol­lars and require oth­er coun­tries like Sau­di Ara­bia to make up the gap. The ban on fund­ing the Unit­ed Nations Relief and Works Agency for Pales­tine Refugees in the Near East was not men­tioned when the White House stat­ed sup­port for the deal on Tues­day. It comes as mil­lions of civil­ians in Gaza are fac­ing star­va­tion amid Israel’s war with Hamas.

Israelis dis­play body bags as they block the entrance to UNWRA, the main U.N. agency pro­vid­ing aid in the Gaza Strip, dur­ing a protest in Jerusalem, Wednes­day, March 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigen­berg)

“This [agree­ment] will un …