The head of the United Nations called on donor countries on Sunday to guarantee the continuation of activities carried out for civilians in Gaza by the Palestinian Refugee Agency, UNRWA, weakened by the suspected involvement of employees in the Hamas attack on Israeli soil on October 7.
On the ground, in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army described “intense fighting” in Khan Younes, the large city in the south of the Palestinian territory now the epicenter of the war, indicating that it had killed “terrorists and seized significant quantities of weapons.
In New York, Antonio Guterres called on donor countries that have suspended their funding to UNRWA to “at least guarantee” the continuation of its operations in the besieged territory, where humanitarian aid is trickling in.
“Two million civilians in Gaza depend on crucial aid [de l’agence onusienne] for their daily survival, but UNRWA’s current funding will not allow it to meet all needs in February,” he insisted.
PHOTO ABUBAKER LUBOWA, REUTERS ARCHIVES
The head of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres
France indicated on Sunday that it did not anticipate “any further payment” of aid until July. Several countries including the United States and Germany, the two main contributors, suspended their aid after UNRWA announced Friday that 12 of its employees were suspected of having participated in the Hamas attack in the south of Israel.
“Despicable acts”
This unprecedented attack led to the death of around 1,140 people in Israel, mainly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli figures.
In response, Israel launched a vast military operation in Gaza, which left 26,422 dead, the vast majority of them women, children and adolescents, according to the latest report on Sunday from the Hamas Ministry of Health.
Israel has vowed to “annihilate” the Islamist movement, classified as terrorist by the United States, the European Union and Israel.
The “extremely serious accusations” against UNRWA employees are the subject of an internal investigation, recalled Mr. Guterres. Nine have been fired, one is “confirmed dead,” and the identities of two others are “being clarified,” he said.
“The alleged despicable actions of these employees must have consequences,” but should not penalize “the tens of thousands of men and women who work” for the agency, he stressed.
Israeli Ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, accused him of choosing to ignore “evidence” of UNRWA’s involvement in “incitement and terrorism”.
Hamas, which took power in Gaza in 2007, denounced “threats” against the agency. In the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Authority has criticized a campaign aimed at “liquidating the question of Palestinian refugees”.
Fights around hospitals
“If the help [de l’UNRWA] is suspended, there will be a famine. They are the ones who give us flour, food and drink,” worries Bassam al-Masri, a resident of the northern Gaza Strip, taking refuge in Rafah, in the far south.
More than 1.3 million displaced Gazans, according to the UN, are massed there against the closed border with Egypt to flee the fighting further north, which is concentrated around Khan Younes.
In this city, considered by Israel to be a stronghold of Hamas, the clashes particularly took place around the Nasser and al-Amal hospitals.
Around 350 patients and 5,000 displaced people were at Nasser Hospital on Saturday, “short of fuel, food and supplies”, according to Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization (WHO).
According to the Palestinian Red Crescent, surgical operations are suspended at al-Amal hospital due to lack of oxygen.
A truce under discussion
In the hope of obtaining a truce and the release of hostages still held in Gaza, William Burns, the director of the CIA, met on Sunday in Paris with senior Israeli and Egyptian officials, as well as the Qatari prime minister, according to sources close to the participants in these meetings.
Qatar, Egypt and the United States had already been involved in negotiating the first truce at the end of November, during which around a hundred of the approximately 250 people kidnapped in Israel during the October 7 attack were released, in exchange Palestinian prisoners.
According to Israeli authorities, 132 hostages are still held in the Gaza Strip, including 28 presumed dead.
THE New York Times on Saturday raised a draft agreement that would involve a two-month truce and the release of more than 100 hostages.
On Sunday morning, Israelis demanding the release of the hostages also demonstrated at the Kerem Shalom crossing point, near Rafah, causing humanitarian aid trucks to turn around towards the Palestinian territory. According to them, the entry of this aid fuels the continuation of the conflict.
The day before, several thousand people across the country demonstrated to demand the return of the hostages and the resignation of the government in view of new elections.