Move to boot UN’s ‘Hamas’
Israel wants UNRWA out
Israel is pushing to kick the United Nations agency responsible for aiding Palestinian refugees out of Gaza permanently after the group fired a dozen staffers over their alleged involvement in the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks.
Foreign Minister Israel Katz announced the Middle East nation was working to ensure that “UNRWA [United Nations Relief and Works Agency] will not be a part of the day after” in the wake of the staffers’ sackings.
“We have been warning for years: UNRWA perpetuates the refugee issue, obstructs peace, and serves as a civilian arm of Hamas in Gaza,” the foreign minister said in a post on X.
UNRWA’s secretary-general announced Friday that it had fired the 12 staffers amid an investigation after Israel provided the group with intelligence alleging that its employees were involved in the heinous slaughter in southern Israel that left 1,200 dead and 250 kidnapped by Hamas.
Whole world wakes up
The US quickly announced it was cutting funding to the agency in response. Since President Biden took office, the US has poured more than $730 million into the UN agency for refugee assistance in the West Bank and Gaza. Other nations including
Canada, Italy, Australia, the United Kingdom and Finland also said they were pausing funding to the refugee agency.
On Saturday, Hamas lashed out against Israel’s “threats” against UNRWA and urged the international body and other countries “not cave in to the threats and blackmail.”
Red Sea blast
In other developments:
A tanker connected to the United Kingdom burned for several hours in the Gulf of Aden Saturday after it was struck by a missile launched by the Iranbacked Houthis. The Yemenbased terrorist group, which has been targeted by US and UK airstrikes in recent weeks over its assaults on shipping vessels in the Red Sea, said Saturday’s attack was in response to “American-British aggression.”
IDF troops discovered a tranche of weapons, including dozens of AK-47s, grenades, mortar shells, and explosives fired from drones, during a raid in the Gazan city of Khan Younis. The discovery came amid ongoing operations in and around the city, where Israeli forces killed over 100 Hamas fighters on Tuesday.
Israeli airstrikes targeting Hezbollah sites in the village of Beit Lif and in Deir Aames in southern Lebanon killed four operatives with the Iran-backed terrorist group Friday.