Congress has passed a $1.2 trillion spending bill that will continue a ban on funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) until 2025.

On Friday the legislation passed the House with a vote of 286 to 134 and the Senate with a vote of 74 to 24. President Joe Biden has already said he would sign the bill immediately if it was able advance through the two chambers.

Its passage comes amid warnings about a looming famine hitting Gaza. Earlier this week the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) put out a report predicting that northern Gaza could experience one by May. The IPC classifies the region as Phase 5 situation, which is the most catastrophic categorization.

“We’re talking about 1.1 million people,” Andrea De Domenico, head of the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the Occupied Palestinian territory told ABC News. “If you compare to other contexts — at the peak of the famine in Yemen, for example — we had 150,000 people in Phase 5. Here, we’re talking about 1.1 million. So, it’s unprecedented.”

UNRWA provides life-saving aid to more than 2 million Palestinians in Gaza.

In January the State Department announced that it was temporarily pausing additional funding to the agency, after the Israeli government accused twelve of its employees of being involved in the October 7th Hamas attack. Israel has yet to publicly prove any of their claims.

The employees were fired, but last........

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