Israel votes for a ban on the UN aid agency

The head of UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, said the vote violates the UN Charter and violates international law. “This is the latest in the ongoing campaign to discredit UNRWA and delegitimize its role in providing aid and human development services to Palestinian refugees,” he wrote on social media platform X.

Reuters

October 29, 2024, 7:50 AM

Last modified: October 29, 2024, 8:06 AM

Displaced Palestinians wait for aid from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, March 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Mohammed Salem / File photo

“>

The Israeli parliament passed a law on Monday banning the UN aid agency UNRWA from operating in the country. This alarmed some of Israel’s Western allies, who fear it will worsen the already dire humanitarian situation in Gaza.

Israeli officials cited the involvement of a handful of thousands of staffers from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the October 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel and the membership of some staffers from Hamas and other armed groups.

“UNRWA employees involved in terrorist activities against Israel must be held accountable,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.

Stay informed and follow The Business Standard’s Google news channel

The head of UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, said the vote violates the UN Charter and violates international law. “This is the latest in the ongoing campaign to discredit UNRWA and delegitimize its role in providing assistance and human development services to Palestinian refugees,” he wrote on social media platform X.

The vote came on the same day that Israeli tanks pushed deeper into northern Gaza, trapping 100,000 civilians, the Palestinian emergency service said, in what the Israeli army said were operations to eliminate regrouping Hamas fighters.

The Israeli army said soldiers captured about 100 suspected fighters during an attack on a hospital in the Jabalia camp. Hamas and medics have denied any presence of fighters at the hospital.

The Gaza Strip’s Health Ministry said at least 19 people were killed by Israeli airstrikes and bombings on Monday.

The Palestinian Civil Emergency Service said about 100,000 people were stranded in Jabalia, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun without medical or food supplies. Reuters could not independently verify the number.

The emergency service said its operations had come to a standstill due to Israel’s three-week assault on northern Gaza, where Israel had said it had wiped out Hamas forces earlier in the year-long war.

WEAPONIC TALKS

Talks led by the US, Egypt and Qatar to reach a ceasefire resumed on Sunday after several failed attempts. Egypt’s president proposed a two-day ceasefire to exchange four Israeli hostages held by Hamas for Palestinian prisoners, followed by talks within 10 days on a permanent ceasefire.

Netanyahu had said mediators would resume talks in the coming days “in a continued effort to reach an agreement.”

Israel has repeatedly said the war will continue until Hamas is eradicated, while the Islamist movement has ruled out any end to the fighting until Israeli forces leave Gaza.

The war in Gaza has sparked a wider conflict in the Middle East, raising concerns about global oil supplies, with Israel bombing Lebanon and sending troops south to eliminate Iran-backed Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas .

At least 16 people have been killed in Israeli attacks on three villages in the city of Baalbek in eastern Lebanon, the Lebanese Health Ministry said on Monday.

The conflict also caused rare direct clashes between regional arch-enemies Israel and Iran. Israeli warplanes bombarded Iranian missile production sites over the weekend in retaliation for an October 1 Iranian missile salvo on Israel.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry said Tehran would “use all available tools” to respond.

‘IMMEDIATELY EVACUATE’

Israel continued to batter Lebanon on Monday, including an early morning airstrike on a district in the southern port of Tyre that left seven dead, the Lebanese Health Ministry said.

Lebanon’s health authority said Israeli attacks in Lebanon killed at least 2,710 people and injured 12,592 others over the past year.

The Israeli military later issued an evacuation order for much of Tyre, including areas including neighborhoods near a seaside hotel where journalists usually stay.

Images circulated online of civil defense workers urging people to leave. “For your safety, due to the warning, evacuate immediately!” someone shouted into a megaphone attached to a car.

Israel’s increasing evacuation warnings have turned much of southern Lebanon, including Tyre, into ghost towns, and the bombing has left many towns in ruins.

Hezbollah carried out attacks on Israeli forces on Lebanese territory and on military targets within Israel.