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Nothing has changed since Israel’s ‘tactical pauses’ in Rafah, UNRWA warns

Monday, 17 June 2024 3:23 PM [ Last Update: Monday, 17 June 2024 3:47 PM ]

People search for survivors in the rubble of a building following Israeli bombardment at the Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on June 16, 2024. (Photo by AFP)

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees says nothing has changed on the ground since the Israeli military announced “tactical pauses” in hostilities along a road in the southern city of Rafah.

Philippe Lazzarini, the UNRWA chief, said on Monday “operationally nothing had changed” in the southern Gaza Strip.

Israel had said it would implement the halts during daylight hours from the Karem Abu Salem land crossing to the Salah a-Din highway, a main north-south road.

Benjamin Netanyahu was not happy about the military plan for pauses. He said over the weekend that it was “unacceptable.”

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have already fled the city since Israel’s savagery expanded into the city in early May.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Lazzarini said UNRWA has funding until July but the future beyond that was unknown.

The UNRWA chief also warned that a “silent war” was taking place in the occupied West Bank.

Israel turned Gaza into ‘hell on earth’: UN official

Separately, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths said the Israeli bombing of the besieged Palestinian territory since October 7 has turned it into “hell on earth.”

Griffiths said it was almost impossible to deliver humanitarian aid to the residents of Gaza, who are on the brink of famine.

Israel committed 3,300 massacres in Gaza since Oct.: Media Office

Gaza’s Government Media Office (GMO) says the Israeli regime has committed over 3,300 massacres in the coastal sliver since October.

The UN official said weapons continued to flow into the hands of the regime from the United States and other supporters despite the horrific impact on Palestinians.

In the latest attack, Israeli forces targeted a residential building in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, killing at least 9 Palestinians, including 5 children. At least two people were also killed after Israeli fighter jets struck a house in the Zarqa neighborhood, north of Gaza City.

Palestinian health officials say Israeli forces have carried out two massacres within the past day, killing at least ten civilians and injuring over 70 others.

Israel has killed more than 37,300 Palestinians, over 16,000 of them children, since early October.

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