At the same time, the Israeli army carried out new strikes in Gaza and Lebanon, where it is fighting respectively Hamas and Hezbollah, two pro-Iranian Islamist movements that it seeks to put out of harm's way. Despite the hard blows inflicted on Hezbollah, this movement continues to fire rockets into northern Israel, which borders southern Lebanon. On Monday, he said he launched a salvo of rockets at Safed.
The war in Gaza was triggered by an attack of unprecedented violence and scale carried out on October 7, 2023 by Hamas on Israeli soil. The next day and in support of Hamas, Hezbollah opened a front against Israel, which degenerated into open war last September. On the eve of the presidential election in the United States, Israel's main ally, and despite international pressure, attempts to end hostilities remained in vain.
A week after Parliament passed a law banning the activities in Israel of the UN relief agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), Foreign Affairs “notified the UN of the cancellation of the agreement between Israel and UNRWA,” according to a press release.
Palestinians fill water in cans amid destruction in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza Strip, November 3, 2024 – Beit Lahia (AFP)
Collapse. The agreement with Israel dates back to 1967, when Israel began its occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza, as well as East Jerusalem, where UNRWA provided essential aid to Palestinian refugees for decades – education , health, social services, food and cash assistance.
Israel, for a long time very critical of UNRWA, once again accused “employees of the organization of having participated in the massacre of October 7”, according to the Israeli press release: “The UN received countless evidence on Hamas agents employed by UNRWA and the use of its installations for terrorist purposes. »
“If the law is implemented, it risks causing the collapse of the international humanitarian operation in Gaza, of which UNRWA is the backbone,” warned Jonathan Fowler, a spokesperson for the agency. The law, which caused an international outcry on voting day October 28, is due to take effect 90 days after its adoption.
Kill. “Currently, the Palestinian people depend almost entirely on aid from abroad, especially from UNRWA, and interrupting it amounts to killing the entire Palestinian people,” said Abdel Karim Kallab, a resident of Khan Younes in southern Gaza. “We only have Unrwa (to provide aid). People will die of hunger and will not be able to feed their children,” exclaimed Houria Abou Charkh, a displaced person from Gaza City.
For Hamas, Israel's decision “is an attempt to deny refugees the right to return to their homes from which they were forcibly expelled by Zionist terrorist militias more than seven decades ago.” Israel vowed to destroy Hamas after its attack on October 7, 2023, which resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli data, including hostages killed or died in captivity . Of 251 people kidnapped, 97 remain hostages in Gaza, 34 of whom were declared dead by the army.
In retaliation, the Israeli army launched a destructive offensive in Gaza that left 43,374 people dead, mostly civilians, according to data from the Hamas Health Ministry. It constantly bombards the poor and cramped Palestinian territory where it has for more than a year besieged the approximately 2.4 million inhabitants, the vast majority of whom have been displaced. On Monday, new strikes targeted the territory, according to witnesses.
Insufficient. According to UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini, the daily average number of trucks authorized by Israel to enter Gaza fell to 30 in October: “This is not enough to meet the needs of more than 2 million people, many of whom are starving and sick and living in desperate conditions.”
On Israel's northern border, new Israeli air raids were carried out on southern Lebanon, where Israeli troops have also been engaged in a ground offensive since September 30. From September 23, Israel intensified its strikes against Hezbollah, saying it wanted to neutralize this movement in the southern border regions and keep its fighters away north of the Litani River, located around thirty km from the Israeli border.
Objective: the return of 60,000 inhabitants in northern Israel, displaced by Hezbollah fire. At least 1,940 people have been killed since September 23 in Lebanon, according to an AFP count based on official data.
Cyril JULIEN with Aya ISKANDARANI in Beirut
© Agence France-Presse
