Contact between UNRWA employees and Israeli officials will also be banned, severely limiting the agency's ability to operate in Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Co-operation with the Israeli military which controls all crossings into Gaza is essential for UNRWA to transfer aid into the war-torn territory.

It is the main UN organization working on the ground there.

Meanwhile, World leaders denounced Israel’s ban on UNRWA, calling it “intolerable”, “illegal” and “nothing less than collective punishment.”