Israeli forces fought against Palestinian groups in Rafah and elsewhere in southern Gaza despite the Israeli military’s announcement on Sunday of tactical pauses in operations to allow the entry of humanitarian aid, the chief said of UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday criticized plans announced by the army to suspend daily fighting along one of the main roads leading to the besieged Palestinian enclave which has suffered incessant Israeli bombardment for more than eight months.
Lazzarini, commissioner general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), the main organization providing humanitarian aid to Gaza, said there had been no pause in the fights.
“There have been reports that such a decision has been made, but the political level says that none of these decisions have been made,” Lazzarini said at a press conference on Monday.
“So for the moment, I can tell you that hostilities continue in Rafah and southern Gaza. And operationally, nothing has changed yet.”
The Israeli military said Monday that its forces were continuing operations in the Rafah area, which included ground fighting.
Residents said Israeli forces were advancing deeper into the central and western areas of Rafah. Hamas forces were fighting at close range in the Shaboura camp in the heart of Rafah, according to the group’s armed wing and residents, who reported hearing sounds of explosions and incessant gunfire.
The Israeli army announced this weekend daily breaks from 05:00 GMT to 16:00 GMT in the area from the Karem Abu Salem crossing (Kerem Shalom), to the Salah al-Din road, then towards the north.
It later clarified that operations would continue in Rafah, the main focus of its ongoing attack in southern Gaza.
International humanitarian officials have repeatedly said that Israeli inspections, ongoing fighting and looting by desperate residents have hampered the delivery of aid. Israeli ground troops have been operating in the southern city of Rafah since early May. They have since closed the vital Rafah border crossing with Egypt.
Before the Rafah ground operation, the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza was already insufficient and the number of trucks entering the southern Gaza Strip was in the hundreds – far from enough to respond. to the daily needs of the 2.3 million inhabitants of the enclave.
‘Hell on Earth’
“As we have reiterated, humanitarian operations in Gaza must be fully facilitated and all obstacles must be removed,” U.N. deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq told The Associated Press on Monday. “We must be able to deliver aid safely throughout Gaza. »
As the Israeli attack on Gaza enters its ninth month, Haq said, displaced Palestinians in the territory are in urgent need of food, water, sanitation, shelter and health care, ” and many of them live near piles of solid waste, which increases health risks.”
He said Israel must ensure that the passage of humanitarian convoys and personnel through checkpoints is expedited, that all roads are operational and that fuel – the supply of which is critical – enters Gaza regularly .
Meanwhile, UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said in an opinion piece in the New York Times that the impoverished and blockaded Gaza Strip has been transformed into “hell on earth » while famine threatens.
He said humanitarian aid is being obstructed and politicized as hunger and disease spread, “and aid workers, health workers and journalists have all suffered unacceptable losses.”
Echoing his remarks, the Gaza government’s media office accused Israel and the United States of “deliberately” worsening famine-like conditions in Gaza by “withholding humanitarian aid as a tool of political pressure.”
In a statement released Monday, the media office accused Israel and the US administration of “deliberately worsening the humanitarian situation” in Gaza to achieve political goals.
Separately, on Monday, Norway announced it was increasing its funding to UNRWA by 100 million crowns ($9.3 million).
UNRWA was plunged into crisis in January, when Israel accused a dozen of its 13,000 employees in Gaza of involvement in Hamas’s October 7 attacks on southern Israel.
The allegations prompted several countries, including top donor the United States, to suspend funding to the agency, although many have since resumed payments.
“UNRWA is the backbone of the humanitarian response in Gaza,” Norwegian Minister for International Development Anne Beathe Tvinnereim said in a statement.
“The war, accusations by Israel, continued attacks on the organization and withheld funds from major donors have placed UNRWA in an extremely difficult financial situation,” she said.
An independent review of UNRWA, led by former French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna, found some “issues related to neutrality” but said Israel had yet to provide evidence to support its main allegations.