AN ISRAELI attack on a five-storey building in northern Gaza being used as a shelter for displaced persons killed at least 109 Palestinians, mostly women and children, today.

The massacre in Beit Lahiya took place the after the Israeli parliament passed a new law that could severely restrict the ability of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, to operate in the Palestinian territories. 

Dr Hossam Abu Safiya,director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, where victims of the latest attack were taken, said: “The healthcare system has completely collapsed,” adding that wounded people arriving there were dying because no care could be provided.

The Israeli military has repeatedly struck shelters for displaced people in recent months, killing mostly women and children.

Israel’s latest assault in northern Gaza has killed hundreds of people, driven tens of thousands from their homes and triggered a major humanitarian crisis.

Palestinians fear that Israel is enacting a proposal from a group of former generals that the civilian population of the north should be ordered to evacuate and aid supplies be cut off, with anyone remaining there then being considered an enemy combatant.

The military has denied implementing such a plan.

On Monday, Israel’s parliament passed two laws that would ban UNRWA from operating on Israeli soil and cut all ties between the UN agency and the Israeli government. 

Israel claims that UNRWA has been infiltrated by Hamas and that the militant group siphons off aid and uses UN facilities to shield its activities. The UN agency denies the allegations.

Commissioner-general Philippe Lazzarini said the new laws were part of an “ongoing campaign to discredit UNRWA,” adding: “These Bills will only deepen the suffering of Palestinians, especially in Gaza.”

UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres said UNRWA would be prevented from doing UN general assembly-mandated work if the laws were implemented.

“There is no alternative to UNRWA,” he said in a statement issued on Monday night.

Israel says the laws would take effect 60 to 90 days after its Foreign Ministry notifies the UN, which has yet to happen.

In Lebanon, Hezbollah said it had chosen Sheikh Naim Kassem as its new top leader following the killing of Hassan Nasrallah in an Israeli air strike last month.

The resistance movement said its decision-making Shura Council had elected Mr Kassem, who was Mr Nasrallah’s deputy leader for over three decades, as the new secretary-general. 

Hezbollah vowed to continue Mr Nasrallah’s policies “until victory is achieved.”