Iraq security officials report explosion at US-led coalition airport base

US army soldiers queue to board a plane to begin their journey home out of Iraq from the al-Asad Air Base west the capital Baghdad, on November 1, 2011. (AFP)
US army soldiers queue to board a plane to begin their journey home out of Iraq from the al-Asad Air Base west the capital Baghdad, on November 1, 2011. (AFP)
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Updated 11 September 2024
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Iraq security officials report explosion at US-led coalition airport base

Iraq security officials report explosion at US-led coalition airport base
  • Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian was expected in Iraq on Wednesday in his first trip abroad since taking office in July

BAGHDAD: Iraqi security forces said an explosion was heard at a US-led coalition’s military base at the Baghdad international airport late Tuesday, a day before Iran’s president was due to visit.
“At 23:00 (2000 GMT) an explosion was heard inside Baghdad International Airport in the area occupied by international coalition advisers,” according to a statement posted on social media platform X by the spokesman for the Joint Operations Command, Iraqi Major General Tahseen Al Khafaji.
“Iraqi security forces were unable ... to determine the origin of the explosion, which has not been claimed,” according to the statement, which was attributed to Iraqi security forces and also published by state news agency INA.
Air traffic was unaffected and no flights were interrupted, it added.
A senior military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP that “two Katyusha-type rockets” had caused the explosion.
“One fell on the wall of the Iraqi anti-terrorist forces compound. The second was inside the base hosting the international anti-jihadist coalition led by Washington,” said the official.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian was expected in Iraq on Wednesday in his first trip abroad since taking office in July.
Relations between Iran and Iraq, both Shiite-majority countries, have grown closer over the past two decades.
Tehran is one of Iraq’s leading trade partners and wields considerable political influence in Baghdad where its Iraqi allies dominate parliament and the current government.
A spokesperson for the Iranian-backed Ketaeb Hezbollah (Hezbollah Brigades) armed group in Iraq slammed what he called “an attack” that aimed to “disrupt the Iranian president’s visit to Baghdad.”
In a post on X, the spokesperson Jaafar Al-Husseini called on the Iraqi security services to identify the perpetrators.
Over the past year, US-led coalition forces have been targeted dozens of times with drones and rocket fire in both Iraq and Syria as violence related to the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza has drawn in Iran-backed armed groups across the Middle East.
US forces have carried out multiple retaliatory strikes against these groups in both countries.
To defuse the situation and spare Iraq from the fallout of regional tensions, the United States and Iraq have been negotiating a phased pull-out of US-led anti-jihadist forces.
The United States has deployed around 2,500 troops in Iraq and 900 in Syria as part of the international coalition against the Daesh group.
Iraqi security forces say they are capable of tackling IS remnants unassisted, as the group poses no significant threat.
 

 


Human Rights Watch warned Syrians fleeing Israel’s onslaught on Lebanon could face repression

Human Rights Watch warned Syrians fleeing Israel’s onslaught on Lebanon could face repression
Updated 8 sec ago
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Human Rights Watch warned Syrians fleeing Israel’s onslaught on Lebanon could face repression

Human Rights Watch warned Syrians fleeing Israel’s onslaught on Lebanon could face repression
  • It cited the case of a fleeing woman whose husband was “immediately” arrested by Syrian military intelligence
BERIUT: Human Rights Watch warned Wednesday that Syrians fleeing Israel’s onslaught on Lebanon could face repression at home as more than 355,000 Syrians returned in more than a month of war.
“Syrians escaping Lebanon, particularly men, risk arbitrary detention and abuse by Syrian authorities,” the group said in a statement.
“The deaths in custody of deportees under suspicious circumstances highlight the blatant risk of arbitrary detention, abuse and persecution for those fleeing back,” said HRW’s deputy Middle East director, Adam Coogle.
Since Israel launched its intensive air campaign on September 23, more than half a million people have fled from Lebanon to Syria, including more than 355,010 Syrians, according to Lebanese official figures.
HRW said it had documented five arrests in October.
It cited the case of a fleeing woman whose husband was “immediately” arrested by Syrian military intelligence, although they had hoped a recent amnesty, which included army deserters, would protect him.
“Syria is no safer for return than it was before, but the escalating dangers in Lebanon have left many Syrians with nowhere else to go,” Coogle said.
“Their return is not a sign of improved conditions in Syria, but of the stark reality that they’re being shut out of safer alternatives and forced back into a country where they still face the risks of detention, abuse and death.”
Last week, Transport Minister Ali Hamieh told AFP Israeli bombing had made a second border crossing between Lebanon and Syria inoperable — leaving only one official crossing between the neighboring countries operational.
After nearly a year of cross-border fire with Hezbollah, Israel last month ramped up strikes on the group’s strongholds and then sent ground forces across the border.
The war has killed at least 1,754 people in Lebanon since September 23, according to an AFP tally of health ministry figures, though the real number is likely to be higher due to gaps in the data.
The Israeli military says it has lost 37 soldiers in its Lebanon campaign since it launched ground operations on September 30.

Israel’s move to ban UN agency raises alarm about aid to Gaza even as the implications are unclear

Israel’s move to ban UN agency raises alarm about aid to Gaza even as the implications are unclear
Updated 35 min 12 sec ago
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Israel’s move to ban UN agency raises alarm about aid to Gaza even as the implications are unclear

Israel’s move to ban UN agency raises alarm about aid to Gaza even as the implications are unclear
  • Legislation barring UNRWA from operating in Israel passed with an overwhelming majority Monday
  • The two new laws are all but certain to hamper UNRWA’s work in Gaza and the occupied West Bank

JERUSALEM: Israeli legislation cutting ties with the UN agency for Palestinian refugees raised fears that the largest provider of aid to Gaza could be shut out of the war-ravaged territory, even as the implications of the new laws remained unclear Tuesday.
The agency known as UNRWA provides essential services to millions of Palestinians across the Middle East and has underpinned aid efforts in Gaza throughout the Israel-Hamas war. Legislation barring it from operating in Israel passed with an overwhelming majority Monday. Israel says UNRWA has allowed itself to be infiltrated by Hamas, with the militants siphoning off aid and using the agency’s facilities as shields. UNRWA denies the allegations, saying it is committed to neutrality and acts quickly to address any wrongdoing by its staff.
The two newly passed laws are all but certain to hamper UNRWA’s work in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, as Israel controls access to both territories. But the details of how the legislation would be implemented, and potential workarounds, remain unclear. It could also face legal challenges.
Either way, the laws could have major consequences for Palestinians in Gaza, who are heavily reliant on emergency food aid more than a year into a war that has killed tens of thousands, according to local officials who don’t distinguish combatants from civilians; displaced 90 percent of the population of 2.3 million; and left much of the territory in ruins.
What do the laws say?
The first law prohibits UNRWA from “operating any mission, providing any service or conducting any activity, either directly or indirectly, within Israel’s sovereign territory,” according to a statement from parliament.
It’s unclear whether UNRWA would still be able to operate inside Gaza and the West Bank, territories Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war but has never formally annexed. The Palestinians want both to be part of a future state.
The second law prohibits Israeli state agencies from communicating with UNRWA and revokes an agreement dating to 1947, before Israel was created, under which it facilitated UNRWA’s work.
With Israel controlling all access to Gaza and the West Bank, it could be difficult for UNRWA staff to enter and leave the territories through Israeli checkpoints, and to bring in vital supplies for its schools, health centers and humanitarian programs.
UNRWA and its staff would also lose their tax exemptions and legal immunities.
How would the laws affect UNRWA’s operations?
UNRWA’s headquarters are in east Jerusalem, which Israel seized in the 1967 war and annexed in a move not recognized internationally.
Much of the agency’s supply lines to the territories run through Israel, and shutting them down could create even more obstacles to getting essential aid — everything from flour and canned vegetables to winter blankets and mattresses — into Gaza.
At present, all shipments of aid into Gaza must be coordinated with COGAT, the Israeli military body in charge of civilian affairs, which inspects all shipments. Aid groups say their work is already hampered by Israeli delays, ongoing fighting and the breakdown of law and order inside Gaza.
Aid levels plunged in the first half of October as Israel closed crossings into north Gaza, where hunger experts say the threat of starvation is most acute. COGAT attributed the decline to closures related to the Jewish holidays and troop movements for a large, ongoing offensive in northern Gaza.
In the first 19 days of October, the UN says, 704 trucks of aid entered the Gaza Strip, down from over 3,018 trucks in September and August. COGAT’s own tracking dashboard shows aid deliveries in October plunging to under a third of their September and August levels.
The new laws would also likely bar UNRWA from banking in Israel, raising questions about how it would continue to pay thousands of Palestinian staff in Gaza and the West Bank. Its international staff would likely have to relocate to third countries like Jordan.
What could replace UNRWA?
Rights groups say Israel is obliged under international law to provide for the basic needs of people in the territories it occupies. Israel also faces increasing pressure from the Biden administration, which says it may have to reduce US military support if there isn’t a dramatic increase in aid going into Gaza.
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said the United States was “deeply troubled” by the legislation, which “poses risks for millions of Palestinians who rely on UNRWA for essential services.”
“We are going to engage with the government of Israel in the days ahead about how they plan to implement it” and see whether there are any legal challenges, he said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement Monday that Israel is“ready to work with our international partners to ensure Israel continues to facilitate humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza in a way that does not threaten Israel’s security.”
But many of those partners insist there is no alternative to UNRWA.
A spokesperson for the UN children’s agency, which also provides aid to Gaza, denounced the new laws in unusually strong language, saying “a new way has been found to kill children.”
James Elder said the loss of UNRWA “would likely see the collapse of the humanitarian system in Gaza.” His agency, known as UNICEF, “would become effectively unable to distribute lifesaving supplies,” such as vaccines, winter clothes, water and food to combat malnutrition.
Israeli officials are considering the possibility of having the military or private contractors take over aid distribution, but have yet to develop a concrete plan, according to two officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door discussions.
COGAT referred all questions on the new legislation to the government.
At risk is not just UNRWA’s aid delivery to Gaza, where it is also the largest employer. UNRWA also operates schools in the occupied West Bank serving over 330,000 children, as well as health care centers and infrastructure projects.
Amy Pope — head of the International Organization for Migration, another UN body — said it would not be able to fill the gap left by UNRWA, which she described as “absolutely essential.”
“They provide education. They provide health care. They provide some of the most basic needs, for people who have been living there for decades,” she said.


In Lebanon, a family’s memories are detonated along with their village

In Lebanon, a family’s memories are detonated along with their village
Updated 30 October 2024
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In Lebanon, a family’s memories are detonated along with their village

In Lebanon, a family’s memories are detonated along with their village
  • The scene has been repeated across southern Lebanon since Israel invaded with the aim of pushing Hezbollah militants back from the border

ARAMOUN: Ayman Jaber’s memories are rooted in every corner of Mhaibib, the village in southern Lebanon he refers to as his “habibti,” the Arabic word for “beloved.” The root of the village’s name means “the lover” or “the beloved.”
Reminiscing about his childhood sweetheart, the 45-year-old avionics technician talks about how the young pair would meet in a courtyard near his uncle’s house.
“I used to wait for her there to see her,” Jaber recalls with a smile. “Half of the village knew about us.”
The fond memory contrasts sharply with recent images of his hometown.
Mhaibib, perched on a hill close to the Israeli border, was leveled by a series of explosions on Oct. 16. The Israeli army released a video showing blasts ripping through the village in the Marjayoun province, razing dozens of homes to dust.
The scene has been repeated in villages across southern Lebanon since Israel launched its invasion a month ago with the stated goal of pushing Hezbollah militants back from the border. On Oct. 26, massive explosions in and around Odaisseh sparked an earthquake alert in northern Israel.
Israel says it wants to destroy a massive network of Hezbollah tunnels in the border area. But for the people who have been displaced, the attacks are also destroying a lifetime of memories.
Mhaibib had endured sporadic targeting since Hezbollah and Israeli forces began exchanging fire on Oct. 8 last year.
Jaber was living in Aramoun, just south of Beirut, before the war, and the rest of his family evacuated from Mhaibib after the border skirmishes ignited. Some of them left their possessions behind and sought refuge in Syria. Jaber’s father and two sisters, Zeinab and Fatima, moved in with him.
In the living room of their temporary home, the siblings sip Arabic coffee while their father chain-smokes.
“My father breaks my heart. He is 70 years old, frail and has been waiting for over a year to return to Mhaibib,” Zeinab said. “He left his five cows there. He keeps asking, ‘Do you think they’re still alive?’”
Mhaibib was a close-knit rural village, with about 70 historic stone homes lining its narrow streets. Families grew tobacco, wheat, mulukhiyah (jute mallow) and olives, planting them each spring and waking before dawn in the summer to harvest the crops.
The village was also known for an ancient shrine dedicated to Benjamin, the son of Jacob, an important figure in Judaism. In Islam, he is known as the prophet Benjamin Bin Yaacoub, believed to be the 12th son of prophet Yaacoub and the brother of prophet Yousef.
The shrine was damaged in the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, then renovated. Pictures show the shrine enclosed in a golden cage adorned with intricate Arabic inscriptions beside an old stone mosque crowned by a minaret that overlooked the village. The mosque and the shrine are now gone.
Hisham Younes, who runs the environmental organization Green Southerners, says generations of southerners admired Mhaibib for its one-or two-story stone homes, some built by Jaber’s grandfather and his friends.
“Detonating an entire village is a form of collective punishment and war crime. What do they gain from destroying shrines, churches and old homes?” Younes asks.
Abdelmoe’m Shucair, the mayor of neighboring Mays el Jabal, told the Associated Press that the last few dozen families living in Mhaibib fled before the Israeli destruction began, as had residents of surrounding villages.
Jaber’s sisters attended school in Mays Al-Jabal. That school was also destroyed in a series of massive explosions.
After finishing her studies in Beirut, Zeinab worked in a pharmacy in the neighboring village of Blida. That pharmacy, too, is gone after the Israeli military detonated part of that village. Israeli forces even bulldozed their village cemetery where generations of family members are buried.
“I don’t belong to any political group,” Zeinab says. “Why did my home, my life, have to be taken from me?”
She says she can’t bring herself to watch the video of her village’s destruction. “When my brother played it, I ran from the room.”
To process what’s happening, Fatima says she closes her eyes and takes herself back to Mhaibib. She sees the sun setting, vividly painting the sky stretching over their family gatherings on the upstairs patio, framed by their mother’s flowers.
The family painstakingly expanded their home over a decade.
“It took us 10 years to add just one room,” Fatima said. “First, my dad laid the flooring, then the walls, the roof and the glass windows. My mom sold a year’s worth of homemade preserves to furnish it.” She paused. “And it was gone in an instant.”
In the midst of war, Zeinab married quietly. Now she’s six months pregnant. She had hoped to be back in Mhaibib in time for the delivery.
Her brother was born when Mhaibib and other villages in southern Lebanon were under Israeli occupation. Jaber remembers traveling from Beirut to Mhaibib, passing through Israeli checkpoints and a final crossing before entering the village.
“There were security checks and interrogations. The process used to take a full or half a day,” he says. And inside the village, they always felt like they were “under surveillance.”
His family also fled the village during the war with Israel in 2006, and when they returned they found their homes vandalized but still standing. An uncle and a grandmother were among those killed in the 34-day conflict, but a loquat tree the matriarch had planted next to their home endured.
This time, there is no home to return to and even the loquat tree is gone.
Jaber worries Israel will again set up a permanent presence in southern Lebanon and that he won’t be able to reconstruct the home he built over the last six years for himself, his wife and their two sons.
“When this war ends, we’ll go back,” Ayman says quietly. “We’ll pitch tents if we have to and stay until we rebuild our houses.”


Israeli strikes in northern Gaza kill at least 88, officials say

Israeli strikes in northern Gaza kill at least 88, officials say
Updated 30 October 2024
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Israeli strikes in northern Gaza kill at least 88, officials say

Israeli strikes in northern Gaza kill at least 88, officials say
  • The intense fighting is raising alarm about the worsening humanitarian conditions for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians still in northern Gaza

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip: Two Israeli airstrikes in the northern Gaza Strip on Tuesday killed at least 88 people, including dozens of women and children, health officials said, and the director of a hospital said life-threatening injuries were going untreated because a weekend raid by Israeli forces led to the detention of dozens of medics.
Israel has escalated airstrikes and waged a bigger ground operation in northern Gaza in recent weeks, saying it is focused on rooting out Hamas militants who have regrouped after more than a year of war. The intense fighting is raising alarm about the worsening humanitarian conditions for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians still in northern Gaza.
Concerns about not enough aid reaching Gaza were amplified Monday when Israeli lawmakers passed two laws to cut ties with the main UN agency distributing food, water and medicine, and to ban it from Israeli soil. Israel controls access to both Gaza and the occupied West Bank, and it was unclear how the agency known as UNRWA would continue its work in either place.
“The humanitarian operation in Gaza, if that is unraveled, that is a disaster within a series of disasters and just doesn’t bear thinking about,” said UNRWA spokesperson John Fowler. He said other UN agencies and international organizations distributing aid in Gaza rely on its logistics and thousands of workers.
In Lebanon, the militant group Hezbollah said Tuesday it has chosen Sheikh Naim Kassem to succeed longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike last month. Hezbollah, which has fired rockets into Israel since the start of the war in Gaza, vowed to continue with Nasrallah’s policies “until victory is achieved.”
A short while later, eight Austrian soldiers serving in the UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon were reported lightly injured in a midday missile strike.
The peacekeeping force, known as UNIFIL, said the rocket that struck its headquarters in Lebanon was “likely” fired by Hezbollah, and that it struck a vehicle workshop.
Strike in northern Gaza comes as Israel wages a major operation there
The Gaza Health Ministry’s emergency service said at least 70 people were killed and 23 were missing in the first of Tuesday’s strikes in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya. More than half of the victims were women and children, the ministry said. A mother and her five children — some of them adults — and a second mother with six children, were among those killed in the attack on a five-story building, according to the emergency service.
A second strike on Beit Lahiya on Tuesday evening killed at least 18 people, according to the Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and militants in its count.
The nearby Kamal Adwan Hospital was overwhelmed by a wave of wounded women and children, including many who needed urgent surgeries, according to its director, Dr. Hossam Abu Safiya. The Israeli military raided the hospital over the weekend, detaining dozens of medics it said were Hamas militants.
“The situation is catastrophic in every sense of the word,” Safiya said, adding that the only remaining doctor at the hospital was a pediatrician. “The health care system has collapsed and needs an urgent international intervention.”
US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller referred to the “horrifying incident” in Beit Lahiya in comments to reporters. He said Israel’s yearlong campaign against Hamas has ensured it cannot repeat the type of attack that started the war in Gaza, but that “getting to here came at a great cost to civilians.”
The Israeli military said it was investigating the first Beit Lahiya strike; it did not immediately comment on the second.
Israel’s recent operations in northern Gaza, focused in and around the Jabaliya refugee camp, have killed hundreds of people and driven tens of thousands from their homes.
The Israeli military has repeatedly struck shelters for displaced people in recent months. It says it carries out precise strikes targeting Palestinian militants and tries to avoid harming civilians, but the strikes often kill women and children.
On Tuesday, Israel said four more of its soldiers were killed in the fighting in northern Gaza, bringing the toll since the start of the operation to 16, including a colonel.
As the fighting raged, Hamas signaled it was ready to resume ceasefire negotiations, although its key demands — a permanent ceasefire and full withdrawal of the Israeli military — do not appear to have changed, and have been dismissed in the past by Israel. Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said on Tuesday the group has accepted mediators’ request to discuss “new proposals.”
Hezbollah’s new leader has vowed to keep fighting Israel
Hezbollah said in a statement that its decision-making Shoura Council elected Kassem, who had been Nasrallah’s deputy leader for over three decades, as the new secretary-general.
Kassem, 71, a founding member of the militant group established following Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon, had been serving as acting leader. He has given several televised speeches vowing that Hezbollah will fight on despite a string of setbacks.
Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel, drawing retaliation, after Hamas’ surprise attack out of Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023. Iran, which backs both groups, has also directly traded fire with Israel, in April and then again this month.
The tensions with Hezbollah boiled over in September, as Israel unleashed a wave of heavy airstrikes and killed Nasrallah and most of his senior commanders. Israel launched a ground invasion into Lebanon at the start of October.
Hezbollah fired dozens of rockets into northern Israel on Tuesday, killing one person in the northern city of Maalot-Tarshiha, authorities said. Israeli strikes in the coastal city of Sidon killed at least five people, the Lebanese Health Ministry said.
Israeli laws targeting UN agency could further restrict aid
UNRWA and other international groups continued to express outrage Tuesday about the Israeli parliament’s decision to cut ties to the agency.
Israel says UNRWA has been infiltrated by Hamas and that the militant group siphons off aid and uses UN facilities to shield its activities, allegations denied by the UN agency.
Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer vowed that aid will continue to reach Gaza, as Israel plans to coordinate with aid organizations or other bodies within the UN “Ultimately, we will ensure that a more efficient replacement for UNRWA takes its role, not one which is infiltrated by the terrorist organization,” he said.
Multiple UN agencies rallied Tuesday around UNRWA, calling it the “backbone” of the world body’s aid activities in Gaza and other Palestinian areas. UNRWA provides education, health care and emergency aid to millions of Palestinian refugees from the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation and their descendants. Refugee families make up the majority of Gaza’s population.
Israel has sharply restricted aid to northern Gaza this month, prompting a warning from the United States that failure to facilitate greater humanitarian assistance could lead to a reduction in military aid.
In its attack on Israel last year, Hamas killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took around 250 as hostages. Some 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, a third of whom are believed to be dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed over 43,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities. Around 90 percent of the population of 2.3 million have been displaced from their homes, often multiple times.


Israel must step in if it bans the UN agency that is a lifeline for Gaza, UN says

Israel must step in if it bans the UN agency that is a lifeline for Gaza, UN says
Updated 30 October 2024
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Israel must step in if it bans the UN agency that is a lifeline for Gaza, UN says

Israel must step in if it bans the UN agency that is a lifeline for Gaza, UN says
  • Israel has alleged that some of UNRWA’s 13,000 staff members in Gaza participated in the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas, which sparked the war in Gaza

UNITED NATIONS: The United Nations stressed Tuesday that if Israel puts in place new laws cutting ties with the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, the Israeli government will have to meet their needs under international law.
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says there is no other UN alternative to the agency, known as UNRWA. It has been a lifeline during the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, and the Israeli legislation “will have a devastating impact on the humanitarian situation” in the Palestinian territories, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
The UN agencies for children, health and migration also stressed that UNRWA is the “backbone” of the world body’s operations in Gaza, where people rely on emergency food aid during the more than yearlong war , which has killed tens of thousands and left much of the enclave in ruins.
The United Nations is heartened by statements of support for UNRWA from all quarters and countries that often disagree with one another, Dujarric said, and “we would very much appreciate efforts by any member state to help us get over this hurdle.”
Israel has alleged that some of UNRWA’s 13,000 staff members in Gaza participated in the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas, which sparked the war in Gaza. It also has accused hundreds of UNRWA staff of having militant ties and said it has found Hamas military assets in or under the agency’s facilities.
Israel passed two laws Monday that could prevent UNRWA from continuing its work, which isolated it among the UN’s 193 member nations. Even the United States, its closest ally, joined many governments and humanitarian organizations in opposing the Israeli legislation, which doesn’t take effect for three months.
Guterres sent a letter Tuesday to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu outlining his concerns and “the issues of international law that have been raised,” Dujarric said.
As an occupying power, under international humanitarian law, Israel is required to ensure the needs of the Palestinians are met, including for food, health care and education, the UN spokesman said. And if Israel isn’t in a position to meet those needs, “it has an obligation to allow and to facilitate the activities of the UN, including UNRWA and other humanitarian agencies, to meet those needs.”
“Should UNRWA cease to operate — and for us there is no alternative — Israel would have to fill the vacuum,” Dujarric said. “Otherwise, it would be in violation of international law.”
Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon responded to the secretary-general’s letter to Netanyahu by saying, “Rather than condemning UNRWA for turning a blind eye to terrorism and in some cases participating in terrorism, the UN instead condemns Israel.”
He claimed in a statement that UNRWA isn’t interested in providing humanitarian aid to Gaza, calling it “nothing but an arm of Hamas operating under the guise of the United Nations.”
“Israel will continue to facilitate humanitarian aid in Gaza according to international law,” Danon said, “but UNRWA has failed in its mandate and is no longer the right agency for this job.”
World Health Organization spokesman Tarik Jasarevic said UNRWA health workers have provided over 6 million medical consultations over the past year. They also have offered immunizations, disease surveillance and screening for malnutrition, and UNRWA’s work “couldn’t be matched by any agency — including WHO,” he said.
Jeremy Laurence, spokesman for the UN human rights office, said that “without UNRWA, the delivery of food, shelter, health care, education, among other things, to most of Gaza’s population would grind to a halt.”
UNRWA was established by the UN General Assembly in 1949 to provide relief for Palestinians who fled or were expelled from their homes before and during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war that followed Israel’s establishment, as well as their descendants.
At the UN’s regular Security Council meeting on the Middle East — this month open to all UN members — speakers supported UNRWA and denounced Israel’s wars against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, virtually all calling for immediate ceasefires.
US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield expressed deep concern at the Israeli legislation, saying, “right now there is no alternative to UNRWA when it comes to delivering food and other life-saving aid in Gaza.”
She called on Guterres “to create a mechanism to review and address allegations that UNRWA personnel have ties to Hamas and other terrorist groups.”
UN spokesman Dujarric, asked about this request, said the UN’s internal watchdog is working on these issues. He said a letter from the Israeli government last week raising specific undisclosed issues is also being looked at “extremely seriously.”
US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller went further, warning that the Israeli legislation “poses risks for millions of Palestinians who rely on UNRWA for essential services.”
Miller reiterated that the US opposes the legislation and will be discussing it with Israel in the days ahead. He says there may be consequences under US law and policy if it takes effect, referencing a letter that Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin sent to their Israeli counterparts saying humanitarian aid must increase or the country risks losing military assistance.