Israel’s parliament passed a law on Monday to ban the UN relief agency UNRWA from operating inside the country. This decision has alarmed some of Israel’s Western allies, who fear it will worsen the already dire humanitarian situation in Gaza.
Israeli officials claimed that some employees of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees participated in the October 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel. They also alleged that certain staff members were affiliated with Hamas and other armed groups.
“UNRWA workers involved in terrorist activities against Israel must be held accountable,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
According to Philippe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, the vote is against international law and the U.N. charter. “This is the latest in the ongoing campaign to discredit UNRWA and delegitimize its role towards providing human-development assistance and services to #Palestine Refugees,” he posted on X, a social media site.
The poll was held on the same day as Israeli tanks advanced farther into northern Gaza, trapping 100,000 residents, according to the Palestinian Emergency Service. Israel’s military said that the actions were meant to destroy Hamas fighters who were regrouping.
The Israeli military reported that during a raid on a hospital in the Jabalia camp, they apprehended about 100 suspected militants. Medical professionals and Hamas have denied that there are any militants at the hospital.
According to the health ministry of the Gaza Strip, Israeli airstrikes and bombardment on Monday killed at least 19.
Approximately 100,000 Palestinians were stranded in Jabalia, Beit Lahiya, and Beit Hanoun without access to food or medical supplies, according to the Palestinian Civil Emergency Service. Reuters was unable to independently confirm the figure.
Israel’s three-week assault on northern Gaza, where it claimed to have destroyed Hamas forces earlier in the year, has led the emergency service to halt its activities. The service announced its operations had ceased due to the intensity of the attack.
CEASEFIRE TALKS
After several unsuccessful attempts, negotiations to mediate a ceasefire headed by the United States, Egypt, and Qatar began on Sunday. The president of Egypt suggested a two-day truce in which four Israeli hostages held by Hamas would be exchanged for Palestinian captives. Ten days later, negotiations on a permanent ceasefire would take place.
Negotiations would resume in the next few days, according to Netanyahu, “in a continued attempt to advance a deal.”
The Islamist organization insists that fighting will continue until Israeli forces withdraw from Gaza. Israel, however, repeatedly asserts that the battle will go on until Hamas is destroyed.
Israel’s bombing of Lebanon and troop movements into its south to dismantle Iran-backed Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas, have escalated the Gaza conflict into a regional crisis. This has also raised concerns about the stability of the world oil supply.
The Lebanese health ministry reported on Monday that Israeli strikes on three villages in the city of Baalbek in eastern Lebanon had killed at least 16 people.
Rare direct confrontations between Iran and Israel, regional arch-enemies, were also brought on by the conflict. In response to an Oct. 1 Iranian missile barrage against Israel, Israeli warplanes bombarded Iranian missile manufacturing facilities over the weekend.
Tehran would “use all available tools” to reply, according to Iran’s Foreign Ministry.
‘EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY’
According to the Lebanese health ministry, Israel continued to attack Lebanon on Monday, killing seven people in an early-morning bombing on a suburb in the southern port of Tyre.
Israeli attacks 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.
The Israeli military later ordered the evacuation of a large part of Tyre. This included the districts surrounding a hotel on the shore, which journalists typically use as their base of operations.
Online footage of civil defense officers telling citizens to leave went viral. Someone yelled into a car’s megaphone, “For your safety, because of the warning, evacuate immediately!”
Israel’s growing evacuation advisories have turned Tyre and much of southern Lebanon into ghost towns. The bombing campaign has left numerous communities in ruins.
Hezbollah attacked military sites inside Israel as well as Israeli troops on Lebanese soil.
‘NONSENSE TALK’ OF CEASEFIRE
The three main hospitals in North Gaza were barely functioning after their authorities disregarded Israel’s evacuation directives. At least two had been damaged and their supplies of food, medicine, and gasoline had run out. Two pediatric patients, a nurse, and at least one doctor had perished.
Residents of North Gaza claimed that Israel was encircling shelters for displaced families, telling them to evacuate, then capturing men and forcing women and children to flee.
Fearing they would never be able to return to their homes, most families chose to temporarily move to Gaza City, with only a small number traveling to southern Gaza.
Some claimed to have authored their notifications of death.
“While the world is busy with Lebanon and new nonsense talk about a few days of ceasefire (in Gaza), the Israeli occupation is wiping out north Gaza and displacing its people,” a resident of Jabalia told Reuters via a chat app.
Hamas disputes the Israeli military’s claims that its soldiers follow international law and accuses militants of concealing weapons and fighters in schools and hospitals.
Following Hamas’ cross-border incursion on October 7, 2023, Israel launched a land offensive in Gaza, first targeting the north. Towns were mostly destroyed by heavy bombing.
However, terrorists commanded by Hamas still launch hit-and-run attacks against Israeli forces.
Israeli estimates of the 2023 Hamas attack show that 1,200 people were killed and that over 250 hostages were transported into Gaza.
The Gaza health ministry reported on Monday that 43,020 people had died as a result of Israel’s retaliatory air and ground assault in Gaza.
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