The head of the U.N. agency caring for Palestinian refugees says that newly passed Israeli laws effectively banning its activities in Israel will leave a vacuum that will cost more lives and create further in Gaza and the West Bank.

Israel’s relationship with the United Nations has historically been strained, but over the past year, tensions have reached new levels. On October 28, the Israeli parliament (the Knesset) passed a law to prohibit operations of the UN’s relief and works agency (Unrwa) – the UN body responsible for Palestinian refugees – within the territory it controls.