UN Chief Tells Israel That Draft Law Blocking Aid Agency UNRWA Would Be ‘Catastrophe’

The destroyed house of the Abed Al -Hadi family following an Israeli air strike in Al- Bureije refugee camp, central Gaza Strip, 08 October 2024. (EPA)
The destroyed house of the Abed Al -Hadi family following an Israeli air strike in Al- Bureije refugee camp, central Gaza Strip, 08 October 2024. (EPA)
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UN Chief Tells Israel That Draft Law Blocking Aid Agency UNRWA Would Be ‘Catastrophe’

The destroyed house of the Abed Al -Hadi family following an Israeli air strike in Al- Bureije refugee camp, central Gaza Strip, 08 October 2024. (EPA)
The destroyed house of the Abed Al -Hadi family following an Israeli air strike in Al- Bureije refugee camp, central Gaza Strip, 08 October 2024. (EPA)

Draft Israeli legislation that would stop the UN Palestinian refugee agency working in the Gaza Strip and West Bank would be a "catastrophe" if enacted, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Tuesday, adding he raised his concerns with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

"Such a measure would suffocate efforts to ease human suffering and tensions in Gaza, and indeed, the entire Occupied Palestinian Territory. It would be a catastrophe in what is already an unmitigated disaster," he told reporters.

The Israeli parliament in July gave preliminary approval to a bill that would declare UNRWA a terrorist organization. Israeli leaders have accused UNRWA staff of collaborating with Hamas fighters in Gaza.

In response to Guterres' remarks, Israel's UN Ambassador Danny Danon told Reuters: "Israel works with humanitarian agencies that are actually interested in humanitarian aid and not activism or, in some cases, terrorism."

The UN said in August that nine UNRWA staff may have been involved in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel, and had been fired. Then a Hamas commander in Lebanon - killed last month in an Israeli strike - was found to have had an UNRWA job.

UNRWA provides education, health and aid to millions of Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. It has long had tense relations with Israel, but ties have deteriorated sharply since the start of the war in Gaza and Israel has called repeatedly for UNRWA to be disbanded.

Guterres spoke to reporters a day after the one year anniversary of the shock Hamas rampage in Israel, during which some 1,200 people were killed and about 250 taken hostage, according to Israeli figures. More than 100 hostages remain held in Gaza by the Palestinian militant group.

The Hamas attack triggered Israel's retaliation in Gaza, sparking a humanitarian crisis in the besieged enclave where authorities say more than 41,000 people have been killed.

"There is something fundamentally wrong in the way this war is being conducted," Guterres said on Tuesday. "Ordering civilians to evacuate does not keep them safe if they have no safe place to go and no shelter, food, medicine or water."

The conflict in Gaza has raised fears of all-out regional war, pitting Israel against Iran and the armed groups that it backs, including Lebanon's Hezbollah.

Israel's military on Tuesday deployed more troops into south Lebanon, signaling an expanding ground offensive against Hezbollah.

Guterres appealed to Israel and Hezbollah to respect the safety and security of UNIFIL peacekeepers in southern Lebanon.

He said that Israeli forces operating adjacent to a UNIFIL position - staffed by Irish peacekeepers - had left after he complained on Monday "to different entities." A UN official later said Guterres had communicated with the United States.



Israeli Strike Targets Residential Building in Syria’s Damascus, Say State Media

People gather by damaged vehicles at the site of a reported Israeli air strike on a residential building, where reportedly senior members of Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and Lebanese Hezbollah meet, in the Mezzeh suburb on the western outskirts of Syria's capital Damascus on October 8, 2024. (AFP)
People gather by damaged vehicles at the site of a reported Israeli air strike on a residential building, where reportedly senior members of Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and Lebanese Hezbollah meet, in the Mezzeh suburb on the western outskirts of Syria's capital Damascus on October 8, 2024. (AFP)
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Israeli Strike Targets Residential Building in Syria’s Damascus, Say State Media

People gather by damaged vehicles at the site of a reported Israeli air strike on a residential building, where reportedly senior members of Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and Lebanese Hezbollah meet, in the Mezzeh suburb on the western outskirts of Syria's capital Damascus on October 8, 2024. (AFP)
People gather by damaged vehicles at the site of a reported Israeli air strike on a residential building, where reportedly senior members of Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and Lebanese Hezbollah meet, in the Mezzeh suburb on the western outskirts of Syria's capital Damascus on October 8, 2024. (AFP)

An Israeli strike targeted a residential building in the Mezzah suburb west of the Syrian capital Damascus, Syria's state news agency reported on Tuesday.

Preliminary reports indicated that the strike had resulted in injuries among civilians, Syrian state media reported.

State media earlier reported that Syria's air defenses had intercepted "hostile" targets in the vicinity of Damascus.

Israel has been carrying out strikes against Iran-linked targets in Syria for years but has ramped up such raids since last year's Oct. 7 attack by Palestinian group Hamas on Israeli territory that sparked the Gaza war.