UNITED NATIONS: Despite a dire warning from the UN chief that the UN agency for Palestinian refugees “is on the verge of financial collapse,” donors at a pledging conference on Friday provided just $107 million in new funds — significantly less than the $300 million it needs to keep helping millions of people.
Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner general of the agency known as UNRWA, said he was grateful for the new pledges but they are below the funds needed to keep over 700 schools and 140 clinics open from September through December.
“We will continue to work tirelessly with our partners, including host countries — the refugees’ top supporters — to raise the funds needed,” he said in a statement.
At the beginning of the year, UNRWA appealed for $1.6 billion for its programs, operations and emergency response across Syria, Lebanon, the Israeli-occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip and Jordan. That includes nearly $850 million for its core budget, which includes running schools and health clinics.
According to UNRWA, donors on Friday announced $812.3 million in pledges, but just $107.2 million were new contributions. The countries pledging new funds were not announced.
Lazzarini told a press conference Thursday that UNRWA needs $150 million to keep all services running until the end of the year, and an additional $50 million to start 2024 without liabilities. In addition, he said, the agency needs $75 million to keep the food pipeline in Gaza operating and about $30 million for its cash distribution program in Syria and Lebanon.
UNRWA was founded in the wake of the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 to provide hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who fled or were forced from their homes with education, health care, social services and in some cases jobs. Today, their numbers — with descendants — have grown to some 5.9 million people, most in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, as well as neighboring countries in the Middle East.
UNRWA has faced a financial crisis for 10 years, but Lazzarini said the current crisis is “massive,” calling it “our main existential threat.”
“It is deepening, and our ability to muddle through is slowly but surely coming to an end,” he said. “The situation is even more critical now that some of our committed donors have indicated that the will substantially decrease their contribution to the agency.”
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a speech read by his chief of staff at the start of the pledging conference that “when UNRWA’s future hangs in the balance so do the lives of millions of Palestine refugees relying on essential services.”
Those services include education for over half a million girls and boys, health care for around 2 million people, job opportunities for young people in Gaza and elsewhere, psycho-social support for hundreds of thousands of children, and a social safety net for nearly half a million of the poorest Palestinians, he said. More than 1.2 million Palestinians also receive humanitarian assistance.
UN agency for Palestinian refugees raises just a third of $300m needed to help millions
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UN agency for Palestinian refugees raises just a third of $300m needed to help millions
- UNRWA chief grateful for the new pledges but they are below the funds needed to keep over 700 schools and 140 clinics open from September through December
Greece seeks cooperation with Libya to stop migration, PM says
- Greece said it would deploy two frigates and one more vessel off Libya’s territorial waters to deter migrants from reaching its southern islands
- Mitsotakis said authorities in Libya should cooperate with Greece to stop migrants
BRUSSELS: Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Thursday that Libya should cooperate with Greece and Europe to help halt a surge in migration flows from the north African state.
Seaborne arrivals of migrants in Europe from the north of Africa, including war-torn Sudan, and the Middle East have spiked in recent months.
Greece said on Monday it would deploy two frigates and one more vessel off Libya’s territorial waters to deter migrants from reaching its southern islands of Crete and Gavdos.
“I will inform my colleagues about the significant increase in the number of people from eastern Libya and ask for the support of the European Commission so that the issue can be addressed immediately,” Mitsotakis said ahead of an European Union summit in Brussels that began on Thursday.
Mitsotakis said authorities in Libya should cooperate with Greece to stop migrants sailing from there or turn them back before they exit Libyan territorial waters.
He added that the EU’s migration commissioner and ministers from Italy, Greece and Malta would travel to Libya early in July to discuss the issue.
Law and order has been weak in Libya since a 2011 uprising that toppled dictator Muammar Qaddafi, with the country divided by factional conflict into eastern and western sections for over a decade.
Israeli strikes kill 2 in south Lebanon
- Lebanon’s health ministry said a man wounded “in an Israeli enemy drone strike targeting his bulldozer” and another injured in a strike on a motorcycle both died in hospital
- Israeli military said they “eliminated... a commander in Hezbollah’s Radwan Force“
BEIRUT: Israeli strikes in south Lebanon on Thursday killed two people, the Lebanese health ministry said, with the Israeli army saying its raids targeted Hezbollah operatives.
In statements carried by the official National News Agency, Lebanon’s health ministry said a man wounded “in an Israeli enemy drone strike targeting his bulldozer” and another injured in a strike on a motorcycle both died in hospital.
The Israeli military said in a statement that its forces “eliminated... a commander in Hezbollah’s Radwan Force” in the Baraasheet area, referring to the Iran-backed group’s elite unit, and an operative from “Hezbollah’s observation force” in Beit Lif.
Israel has kept up regular strikes on Lebanon, particularly in the south, since a November 27 ceasefire meant to end over a year of hostilities that left Hezbollah severely weakened.
Under the ceasefire deal, Hezbollah was to pull its fighters back north of the Litani river, some 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the Israeli border, leaving the Lebanese army and United Nations peacekeepers as the only armed parties in the area.
Israel was required to fully withdraw its troops but has kept them in five locations in south
Lebanon that it deems strategic.
On Tuesday, the health ministry said three people were killed in an Israeli strike on a vehicle in south Lebanon’s Nabatiyeh district.
The Israeli military said it killed the head of a currency exchange firm who worked with Hezbollah to transfer funds for the Iran-backed group’s “terrorist activities.”
WHO delivers its first medical aid to Gaza since March 2
- WHO chief says nine truckloads are 'a drop in the ocean' of Gaza's needs
- Shipment of supplies, plasma and blood will be distributed among hospitals in the Palestinian territory
GENEVA: The World Health Organization said Thursday that it had delivered its first medical shipment into Gaza since March 2, adding though that the nine truckloads were “a drop in the ocean.”
Wednesday’s shipment of supplies, plasma and blood will be distributed among hospitals in the Palestinian territory in the coming days, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X.
Israel imposed a total blockade on the Gaza Strip on March 2. More than two months later, it began allowing some food in, but no other aid items until now.
Tedros said nine trucks carrying essential medical supplies, 2,000 units of blood and 1,500 units of plasma were delivered via the Kerem Shalom crossing with Israel, “without any looting incident, despite the high-risk conditions along the route.”
“These supplies will be distributed to priority hospitals in the coming days,” Tedros said.
“The blood and plasma were delivered to Nasser Medical Complex’s cold storage facility for onward distribution to hospitals facing critical shortages, amid a growing influx of injuries, many linked to incidents at food distribution sites.”
Last week the WHO said only 17 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals were minimally to partially functional, with the rest unable to function at all.
Tedros said four WHO trucks were still at Kerem Shalom and more were on their way toward Gaza.
“However, these medical supplies are only a drop in the ocean. Aid at scale is essential to save lives,” he said.
“WHO calls for the immediate, unimpeded and sustained delivery of health aid into Gaza through all possible routes.”
Israel began allowing supplies to trickle in at the end of May following its more than two-month total blockade, but distribution has been marred by chaotic scenes and near-daily reports of Israeli forces firing on people waiting to collect rations.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a new US- and Israel-backed food distribution system, began handing out food in Gaza on May 26.
But the UN and major aid groups have refused to cooperate with the GHF — an officially private effort with opaque funding — over concerns it was designed to cater to Israeli military objectives.
Israel is pressing its bombardment of the territory in a military offensive it says is aimed at defeating the militant group Hamas, whose unprecedented October 2023 attack on Israel triggered the war.
The families of hostages held in Gaza hope for their own ceasefire after truce in Israel-Iran war
- “Now it’s the time to pressure them and tell them, look, you are on your own. No one is coming to your help. This is it,” Berman said
- “The achievements in Iran are important and welcome, enabling us to end the war from a position of strength with Israel holding the upper hand,” said the Hostages Families Forum
OR AKIVA, Israel: Liran Berman hasn’t had much to keep hopeful over the 629 days of his twin brothers’ captivity in Gaza. Ceasefire deals have collapsed, the war has dragged on, and his siblings remain hostages in the Palestinian enclave.
But the war between Israel and Iran, and the US-brokered ceasefire that halted 12 days of fighting, have sparked fresh hope that his brothers, Gali and Ziv, may finally return home.
With Iran dealt a serious blow over nearly two weeks of fierce Israeli strikes, Berman believes Hamas, armed and financed by Iran, is at its most isolated since the war in Gaza began, and that might prompt the militant group to soften its negotiating positions.
“Now it’s the time to pressure them and tell them, look, you are on your own. No one is coming to your help. This is it,” Berman said. “I think the dominoes fell into place, and it’s time for diplomacy to reign now.”
A long nightmare for the families of hostages
During their Oct. 7, 2023, attack, Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people and took 251 hostages. Most have been freed in ceasefire deals, but 50 remain captive, less than half of them believed to still be alive.
The war has killed over 56,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many were civilians or combatants. It says more than half of the dead were women and children.
The families of hostages have faced a 20-month-long nightmare, trying to advocate for their loved ones’ fates while confronted with the whims of Israeli and Hamas leaders and the other crises that have engulfed the Middle East.
Israel’s war with Iran, the first between the two countries, pushed the hostage crisis and the plight of Palestinian civilians in Gaza to the sidelines. Hostage families again found themselves forced to fight for the spotlight with another regional conflagration.
But as the conflict eases, the families are hoping mediators seize the momentum to push for a new ceasefire deal.
“The achievements in Iran are important and welcome, enabling us to end the war from a position of strength with Israel holding the upper hand,” said the Hostages Families Forum, a grassroots organization representing many of the hostage families.
“To conclude this decisive operation against Iran without leveraging our success to bring home all the hostages would be a grave failure.”
Netanyahu may have more room to maneuver
It’s not just a diminished Iran and its impact on Hamas that gives hostage families hope. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, riding a wave of public support for the Iran war and its achievements, could feel he has more space to move toward ending the war in Gaza, something his far-right governing partners oppose.
Hamas has repeatedly said it is prepared to free all the hostages in exchange for an end to the war in Gaza. Netanyahu says he will only end the war once Hamas is disarmed and exiled, something the group has rejected.
Berman said the ceasefire between Israel and Iran has left him the most optimistic since a truce between Israel and Hamas freed 33 Israeli hostages earlier this year. Israel shattered that ceasefire after eight weeks, and little progress has been made toward a new deal.
The Israeli government team coordinating hostage negotiations has told the families it now sees a window of opportunity that could force Hamas to be “more flexible in their demands,” Berman said.
Iran’s ‘Axis of Resistance’ is in disarray
Over the past four decades, Iran built up a network of militant proxy groups it called the ” Axis of Resistance ” that wielded significant power across the region, including Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthi rebels in Yemen, and militias in Iraq and Syria.
Hamas may have envisioned the Oct. 7, 2023, attack as a catalyst that would see other Iranian-sponsored militants attack Israel. While Hezbollah and the Houthis launched projectiles toward Israel, the support Hamas had counted on never fully materialized. In the past two years, many of those Iranian proxies have been decimated, changing the face of the Middle East.
US President Donald Trump’s involvement in securing a ceasefire between Israel and Iran has also given many hostage families hope that he might exert more pressure for a deal in Gaza.
“We probably need Trump to tell us to end the war in Gaza,” Berman said.
Inseparable twins who remain in captivity
Gali and Ziv Berman, 27, were taken from their homes in Kibbutz Kfar Aza, on the border with Gaza, during the Oct. 7 attack. Seventeen others were also abducted there; of those, only the Berman twins remain captive.
The family has heard from hostages who returned in the previous deal that, as of February, the brothers were alive but being held separately.
Liran Berman said that’s the longest the two have ever spent apart. Until their abduction, they were inseparable, though they are very different, the 38-year-old said.
In Kfar Aza, the twins lived in apartments across from each other. Gali is more outgoing, while Ziv is more reserved and shy with a sharp sense of humor, their brother said. Gali is the handyman who would drive four hours to help a friend hang a shelf, while Ziv would go along and point to where the shelf needed to go.
The war with Iran, during which Iranian missiles pounded Israeli cities for 12 days, gave Liran Berman a sense of what his brothers have endured as bombs rained down on Gaza, he said.
“The uncertainty and the fear for your life for any moment, they are feeling it for 20 months,” he said. “Every moment can be your last.”
Netanyahu asks court to postpone corruption trial summons: lawyer
- US President Donald Trump called for the case against the Israeli prime minister to be canceled altogether
- Israel’s opposition leader warned Trump against interfering in Israel’s internal affairs
JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked a court on Thursday to postpone his testimony in his long-running corruption trial, after US President Donald Trump called for the case to be canceled altogether.
In a filing to the tribunal, Netanyahu’s lawyer Amit Hadad said the premier’s testimony should be delayed in light of “regional and global developments.”
“The court is respectfully requested to order the cancelation of the hearings in which the prime minister was scheduled to testify in the coming two weeks,” the filing said.
It said Netanyahu was “compelled to devote all his time and energy to managing national, diplomatic and security issues of the utmost importance” following a brief conflict with Iran and during ongoing fighting in Gaza where Israeli hostages are held.
Trump on Wednesday described the case against Netanyahu as a “witch hunt.”
In a message on his Truth Social platform, Trump said the Netanyahu trial “should be CANCELLED, IMMEDIATELY, or a Pardon given to a Great Hero,” after the end of a 12-day war with Iran.
Netanyahu on Thursday thanked Trump for his “heartfelt support for me and your incredible support for Israel and the Jewish people.”
“I look forward to continue working with you to defeat our common enemies, liberate our hostages and quickly expand the circle of peace,” Netanyahu wrote on X, sharing a copy of Trump’s Truth Social post.
Israel’s opposition leader warned Trump against interfering in Israel’s internal affairs.
“We are thankful to President Trump, but... the president should not interfere in a judicial trial in an independent country,” Yair Lapid said in an interview with news website Ynet.
Netanyahu is Israel’s longest-serving prime minister.
In the trial that has been delayed many times since it began in May 2020, Netanyahu has denied any wrongdoing.
In a first case, Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, are accused of accepting more than $260,000 worth of luxury goods such as cigars, jewelry and champagne from billionaires in exchange for political favors.
In two other cases, Netanyahu is accused of attempting to negotiate more favorable coverage in two Israeli media outlets.
