A damaged sign is pictured at the headquarters of UNRWA, following an Israeli raid, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Gaza City, July 12, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

The Israeli parliament gave preliminary approval on Monday to a bill that declares the main United Nations relief organisation for Palestinians a terrorist organisation and proposes to sever relations with the body.

The vote against the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) is the latest step in a Israeli push against the agency, which Israeli leaders have accused of collaborating with the Islamist movement Hamas in Gaza.

The bill was approved in a first reading and will be returned to the foreign affairs and defence committee for further deliberation, the Knesset information service said.

The bill’s sponsor, Yulia Malinovsky, was quoted as describing UNRWA as a “fifth column within Israel”.

UNRWA provides education, health and aid to millions of Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. It has long had tense relations with Israel but relations have deteriorated sharply since the start of the war in Gaza and Israel has called repeatedly for UNRWA to be disbanded.

“It’s another attempt in a wider campaign to dismantle the agency,” UNRWA spokesperson Juliette Touma said. “Such steps are unheard of in the history of the United Nations.”

No evidence yet

Israel has said hundreds of UNRWA staff are members of terrorist groups, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, but has yet to provide evidence to a U.N.-appointed review.

Several donor countries halted funding to UNRWA following the Israeli accusations but many have since reversed the decision, including Britain which said last week it would resume funding.

Both Hamas and the Palestinian Authority condemned the Israeli vote, and Hussein Al-Sheikh, a senior ally of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, called on the international community to resist attempts to dissolve the agency.

New Delhi:

The Palestinian Embassy on Tuesday thanked India as it released the first tranche of USD 2.5 million to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) as a part of its annual contribution at USD 5 Million for the year 2024-2025.

The embassy said we extend our sincere thanks and appreciation to the Indian Government for releasing the first tranche of USD 2.5 million to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East as a part of its annual contribution at USD 5 Million for the year 2024-2025.

We also followed with great interest India’s pledge of support to UNRWA during the UNRWA conference held in New York and announced that in addition to financial assistance, New Delhi will provide medicines to UNRWA upon request, it said.

This Indian assistance and this pledge an important step to support and strengthen the role of UNRWA in the face of attempts to target its role and existence by the Israeli government

While we appreciate the Indian contribution to UNRWA, we believe that this assistance, whether financial or medical, constitutes an important part of the assistance provided to the Palestinian people in various fields, which we look forward to increasing during the next stage due to the urgent need due to the Israeli war on Gaza, which has created a new and dangerous reality.

About 2.2 million Palestinians were residing in the Gaza Strip an area of 365 km2, representing about 41% of the population of Palestine. Most of this population (about 66%) are refugees, about 2 million Palestinians left their homes out of about 2.2 million Palestinians who were residing in the Gaza Strip on the eve of the Israeli occupation aggression, the statement said.

Meanwhile, the Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) is facing Israeli plans to target the body of the United Nations Foundation, which witnesses the case of more than 6 million Palestinian refugees and provides services to them in its five areas of operation (Gaza Strip, West Bank, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon).

We hope that India, through its bilateral relationship with the pillars of the international community and through its effective position in many important political and economic blocs and groupings around the world, will work to preserve UNRWA and strengthen its status and role, for which it was founded in 1949, and that Israeli attempts to replace it with other institutions will fail.

The importance of UNRWA for Palestinians goes beyond access to vital services, as they see its existence as linked to the preservation of their rights as refugees, especially their hope to return to their homes from which they or their ancestors were expelled during the Nakba.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

United Nations, US:

The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees said Friday it had enough funds to continue operating through September, following a pledging conference for the embattled body where UN chief Antonio Guterres pleaded for help from donors.

“We have worked tirelessly with partners to restore confidence in the agency,” UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said, after several nations withheld funding following Israeli allegations in January that a number of UNRWA’s employees participated in the October 7 attack by Hamas.

Lazzarini said new pledges of funds would help ensure emergency operations until September.

Guterres had pleaded with donors to fund the embattled UN agency, warning that Palestinians would lose a “critical lifeline” without UNRWA.

“Let me be clear — there is no alternative to UNRWA,” he said.

“Just when we thought it couldn’t get any worse in Gaza — somehow, appallingly, civilians are being pushed into ever deeper circles of hell,” Guterres added.

According to Guterres, 195 UNRWA staff members have been killed in the war, the highest death toll for staff in UN history.

The US Congress has barred further funding for UNRWA. President Joe Biden’s administration has instead directed funding for Palestinian civilians to other bodies while saying that UNRWA is uniquely equipped to distribute aid.

The war started with Hamas’s October attack on southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.

Israel responded with a military offensive that has killed at least 38,345 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Israeli soldiers stand on a tank near the border with the Gaza Strip.
| Photo Credit: Getty Images

Hostilities continue in Rafah and southern Gaza despite the Israeli military’s announcement on Sunday of tactical pauses in operations to allow humanitarian aid to enter, UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini told reporters in Oslo on June 17.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on June 16 criticized plans announced by the military to hold daily pauses in fighting along one of the main roads into the Palestinian enclave.

Mr. Lazzarini, commissioner general of UNRWA, the main organisation delivering humanitarian aid to Gaza, said that there had been no pause in the fighting.

“There has been information that such a decision has been taken, but the political level says none of this decision has been taken,” Mr. Lazzarini told a press conference.

“So for the time being, I can tell you that hostilities continue in Rafah and the south of Gaza. And that operationally, nothing has changed yet.”

The Israeli military said on June 17 its forces were continuing focused, intelligence-based operations in the Rafah area, which included close combat with militants and seizure and destruction of weapons.

The military had announced at the weekend the daily pauses from 0500 GMT until 1600 GMT in the area from the Kerem Shalom Crossing, in southern Israel, to the Salah al-Din Road and then northwards. It later clarified that normal operations would continue in Rafah, the main focus of its operation in southern Gaza.

Meanwhile, residents said Israeli forces were advancing deeper into the central and western areas of Rafah under heavy fire from the ground and the air on June 17

Armed groups led by Hamas were fighting from close range inside the Al-Shaboura camp in the heart of Rafah, according to militants and residents, who reported hearing sounds of non-stop explosions and gunfire.

Mr. Lazzarini later told Reuters that UNRWA received a notification from the Israeli military that there would be a pause, but that it was in English only, not in any other language and was soon followed by the government contradicting that instruction.

“For the time being, I see nothing which would qualify to the definition of a pause,” he said.

UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini gestures after a briefing on the humanitarian situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, on April 30, 2024.
| Photo Credit: REUTERS

The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees said on April 30 that $267 million in its funding was still suspended over allegations some UNRWA staff participated in the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel.

The accusations in January led to many donors freezing some $450 million in funding at a time when Gaza’s 2.3 million people are in dire need of food, water, shelter and medicine.

Many countries have since resumed their donations, while others have not — including the United States, which passed a law blocking funding until at least March 2025.

“It’s money we were aware which was committed and which remains suspended for the agency. The total amount is $267 million. The bulk of it comes from the United States,” UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini told a press conference in Geneva.

He said that up to 16 countries had suspended contributions to UNRWA following the allegations in January but as of Tuesday, “most of the donor countries have resumed their contribution to the agency.

“We just have a handful of countries that still need to make a decision,” he said, citing Britain and Austria among them.

Switzerland is due to take a decision on whether to resume support on Wednesday.

Lazzarini said countries which had never donated to UNRWA before were now coming forward with contributions, including Algeria.

Over the last six months, more than $115 million had also been raised in private donations, “which is an indication of the extraordinary grassroots solidarity expressed towards Palestinians and also to the agency”, he added.

He said the agency had the money to keep running until the end of June, but noted that during his tenure since 2020, the agency had rarely been able to look more than two to three months ahead financially.

– Rafah ‘anxiety’ –

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that the Israeli military will launch a ground offensive in Rafah “with or without” a truce with Hamas in Gaza.

Lazzarini said there was deep anxiety in the Gaza Strip over the fear of a ground invasion in the far-southern city, which is packed with displaced civilians.

“People have not yet been asked to evacuate from Rafah,” he added. “My colleagues on the ground are also describing a constant state of trauma among the people.”

The war started after Hamas’ October 7 attack on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 34,535 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.

Geneva:

More children have been reported killed in the war raging in Gaza than in four years of conflict around the world, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees said Tuesday.

“Staggering. The number of children reported killed in just over 4 months in #Gaza is higher than the number of children killed in 4 years of wars around the world combined,” Philippe Lazzarini said on X, formerly Twitter.

Staggering. The number of children reported killed in just over 4 months in #Gaza is higher than the number of children killed in 4 years of wars around the world combined.

This war is a war on children. It is a war on their childhood and their future.#ceasefireNow for the… pic.twitter.com/tYwSNHecpy

— Philippe Lazzarini (@UNLazzarini) March 12, 2024

His post referenced United Nations numbers showing that 12,193 children had been killed in conflicts worldwide between 2019 and 2022.

It compared that to reports from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza indicating that more than 12,300 children died in the Palestinian territory between last October and the end of February.

“This war is a war on children. It is a war on their childhood and their future,” Lazzarini said.

The brutal war began with the unprecedented October 7 Hamas attack that resulted in about 1,160 deaths in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on Israeli official figures.

The militants also took around 250 hostages, dozens of whom were released during a week-long truce in November. Israel believes about 130 captives remain in Gaza, including 32 presumed dead.

Israel’s retaliatory bombardment and ground offensive have killed 31,184 Palestinians in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the territory’s health ministry.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Jerusalem:

Israel’s military on Monday accused the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, of employing “over 450 terrorists” belonging to groups including Hamas.

The allegation heightens Israel’s campaign against the agency which is at the centre of efforts to provide humanitarian relief in Gaza, where aid groups warn of looming famine after nearly five months of war between Israel and Hamas.

“According to intelligence, over 450 terrorists belonging to terrorist organisations in the Gaza Strip, mainly Hamas, are also employed by UNRWA,” a military statement said.

UNRWA employs around 30,000 people  in the occupied territories, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria — with about 13,000 staff in the Gaza Strip.

The military also released what it said were recordings of “a terrorist working as an Arabic teacher at an UNRWA school” who is “describing his entry into Israeli territory and stating that he is holding female Israeli hostages” during the October 7 attack by Hamas which started the war.

AFP could not independently corroborate the claims made in the statement.

UNRWA has been at the centre of controversy since Israel accused about a dozen of its employees of involvement in the October 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel, which resulted in about 1,160 deaths, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally.

Several countries — including the United States, Britain, Germany and Japan — suspended funding to UNRWA following the Israeli allegations. But the European Commission, recognising steps taken by the UN, said Friday it would release 50 million euros ($54 million) in UNRWA funding.

Phillipe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, has said that Israel provided no evidence against his former employees.

The United Nations fired the staff accused by Israel and has begun an internal probe.

Israel’s latest accusations against UNRWA came on the same day Lazzarini was set to defend his organisation’s work at the UN General Assembly.

In a letter to the Assembly’s president, Lazzarini said the agency’s ability to carry out its mandate is “seriously threatened.” He urged member states to “provide the political support necessary to sustain” it.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza has killed more than 30,500 people, mostly women and children, according to the latest toll from Hamas-run Gaza’s health ministry.

Further escalating tensions, Israel’s foreign minister said on Monday that Israel had called its ambassador to the United Nations home for “immediate consultations” over what it said was a UN attempt to “silence” information of sexual violence by Hamas.

Israel has criticised the UN for not responding quickly enough to victims’ accounts of rape and sexual assault allegedly committed during Hamas’s incursion into Israel.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

United Nations:

The UN agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) warned Monday that the limited number of aid trucks entering Gaza were insufficient to meet the “unprecedented humanitarian needs” in the territory.

“The handful of convoys being allowed through Rafah is nothing compared to the needs of over two million people trapped in Gaza,” UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini told the UN Security Council, referring to the sole border crossing between Gaza and Egypt.

Israel has unleashed a massive bombing campaign on Hamas-run Gaza after gunmen stormed across the border on October 7, killing 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and seizing 230 hostages, according to Israeli officials.

The strikes have flattened thousands of buildings and, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, killed over 8,000 people, also mostly civilians.

According to UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric, 33 trucks carrying water, food and medical supplies entered Gaza through Rafah on Sunday.

Prior to the war, some 500 trucks carrying aid and other goods entered Gaza every day.

“The system in place to allow aid into Gaza is geared to fail unless there is political will to make the flow of supplies meaningful, matching the unprecedented humanitarian needs,” Lazzarini said, calling for the Security Council to demand an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.

He said that 64 of his UNRWA colleagues had been killed in just over three weeks, “the highest number of UN aid workers killed in a conflict in such a short time.”

He added that a UN worker named Samir, as well Samir’s wife and eight children, had been killed just hours before the meeting.

“My UNRWA colleagues are the only glimmer of hope for the entire Gaza Strip… but they are running out of fuel, water, food and medicine and will soon be unable to operate,” said the Swiss-Italian official.

“An entire population is being dehumanized,” he warned.

UNICEF chief Catherine Russell told the council that her agency believes “the true cost of this latest escalation will be measured in children’s lives — those lost to the violence and those forever changed by it.”

The UN General Assembly adopted a nonbinding resolution last week calling for an immediate humanitarian truce, but the Security Council has thus far been unable to reach agreement on any text related to the war.

With permanent members Russia, China and the United States applying their vetoes to previous resolutions, the Security Council’s 10 elected members have begun working on a new draft they hope will garner consensus.

“We have the means to get something done and yet we repeatedly and shamefully fail,” said Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira, whose country currently holds the Security Council’s rotating chair.

“The eyes of the world are staring at us and will not move away from our distressing inability to act,” he added.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Palestinian Territories:

As Gaza’s hospital morgues overflow with victims killed in Israel’s bombardment triggered by a deadly Hamas attack, even an ice-cream truck has been used to hold corpses before their burial.

Israel has been pounding Gaza targets for days, seeking to wipe out the enclave’s rulers, Hamas, after its militants broke through the militarized border barrier on October 7 to kill more than 1,400 people in southern Israel.

Israel’s air strikes have claimed at least 2,750 lives in Gaza, where mortuaries with capacity only for dozens are filling up more quickly than relatives can claim them.

At the carpark of the hospital in central Gaza’s Deir el-Balah, a white truck covered with posters of ice-cream sticks is now packed with corpses wrapped in white body bags.

Among them are multiple members of Talaat Abu Lashine’s family.

“Two shells fell on the house at dawn. Sixteen people were at home, including eight children who were sleeping peacefully,” he said.

In Gaza City, a little further north, where tens of thousands of inhabitants have heeded Israel’s warning to flee south ahead of an expected ground invasion, many bodies were simply left behind in the mortuaries.

“Given the large number of martyrs lying unclaimed in the morgue of al-Shifa hospital, the deterioration of the corpses, and the continued arrival” of dozens more, “a common grave has been prepared to bury around 100” of them, said Salama Maruf, head of the media bureau for the Hamas government that runs Gaza.

‘Lots of children’

Even body bags are now in short supply, said Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).

“Every story coming out of Gaza is about survival, despair, and loss,” he said.

“Sometimes we don’t even have time to write the names” of the dead because there are just too many of them, said Ihsan al-Natour, who works at a cemetery in southern Gaza’s Rafah.

“There are lots of children among the martyrs,” he said, adding that “we are burying three or four in each grave.”

Gaza’s ministry of religious affairs has recommended using common graves because of the large numbers of deaths and a shortage of burial space, as Muslim funeral rites also require burials to take place as quickly as possible.

Hamas, which has controlled the enclave since 2007, said Monday that 1,000 bodies could still be under rubble and warned of diseases spreading.

In Rafah, residents prepared new graves, placing bricks and tiles around mounds of freshly dug earth.

In one of them, three bodies of children were stacked on top of each other. There wasn’t enough space to lay them to rest separately.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)