Some Western allies of Israel are alarmed by the law that Israel’s parliament passed on Monday that forbids the UN relief organization UNRWA from functioning within the nation, fearing that it will exacerbate the already dire humanitarian situation in Gaza.
Israeli authorities pointed to the fact that a small number of the thousands of employees of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees participated in the attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, and that some of them were members of Hamas and other armed groups.
“We must hold accountable UNRWA employees who engage in terrorist acts against Israel,” declared Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The vote, according to UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini, is against the U.N. charter and against international law. “This is the latest in the ongoing campaign to discredit UNRWA and delegitimize its role in providing human development assistance and services to Palestinian refugees,” he wrote on the social networking site X.
The vote took place on the same day that Israeli tanks advanced farther into northern Gaza, trapping 100,000 civilians, according to the Palestinian Emergency Service. Israel’s military asserted that the actions aimed to eliminate Hamas militants who were regrouping.
The Israeli military reported apprehending about 100 suspected militants during a raid on a hospital in the Jabalia camp. Medical personnel and Hamas have denied that there are any militants at the hospital.
According to the health ministry in the Gaza Strip, Israeli airstrikes and bombardment on Monday killed at least 19.
The Palestinian Civil Emergency Service reports that about 100,000 people remain stranded in Jabalia, Beit Lahiya, and Beit Hanoun without access to food or medical supplies. Reuters was unable to independently confirm the number.
Israel’s three-week assault into northern Gaza, where it claimed to have destroyed Hamas combat forces earlier in the year-long conflict, caused the emergency service to say its operations had ceased.
CEASEFIRE TALKS
The US, Egypt, and Qatar resumed negotiations to broker a ceasefire on Sunday after several unsuccessful attempts. In exchange for four Israeli hostages held by Hamas, Egypt’s president suggested a two-day truce. Within ten days, negotiations on a permanent ceasefire would take place.
Netanyahu had stated that mediators would start negotiating again in the next few days “in a continued attempt to advance a deal.”
The Islamist movement has denied that fighting will stop until Israeli forces withdraw from Gaza, while Israel has stated time and again that the war will continue until Hamas is destroyed.
Israel has bombed Lebanon and sent troops into its south to destroy Iran-backed Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas, while Gaza’s war has sparked a wider conflict in the Middle East, raising concerns about global oil supplies.
The Lebanese health ministry reported Monday that Israeli strikes on three villages in the city of Baalbek in eastern Lebanon had killed at least 16 people.
The war also led to rare direct confrontations between Iran and Israel, regional arch-enemies. In response to an Iranian missile barrage against Israel on October 1, Israeli warplanes bombarded Iranian missile manufacturing facilities over the weekend.
Tehran would “use all available tools” to respond, according to Iran’s Foreign Ministry.
“EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY”
Israel continued to attack Lebanon on Monday, according to the Lebanese health ministry, with an early-morning airstrike on a district in the southern port of Tyre that killed seven people.
Israeli strikes in Lebanon have killed at least 2,710 people and injured 12,592 more in the last year, according to the country’s health authority.
Later, the Israeli military ordered the evacuation of most of Tyre, including the neighborhoods around a hotel by the sea, which is typically the base of operations for journalists.
Videos of civil defense workers telling people to leave went viral online. One yelled into a car’s loudhailer, “For your safety, because of the warning, evacuate immediately!”
Tyre is among the many towns in ruins as a result of the bombing campaign, and Israel’s growing evacuation warnings have turned much of southern Lebanon into ghost towns.
Hezbollah attacked military targets in Israel as well as Israeli troops on Lebanese soil.
CEASEFIRE’S “NONSENSE TALK”
The three main hospitals in north Gaza were barely functioning after their officials disregarded Israel’s evacuation orders. At least two hospitals suffered damage and had depleted their food, medicine, and fuel supplies. Two children, a nurse, and at least one doctor had perished.
Residents of North Gaza claimed Israel was encircling shelters for displaced families, telling them to leave, then capturing men and forcing women and children to flee.
Only a small number of families made the journey to southern Gaza because they were afraid they would never be able to return to their homes.
Some claimed to have penned their notices of death.
Using a chat app, a Jabalia resident told Reuters, “The Israeli occupation is wiping out north Gaza and displacing its people while the world is busy with Lebanon and new nonsense talk about a few days of ceasefire (in Gaza).”
Hamas denies the Israeli military’s claims that its forces follow international law and accuses militants of concealing weapons and fighters in schools and hospitals.
Following the cross-border attack by Hamas on October 7, 2023, Israel launched a ground offensive in Gaza, first targeting the north. Intense bombing mostly destroyed towns.
Still, militants led by Hamas carry out hit-and-run attacks against Israeli forces.
According to Israeli estimates, the 2023 Hamas attack claimed 1,200 lives and led to the capture of over 250 hostages in Gaza.
The Gaza health ministry reported Monday that 43,020 people had died as a result of Israel’s retaliatory air and ground assault in Gaza.
