The Israelis are going all out in their war on Gaza even banning aid agency United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) from working in the occupied territories and East Jerusalem. This has sparked objections from the Zionist regime’s closest allies such as the United States and warnings from the United Nations Security Council.
Israel strictly controls all humanitarian aid shipments to Gaza, and lawmakers also passed a measure prohibiting Israeli officials from working with UNRWA and its employees. UNRWA has provided essential aid, schooling, healthcare and assistance across the Palestinian territories and to Palestinian refugees elsewhere for more than seven decades. “There is a deep connection between the terrorist organisation (Hamas) and UNRWA, and Israel cannot put up with it,” Yuli Edelstein, one of the lawmakers who sponsored the bill, said in parliament as he presented the proposal. Palestinian militant group Hamas, locked in conflict with Israel in Gaza, called the bill an act of “Zionist aggression” towards Palestinians, while its ally Islamic Jihad described the ban as “an escalation in the genocide”.
The control of all humanitarian aid shipments by the Israelis is a slippery slope for all the aid administrators involved in UNRWA. One false move its downhill (all aid on board the ships can be confiscated by the Israelis if they see or suspect anything suspicious). Now thousands of Palestinians in Gaza will find themselves with out medical assistance, food and other essentials to help them survive an ongoing war that no one knows when will end. Palestinian children are certain to starve and die of preventable diseases if Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu has his way. This law for Israel to take control of humanitarian aid work for the Palestinians from UNRWA does not spell a could omen for the Palestinian people. It is unfortunate that the Palestinian Authority (PA) has no influence or even say concerning who should manage humanitarian aid into Gaza.
Even several of Israel’s staunch Western allies voiced disquiet at the ban, with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer saying Britain was “gravely concerned”. Germany — which has been a staunch defender of Israel’s security — warned it would “effectively make UNRWA’s work in Gaza, the West Bank and east Jerusalem impossible… jeopardising vital humanitarian aid for millions of people”. UN chief Antonio Guterres said the Israeli law could have “devastating consequences” if implemented and “would likely prevent UNRWA from continuing its essential work”. UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini warned that the vote “sets a dangerous precedent”. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on social media that Israel was “ready” to continue providing aid to Gaza “in a way that does not threaten Israel’s security”. The ban comes as fighting rages in Gaza and Lebanon, where a second full-scale front opened last month.
The Zionist regime’s decision to take control of the humanitarian aid in Gaza, certainly raises some concern. Netanyahu is not a gifted humanitarian and his allies such as in Washington and London know this. The solution to bring this megalomaniac with his arrogant head in the clouds down to earth is to fully cut all military aid and weapons trade to his government. It should be clear by now that Netanyahu and his coalition partners such as Yair Lapid, Bezalel Smotrich and Benny Gantz are determined to ethnically cleanse Gaza of the Palestinians and not just retrieve the hostages. Netanyahu should provide evidence to the UN of the suspected connections between UNRWA and Hamas. However, UNRWA Chief Lazzarini is right to argue that this vote on the law by the Israeli Knesset will set a dangerous precedent. A significant problem for Israel is that it does not have a written constitution.
This enables the Israeli regime to act without impunity in the occupied territories and it is doubtful whether they are capable of distributing aid. Meanwhile 34 Palestinians were killed in an Israeli strike in Northern Gaza.
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — An Israeli strike on a five-story building where displaced Palestinians were sheltering in northern Gaza killed at least 34 people early Tuesday, more than half of them women and children, Gaza’s Health Ministry said. The ministry’s emergency service said another 20 people were wounded in the strike in the northern town of Beit Lahiya, near the Israeli border. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military. The dead included a mother and her five children, some of them adults, and a second mother with her six children, according to an initial casualty list provided by the emergency service. Dr. Hossam Abu Safiya, the director of the nearby Kamal Adwan Hospital, said it was overwhelmed by the wave of wounded people from the strike. Israeli forces raided the medical facility over the weekend, detaining dozens of medics.
Israel certainly knows how to play at being the humanitarian when it suits the Zionist regime. Judging from the attacks in the north of Gaza the Israelis show no sign of stopping in favour of a cease fire. Only an end to the arms trade to Tel Aviv will bring an end to this war and bloodshed. In the future there will be a reckoning for all this pointless bloodshed and murder of women and children. The Israeli administration has lost interest in trying to retrieve the hostages. This should now be made clear. When the Israelis find the people of the world turning against them over the blood on their hands, then they will feel the hardship.
When women and children are being slaughtered when they take shelter in crumbling buildings and the local hospitals can no longer take care of their patients because they are understaffed then genocide can definitely be said to be taking place. Israel cannot be allowed to ban UNRWA from conducting humanitarian work in Gaza. There trade in weapons arsenal and the aid used to pay for it from Washington must come to an end.
Article written by:
Yacoob Cassim
Journalist at Radio Al Ansaar
