Israel is pushing to kick out the United Nations agency responsible for helping Palestinian refugees out of Gaza after the group fired a dozen staff over their alleged involvement in the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attack, officials said.
Foreign Minister Israel Katz announced Middle Eastern countries are working to ensure that “UNRWA will not be part of the day after” following the dismissal of staff.
Katz added that his department aims to build support for the removal of UNRWA with the United States, the European Union, and other countries that provide substantial funding to the impoverished agency.
“We have been warning for years: UNRWA perpetuates the refugee issue, hinders peace, and functions as the civilian arm of Hamas in Gaza,” the foreign minister said in a note on X.
UNRWA announced on Friday that it had dismissed several staff members after Israel provided the group with intelligence that alleged its workers were involved in a brutal massacre in southern Israel that left 1,200 dead and 250 kidnapped by Hamas.
Israel’s foreign minister said UNRWA is maintaining the refugee issue and preventing peace in Gaza, after several agency staff were fired Friday for their alleged involvement in a murderous attack in Israel on Oct. 7. Reuters
The United States quickly announced it was cutting funding to the agency after learning that “12 UNRWA employees may have been involved” in the October 7 terrorist attacks by Hamas, the State Department said. Since President Biden took office, the US has committed more than $730 million to UN agencies for refugee assistance in the West Bank and Gaza.
Other countries including Canada, Italy, Australia, the United Kingdom, and Finland have announced that they are halting any additional aid to the agency.
“The UK is appalled by the allegations that UNRWA staff were involved in the 7 October attack on Israel, an act of terrorism which has been repeatedly condemned by the UK Government,” the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said.
The Israeli military has been bombing Gaza since the October 7 attack in an effort to wipe out the Hamas terrorist group. Reuters
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the 27-member bloc was looking to “assess further steps and draw lessons based on the results of a full and comprehensive investigation.”
On Saturday, Hamas slammed Israel’s “threat” against UNRWA and urged the international body and other countries “not to bow to threats and blackmail.”
Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA’s commissioner-general, said he made the decision to fire staff “to protect the agency’s ability to deliver humanitarian aid” after Israeli intelligence shared
After UNRWA laid off its staff, several countries cut funding to the agency. Reuters
The head of the agency added that an investigation is underway and that any personnel found to have participated in terrorist acts “will be held accountable, including through criminal prosecution.”
Following the brutal Hamas attack on October 7, Israel has been shelling Gaza for months in an effort to eliminate the terrorist group.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was “shocked” by news of UNRWA staff’s alleged involvement in terrorist attacks, and pledged that the agency would “conduct an immediate and comprehensive independent review of UNRWA,” his spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, said.
The death toll from the bloody war in Gaza has exceeded 26,000, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and terrorists.
In other developments:
- IDF troops were found a tranche of weapons, including dozens of AK-47s, grenades, mortar shells, and explosives fired from drones, during a raid on the Gaza city of Khan Younis. The discovery comes amid ongoing operations in and around the city, where Israeli forces killed more than 100 Hamas fighters on Tuesday, The Times of Israel reported.
- Israeli airstrikes targeting Hezbollah sites in the village of Beit Lif and in Deir Aames in southern Lebanon killed four members of the Iran-backed terror group on Friday, TOI reported.
- Hundreds of anti-war protesters stopped traffic on a major highway in Tel Aviv on Wednesday to demand an end to fighting in Gaza and the release of hostages.
- A tanker bound for the United Kingdom burned for several hours in the Gulf of Aden on Saturday after it was hit by a missile launched by the Iran-backed Houthis, the BBC reported. The Yemen-based terror group, which has been the target of US and UK airstrikes in recent weeks over its attacks on shipping vessels in the Red Sea, said Saturday’s attack was in response to “American-British aggression.”
With Postal wire.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
