Israel is waging a concerted campaign aimed at destroying UNRWA, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees claims in an interview published today.

Philippe Lazzarini says calls for his resignation were part of the Israeli government’s push.

“Right now we are dealing with an expanded, concerted campaign by Israel aimed at destroying UNRWA,” he tells the Swiss newspaper group Tamedia.

“It is a long-term political goal because it is believed that if the aid agency is abolished, the status of the Palestinian refugees will be resolved once and for all — and with it, the right of return. There is a much larger political goal behind this.”

“Just look at the number of actions Israel is taking against UNRWA,” the main aid body in the Gaza Strip, he says.

He cites measures in the Israeli parliament, moves to remove the agency’s VAT exemption and orders for contractors at Israel’s port of Ashdod to “stop handling certain food deliveries for UNRWA.”

“And all these demands come from the government.”

Furthermore, Lazzarini says more than 150 UNRWA installations have been hit since the Gaza war began.

Israel has called for Lazzarini to step down following the discovery that at least 12 UNRWA staffers directly took part in the October 7 massacres and hostage-taking and at least another 30 provided assistance. Several thousand of them are affiliated with terror organizations.

Israel also discovered a Hamas tunnel housing a major server center under UNRWA’s evacuated Gaza City headquarters.

Lazzarini said the tunnel was 20 meters below ground and UNRWA as a humanitarian organization did not have the capabilities to examine what was underground in Gaza.

The tunnel was found to be drawing electricity from the headquarters.

He also said Israel was alone in calling for him to quit and there was “no reason” to comply with a single UN member state’s demand for him to go, “especially since my resignation would not improve the situation at UNRWA.”

“The criticisms are not concerned with me personally, but with the organization as a whole. The calls for resignation are part of the campaign to destroy UNRWA,” he says.

Israel has long argued that UNRWA perpetuates antisemitism and glorifies terrorism in its schools. The recent allegations have led several donor countries to announce funding freezes, leading to concerns that the agency, which says it is the main conduit for aid for millions in the Strip amid the Israel-Hamas war, could stop operating in Gaza and elsewhere in the Middle East within weeks.

(Source: The Times of Israel)

Chairman of the Supreme Political Council of the Houthi group in Yemen Mahdi Al-Mashat confirmed on Friday that his group will not back down from supporting the Gaza Strip, regardless of the challenges and results following the attacks on Gaza on 7 October.

This statement was made in a speech he delivered before a massive demonstration in the capital, Sanaa, called for by the Houthi group in support of Gaza.

In front of tens of thousands of demonstrators, Al-Mashat expressed: “Our position is firm, both on the official and popular level, regarding supporting our oppressed brothers in Gaza on the basis of faith, morals and values, and we cannot back down from this position, regardless of the challenges and results.”

He called for: “An immediate halt to the aggression and the lifting of the siege on Gaza because that is the only solution and option for the Israelis, no matter how much aggression or attacks they commit.”

Regarding the continuation of the US-British raids on Yemen, Al-Mashat commented: “Anyone who attacks our country will be met with a response, whatever the results.”

Since 19 November, the Houthi group has begun targeting Israeli cargo ships or those linked to the occupation in the Red Sea with missiles and drones, noting that this will not stop until the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip ceases.

This led to an increase in the cost of shipping globally after many companies avoided the important shipping corridor, the Suez Canal, taking longer routes. Washington and London responded by forming an international coalition that launched missile and air strikes on Houthi sites in various areas in Yemen. This did not deter the Houthi group from continuing its attacks, announcing that they had now included all US and British ships.

(Source: MEMO)

The United States is preparing to send more bombs and other weapons to Israel even as it pushes for a ceasefire in the war on Gaza and has said it opposes Tel Aviv’s plans for a ground invasion in southern Rafah where more than half the enclave’s displaced population is trapped.

The proposed arms delivery includes about a thousand each of MK-82 500-pound (227kg) bombs and KMU-572 Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs) that turn unguided munitions into precision-guided bombs, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing unnamed US officials.

The US is further considering sending FMU-139 bomb fuses, with the total shipment estimated to be worth tens of millions of dollars, which will be paid from US military aid to Israel.

The report cited an assessment of the proposed arms transfer drafted by the US embassy in Jerusalem as saying the Israeli government has requested “rapid acquisition of these items for the defence of Israel against continued and emerging regional threats”.

The assessment also dismisses potential human rights concerns, saying “Israel takes effective action to prevent gross violations of human rights and to hold security forces responsible that violate those rights”.

The administration of US President Joe Biden has so far twice bypassed Congress to urgently send bombs and other munitions to Israel amid the war that has killed more than 28,000 Palestinians, mostly children and women, and left tens of thousands more injured or missing.

According to the WSJ, the US has provided roughly 21,000 precision-guided munitions to Israel since the start of the war last October. It said the remaining weapons are enough to sustain 19 weeks of bombing Gaza, but that would shrink to days if Israel also launches a full assault on Lebanon, where it has been engaged in border fighting with Hezbollah.

On Friday, Biden said he has repeatedly told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu there “has to be a temporary ceasefire” in Gaza during “extensive” conversations this week.

In the face of widespread international condemnation, Israel has insisted it will soon launch a ground invasion of Rafah, the southernmost city in the Gaza Strip that borders Egypt. It is where an estimated 1.4 million of the enclave’s 2.3 million population has been forcibly displaced in Israeli attacks across Gaza in the four-month conflict.

While the Biden administration maintains that an Israeli incursion into the densely packed city would be a “disaster”, it has said that such an operation would not result in tangible consequences, such as a freeze in US weapons transfers.

Biden said he cautioned Netanyahu against moving forward with a military operation into Rafah without a “credible and executable plan” to protect Palestinians sheltering there.

“I anticipate, I’m hoping, that the Israelis will not make any massive land invasion [of Rafah] in the meantime. So, my expectation, that’s not gonna happen,” Biden said.

Reporting from Washington, DC, Al Jazeera’s Kimberly Halkett said it was “unclear” if Netanyahu was listening Biden.

“Historically he has not, especially when it comes to the US cautioning about how to conduct the Israeli military campaign,” Halkett said.

Washington, some of Israel’s other allies, in addition to the United Nations and a slew of rights groups, have said an assault on Rafah given the dire humanitarian situation suffered by Palestinians in Gaza would prove catastrophic.

Netanyahu has ordered the military to draw up plans that would evacuate civilians, but top UN officials have said there is no feasible way of moving people from the area and that there is no safe place left in Gaza.

Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant said the country is “thoroughly planning” its ground invasion of Rafah, and Netanyahu promised early on Friday to reject “international dictates” on a long-term resolution of Israel’s conflict with the Palestinians.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES