The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) announced today that Israel has again banned him from entering the Gaza Strip, as the United Nations warns of the coming linen after seven months of war.
“The Israeli authorities continue to deny the United Nations humanitarian access” to the Gaza Strip, Philip Lazzarini complained to X. “This week, they refused, for the second time, my entry into Gaza.”
In mid-March, Philip Lazzarini complained that Israel had denied him entry to the Palestinian enclave.
“In the last two weeks we have recorded ten incidents such as firing on supply convoys, arrests of UN staff members, hooded, stripped, threats with weapons and long waits at checkpoints that force convoys to move at night or abandon,” he complained. the head of Unrwa.
He also called for an independent investigation into the firing of rockets by “armed Palestinian organizations” against the Kerem Shalom crossing, Israel’s main access for humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, which led to its closure by the Israeli army.
The Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades claimed responsibility for today’s rocket attack on Kerem Shalom, which killed three Israeli soldiers, the Israeli military said.
#Gaza: The Israeli Authorities continue to deny humanitarian access to the United Nations.
Just this week, they have denied – for the second time- my entry to Gaza where I planned to be with our @UNRWA teams including those on the front lines.
The past while recorded an…
— Philippe Lazzarini (@UNLazzarini) May 5, 2024
Israel accuses 12 of the 13,000 workers of Unrwa, which coordinates almost all humanitarian operations in the Gaza Strip, of being involved in the October 7 attack.
In late April, an independent assessment group ruled in a report that UNRWA lacked “neutrality” in the Gaza Strip, and that Israel had not provided “evidence” of the alleged ties of some of its members to “terrorist organizations” such as Hamas. The report stresses that UNRWA is “irreplaceable and indispensable” to the Palestinians.
This evening, the Israeli military announced that one of its warplanes struck a Hamas “command center” in the Gaza Strip, which had been “deliberately installed near an active Unrwa base, endangering civilians who had taken refuge there.” .
This center was used by Hamas “as a platform for multiple attacks against Israeli troops (…) in recent weeks” and “for attacks against humanitarian operations aimed at increasing the distribution of aid to the people of Gaza,” according to the announcement of the Israeli army.
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