UNRWA says Israeli strike hit Gaza meals assist middle, killing 1 staffer and wounding 22 others

Gaza Strip — The United Nations company for Palestinian refugees on Wednesday mentioned at the very least certainly one of its workers members was killed in an Israeli strike on a meals distribution middle in war-torn Gaza.

“Not less than one UNRWA workers member was killed and one other 22 have been injured when Israeli forces hit a meals distribution middle within the jap a part of Rafah,” in southern Gaza, the company mentioned in an announcement.

The Israel Protection Forces, requested by CBS Information for touch upon the incident, mentioned in an announcement later Wednesday that it had killed “a terrorist in Hamas’ Operations Unit” in a “exactly focused” airstrike primarily based on intelligence. The IDF recognized the operative as Muhammad Abu Hasna, whom it mentioned was “a fight assist operative in Hamas’ navy wing” concerned in “taking management of humanitarian assist and distributing it to Hamas terrorists.”

The IDF mentioned Hasna had additionally “coordinated the actions of varied Hamas models, in addition to communicated with and activated Hamas area operatives.” 

Talking earlier, UNRWA spokesperson Juliette Touma instructed AFP that the company did “not but have extra info on what precisely occurred nor the variety of UNRWA workers impacted,” including that UNRWA used the power in query “to distribute much-needed meals and different lifesaving gadgets to displaced folks in southern Gaza.”

The well being ministry in Hamas-run Gaza mentioned 4 folks have been killed within the “bombing of the warehouse.” The ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between civilian and combatant deaths, says greater than 31,000 folks have been killed in Gaza for the reason that warfare started, most of them girls and youngsters.

The battle raging in Gaza for the reason that enclave’s Hamas rulers launched their Oct. 7 terrorist assault on Israel, killing about 1,200 folks and taking some 240 others hostage, has precipitated mass civilian deaths and decreased huge areas to a rubble-strewn wastelands as Israeli forces have pushed into the territory.

It has additionally sparked warnings of a looming famine within the Palestinian territory, the place the overwhelming majority of the two.4 million inhabitants have been displaced from their houses.

UNRWA beneath stress

The U.N. company itself has been accused by Israeli officers of defending, if not serving to Hamas, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s authorities has made it clear that, from its perspective, UNRWA ought to be dismantled.

After Israeli officers offered an in depth report early this yr alleging that UNRWA workers took half within the Oct. 7 assault as brokers of Hamas, the Biden administration and plenty of different Western nations which have lengthy offered the money to maintain it working suspended funding to the U.N company.

Hasna’s identify doesn’t seem on an inventory of 12 UNRWA workers members particularly recognized by Israeli authorities as alleged Hamas operatives, which was launched late final yr.

The IDF assertion that Hasna was concerned in “taking management of humanitarian assist and distributing it to Hamas” — which comes after earlier Israeli authorities accusations that the group is diverting assist meant for civilians — contradicts info offered by David Satterfield, the U.S. Particular Envoy for Center East Humanitarian Points, to members of the U.S. Congress.

Satterfield wrote in a letter to congress that the U.S. had acquired “no allegations, proof or experiences of incidents of Hamas diversion or theft of U.S. or different help or gasoline from U.N. delivered help from any of our companions or from the Authorities of Israel since humanitarian help was resumed in Gaza on October twenty first.”

Satterfield’s evaluation was revealed in a Feb. 3 letter despatched to President Biden by a small group of Democratic senators, pushing the White Home to evaluation the supply of U.S. assist to Israel in gentle of developments within the warfare in Gaza.

The U.N. has launched an unbiased investigation into the Israeli allegations that UNRWA workers members have been concerned within the Oct. 7 assault, and the U.S. and different nations have mentioned future funding will rely very a lot on these findings and the motion taken by the worldwide physique in response.

However the way forward for UNRWA’s worldwide cashflow stays very a lot in query.

“We’ll see how this investigation performs out, I imply, that is extremely necessary,” Samantha Energy, the highest official on the U.S. Company for Worldwide Growth (USAID) instructed CBS Information in February, including that the U.S. would additionally must see “systemic adjustments” inside UNRWA, “as a result of that is simply not okay.”

Energy famous, nevertheless, that there was actually no efficient various to distribute the important assist required in Gaza.

“You may have 90% of the Gazan inhabitants that has been displaced,” she mentioned, including that there was an “acute dependence” on the humanitarian infrastructure” offered by UNRWA.

That was reiterated Tuesday by State Division spokesperson Matthew Miller, who instructed reporters that “UNWRA performs a essential function in delivering humanitarian help to Palestinian civilians that no different company is positioned to imagine.”

He added, nevertheless, that the U.S. authorities was exploring “various teams and organisations that may ship the humanitarian help that UNWRA delivers.”

EU: “Hunger is getting used as a weapon of warfare”

The strike got here as donor nations, assist businesses and charities pushed on with efforts to hurry meals to the impoverished territory.

A Spanish charity vessel, the Open Arms, was on its approach to Gaza from Cyprus Wednesday, after setting sail a day earlier towing a barge with 220 ton of assist, in a primary voyage meant to open a maritime hall.

President Biden introduced the plans for that hall final week, saying the U.S. navy would assist assemble a non permanent pier on Gaza’s Mediterranean coast to facilitate the docking of assist ships. Work has begun by a regional development firm, however the pier is predicted to take as much as two months to finish.

The European Union’s high diplomat Josep Borrell instructed the U.N. Safety Council on Tuesday that the humanitarian disaster “is man-made.”

“If we have a look at alternative routes to supply assist, it is as a result of the land crossings have been artificially closed,” he mentioned, charging that “hunger is getting used as a weapon of warfare.”

Israel controls all land crossings into Gaza.

The U.N.’s World Meals Program, making an attempt an alternate land route from southern Israel, despatched an preliminary six assist vehicles Tuesday into worst-hit northern Gaza, by way of a gate within the safety fence, the Israeli military mentioned.

The WFP mentioned it had “delivered sufficient meals for 25,000 folks” and demanded that, “with folks in northern Gaza on the point of famine, we’d like deliveries day-after-day. We want entry factors immediately into the north.”

About half a dozen Arab and Western nations have additionally airdropped meals parcels on parachutes into Gaza, and Morocco has despatched a planeload of reduction provides through Israel’s Ben Gurion airport.

Scores extra killed, events “not close to a deal” for truce

The Hamas-run Gaza well being ministry mentioned Wednesday that at the very least 88 folks have been killed over the earlier 24 hours, including that “dozens of lacking individuals are nonetheless beneath the rubble.”

The Israeli military mentioned its troops have been “intensifying operations” within the southern Gaza Strip, together with the most important metropolis there, Khan Younis.

“Within the final 24 hours, there have been exchanges of fireside between IDF (Israeli military) troops and a terrorist cell consisting of seven terror operatives barricaded inside a compound within the Hamad space of Khan Younis,” it mentioned. “In a coordinated strike, the troops killed a number of of the terrorists, after which directed an plane to strike and remove the remainder of the cell.”

Weeks of talks involving US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators had aimed to convey a truce and hostage launch deal earlier than the beginning of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, however missed the Monday deadline.

Qatari international ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari mentioned that, though talks continued, “we’re not close to a deal.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has doubled down on his pledge to “destroy Hamas” — together with by sending troops into the final a part of Gaza that has thus far been spared floor operations, far-southern Rafah.

The prospect of a Rafah invasion has sparked international alarm as a result of it’s crowded with virtually 1.5 million principally displaced folks.