Has Lebanon’s Hezbollah been strengthened or weakened by the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza?

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Smoke billows above the Lebanese village of Bint Jbeil during Israeli bombardment on February 28, 2024, amid ongoing cross-border tensions between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon. (AFP)
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Smoke billows above a Lebanese village during Israeli bombardment on March 4, 2024, amid ongoing cross-border tensions between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon. (AFP)
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Smoke billows above a Lebanese village during Israeli bombardment on February 28, 2024, amid ongoing cross-border tensions between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon. (AFP)
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Updated 07 March 2024
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Has Lebanon’s Hezbollah been strengthened or weakened by the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza?

  • Lebanon is fearful tit-for-tat violence between Israel and Hezbollah could escalate into devastating conflict
  • Pressure to support Hamas in Gaza while avoiding all-out war with Israel puts Iran-backed Hezbollah in a bind

DUBAI: After a string of losses suffered by Hezbollah since the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza began on Oct. 7, Middle East analysts are increasingly asking whether the Iran-backed group has been politically and militarily weakened by the contained conflict in southern Lebanon.

Despite talk of a potential ceasefire in Gaza, there is no guarantee that Israel and Hezbollah will halt their deadly exchanges along Lebanon’s southern border. Nor would it put a stop to the suspected targeted killings of militia leaders deep inside Lebanese territory.




People inspect the site of an Israeli airstrike a day earlier in the southern Lebanese village of Odaisseh near the border with Israel on March 5, 2024. (AFP)

For Lebanon, even this relatively contained tit-for-tat between Israel and Hezbollah has been costly. Civilians living along the border have been killed while thousands have fled north over fears of an Israeli invasion.

On Monday, US envoy Amos Hochstein landed in Beirut in a bid by Washington to reduce regional tensions. His visit coincided with an attack on northern Israel, launched from Lebanon, that left an Indian worker dead and seven others wounded.




Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati (R) meets with US envoy Amos Hochstein in Beirut onn March 4, 2024. (REUTERS)

In a statement during the visit, Hochstein said an escalation “will not help the Lebanese or the Israelis return to their homes. There is no such thing as a limited war; a diplomatic solution is the only way out.”

To achieve “a lasting fair security arrangement between Lebanon and Israel,” Hochstein said “a temporary ceasefire is not enough” and that “a limited war is not containable.”

Security along the Blue Line, demarcated by the UN in 2000 after Israeli troops pulled out of southern Lebanon, “has to change in order to guarantee everyone’s security,” he added.




Peacekeepers from the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) patrol the border area between Lebanon and Israel on Hamames hill in the Khiyam area of southern Lebanon, on October 13, 2023. (AFP)

Some analysts believe Hezbollah has done enough to demonstrate support for Palestinians and Hamas, and therefore has nothing more to prove by dragging Lebanon into a major war with Israel.

“It will emerge much stronger and already is stronger internally, because it can claim that it has deterred an Israeli attack,” Nadim Shehadi, former head of the Middle East program at London’s Chatham House, told Arab News.

“If there is no all-out war, then Hezbollah can shut down all the critics of its arms and declare all its opponents as collaborators with the enemy, because they will claim that Hezbollah’s arms protected Lebanon and deterred an attack.

“This is, of course, getting less convincing as Israel escalates, but in the end, they will twist it in their favor.”

INNUMBERS

• 10 Israeli soldiers and reservists killed by Hezbollah and other militia attacks since Oct. 8.

• 229 Hezbollah members killed by Israel, mostly in Lebanon, but some also in Syria.

• 30 Civilians, three of whom were journalists, killed by Israeli strikes on Lebanon.

Although all sides appear keen to avoid a direct military confrontation that could lead to a major regional conflict, there has been no lull in hostilities except as part of the temporary ceasefire in November last year during the Israel-Hamas war.

Speaking on Monday, Hezbollah’s deputy chief, Naim Qassem, reiterated that the militia, which says it is acting in support of Palestinians in Gaza and Hamas, would stop its attacks on Israel once the war in the enclave ends. “Stop the assault on Gaza and war will end in the region,” he said.

However, Yoav Gallant, the Israeli defense minister, has said that there will be no let-up in Israeli operations against Hezbollah even if a Gaza ceasefire is secured.




Israel has warned that there would be no letup in its operations against the Hezbollah in Lebanon for as long as they continue to post a threat. (AFP)

Indeed, there is pressure from more hawkish elements in Israel for the government to act decisively against the Hezbollah threat on the country’s northern border. Likewise, Hezbollah is under pressure to ride to the rescue of its Hamas brethren.

There are practical reasons why Hezbollah may be keen to avoid an all-out war with Israel. The availability of weapons, finance for postwar reconstruction and the objectives of Iran could all be key considerations in Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah’s calculations.

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Through the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, “Tehran has invested billions of dollars in Hezbollah’s missiles,” Meir Javedanfar, an Israeli lecturer, author and professor of Iranian politics at Reichman University in Israel, told Arab News.

“Their job, their most important priority, is to deter Israel from attacking Iran’s nuclear installations. If Hezbollah gets involved in a war against Israel now, with all those missiles, then Iran’s nuclear program will be left badly exposed.”




Hezbollah fighters take part in a ceremony to commemorate the party's fallen leaders in the Lebanese village of Jibshit, about 50 kilometers south of the capital Beirut on Feb. 15, 2024. (AFP)

Indeed, no matter how sincere its support for the Palestinian cause, Hezbollah has an incentive to keep its powder dry so it can continue to act as a credible deterrent against a pre-emptive Israeli strike on Iran.

“Another is the fact that if there is a war, this time around Iran cannot pay to rebuild Lebanon back like it did in 2006,” said Javedanfar.

“Iran’s economy is doing terribly now and has been under sanctions since 2012. Iranians won’t be able to pay nor restock Hezbollah’s ammunition, and this will all undermine Hezbollah’s position.”




A handout picture provided by the Iranian Army media office on October 27, 2023, shows missiles being fired during a military drill in the Isfahan province in central Iran. (AFP)

Since Hezbollah began its campaign in solidarity with Hamas on Oct. 8, ostensibly to draw Israeli resources away from the Gaza Strip, Israel has launched a series of targeted drone strikes on militia commanders in Lebanon.

Hussein Yazbeck, whose precise rank in the militia is unknown, was killed on Jan. 3. Wissam Hassan Al-Tawil, a commander in Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force, was assassinated on Jan. 8, while Ali Hussein Burji, aerial forces commander, was killed in southern Lebanon on Jan. 9.

Israel has also struck suspected IRGC and Hezbollah weapons depots and missile launch sites in Lebanon, many of which were situated in residential areas.

So far, the armed exchanges have resulted in seven civilian deaths on the Israeli side, as well as the deaths of 10 Israel Defense Force soldiers and reservists. There have also been several attacks on Israel from Syrian territory, without any injuries.

Hezbollah has named 229 members who have been killed by Israel, mostly in Lebanon, but some also in Syria. In Lebanon, another 37 operatives from other groups, a Lebanese soldier and at least 30 civilians, three of whom were journalists, have been killed.




Hezbollah militants and supporters attend the funeral of Ali al-Debs, one of the militant group's commanders killed by an Israeli air raid two days earlier, in Lebanon's southern city of Nabatieyh on February 16, 2024. (AFP)

Lebanese ministers have continued to urge restraint. “At a time where we insist on calm and call on all sides to not escalate, we find the Israeli enemy extending its aggression,” Najib Mikati, Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, said in a statement last month.

The statement came in response to a deadly Israeli airstrike in Nabatieh, southern Lebanon, which left 10 civilians dead, including seven members of the same family and a mother and her two children. A day of mourning was called in the aftermath of the attack.

Nabih Berri, the speaker of the Lebanese parliament, condemned the “massacre,” adding that “the bloodshed in Nabatieh is on the hands of the international envoys, the UN and human rights organizations” for failing to act to reduce tensions.

Hezbollah, meanwhile, vowed to retaliate for the attack. “The enemy will pay the price for these crimes,” Hassan Fadlallah, a senior Hezbollah official, said in a statement.




Hezbollah supreme leader Hassan Nasrallah is seen on large television screen in Beirut as he delivers a televised address amid the ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas. (AFP)

Soon after, a barrage of rockets was fired toward a military base in Safed in northern Israel, killing Israeli army Staff Sgt. Omer Sarah Benjo.

Although Hezbollah may have strengthened its position politically in Lebanon, while preserving its strategic advantage on behalf of Iran, there are some who will view the militia’s restraint as a sign of weakness at a time when its Palestinian allies were most in need.

“We don’t want war, but if they (the Israelis) attack us we’ll be sure to attack them back,” Ali Chedid, a resident of Dahiyeh, a predominantly Shiite suburb of Beirut and Hezbollah stronghold, told Arab News.




People inspect the damage caused by Israeli bombardment on Hezbollah targets along Israel's. borders with Lebanon. (AFP)

“Hezbollah has been doing a great job of showing restraint so far. It is not a matter of not having enough weaponry or funding to launch a war. Rather it is because we know if we set out to destroy Israel, we also will be destroyed in the process. We never claimed we would remain unscathed.”

For Chedid, the war in Gaza has put Hezbollah in an impossible fix that will be hard for its leaders to navigate if they hope to avoid, at the very least, tarnishing their reputation as champions of the Palestinian cause and the main bulwark against Israel.

“Hezbollah is damned if it attacks because then people will claim it is dragging the country into war for its own interests,” said Chedid. “It is also damned if it doesn’t because it will be accused of being all smoke and mirrors and having left Gazans to suffer alone.”

 


UN Security Council condemns attacks on peacekeeping forces in Lebanon

Updated 14 November 2024
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UN Security Council condemns attacks on peacekeeping forces in Lebanon

  • Several UN peacekeepers have been injured in southern Lebanon since a year of skirmishes between Israel and Hezbollah escalated into fierce clashes in the past month
  • Council members say peacekeepers must never be the target of attacks and urge all involved in the conflict to respect their safety and security

NEW YORK CITY: The UN Security Council on Wednesday condemned attacks in southern Lebanon in recent weeks in which several UN peacekeeping troops have been injured.

The UN Interim Force in Lebanon continues to monitor hostilities in the south of the country along the demarcation line separating it from Israel. A year of skirmishes between Israeli soldiers and Hezbollah fighters in border areas have escalated into fierce clashes in the past month.

Israel accuses the UN peacekeeping forces of providing cover for Hezbollah and has told UNIFIL to withdraw its troops from southern Lebanon for their own safety. The international force has refused to comply, instead vowing to remain and carry out its mandate along the Blue Line of demarcation between the two countries, which was established by the UN in June 2000. It has issued several warnings that the Israeli army’s “deliberate and direct destruction of clearly identifiable UNIFIL property is a flagrant violation of international law” and UN resolutions.

Without mentioning Israel by name, the 15 members of the UN Security Council on Wednesday urged all parties involved in the conflict to take all possible steps to respect the safety and security of UNIFIL personnel and facilities, and said peacekeepers must never be the target of attacks.

The council reiterated its “full support” for UNIFIL, underscored “its role in supporting regional stability,” and expressed “deep appreciation” to the countries that contribute troops to the force.

Council members also expressed “deep concern for civilian casualties and suffering, the destruction of civilian infrastructure, the damage to cultural heritage sites in Lebanon, and endangerment of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Baalbeck and Tyre, and the rising number of internally displaced people.”

They called on “all parties” to abide by international humanitarian law and fully implement Security Council resolutions.


Israeli airforce bombs Syria-Lebanon border

Updated 14 November 2024
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Israeli airforce bombs Syria-Lebanon border

  • A leading monitor said that 15 people had been wounded in the strikes in an area of Syria’s Homs region
  • “Earlier today, with the direction of IDF (military) intelligence, the IAF (Israeli airforce) struck smuggling routes between Syria and Lebanon,” the army said

JERUSALEM: The Israeli military said that it carried out air strikes on Wednesday along the border with Syria and Lebanon, with state media in Damascus saying that key infrastructure had been targeted.
A leading monitor said that 15 people had been wounded in the strikes in an area of Syria’s Homs region which is a known stronghold of Lebanon’s Hezbollah although there was no immediate confirmation from Syrian authorities.
Israel rarely comments on its military operations in Syria but it did confirm the strikes which had been first reported by the Syrian state news agency Sana.
“Earlier today, with the direction of IDF (military) intelligence, the IAF (Israeli airforce) struck smuggling routes between Syria and Lebanon,” the army said in a statement.
“These routes coming from the Syrian side of the border into Lebanon are used to smuggle weapons to the Hezbollah terrorist organization.”
The Sana news agency said that “the Israeli aggression” on the Homs region had been met with a barrage of anti-aircraft fire.
Citing a military source, Sana said that the Israeli planes had targeted bridges along the Orontes river and roads around the Syria-Lebanon border.
The strikes had caused “significant damage,” according to the source, putting some of the infrastructure out of action, without giving details.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor also said that Israeli military aircraft had hit Syrian bridges and military checkpoints.
Fifteen members of the Syrian armed forces or allied groups had been wounded in the strikes, said the observatory which has a vast network of contacts throughout Syria.
But since civil war broke out in Syria in 2011, it has carried out hundreds of air strikes on Syrian government forces and groups supported by its arch-foe Iran, notably Hezbollah troops that have been deployed to assist Assad’s regime.
Israel has carried out frequent raids on highways on the Lebanese side of the border with Syria to cut off potential weapons supplies since a major escalation of its conflict with Hezbollah in September.


How Syrians in war-torn Lebanon are coping with double displacement

Updated 5 min 3 sec ago
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How Syrians in war-torn Lebanon are coping with double displacement

  • Syrians face increasing barriers to shelter and aid access in Lebanon due to overcrowding and mounting hostility
  • Lebanon has the highest refugee population per capita globally, hosting 1.5 million Syrians prior the current escalation

LONDON: Syrians displaced to Lebanon by the civil war in their home country have found themselves on the move once again, as Israel’s targeting of the Iran-backed Lebanese Hezbollah militia has forced more than a million people from their homes.

Many Syrians, unable to return home for fear of conscription or arrest, face a difficult dilemma — whether to ride out the conflict in Lebanon, despite deepening poverty and mounting hostility, or even risk the irregular sea crossing to Cyprus or beyond.

Hezbollah and the Israeli military have been trading blows along the Lebanese border since Oct. 8, 2023, when the militia began rocketing northern Israel in solidarity with Hamas, its Palestinian militia ally, which had just attacked southern Israel, sparking the Gaza war.

However, in September this year, the Israeli military suddenly ramped up its attacks on Hezbollah positions across Lebanon, disrupting its communications network, destroying arms caches, and eliminating much of its senior leadership.

Israeli jets have pounded Hezbollah positions in towns and villages across southern Lebanon and its strongholds in the suburbs of the capital, Beirut, while ground forces have mounted “limited” incursions into Lebanese territory.

More than 1.2 million people have been displaced since the hostilities began more than a year ago, according to UN figures. Among them, the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, has identified 34,000 Syrians who have been secondarily displaced since October 2023.

For Lebanese civilians, the conflict has revived grim memories of the devastating 2006 war with Israel and the civil war years of 1975-90. For Syrians, though, the memories of conflict and displacement are even more raw, with the 13-year civil war in their home country still ongoing.

A picture shows smoke billowing from a tissue factory after an overnight Israeli strike on the Lebanese city of Baalbeck in the Bekaa valley on October 11, 2024. (AFP)

Hezbollah fighters from Lebanon took part in the Syrian civil war, which began in 2011, on the side of the Bashar Assad regime against armed opposition groups, thereby contributing to the mass displacement of Syrians that followed.

“Refugees who have fled their homeland in search of safety and security are now facing the reality of being displaced once again in Lebanon due to ongoing hostilities,” Lisa Abou Khaled, a UNHCR spokesperson, told Arab News.

“This double displacement exacerbates their vulnerability.”

UNHCR reported that more than 400,000 people, at least 70 percent of them Syrians, have crossed the border into Syria to escape the escalating violence in Lebanon. However, for many, returning home is not an option.


Rescue workers remove rubble, as they search for victims at the site that was hit by Israeli airstrikes in Qana village, south Lebanon, on Oct. 16, 2024. (AP)

The alternative is to remain in Lebanon, where Syrians have reportedly been denied access to work, housing, and services amid the country’s economic crisis, and mounting hostility from Lebanese citizens who believe their own needs have been overlooked.

Rabab, whose name has been changed to protect her identity, spent several nights sleeping rough in Sidon’s Martyrs’ Square last month before locals offered her and her husband a place to stay.

“When we visited the municipality, they refused to register our names and said priority was given to displaced Lebanese families,” Rabab, who is originally from northwest Syria, told Arab News.

“Returning to Syria now is out of the question as I have no family left there, and my husband will face conscription.”

INNUMBERS

• 1.2 million: People displaced by conflict in Lebanon since October 2023.

• 34,000: Syrians in Lebanon who have been secondarily displaced.

• 400,000: Displaced people, 70 percent of them Syrians, who have fled to Syria.

(Source: UNHCR)

The result has been a growing number of Syrian families displaced from southern Lebanon sleeping rough on the streets of Sidon and other cities, with the buzz of Israeli drones and jets overhead and winter temperatures fast approaching.

“Many displaced Syrians in Lebanon, particularly those newly displaced due to recent escalations, face significant challenges in accessing shelters,” Tania Baban, the Lebanon country director of the US-based charity MedGlobal, told Arab News.

Recounting an incident in Sidon, where displaced Syrians had been turned away “due to a lack of shelter capacity,” Baban said: “Municipalities in regions have implemented restrictions, often barring entry to Syrian displaced people, citing overcrowding or security concerns.

Syrian children, who had to fled their country after the outbreak of the war in Syria in 2011 and migrated to Lebanon, are seen in an area where refugees live in Sidon city of Lebanon on October 7, 2024. (Anadolu via Getty Images)

“As a result, some families are sleeping in informal makeshift camps, abandoned buildings, or even out in the open parking lots in Sidon,” she added, stressing that the situation is particularly dire in areas like the capital, Beirut, which was already overpopulated prior to the escalation.

Hector Hajjar, Lebanon’s caretaker minister of social affairs, has denied accusations of discrimination against displaced Syrians. According to Lebanon’s National News Agency, Hajjar said earlier this month that his government was committed to safeguarding all affected groups.

Stressing that “UNHCR appreciates Lebanon’s generous hospitality in hosting so many refugees and understands the challenges this adds at this very delicate juncture,” the UN agency’s spokesperson Abou Khaled called on “all actors to maintain and apply humanitarian principles and allow equal access to assistance.”

“Newly displaced Syrians and Lebanese in several regions tell us that they have had to sleep in the open,” she said, adding that “UNHCR and partners are working with the relevant authorities on finding urgent solutions to this issue.”

Lebanon has the most refugees per capita in the world, hosting some 1.5 million Syrians prior to the current escalation, according to government estimates.

Zaher Sahloul, president of MedGlobal, called on humanitarian agencies to “act swiftly to provide the protection and support these refugees urgently need.”

“Every person, regardless of nationality, deserves to be treated with dignity and compassion during this crisis,” he said in a statement in late September.

Unfortunately, this has not been the case for many Syrians in Lebanon.

Footage has emerged on social media showing the purported abuse of Syrians. In one such video, a man was seen tied to a post on a city street while the person filming claims this was done because people in Syria’s Idlib had celebrated the death of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah.

Meanwhile, some Lebanese politicians have seized upon the worsening situation in Lebanon to advance an anti-Syrian agenda, insisting Syria is now safe for them to return.

Syrian Red Crescent rescuers attend to displaced people arriving from Lebanon at the Jdeidat Yabus border crossing in southwestern Syria on October 7, 2024. (AFP)

Last month, Bachir Khodr, the governor of Baalbek-Hermel, told Al-Jadeed TV that “the reason for the Syrians’ presence is the war in Syria. This war has ended, so they must now leave Lebanon, as the war is here now.”

Lebanon has endured a crippling economic crisis since 2019, which has plunged much of the population into poverty. In recent years, Lebanese politicians have characterized displaced Syrians as a burden on society and called for their deportation.

Despite human rights organizations unanimously agreeing in May that no part of Syria is safe for returnees, a UNHCR report in March highlighted that 13,772 Syrians had been deported from Lebanon or pushed back at the border with Syria in about 300 incidents in 2023.

Children sit in a bus as Syrians who were refugees in Lebanon return to their home country after a five-day journey to the northern Idlib province where they are received at a temporary resting point in the town of Qah, on October 4, 2024. (AFP)

Human Rights Watch also reported in April that Lebanese authorities “have arbitrarily detained, tortured, and forcibly returned Syrians to Syria,” including activists and army defectors.

Disputing the findings, Khodr, the governor of Baalbek-Hermel, argued that the return of some “235,000 displaced Syrians” to their country “challenges the theory that the Syrian authorities might arrest those returning to it.”

“We have repeatedly said that the Syrian side has not harassed any of its citizens who have returned since the start of the voluntary return campaigns in 2018, but rather they have been treated in the best possible way,” Khodr posted on the social platform X on Oct. 8.

However, the UK-based Syrian Network for Human Rights reported that Syrian authorities have arrested 23 individuals who had returned from Lebanon since September.

Syrians who were refugees in Lebanon return to their home country after a journey to the opposition held northern Idlib province through the crossing Aoun al-Dadat north of Manbij, on October 9, 2024. Lebanon became home to hundreds of thousands of Syrians after the repression of anti-government protests in Syria in 2011 sparked a war that has since killed more than half a million people. (AFP)

For those Syrians who have chosen to remain in Lebanon, despite its many challenges, assistance provided by humanitarian aid agencies has become a vital lifeline.

Abou Khaled of UNHCR said her agency “is working relentlessly with humanitarian partners and Lebanese authorities to urgently find safe shelter for those without any.”

“A comprehensive emergency shelter strategy has been shared with proposed shelter solutions in all Lebanese regions and work is ongoing at the cadastre and district levels to implement parts of it.”

She added: “Current hostilities, compounded by the ongoing socio-economic situation, create challenges for all communities, all of whom deserve equal access to safety and dignity.”
 

 


Israel’s ban on UN agency for Palestinian refugees will have ‘catastrophic consequences’

Updated 13 November 2024
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Israel’s ban on UN agency for Palestinian refugees will have ‘catastrophic consequences’

  • UNRWA commissioner-general Philippe Lazzarini says entire generation of Palestinians will be denied right to an education
  • UN member states urged to consider the effects Israel’s decision on the ‘international rules-based order’

An Israeli law banning the UN agency that helps Palestinian refugees will have “catastrophic consequences” that threaten regional stability, the head of the organization warned on Wednesday.

In an impassioned plea to the General Assembly, Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner general of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, urged member states to take action to prevent Israel’s move against his organization.

The Israeli parliament voted last month to cut ties with UNRWA and ban it from operating in Israel. The law, which is expected to be implemented within three months, will severely limit the agency’s ability to operate in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza, where millions of Palestinians rely on its services.

Meanwhile, the appalling humanitarian situation in Gaza continues to deteriorate, with international aid groups accusing Israel this week of failing to meet US demands to alleviate the suffering.

Lazzarini spelled out the severity of the situation in his address to the General Assembly as he issued stark warnings about the far-reaching implications of the decision to ban UNRWA. He said it would not only cause the humanitarian response in Gaza to collapse but also deal a blow to the international rules-based order under which all UN agencies must operate.

“The risk of the agency’s collapse threatens the lives and futures of individuals and communities, the stability of the region, and the integrity of our multilateral system,” Lazzarini said.

UNRWA, he added, has become another casualty of the war in Gaza, during which Israeli forces have killed more than 43,000 people, the majority of them women and children. He said famine has probably already taken hold in the territory, and hunger and disease are widespread.

“The implementation of the Knesset (Israeli parliament) legislation will have catastrophic consequences,” Lazzarini said.

“In Gaza, dismantling UNRWA will collapse the United Nations’ humanitarian response, which relies heavily on the agency’s infrastructure.”

He went on to highlight the devastating effects the ban would have on education in Gaza, where “in the absence of a capable public administration or state, only UNRWA can deliver education to more than 660,000 girls and boys.

“In the absence of UNRWA, an entire generation will be denied the right to education. Their future will be sacrificed, sowing the seeds for marginalization and extremism.”

Schooling for a further 50,000 children in the West Bank would also be under threat, along with primary health care for half a million Palestinian refugees.

Lazzarini repeated previous requests for UN member states to do whatever they can to halt the implementation of the Israeli ban and maintain funding for UNRWA. He painted Israel’s actions targeting the agency as representing a wider threat to the UN and the multilateral world order under which it operates.

“The United Nations and its staff are in an increasingly untenable position; if the legal and political framework within which we operate does not hold, we cannot stay and deliver,” he said.

Speaking later to the press, Lazzarini said there had been much anger and condemnation in response to the Israeli law and he hopes there might still be some pathway to prevent its implementation. But he conceded this might be “wishful thinking.”

The Israeli law was widely criticized in the region and the wider international community. Saudi Arabia described it as a “flagrant violation of international law and a direct violation of the rules of international legitimacy.”

On Tuesday, the US said Israeli authorities had made some progress in increasing the flow of aid to Gaza and, as a result, Washington would not limit weapons transfers to the country. However, this came as a report published by eight international aid agencies said conditions in the territory were worse than at any point in the war.

Israel claims that some UNRWA staff took part in the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas on Israel last year, which killed about 1,200 people and sparked the war in Gaza. The UN reacted by firing nine of the agency’s workers that might have been involved. Lazzarini said the agency has a “zero-tolerance approach” to any breaches of its neutrality.


Why is only limited aid getting to Palestinians inside Gaza?

Updated 13 November 2024
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Why is only limited aid getting to Palestinians inside Gaza?

  • Aid groups accuse the Israeli military of hindering and even blocking shipments in Gaza

JERUSALEM: The US decided not to punish Israel over the dire humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip after giving it an ultimatum to increase aid entering the territory. But the flow of food, medicine and other supplies to Palestinians is still at nearly its lowest level of the entire 13-month-old war.

The White House last month gave Israel 30 days to improve conditions or risk losing military support. As the deadline expired Tuesday, leading international aid groups said Israel had fallen far short.

But the US State Department announced it would not take any punitive action, saying Israel has made limited progress. However, it called for more steps.

Aid groups accuse the Israeli military of hindering and even blocking shipments in Gaza. Almost the entire population of around 2.3 million Palestinians relies on international aid for survival, and doctors and aid groups say malnutrition is rampant. Food security experts say famine may already be underway in hard-hit north Gaza.

“It’s really frustrating because by almost every objective metric, all agencies say that the humanitarian situation has gotten worse in that time frame that the US has specified,” Aseel Baidoun, a senior manager of the aid group Medical Aid for Palestinians, said.

“Even though we have provided all the evidence that there is a risk of famine ... still the U.S. miraculously finds Israel not violating the humanitarian aid law.”

Israel, which controls all crossings into Gaza, says it is committed to delivering humanitarian assistance and has scrambled to ramp up aid. 

COGAT, the military body in charge of aid passage, said they had taken a number of steps over the past month to increase the amount entering the territory, including opening a fifth crossing — into central Gaza — this week. 

Israel says the UN and international aid groups need to do a better job of distributing supplies.

Aid into Gaza is typically measured in terms of truckloads of food and supplies entering the territory. The US has demanded 350 trucks daily — still below the 500 a day that entered before the war.

In October, aid entry plunged to its lowest level since the first month of the war. Israeli government figures show roughly 57 trucks a day entering on average. The average has risen to 100 a day so far in November, slightly lower than the same month last year.

The UN, however, says even less is entering. It reports receiving an average of 39 trucks daily since the beginning of October. This is largely because it says it cannot reach the main crossing point in the south to collect cargos due to Israeli military restrictions and lawlessness. The UN says virtually no food or other aid has reached the northernmost part of Gaza since the beginning of October. That’s when the Israeli military launched a major offensive against Hamas fighters in the area of Jabaliya, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun, cutting them off.

Israel says October’s drop in aid was because it closed crossings into Gaza during the Jewish high holidays. It said it couldn’t allow deliveries to the far north in October because of the fighting.

Under international pressure, COGAT allowed two deliveries to the far north this month.

But little of it got through. Last week, the World Food Programme said troops on the ground ordered its trucks to unload their cargo before reaching their destination.