Lebanese FM calls for urgent international help amid Israeli attacks

Lebanese FM calls for urgent international help amid Israeli attacks
Lebanon's Minister for Foreign Affairs and Emigrants Abdallah Bouhabib speaks during the 79th Session of the United Nations General Assembly at the United Nations headquarters in New York City on September 26, 2024.(AFP)
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Lebanese FM calls for urgent international help amid Israeli attacks

Lebanese FM calls for urgent international help amid Israeli attacks
  • Crisis threatens international peace, security, Abdallah Bou Habib tells UN General Assembly
  • ‘Has Israel not had enough of the endless war since 1948? When will it be time for Israel to give a real opportunity for peace?’

NEW YORK CITY: Lebanon’s foreign minister on Thursday stressed the urgent need for international intervention to address the crisis in his country, which has seen Israeli attacks kill 700 citizens since Monday.

“Lebanon is currently enduring a crisis which is threatening its very existence,” Abdallah Bou Habib told the UN General Assembly.

The crisis “will transform into a black hole that will engulf regional (and) international peace and security” if the world continues to remain “immobile,” he said.

Bou Habib welcomed the joint declaration by the US and France on Wednesday for a 21-day ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, and demanded that all possible measures be adopted for it to be implemented.

He said what Lebanon is experiencing is “a consequence of the absence of a lasting (and) sustainable solution,” and “not the cause of an absence of a sustainable solution. The cause is the occupation.”

Despite the UN’s inability to protect Lebanon from Israeli aggression, Bou Habib said his country remains committed to the organization’s role as a “frontline of defense.”

Lebanon has repeatedly made efforts for peace, he added, citing the 2022 maritime demarcation deal and the country’s proposed framework for peace along its border with Israel.

However, “Israel has continuously eluded the issue or disregarded the matter,” which is why “we’re seeking refuge in the decisions under international law,” he said, reiterating Lebanon’s call for a “ceasefire on all fronts.”

Bou Habib also asked for international support in “reinforcing the deployment of the Lebanese army south of the Litani River,” and delivering equipment needed to increase troop numbers in the area.

He emphasized Lebanon’s commitment to peace and security, saying despite its economic crisis, the government has decided to send 100,000 additional soldiers to the south of the country.

He expressed gratitude for the UN Interim Force in Lebanon, which has “significantly contributed to stability and peace in the region” since its inception.

“Has Israel not had enough of the endless war since 1948? When will it be time for Israel to give a real opportunity for peace?” Bou Habib asked.

He said Lebanon and other Arab countries have “clearly, without any ambiguity, categorically embraced peace” through the Arab Peace Initiative in 2002, and it is now “incumbent upon Israel” to choose peace and break the cycle of violence in the region.


Netanyahu vows to use ‘full force’ against Hezbollah and dims hopes for a ceasefire

Netanyahu vows to use ‘full force’ against Hezbollah and dims hopes for a ceasefire
Updated 27 September 2024
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Netanyahu vows to use ‘full force’ against Hezbollah and dims hopes for a ceasefire

Netanyahu vows to use ‘full force’ against Hezbollah and dims hopes for a ceasefire
  • Israel said Wednesday its air force had struck some 280 Hezbollah targets across Lebanon
  • Nearly 700 people have been killed in Lebanon this week as Israel dramatically escalated strikes

NEW YORK: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday vowed to carry out “full force” strikes against Hezbollah until it ceases firing rockets across the border, dimming hopes for a ceasefire proposal put forth by US and European officials.
Israel carried out a new strike in the Lebanese capital, which it said killed a senior Hezbollah commander, and the militant group launched dozens of rockets into Israel. Tens of thousands of Israeli and Lebanese people living near their countries’ border have been displaced by the fighting.
Netanyahu spoke as he landed in New York to attend the annual UN General Assembly meeting, where US and European officials were putting heavy pressure on both sides of the conflict to accept a proposed 21-day halt in the fighting to give time for diplomacy and avert all-out war.
Nearly 700 people have been killed in Lebanon this week as Israel dramatically escalated strikes, saying it is targeting Hezbollah’s military capacities. Israeli leaders say they are determined to stop the group’s cross-border attacks, which began after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack that ignited the war in Gaza.
Israel’s “policy is clear,” Netanyahu said. “We are continuing to strike Hezbollah with full force. And we will not stop until we reach all our goals, chief among them the return of the residents of the north securely to their homes.”
Just before his comments, the Israeli military said it killed a Hezbollah drone commander, Mohammed Hussein Surour, in an airstrike in the suburbs of Beirut. Hezbollah did not immediately comment on the claim. The Health Ministry said two people were killed and 15 wounded in the strike.
The strike gutted an apartment in a residential building in Dahiyeh, the mainly Shiite suburb where Hezbollah has a strong presence, according to Associated Press photos of the scene.
Over the past week, Israel has carried out several strikes in Beirut targeting senior Hezbollah commanders. One strike in eastern Lebanon on Thursday killed 20 people, most of them Syrian migrants, according to Lebanese health officials.
Israel hit 75 sites early Thursday across southern and eastern Lebanon and launched a new wave of strikes in the evening, the military said. Throughout the day, Hezbollah fired some 175 projectiles into Israel, the Israeli military said. Most were intercepted or fell in open areas, sparking some wildfires, though one rocket hit a street in a town near the northern city of Safed.
Israel has talked of a possible ground invasion into Lebanon to drive Hezbollah — an Iranian-backed Shiite group that is the strongest armed force in Lebanon — away from the border. It has moved thousands of troops to the north in preparation. Some 100,000 Lebanese have fled their homes in the past week, streaming into Beirut and points further north.
In Israel, military vehicles transported tanks and armored vehicles toward the country’s northern border with Lebanon a day after commanders issued a call-up of reservists. Several tanks arrived in Kiryat Shmona, a hard-hit town just several miles from the border.
The escalation has raised fears of a repeat – or worse – of the 2006 war between the two sides that wreaked destruction across southern Lebanon and other parts of the country and saw heavy Hezbollah rocket fire on Israeli cities.

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“Another full-scale war could be devastating for both Israel and Lebanon,” US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said after talks with his British and Australian counterparts in London.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was at the UN meeting with Israeli officials over the truce proposal. Speaking in an interview with MSNBC, he said major powers, the Europeans and Arab nations were united, “everyone speaking with one clear voice about the need to get that ceasefire in the north.”
“I can’t speak for him,” Blinken said of Netanyahu.
Hezbollah has not yet responded to the proposal. Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati welcomed it, but his government has no sway over the group.
Netanyahu’s office downplayed the initiative, saying in a statement that it was only a proposal.
One of Netanyahu’s far-right governing partners threatened on Thursday to suspend cooperation with his government if it signs onto a temporary ceasefire with Hezbollah – and to quit completely if a permanent deal is reached. It was the latest sign of displeasure from Netanyahu’s allies toward international ceasefire efforts.
“If a temporary ceasefire becomes permanent, we will resign from the government,” said National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, head of the Jewish Power party.
If Ben-Gvir leaves the coalition, Netanyahu would lose his parliamentary majority and could see his government come toppling down, though opposition leaders have said they would offer support for a ceasefire deal.
Hezbollah has insisted it would halt its strikes only if there is a ceasefire in Gaza, where Israel has battled Hamas for nearly a year. That appears out of reach despite months of negotiations led by the United States, Egypt and Qatar.
One day after Hamas’ Oct 7 attack on southern Israel that triggered the war in Gaza, Hezbollah began firing rockets into northern Israel, bringing Israeli counterfire and a cycle of reprisals that has gone on near daily since. Hezbollah says its barrages are a show of support for Palestinians and that it is targeting Israeli military facilities, though rockets have also hit civilian areas.
Before this week, the cross-border exchanges had killed about 600 people in Lebanon, mostly militants but including more than 100 civilians, and about four dozen people in Israel, roughly half of them soldiers and the rest civilians. The fighting also forced tens of thousands to flee homes on both sides of the border.
Israel says its escalated strikes across Lebanon the past week are targeting Hezbollah rocket launchers and other military infrastructure. Since Monday, strikes have killed more than 690 people in Lebanon, around a quarter of them women and children, according to local health authorities.
The campaign opened with what is widely believed to be an Israeli attack on Sept. 18 and 19 detonating thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah, killing at least 39 people and maiming thousands more, including civilians.
Hezbollah in turn has fired hundreds of rockets into Israel. Several people in Israel have been wounded. On Wednesday, the group fired on Tel Aviv for the first time with a longer-range missile that was intercepted.
Early Thursday, an Israeli airstrike hit a building housing Syrian workers and their families near the ancient city of Baalbek in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley. The Lebanese Health Ministry said 19 Syrians and a Lebanese were killed, one of the deadliest single strikes in Israel’s intensified air campaign.
Hussein Salloum, a local official in Younine, said most of the dead were women and children. The state news agency had initially reported that 23 people were dead.
Lebanon, with a population of around 6 million, hosts nearly 780,000 registered Syrian refugees and hundreds of thousands who are unregistered — the world’s highest refugee population per capita.


Blinken tells Israel escalation will make civilian return more difficult

Blinken tells Israel escalation will make civilian return more difficult
Updated 27 September 2024
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Blinken tells Israel escalation will make civilian return more difficult

Blinken tells Israel escalation will make civilian return more difficult
  • Despite Israel’s stance, the US and France sought to keep prospects alive for an immediate 21-day truce they proposed on Wednesday
  • Washington has faced mounting global and domestic criticism over its backing of Israel amid the escalation of conflict in Lebanon

WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Israel on Thursday that further escalation to the conflict involving Lebanon will only make it harder for civilians to return home on both sides of the border, the State Department said.
Israel rejected global calls on Thursday for a ceasefire with the Hezbollah movement, defying its biggest ally in Washington and pressing ahead with strikes that have killed hundreds in Lebanon and heightened fears of an all-out regional war.
Despite Israel’s stance, the US and France sought to keep prospects alive for an immediate 21-day truce they proposed on Wednesday, and said negotiations continued, including on the sidelines of a United Nations meeting in New York.
“The Secretary discussed the importance of reaching an agreement on the 21 day ceasefire across the Israel-Lebanon border,” the State Department said in a statement referring to talks between Blinken and Israeli Minister for Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer.
“He underscored that further escalation of the conflict will only make that objective (of civilian return) more difficult.”
The State Department added that Blinken also discussed efforts to reach a ceasefire in Gaza and steps that Israel needs to take to improve delivery of humanitarian assistance in the enclave where nearly the entire 2.3 million population is displaced and a hunger crisis exists.
US President Joe Biden laid out a three-phase ceasefire proposal for Gaza on May 31 but the deal has run into obstacles, mostly over Israeli demands to maintain presence in the Philadelphi corridor on Gaza’s border with Egypt and specifics about exchanges of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners.
Washington has faced mounting global and domestic criticism over its backing of Israel amid the escalation of conflict in Lebanon, where Israeli strikes have killed hundreds in recent days.
Critics say Washington has not leveraged its assistance to pressure Israel into accepting ceasefire calls. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is due to address the United Nations General Assembly on Friday.
The latest bloodshed in the decades old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered on Oct. 7 when Palestinian Hamas militants attacked Israel, killing 1,200 and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Israel’s subequent military assault on Gaza has killed over 41,000, according to Palestinian health authorities.


What obstacles stand in the way of an Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire?

What obstacles stand in the way of an Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire?
Updated 27 September 2024
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What obstacles stand in the way of an Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire?

What obstacles stand in the way of an Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire?
  • Hezbollah wants a truce in Gaza as a condition for striking a deal with Israel
  • For Israel, the condition is a high price to pay and Netanyahu's partners want him to fight on

Israel and Hezbollah each have strong incentives to heed international calls for a ceasefire that could avert all-out war — but that doesn’t mean they will.
Hezbollah is reeling after a sophisticated attack on personal devices killed and wounded hundreds of its members. Israeli airstrikes have killed two top commanders in Beirut in less than a week, and warplanes have pounded what Israel says are Hezbollah sites across large parts of Lebanon, killing over 600 people.
So far, Israel clearly has the upper hand militarily, which could make it less willing to compromise. But it’s unlikely to achieve its goal of halting Hezbollah rocket fire with air power alone, and a threatened ground invasion of Lebanon poses major risks.
After nearly a year of war, Israeli troops are still fighting Hamas in Gaza. And Hezbollah is a much more formidable force.
“Hezbollah has yet to employ 10 percent of its capabilities,” military affairs correspondent Yossi Yehoshua wrote in Yediot Ahronot, Israel’s largest daily newspaper. “The euphoria that is evident among the decision-makers and some of the public should be placed back in the attic: the situation is still complex and flammable.”
The United States and its allies, including Gulf Arab countries, have tried to offer a way out, proposing an immediate 21-day ceasefire to “provide space for diplomacy.”
But any deal would require both sides to back away from their core demands, and they may decide the price is too high.
 

Hezbollah wants a truce in Gaza, too
Hezbollah began launching rockets, drones and missiles into northern Israel after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack in the south triggered the war in Gaza. Hezbollah and Hamas are both allies of Iran, and the Lebanese militant group says it is acting in solidarity with Palestinians.
Israel has responded with waves of airstrikes. Overall, the fighting has killed dozens of people in Israel, more than 1,500 in Lebanon and forced the evacuation of tens of thousands of people from communities on both sides of the border.
Hezbollah has said it will halt the attacks if there is a ceasefire in Gaza. But months of negotiations over Gaza led by the United States, Qatar and Egypt have repeatedly stalled, and Hamas might be less motivated to reach a deal if it thinks Hezbollah and Iran will join a wider war against Israel.
For Hezbollah, halting its rocket fire without securing any tangible gains for the Palestinians would be seen as a capitulation to Israeli pressure, with all of its recent casualties suffered in vain.
Any deal involving a ceasefire in Gaza would be a hard sell for Israel, which would view it as a reward for Hezbollah rocket attacks that have displaced tens of thousands of its citizens for nearly a year.
For Israel, a ceasefire might not be enough
Israel’s goals in Lebanon are far narrower than in Gaza, where Prime Minister Benjmain Netanyahu has vowed “total victory” over Hamas and the return of scores of hostages.
Israel wants the tens of thousands of people who were evacuated from northern communities nearly a year ago to return safely to their homes. And it wants to ensure that Hezbollah never carries out an Oct. 7-style attack.
A weekslong ceasefire — which would give Hezbollah a chance to reset after major attacks on its chain of command and communications — might not be enough.

Few Israelis are likely to return if they know it’s only temporary, and even an agreement for a lasting ceasefire would face skepticism.
The UN Security Council resolution that ended the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah called for the militants to withdraw north of the Litani River, some 30 kilometers (18 miles) from the border, and for the area between to be patrolled by Lebanese forces and UN peacekeepers.
Israel says that provision was never implemented and is likely to demand additional guarantees in any new ceasefire. But Hezbollah is far stronger than Lebanon’s regular armed forces and the UN detachment, neither of which would be able to impose any agreement by force.
Netanyahu’s partners want him to fight on
Netanyahu leads the most religious and nationalist government in Israel’s history. His far-right coalition partners have threatened to bring down his government if he makes too many concessions to Hamas, and they are also likely to oppose any deal with Hezbollah.
Bezalel Smotrich, Netanyahu’s hard-line finance minister, said Thursday that Israel’s campaign in the north “should only end in one scenario – crushing Hezbollah and denying its ability to harm residents of the north.”
Itamar Ben-Gvir, the far-right National Security Minister, said he would not support a temporary ceasefire and would leave the government if it becomes permanent.
Although opposition parties would likely support the ceasefire, the defection of his partners would eventually bring down Netanyahu’s government and force early elections, potentially leaving him even more exposed to investigations into the security failures of Oct. 7 and corruption charges that predate the war. It could even mean the end of his long political career.
Iran has sent mixed signals
In Lebanon, Prime Minister Najib Mikati has welcomed the ceasefire proposal, but he has little power to impose an agreement on Hezbollah.
Iran, which helped establish Hezbollah in the 1980s and is the source of its advanced weapons, has more sway over the group, but it has yet to express a position on any ceasefire. It likely fears a wider war that could bring it into direct conflict with the United States, but can’t stand by indefinitely while its most powerful proxy force is dismantled.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, a relative moderate elected over the summer, struck a more conciliatory tone toward the West than his predecessors when he addressed the UN General Assembly on Tuesday.
But he had sharp words for Israel and said its heavy bombardment of Lebanon in recent days “cannot go unanswered.”
 


Iran shows ‘willingness’ to re-engage on nuclear issue: IAEA chief

Iran shows ‘willingness’ to re-engage on nuclear issue: IAEA chief
Updated 27 September 2024
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Iran shows ‘willingness’ to re-engage on nuclear issue: IAEA chief

Iran shows ‘willingness’ to re-engage on nuclear issue: IAEA chief

UNITED NATIONS: The head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog on Thursday said Iran is showing “willingness” to re-engage on the nuclear issue, but that Tehran will not reconsider its decision to deny access to top UN inspectors.

International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi said Tehran was “showing signs of willingness to reengage, not only with the IAEA, but also... with our former partners in the nuclear agreement of 2015.”

Grossi spoke after meeting this week with Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who played a key role in the negotiations that culminated in the 2015 landmark nuclear deal with world powers which has since unraveled.

“It’s a moment where there is a possibility to do something” on the nuclear question, Grossi told AFP on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.

“The advantage Araghchi has is that he knows everything about this process, so that allows us to move faster,” Grossi said at the IAEA’s New York offices.

In recent years, Tehran has decreased its cooperation with the IAEA, while significantly ramping up its nuclear program, including amassing large stockpiles of uranium enriched to 60 percent — close to the 90 percent needed to develop an atomic bomb.

But since the July election of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, Tehran has signaled openness to relaunching talks to revive the nuclear agreement.

The landmark deal — also known by its acronym JCPOA — started to unravel in 2018 when then-US president Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from it and reimposed sanctions, and Iran retaliated by stepping up its nuclear activities.

Efforts to revive the deal — bringing the United States back on board and Iran back into compliance — have so far been fruitless.

“If things move in a positive way... and I think this is the intention of the president and the foreign minister (of Iran), there will be a return to the conversations with the former partners,” Grossi said.

Tehran, however, is not willing to walk back on a decision it took last year to ban some of the IAEA’s “best inspectors,” Grossi said, a move Teheran initially described as retaliation for “political abuses” by the United States, France, Germany and Britain.

“They are not going to restore the inspectors to the list,” Grossi said.

“Maybe there will be a review of that. I will keep pushing,” he added, explaining that he is due to visit Tehran in the “coming weeks.”

During his visit, Grossi plans to discuss “different monitoring and verification measures that we could agree on prior to a wider agreement.”

“I think getting an agreement with Iran on these things would be a very constructive indication... toward a future negotiation,” Grossi said.

“If you do not allow me to establish a baseline of all the capacities that the country has at the moment, then what kind of confidence and trust are you injecting in the system for a negotiation with other partners?” he added.

According to a diplomatic source, the European side is skeptical about the possibility of returning to the framework of the initial pact.

Grossi said the actual framework of the deal would be left to Iran and Western powers.

“Will it be the same? Will it be updated? Will it be something completely different? This is for them to decide,” Grossi said.


UNRWA earning ‘global vote of confidence’: Jordanian FM

UNRWA earning ‘global vote of confidence’: Jordanian FM
Updated 27 September 2024
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UNRWA earning ‘global vote of confidence’: Jordanian FM

UNRWA earning ‘global vote of confidence’: Jordanian FM
  • Ayman Safadi: Agency for Palestinian refugees is victim of Israeli ‘political assassination campaign’
  • UNRWA chief: Gaza ‘definitely horrifies even the most seasoned humanitarians’

NEW YORK CITY: A high-level meeting on the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugee produced a “global vote of confidence” in the agency despite Israel’s “political assassination campaign” against it, Jordan’s foreign minister said on Thursday.

Ayman Safadi was speaking at a joint press conference with UNRWA Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini following the meeting at the UN headquarters.

Safadi said: “Today rallied international support behind an agency which carries out heroic work in helping the Palestinian people through the misery that Israel continues to bring to Gaza.

“Nobody can do the job that UNRWA is doing. It’s irreplaceable. It’s indispensable. It’s needed now more than ever before.

“UNRWA and its staff made the ultimate sacrifice. Israel has killed 222 UNRWA staff members. It targets them. It doesn’t allow them to operate.”

Safadi said more than 50 countries attended the meeting. He hailed UNRWA’s “noble job” in saving the lives of thousands of Palestinian children from paralysis through a polio vaccination campaign.

The agency has become the victim of an Israeli “political assassination campaign” designed to undermine support for the Palestinian people, Safadi said.

It is “incomprehensible” that a UN member state would designate a UN agency as a terrorist organization, he added.

“That can’t happen, and we must stand against that,” Safadi said, because “it’s undermining the whole UN system, and the world mustn’t allow that, and we’ll stand up to it, along with all our partners who showed up in support of UNRWA today.”

He added: “We’ll continue to do everything to ensure that UNRWA stands because UNRWA is also a beacon of hope for Palestinians, and that’s why Israel has launched the political assassination campaign on UNRWA, because it wants to liquidate the cause of the Palestinian refugees, which shouldn’t be done and won’t be done.”

Lazzarini echoed Safadi’s words, describing the Israeli campaign against the agency as “relentless” and “coming from every corner.” 

He said: “These aren’t just attacks against UNRWA. They’re attacks against the broader UN system, attacks against the broader international community.

“They aim, first, at stripping Palestinians from the refugee statute, but secondly, they aim at weakening or putting an end to the aspirations of the Palestinians for self-determination.”

The UNRWA chief said his agency and others, as well as international NGOs, have seen staff being “phased out” in the Occupied Territories as a result of Israeli practices.

Calls to dissolve UNRWA or end its presence in the Middle East would be “unconscionable, unprecedented, and would open an extraordinary Pandora’s Box,” Lazzarini warned.

To counter the Israeli campaign, “we’ll continue to push the true narrative that UNRWA deserves to be supported,” Safadi said.

“UNRWA deserves to be thanked for the tremendous sacrifices that it continues to do in the execution of its global mandate.”

Both officials described conditions on the ground in Gaza almost one year on from Israel’s invasion.

The UNRWA chief warned that the Palestinian enclave is a “place which definitely horrifies even the most seasoned humanitarians who’ve seen it all over the last 20, 30 years.”

He said more than 1 million school-age children in Gaza are “deeply traumatized” and living amongst rubble.

“An entire generation might be sacrificed if they aren’t brought back to learning,” he added. “Obviously learning in this environment is extraordinary difficult, but we’re trying to make sure that they lose as little as possible.”

Lazzarini discussed the financing of his agency, warning that the shortfall in funding from October to the end of the year stood at $60-$80 million.

But he said UNRWA would make sure to “bridge the gap” despite some donor countries signaling a decline in foreign aid due to austerity measures.

Lazzarini also highlighted UNRWA operations in Lebanon, saying shelters are now open to “not only Palestinian refugees, but also Lebanese and Syrian refugees.”

The UNRWA meeting on Thursday was backed by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and French Minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-Noel Barrot.

“Virtually all donors have reversed their funding suspensions” to UNRWA, Guterres said in a statement, adding that “123 countries have signed up to the declaration on shared commitments to UNRWA.

“This underscores the consensus that UNRWA’s role across the West Bank and the region is vital. Friends, there is no alternative to UNRWA.”

Barrot said: “The role of UNRWA is necessary in the Gaza Strip to provide vital humanitarian aid to a civilian population of Gaza whose needs are immense.

“France pays tribute to the UNRWA personnel and to all the humanitarian personnel killed in Gaza while they were trying to rescue civilians.”