Israel’s decision to ban the main aid agency providing most of the humanitarian relief in Gaza is “extremely worrying”, says the United Nations’ peacekeeping chief.
Jean-Pierre Lacroix told Sky News’ The World With Yalda Hakim that UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency) is “absolutely essential” to the delivery of such assistance to Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, where access is controlled by Israel.
More than a year into the war which was sparked by Hamas‘s massacre in southern Israel on 7 October last year, the population in Gaza is in a “disastrous situation”, he said.
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The Israeli parliament’s decision on Monday to vote to ban the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, citing the alleged role of some local staff in the attack, has raised fears among Israel’s Western allies that this will worsen the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. UNRWA denies allegations of militant ties.
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Israel defends UNRWA ban
The legislation, which will take effect 60 to 90 days after Israel’s foreign ministry notifies the UN, could severely restrict the ability of UNRWA to operate in the Palestinian territories, where it is responsible for more than five million refugees.
Famine fears
The UN World Food Programme has called for immediate action to avert famine in Gaza, warning that the crisis there could soon worsen amid what it said were severe restrictions on aid flows.
Mr Lacroix, the UN under-secretary-general for peace operations, said up to now there had been a “very strong and very united expression of very serious concern” about the plight of Gaza’s population, and there has to be “continuous pressure” to ensure the Israeli legislation will not be “operationalised”.
Since 7 October 2023, some 43,061 people in Gaza have been killed in Israeli attacks, which include airstrikes and a ground assault, the Hamas-run Palestinian health ministry says.
On Tuesday, an Israeli strike on a five-storey building where displaced Palestinians were sheltering in northern Gaza killed at least 60 people, more than half of them women and children, said the ministry.
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UNRWA ban a ‘terrible thing’
Meanwhile in Lebanon, the country’s health ministry says 2,792 people have been killed since 8 October 2023.
That was the day that Iranian-ally Hezbollah, a militant and political group, started firing rockets into northern Israel in a show of support for Hamas.
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On Tuesday, eight Austrian soldiers serving in the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon were lightly injured in a missile strike at the Naqoura camp, Austrian authorities said.
Mr Lacroix claimed that “in some instances we’ve seen clear indication of deliberate attacks” on peacekeepers in Lebanon.
“But, I wouldn’t say that all, attacks or all incidents have been deliberate. In a number of cases, we still have to investigate.”
He said all attacks against UN peacekeepers are “unacceptable” and it was “critically important” for them to remain.
Earlier this month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected accusations that Israeli troops had deliberately targeted UNIFIL peacekeepers in Lebanon as “completely false” and repeated a call for them to be withdrawn from combat zones.
