Israel wants the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) to no longer play any role in Gaza, after accusations that employees were involved in the Hamas attack on October 7, its chief said. diplomacy. UNRWA, in the sights of Israeli authorities for a long time, separated Friday from several employees accused of being involved in the October 7 attack, the most violent in Israeli history.
In response, Hamas denounced this Saturday Israel’s “threats and blackmail” against UN agencies. “We ask the United Nations and international organizations not to give in to threats and blackmail” from Israel, added the Palestinian Islamist movement in a press release, while several countries including the United States have suspended their funding of UNRWA .
UNRWA in the sights
The Israeli government wants to “ensure that UNRWA will not be part” of the solution in the Palestinian territory after the war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement, Israel Katz said in a statement, hoping to “stop” all activities of the agency.
Washington “temporarily” suspended all additional funding to the UN agency, followed on Saturday by several other donor countries, including Italy. “The Italian government suspended funding to @UNRWA following the horrific Hamas attack on Israel on October 7. Allied countries recently made the same decision. We are committed to providing humanitarian aid to the Palestinian population, protecting the security of Israel,” Antonio Tajani wrote on X.
Hamas, for its part, asked in a statement “the United Nations and international organizations not to give in to threats and blackmail” from Israel, accusing Israel of wanting to “cut off funds and deprive” the population of Gaza of all international aid. . He also published the toll of people killed since October 7, amounting to 26,257 victims, the majority of them women, adolescents and children in the Gaza Strip. During the last 24 hours, 174 people were killed, according to Hamas, in power in Gaza, also reporting 64,797 injured.