Israel is massively restricting the work of the UN aid agency for the Palestinians. This is met with criticism. Meanwhile, there are new ideas for a ceasefire in Gaza. However, a breakthrough is not in sight.
The work ban imposed by the Israeli parliament on the Palestinian relief organization UNRWA has met with sharp international criticism. Implementation of the draft laws “could have devastating consequences for Palestinian refugees in the occupied Palestinian territories, which is unacceptable,” said UN Secretary-General António Guterres. He will inform the UN General Assembly and call on Israel to comply with its obligations under international law.
“These draft laws will only worsen the suffering of Palestinians, especially in Gaza, where people have been going through hell for more than a year,” UNRWA head Philippe Lazzarini wrote on Platform X. Parliament’s decision to block the aid agency “from Excluding its life-saving and health-protecting work for millions of Palestinians will have devastating consequences,” warned the head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
The Israeli parliament had approved the controversial bill banning the organization from operating on Israeli territory with a huge majority. This means that the aid organization can hardly continue its operations in the Palestinian areas because Israel controls the border crossings. A second bill, also approved, prohibits any contact between Israeli authorities and the aid organization.
The United States, which is Israel’s main ally, and other Western countries had urged the Jewish state not to move forward with the two bills. Its passage will likely increase pressure on US President Joe Biden’s government to suspend military aid to Israel, wrote the US news portal Axios.
Meanwhile, efforts by international mediators to advance talks on a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, which have been stalled for weeks, continue. CIA Director William Burns has proposed a 28-day ceasefire and the release of about eight hostages held by the Islamist Hamas in exchange for dozens of Palestinian prisoners, Axios reported, citing three Israeli officials.
Burns discussed the idea during a meeting on Sunday with his Israeli and Qatari counterparts in Doha, it said. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said that day that he had proposed a two-day ceasefire. As part of this, four Israeli hostages are to be exchanged for several Palestinian prisoners. Burns discussed ways to build on Egypt’s idea with interlocutors from Qatar and Israel, Israeli officials told Axios. Along with the USA and Qatar, Egypt is one of the mediators in the indirect talks.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said a new initiative was negotiated at the talks in Qatar that combines previous proposals. It takes into account “the central questions and the latest developments in the region,” it said without further details. The head of the Israeli foreign secret service Mossad, David Barnea, left Doha after talks with Burns and Qatar’s Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani. Discussions with the mediators will continue in the coming days.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin expressed their “deep concern” about the humanitarian situation in Gaza in a letter to the Israeli leadership about two weeks ago and called for “urgent and sustained action.” In it, they made it clear that the passage of UNRWA legislation could have implications for US law and policy, said US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller. “This is still the case.”
