Israeli Defense Forces in the Gaza Enclave: The First Responders, the United Nations, and the Hamas-Israel Retaliatory War
The World Health Organization accused Israel of detaining 44 male hospital staff. There was no apparent reason why there was a discrepancy in the figures. The hospital was heavily damaged in the raid, according to Palestinian medical officials.
The Israeli military said they had arrested 100 Hamas members in the raid. The Israeli official said medical staff were detained and searched because some of the militants had disguised themselves as medics.
Last week, the Israeli military demanded that Gaza’s civil defense first responder teams leave the area in the northern part of the enclave. There were no one to help to pull the victims out of the rubble or administer first aid.
The U.N. said earlier this month at least 400,000 people are in northern Gaza, an area that was an early target of Israel’s retaliatory war. The amount of humanitarian aid to the north has gone down over the last month.
The Israel-Hamas war began after militants from Hamas and other groups stormed into Israel, killing some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducting 250 others. The war in the Middle East has begun to break down, with Israel and Hezbollah engaging in fighting, while arch enemies Israel and Iran are currently engaged in open fighting.
The cease-fire attempts between Israel and Hamas failed after the late summer collapse. Israel said it would continue discussions on a halt in fighting after the head of the Mossad agency, David Barnea, returned from a meeting in Qatar with the head of the CIA, David Burns, and the Qatari prime minister.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi has suggested a two-day cease-fire in exchange for the release of four hostages. Israel was responsive to the idea.
An Israeli official said that Israel and Egyptian officials were discussing the proposal. The second official said Netanyahu expressed his enthusiasm for the proposal in a meeting with his party.
Israel raised further international concern about the humanitarian situation in Gaza when its lawmakers passed legislation that could hinder UNRWA from doing its work in Gaza. One of the laws prohibits the agency from operating in Israel, which has control over access to Gaza and the West Bank. Israel alleges that UNRWA has employees who participated in last year’s attack.
Israel and the UN have a long history of strained relations, but the new laws signal a new low.
The death toll from fighting in Gaza has reached over 40,000, according to officials. The Palestinian Health Ministry’s count does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but says more than half of the dead are women and children.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Israel Passes Laws that Threaten the Work of a U.S. Aid Agency in Gaza
U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller, speaking to reporters in Washington before the votes, said the administration was “deeply concerned” by the legislation. He said nobody can replace them at the moment in the middle of the crisis.
The changes could be a serious blow to Palestinians in Gaza. The Gaza Strip has shortages of food, water and medicine, with more than 1.9 million Palestinians displaced from their homes.
Israel was asked to act consistently with its obligations, including the privileges of the United Nations. “National legislation cannot alter those obligations,” Guterres stressed in a statement.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said UNRWA would be prevented from doing U.N. General Assembly-mandated work if the laws are implemented. He said in a statement that there was no alternative to UNRWA.
The laws risk collapsing the already fragile process for distributing aid in Gaza at a moment when Israel is under increased U.S. pressure to ramp up aid. UNRWA’s chief said they were a dangerous precedent.
An account for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in English said that he was ready to work with international partners to make sure humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza continued. The post did not say how the aid would be affected by the bills.
Source: Israel passes laws that may threaten the work of a U.N. aid agency in Gaza
The First Israeli Air Strike on a Building in the Gaza Strip and the Last Standup for a Sustainable Resolution to the UNRWA-Israel Conflict
The first vote passed 92-10 and followed a fiery debate between supporters of the law and its opponents, mostly members of Arab parliamentary parties. The second law, which initially included a move to label UNRWA a terror organization but was later amended, was approved 87-9.
The agency fired nine people after an investigation, but denied that it aids armed groups and said that it quickly purges any suspected militant from its ranks. Some of Israel’s allegations prompted major international donors to cut funding to the agency, although some of it has been restored.
At least 60 Palestinians were killed and over a dozen others were wounded in an Israeli airstrike on a building in northern Gaza overnight, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
The displaced Palestinians were taking shelter at the five-story building that was hit by the strike. Health officials say at least 25 of the dead were children.
The attack comes after Israeli forces have hindered both medical and rescue services in the area, and after Israel’s parliament voted to ban the main United Nations agency that provides aid to Palestinians.
“In the last couple of months, there have been quite a few deaths in the northern part of the Gaza Strip.” Wennesland told the Security Council on Tuesday. “We are witnessing not only a horrific humanitarian nightmare, but a rapidly accelerated unraveling of the prospects for a sustainable resolution to this conflict.”
Islam was one of the people who ran to the rescue after the Israeli airstrike. He tells NPR he saw a woman and children in the dead.
He says he and other neighbors tried to dig through rubble with their hands, without tools, and that the Israeli army had blocked civil defense teams, who would usually carry out search and rescue missions, from operating there.
Matthew Miller said that the incident was horrifying. “We have reached out to the government of Israel to ask what happened here.”
Earlier this month, Israel widened its military campaign in northern Gaza, saying it was targeting shattered Hamas brigades that were regrouping there.