Several Western countries have suspended aid to UNRWA, a move criticized by Palestinians and senior UN officials.
This is how things stand on Sunday, January 28, 2024:
UNRWA Financing
- Several countries, including the United States, are reviewing funding to the Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA after Israel alleged that some of its staff were involved in the October 7 Hamas attacks.
- Senior Palestinian officials and Hamas have criticized the decision to cut funding to nearly a dozen Western countries.
- Defunding UNRWA could be a “violation” of the Genocide Convention, UNRWA director Philippe Lazzarini said. “The Palestinians in Gaza did not need this additional collective punishment,” he wrote in X. “This stains us all.”
- United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres vowed Sunday to hold accountable “any UN employee involved in acts of terrorism.” But he implored donor states to “ensure continuity” of UNRWA operations. “The tens of thousands of men and women who work for UNRWA, many of them in some of the most dangerous situations for humanitarian workers, should not be penalized. The dire needs of the desperate populations they serve must be met,” he stated.
- Ireland and Norway have said they will continue to fund the agency.
Humanitarian situation
- Thousands of people fleeing the fighting in Khan Younis have arrived in Rafah, where people sleep on the streets and in tent camps flooded with sewage.
- “The tanks are shooting at everyone,” Ahmed al-Moghrabi, a plastic surgeon at Nasser Hospital, told Al Jazeera, as Israel's siege of Khan Younis hospital continues for a fifth day.
- The death toll stands at 26,257 Palestinians killed and another 64,797 injured.
Diplomacy
- Israel would suspend the war for two months in a deal to free 100 captives, the AP and The New York Times report, citing unnamed U.S. officials.
- CIA Director Bill Burns is expected to discuss the contours of the emerging deal when he meets in France on Sunday with Israel's Mossad intelligence agency, David Barnea, Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, and Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel for talks. focused on captive negotiations.
- Meanwhile, US national security adviser Jake Sullivan pressed China to persuade Iran to end its support for the Houthis attacking ships in the Red Sea.
Other developments
- Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has said there will be an Israeli military administration in Gaza.
- Families of captives detained in Gaza demonstrated again in Tel Aviv, after anti-government protests were held that same night.
- Pro-Palestinian protesters gathered outside US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's home for a second night.
- Pope Francis renewed his call for a ceasefire in Gaza.
- Israel will no longer allow protesters to block trucks carrying humanitarian aid through the Karem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) crossing following the ICJ's ruling that aid should be allowed into Gaza, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported, citing to Israeli security officials.
- Israeli forces arrested nine Palestinians in overnight raids in Hebron and Beita, south of Nablus in the occupied West Bank, Wafa reported.
