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US Point Person on Israel-Palestine Warns PA’s Standing Has ‘Never Been Worse’

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas receives US envoy for Palestinian and Israeli affairs Hady Amr. AFP file photo
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas receives US envoy for Palestinian and Israeli affairs Hady Amr. AFP file photo
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US Point Person on Israel-Palestine Warns PA’s Standing Has ‘Never Been Worse’

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas receives US envoy for Palestinian and Israeli affairs Hady Amr. AFP file photo
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas receives US envoy for Palestinian and Israeli affairs Hady Amr. AFP file photo

US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Israel and Palestinian Affairs, Hady Amr, warned Israeli authorities on Friday that the Palestinian Authority (PA) faces an unprecedented “difficult and dangerous” situation, both economically and politically.

Amr urged Israel to take steps needed to ensure the PA is reinforced, said well-informed sources under the conditions of anonymity.

Citing three Israeli officials who participated in talks with Amr, sources said the US official was “very worried” after early week discussions with PA officials in Ramallah.

After meeting PA President Mahmoud Abbas, Amr described never having seen the semi-autonomous government “in a worse situation.”

Last Sunday, President Joe Biden’s point man for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict visited Ramallah to talk to Palestinian representatives, then moved to Israel, where he met with officials from the foreign, finance, and the regional cooperation ministries in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

Amr also met with the Israeli army’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) Ghassan Alian.

The Israeli officials added that Amr told them that the combination of the financial and political crises puts the Palestinian Authority in a very precarious situation.

“It is like a dry forest waiting to catch on fire,” he said, according to sources.

Amr said the Palestinian administration could not afford to pay salaries because of the economic crisis, and the political turmoil in Palestine led to instability and a dangerous situation.

The US official suggested relatively rapid improvement steps Israel could take to help the Palestinian economy and the PA’s budget to improve the government’s standing.

According to sources, Israeli officials responded positively to Amr’s proposals, even though they tried blaming the coronavirus and lockdowns for exacerbating the PA’s financial crisis.

A source familiar with Amr’s talks said he stressed to both Palestinian and Israeli officials that he isn’t going to press them or beg for them to take steps, and they will have to work it out themselves.

“If you want the US to help, we will be happy to do it,” the envoy allegedly said.

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Arab World

Israeli Strike Kills Three in Gaza, Medics Say

Members of civil defense personnel use a fire hose at the site of an Israeli airstrike on a car in the central Gaza Strip, April 23, 2026. (Reuters)
Members of civil defense personnel use a fire hose at the site of an Israeli airstrike on a car in the central Gaza Strip, April 23, 2026. (Reuters)
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Israeli Strike Kills Three in Gaza, Medics Say

Members of civil defense personnel use a fire hose at the site of an Israeli airstrike on a car in the central Gaza Strip, April 23, 2026. (Reuters)
Members of civil defense personnel use a fire hose at the site of an Israeli airstrike on a car in the central Gaza Strip, April 23, 2026. (Reuters)

An Israeli strike killed at least three in Gaza on Friday, according to Palestinian health officials.

The strike hit a crowded area in Gaza City near an area where local police are stationed to guard a bank, said the medics and eyewitnesses.

Gaza's interior ministry said ‌that the strike ‌had killed two policemen and ‌wounded ⁠two others, in ⁠a statement on Friday.

Reuters has previously reported that Israel has heightened its attacks on Gaza's Hamas-run police force that the group has used to reestablish governance in the areas it controls ⁠in the strip.

It was not immediately ‌clear whether ‌any of Gaza's police force had been killed in ‌the attack.

The Israeli military did not ‌immediately respond to a request for comment on the incident.

Violence in Gaza has persisted despite the October 2025 ceasefire, with Israel conducting ‌near-daily attacks on Palestinians.

At least 790 Palestinians have been killed since ⁠the ceasefire ⁠deal took effect, according to local medics, while Israel says gunmen have killed four of its soldiers.

Israel and Hamas have exchanged blame for ceasefire violations.

More than 72,000 Gazans have been killed since the war started in October 2023, most of them civilians, according to Gaza health authorities.

Hamas' October 7, 2023, attacks on Israel killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies.

Arab World

UN Says Israeli Strikes in Lebanon, Hezbollah Rockets into Israel May Breach International Law

People carry the coffin of Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil during her funeral procession in the village of Baisariyah, southern Lebanon, 23 April 2026. (EPA)
People carry the coffin of Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil during her funeral procession in the village of Baisariyah, southern Lebanon, 23 April 2026. (EPA)
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UN Says Israeli Strikes in Lebanon, Hezbollah Rockets into Israel May Breach International Law

People carry the coffin of Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil during her funeral procession in the village of Baisariyah, southern Lebanon, 23 April 2026. (EPA)
People carry the coffin of Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil during her funeral procession in the village of Baisariyah, southern Lebanon, 23 April 2026. (EPA)

The UN human rights office said on Friday it has documented patterns of attacks on civilians in populated areas and residential buildings in Lebanon and Israel that may amount to serious violations of international humanitarian law.

The report covers the first three weeks of the latest escalation, which began after Hezbollah launched attacks on Israel on March 2, prompting Israel to respond with a large-scale military offensive.

Since then, nearly 2,500 people have been killed in Lebanon, according to Lebanese authorities, amid widespread displacement and heavy damage to civilian infrastructure. US President Donald Trump on Thursday announced a three-week extension to a ceasefire.

The Israeli military and Hezbollah did ‌not immediately respond to ‌Reuters requests for comment about the report.

RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS STRUCK, OHCHR ‌SAYS

The ⁠Office of the ⁠United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights documented several cases in which Israeli strikes hit, and in some instances destroyed, multi-storey residential buildings, killing entire families in Lebanon, which may constitute serious violations of international humanitarian law, OHCHR spokesperson Thameen Al-Kheetan said.

The report cited the example of an Israeli strike on March 8 that hit a multi-storey residential building in the town of Sir el-Gharbiyeh, in the Nabatiyeh governorate. The strike killed at least 13 civilians inside the building, ⁠including five women, five men, two boys and a girl.

The office ‌said incidents such as this raised concerns about compliance ‌with the principles of distinction, proportionality and precautions in attack under international humanitarian law.

The report also ‌said the OHCHR had found Hezbollah was firing unguided rockets that lacked the precision ‌required to strike specific military targets, and damaged buildings and other civilian infrastructure in Israel, which likely violated international humanitarian law.

While the office noted that notifications, including blanket evacuation warnings, had been issued by Israeli forces before some strikes in Lebanon, it identified cases in which warnings were either not given, were ‌ineffective, or prevented many civilians from evacuating safely.

WARNING AFTER JOURNALIST KILLED

Meanwhile, the OHCHR also said on Friday that attacks on journalists could ⁠amount to war ⁠crimes if they were deliberate.

An Israeli strike on Wednesday killed Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil and injured photographer Zeinab Faraj, who was accompanying her in southern Lebanon.

Rescue teams, including the Lebanese Red Cross, faced obstruction by the Israeli military when trying to reach them, Lebanon's health ministry said.

"This included the use of a sound grenade and live fire targeting an ambulance, delaying access to the site," Al-Kheetan added.

The Israeli military said the Israeli Air Force troops struck a vehicle and a structure after two vehicles in southern Lebanon were identified as leaving a Hezbollah military site, and crossed the Forward Defense Line, which posed an immediate threat.

It received reports that two journalists were injured, the army said, but it did not prevent rescue teams from reaching the area. The army does not deliberately target journalists or medical teams and the incident is under review, it added.

Arab World

Unexploded Bombs Littering Gaza Threaten Recovery for Decades, UN Warns

Palestinians examine the destruction after an Israeli strike on a residential building in Rafah, Gaza Strip on March 3, 2024. © Hatem Ali, AP
Palestinians examine the destruction after an Israeli strike on a residential building in Rafah, Gaza Strip on March 3, 2024. © Hatem Ali, AP
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Unexploded Bombs Littering Gaza Threaten Recovery for Decades, UN Warns

Palestinians examine the destruction after an Israeli strike on a residential building in Rafah, Gaza Strip on March 3, 2024. © Hatem Ali, AP
Palestinians examine the destruction after an Israeli strike on a residential building in Rafah, Gaza Strip on March 3, 2024. © Hatem Ali, AP

War-torn Gaza is heavily contaminated by unexploded ordnance, which frequently kill and maim people and could threaten recovery efforts far into the future, the UN said Friday.

Unexploded ordnance, ranging from undetonated bombs or grenades to simple bullets, has become a common sight in the Gaza Strip since the start of Israel's war in the Palestinian territory, sparked by Hamas's unprecedented attack on October 7, 2023.

The United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) said it had data suggesting that since the start of the conflict, more than 1,000 people had been killed in Gaza due to "indirect conflict", from the remnants of war, AFP reported.

Julius Van der Walt, UNMAS chief in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, stressed that that number was certainly a severe under-estimate.

Half of the known casualties were children, he told reporters in Geneva.

Speaking along side him at a press conference on mine action work worldwide, Narmina Strishenets of Save the Children UK, also highlighted the heavy toll on youngsters.

A report by the organization published last year found that in 2024, the use of explosive weapons in Gaza left an average of 475 children each month with potentially lifelong disabilities, including amputations.

Today, Strishenets said, Gaza has "the largest cohort of child amputees" in the world.

- 'High density' -

Van der Walt said UNMAS had so far been unable to conduct an extensive survey of the full scope of the problem, but "the evidence already suggests a high density of explosive ordnance contamination across the Gaza Strip".

So far, UNMAS had identified "more than 1,000 items of explosive ordnance", during missions conducted over the past 2.5 years.

Compared to Gaza's small geographic size, that means there is about one piece of explosive ordnance "every 600 metres", he pointed out.

And those are only the items that have been found.

"We have barely scratched the surface in understanding what is the level of contamination," he acknowledged.

Adding to the danger was Gaza's very high population density.

Prior to the conflict, Gaza was one already of the most densely-populated places on Earth, with around 6,000 people per square kilometre, Van der Walt said, pointing out that the war had effectively halved the space available, and doubled the density.

"Explosive weapons are being used all across the territories, including in densely-populated refugee camps," he said, pointing to a recent case where explosive ordnance was found inside a tent where people had been living for several weeks.

At the same time, "humanitarian convoys risk detonation as they travel throughout the Gaza Strip, and early recovery efforts are essentially stalled before they can even begin", he said.

- $541 million -

Van der Walt pointed to an assessment that, in a best case scenario, it will cost around $541 million to address the explosive ordnance threat, if all necessary permissions are granted and the equipment required is accessible.

He warned that the contamination, including within mountains of debris, was so vast and so varied, that it was "very close to impossible to ... do a full assessment", and that ordnance would likely remain a problem for decades to come.

He pointed to the World War II bombs that continue to be discovered during construction projects in Britain.

"We can anticipate something along those lines" in Gaza, he said.