UNITED NATIONS: A Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal “now is in sight,” the US envoy to the United Nations told the Security Council on Thursday, urging members to press Palestinian militant group Hamas to accept a bridging proposal agreed to by Israel.
Months of on-off talks have circled the same issues, but Israel and Hamas have stuck to their demands.
US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said a bridging proposal put forward last week by the US, Qatar and Egypt was consistent with a plan outlined by President Joe Biden in May and endorsed by the Security Council in June.
“Israel has accepted the bridging proposal. Now Hamas must do the same,” she told the council. “As members of this council, we must speak with one voice, and we must use our leverage to press Hamas to accept the bridging proposal.”
Disagreements over Israel’s future military presence in Gaza and over Palestinian prisoner releases are obstructing a deal, sources familiar with talks told Reuters, stemming from demands Israel has introduced since Hamas accepted Biden’s May proposal.
“It’s a decisive moment for ceasefire talks and for the region, and so every member of this council should continue to send strong messages to other actors in the region to avoid actions that would move us away from finalizing this deal,” said Thomas-Greenfield.
The conflict in Gaza put the entire Middle East region on edge, triggering months of border clashes between Israel and Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah movement, and threatening a wider escalation drawing in major powers.
Iran has also vowed retaliation over the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on July 31, which it blamed on Israel. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied it was behind the killing.
“There’s very real danger of regional escalation,” Thomas-Greenfield said. “So let us do everything in our power to get this ceasefire and hostage release deal over the finish line now.”
The current war in the Gaza Strip began on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas gunmen stormed into Israeli communities, killing around 1,200 people and abducting about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Since then, Israel’s military has leveled swathes of the Palestinian enclave, driving nearly all of its 2.3 million people from their homes, giving rise to deadly hunger and disease and killing at least 40,000 people, according to Palestinian health authorities.
US envoy tells UN: Gaza ceasefire deal ‘now is in sight’
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US envoy tells UN: Gaza ceasefire deal ‘now is in sight’
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- “Israel has accepted the bridging proposal. Now Hamas must do the same,” she told the council
- Disagreements over Israel’s future military presence in Gaza and over Palestinian prisoner releases are obstructing a deal, sources familiar with talks told Reuters
Arab leaders join UN chief in call for global action
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- Organization’s upcoming ‘Summit of the Future’ aims to revive support for multilateralism
- Event will take place during 79th General Assembly in New York this month
LONDON: Arab leaders have joined the head of the UN in calling for global action on security, poverty, development and climate change.
Their appeals came ahead of the UN’s Summit of the Future, which will take place on Sept. 22 and 23, during the organization’s 79th General Assembly in New York.
Billed as an attempt to revive trust in multilateralism and bolster support for the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, the event will result in a “Pact for the Future,” negotiated and agreed upon by member states. It will also produce a “Global Digital Compact” and a “Declaration on Future Generations.”
The UN said: “The world is not on track to meet the goals we have already set for ourselves. Nor are we effectively rising to new challenges or opportunities.
“Multilateral governance, designed in simpler, slower times, is not adequate to today’s complex, interconnected, rapidly changing world. The summit is an opportunity to put ourselves on a better path.”
The pact agreed during the summit will cover key aspects of the UN’s remit, including sustainable development, international security, science and innovation, and youth issues.
The organization hosted a “Global Call” on Thursday to promote the summit and outline its aims for the summit, at which Antonio Guterres, the UN’s secretary-general, was backed by Arab leaders including Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and newly reelected Algerian leader Abdelmadjid Tebboune, who delivered their messages of support in video statements.
Other leaders from Muslim-majority countries who took part in the appeal included Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The Global Call was hosted by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Namibian President Nangolo Mbumba.
Guterres said: “Member states are now in the final stages of negotiating the three agreements to be adopted at the Summit of the Future: the Pact for the Future, the Global Digital Compact and the Declaration on Future Generations.
“My appeal is for you to push hard for the deepest reforms and most meaningful actions possible. We need maximum ambition during these final days of negotiation.”
He listed major global challenges he said are “moving much faster than our ability to solve them” and added: “Ferocious conflicts are inflicting terrible suffering. Deep geopolitical divides are creating dangerous tensions, multiplied by nuclear threats.
“Inequality and injustice corrode trust and fuel populism and extremism. Discrimination, misogyny and racism are taking on new forms.
“Poverty and hunger are at crisis levels as the Sustainable Development Goals are slipping out of reach. And we have no effective global response to new, and even existential, threats.”
Addressing recurring criticism of his organization’s relevance and influence in the modern world, the UN chief described the Security Council as being “stuck in a time warp.”
Highlighting the challenges facing the international financial system, he said: “Our institutions cannot keep up because they were designed for another era and another world.”
However, the UN is still in a unique position to address global issues by offering a platform for change through the summit, Guterres added.
He listed a series of requirements for the revival of multilateralism, including conflict prevention and mediation, financial reforms, increased lending capacity among development banks, and management of the risks posed by new technologies.
“As we reach the end of negotiations on the three texts, I appeal to all governments to make sure they are as ambitious as possible, to restore the hope and trust we need in order to address the dramatic challenges of our time,” he said.
“The Summit of the Future is an opportunity for far-reaching agreements on international collaboration for a safer, more sustainable and more equitable world. Let’s seize it.”
The appeal by Guterres was echoed by Tebboune, the Algerian president, who warned that the world is “going though a very sensitive, critical juncture.”
Egyptian leader El-Sisi highlighted the current tensions in the Middle East as he called for the summit to address three main priorities.
Member states must establish a system “based on the principles and rules of international law,” “reform the structure of the global financial system” and “enhance efforts toward the eradication of poverty and hunger,” he said.
Sharif, the Pakistani prime minister, drew attention to the “plight of the people in Gaza.”
He said: “Today, in times of unprecedented global challenges and escalating conflicts, we are at risk of permanently damaging the notion of ‘we.’ A collective ‘we’ requires a degree of equality and justice.
“The plight of the people of Gaza is a mockery of this ‘we.’ This ‘we’ becomes marred amid rising debt burdens for the poor, increasing poverty, growing inequality, intolerance, terrorist violence, illegal foreign occupation and a skewed approach to climate adaptation.”
Erdogan, who recently called on the leaders of Muslim-majority countries to gather for a summit on Gaza, described the UN event as a “rare window of opportunity.”
He added: “It is only a matter of days until the Summit of the Future, which aims to fortify international solidarity in the face of threats to the future of humanity, and facilitate the establishment of a peaceful, secure and equitable system.
“In the midst of the conflicts, oppression, hunger and poverty that are ravaging our world, I perceive the summit as a rare window of opportunity.”
Arab League chief briefed on conditions faced by refugees in Gaza
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- Head of UNRWA holds discussions with Ahmed Aboul Gheit on challenges agency faces
- Philippe Lazzarini provided an in-depth account of the dire conditions faced by Palestinian refugees in the Gaza Strip
CAIRO: Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner-general of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, during a meeting in Cairo identified significant challenges confronting the agency.
Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit received Lazzarini at the General Secretariat headquarters on Thursday.
During the meeting, Lazzarini mentioned the challenges confronting the agency on the financial and logistical fronts, exacerbated by the persistent targeting of its headquarters and personnel by the Israeli military, along with increasing efforts to disrupt the agency’s operations.
Lazzarini provided an in-depth account of the dire conditions faced by Palestinian refugees in the Gaza Strip amid the bloody Israeli aggression, as well as in the West Bank, where Israeli attacks have escalated.
Gamal Roshdy, spokesperson for the secretary-general, said that Aboul Gheit reiterated the Arab League’s support for UNRWA’s vital mission and its efforts to assist Palestinian refugees throughout its five areas of operation.
He emphasized the need for donor countries to fulfill their financial commitments and contributions to the agency’s budget, particularly given the precarious situation currently faced by the Palestinian people.
In February 2024, the Arab League chief said the decision by some countries to suspend the funding they provide for UNRWA was wrong from both a humanitarian and security standpoint and a morally flawed position to take.
At that time, he warned that ending the agency’s role would endanger the entire region and said it would be a dangerous move that suits the long-held ambitions of the Israeli right wing to dismantle UNRWA and persuade the international community to step back from its responsibility to help address the issue of Palestinian refugees.
The Palestinian economy is in free fall and will require billions to rebuild, the UN says
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- The report from UN Trade and Development, or UNCTAD, also warned of “rapid and alarming economic decline” in the West Bank, citing expanded Israeli settlements
- The report made no mention of corruption in Palestinian institutions
GENEVA: The Palestinian economy is “in free fall,” the United Nations reported Thursday, with production in Gaza plunging to one-sixth of its level before Israeli forces began a blistering military response to the Oct. 7 attacks in the territory.
The report from UN Trade and Development, or UNCTAD, also warned of “rapid and alarming economic decline” in the West Bank, citing expanded Israeli settlements, land confiscations, demolition of Palestinian buildings and violence by settlers.
The report made no mention of corruption in Palestinian institutions.
“The Palestinian economy is in free fall,” Pedro Manuel Moreno, the agency’s deputy secretary-general, told reporters in Geneva. “The report calls for the international community to halt this economic free fall, address the humanitarian crisis, and lay the groundwork for lasting peace and development.”
That would include a “comprehensive recovery plan” for Palestinian areas, more international aid, the lifting of Israel’s blockade on Gaza, and the release of revenues and withheld funds for Palestinians retained by Israel, he said.
Gaza’s economy was weak even before the war, when unemployment was close to 50 percent, but the war has brought it to a near-standstill, with the UN estimating that roughly 90 percent of the territory’s population has been displaced, many living in squalid tent camps and dependent on international aid.
The war has also hurt the West Bank. After the Oct. 7 attacks, Israel immediately revoked work permits that allowed some 150,000 Palestinians to work inside Israel, depriving them of a key source of income.
A military crackdown that Israel says is aimed at militants has also rippled through the economy, with frequent army raids and military checkpoints making it difficult for people to work or move around.
With violence continuing, there’s little sign of any recovery plan being launched anytime soon.
Mutasim Elagraa, who coordinates UNCTAD’s assistance to Palestinians, said: “If we want to return Gaza to pre-October 2023, we need tens of billions of dollars, or even more, and decades.”
The ultimate goal is “to put Gaza on a path of sustainable development,” which will take more time and money, he said.
Economic output in Gaza plunged to just over $221 million in the half-year including the last quarter of 2023 and first quarter of 2024 — the last quarter for which figures are available — or about 16 percent of the total figure for the same half-year period in 2022 and 2023, when the total was just over $1.34 billion, the agency said.
Meanwhile, more than 300,000 jobs in the West Bank — home to some 3 million Palestinians — have been lost, driving unemployment rates up to 32 percent, up from under 13 percent before the conflict, the agency reported.
By early this year, as much as 96 percent of Gaza’s farming assets, including livestock farms, orchards, machinery and storage facilities, had been “decimated,” UNCTAD said.
Over 80 percent of businesses were damaged or destroyed, and the damage has continued to worsen, it said.
Since the 1990s, Israel has collected import duties for Palestinians — leaving about two-thirds of all Palestinian tax revenue under the control of the Israeli government. Israel has repeatedly withheld or suspended the payments, accusing the Palestinian Authority of encouraging violence or taking hostile steps against Israel in the UN and other international bodies.
From 2019 through April this year, Israel had withheld or deducted a total of more than $1.4 billion, crimping the ability of Palestinian officials to provide public services and pay salaries, pensions and debts, it said. The European Union last month said it paid some $43 million to help the Palestinian Authority pay salaries and pensions in the West Bank.
Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed at least 41,084 Palestinians and wounded another 95,029, the territory’s Health Ministry said. The ministry’s count does not differentiate between civilians and militants.
Israel launched its campaign vowing to destroy the Palestinian group Hamas after the Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel in which militants killed some 1,200 people and abducted 250 others.
UN chief Guterres says 6 colleagues killed in Israel strike on Gaza school
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- The Al-Jawni school in Nuseirat, already hit several times during the war, was struck again on Wednesday, killing 18 people
- ‘Among those killed was manager of the UNRWA shelter and other team members providing assistance to displaced people,’ UNRWA says
GAZA: An Israeli air strike hit a school in central Gaza on Wednesday, with the Hamas-run territory’s civil defense agency reporting that 18 people were killed, including UN staffers, and the military saying it had targeted militants.
The Al-Jawni school in Nuseirat, already hit several times during the war, was struck again on Wednesday, killing 18 people, including two members of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), said Gaza’s civil defense agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal.
UNRWA gave the higher figure of six staffers killed at the Nuseirat school-turned-shelter, calling it the highest death toll among its team in a single incident.
“This school has been hit five times since the war began. It is home to around 12,000 displaced people, mainly women and children,” the UN agency separately posted on X. “No one is safe in Gaza.”
UN chief Antonio Guterres deplored the killings, which he also said included six UNRWA colleagues.
“What’s happening in Gaza is totally unacceptable,” he wrote on social media platform X.
“These dramatic violations of international humanitarian law need to stop now.”
Gaza’s civil defense agency said at least 18 other people were wounded in the school bombing.
AFP could not independently verify the toll, which the agency said included several women and children.
Israel’s military said its air force had “conducted a precise strike on terrorists who were operating inside a Hamas command-and-control center” on the grounds of Al-Jawni, without elaborating on the outcome or the identities of those targeted.
“Most of the people took refuge in schools and the schools were bombed,” said Basil Amarneh from Gaza’s Al-Aqsa hospital, where children were arriving in the arms of medics.
“Where will people go?”
The vast majority of the Gaza Strip’s 2.4 million people have been displaced at least once by the war, triggered by Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, with many seeking safety in schools.
Israeli forces have struck several such schools in recent months, saying Palestinian militants were operating there and hiding among displaced civilians — charges denied by Hamas.
In July, at least 16 people were killed in an air strike on the Al-Jawni facility that Israel said had targeted “terrorists.”
Israel’s military offensive since the war began on October 7 has killed at least 41,084 people in Gaza, according to the territory’s health ministry. The UN rights office says most of the dead are women and children.
The October 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel that triggered the war resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures, which also includes hostages killed in captivity.
Israel’s military meanwhile reported the deaths of two soldiers late Tuesday when an army helicopter crashed in the area of Gaza’s southern city of Rafah.
The military announced on Wednesday that the helicopter had crashed while landing and that another eight soldiers were injured.
The aircraft had been on a “life-saving operation” to evacuate a wounded soldier when it crashed, Major General Tomer Bar said in a statement.
“An investigative committee has been appointed to investigate the details of the crash,” he said, and called it an “operational accident.”
The latest deaths bring the Israeli military’s losses in the Gaza campaign to 344 since its ground offensive began on October 27.
Deadly Israeli strike on Gaza school draws global condemnation
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- UN chief Antonio Guterres branded the strike “totally unacceptable“
- EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said he was “outraged” by the deaths and that the strikes showed a “disregard of the basic principles” of international humanitarian law
GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories: Israel faced international condemnation Thursday after a strike killed 18 people at a school-turned-shelter for displaced Palestinians in war-torn Gaza, where the Israeli military said it targeted Hamas militants.
The attack flattened part of the UN-run Al-Jawni school in Nuseirat on Wednesday, leaving only a charred heap of rebar and concrete.
“For the fifth time, Israeli forces bombed the UNRWA-run Al-Jawni School, killing 18 citizens,” Gaza civil defense spokesperson Mahmud Bassal wrote on Telegram, referring to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.
UNRWA later said six of its staff had been killed in two Israeli strikes on the school and its surroundings, calling it the highest death toll among its team in a single incident.
“Among those killed was the manager of the UNRWA shelter and other team members providing assistance to displaced people,” it said on X. “Schools and other civilian infrastructure must be protected at all times, they are not a target.”
The Israeli military said it had conducted a “precise strike” on Hamas militants within the school grounds. It did not elaborate on the outcome, but said “numerous steps” were taken to reduce the risk to civilians.
UN chief Antonio Guterres branded the strike “totally unacceptable.”
His condemnation was echoed by Israeli ally Germany, which said “humanitarian aid workers must never be victims of rockets.”
Jordan and the European Union also criticized the attack, while Israel’s main backer the United States called on it to protect humanitarian sites.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said he was “outraged” by the deaths and that the strikes showed a “disregard of the basic principles” of international humanitarian law.
US Secretary of State Blinken said: “We need to see humanitarian sites protected, and that’s something that we continue to raise with Israel.”
Israeli military spokesman Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani said UNRWA had not provided the names of its killed workers, “despite repeated requests.”
He said a military inquiry found that “a significant number of the names (of the dead) that have appeared in the media and on social networks are Hamas terrorist operatives.”
In response, UNRWA spokeswoman Juliette Touma said the agency was “not aware of any such requests,” that it provided Israel each year with a list of its staff and that it “called repeatedly” on Israel and Palestinian militants “to never use civilian facilities for military or fighting purposes.”
She said the agency was “not in a position to determine” if the school had been used by Hamas for military purposes, but UNRWA had “repeatedly called for independent investigations” into “these very serious claims.”
Israeli government spokesman David Mencer said the school was “no longer a school” and had become “a legitimate target” as it was used by Hamas to launch attacks.
UNRWA, which coordinates nearly all aid into Gaza, has been in crisis since Israel accused a dozen of its 30,000 employees of being involved in the October 7 Hamas attacks that sparked the war.
The UN immediately fired the implicated staff members, and a probe found some “neutrality related issues” but stressed Israel had not provided evidence for its chief allegations.
Survivors of the strike scrambled to recover bodies and belongings from the rubble, saying they had to step over “shredded limbs.”
“I can hardly stand up,” a man holding a plastic bag of human remains told AFP.
“We’ve been going through hell for 340 days now, what we’ve seen over these days, we haven’t even seen it in Hollywood movies, now we’re seeing it in Gaza.”
UNRWA head Philippe Lazzarini said after the school strike that at least 220 members of the agency’s staff had been killed in the war.
“Endless & senseless killing, day after day,” he posted on X.
“Humanitarian staff, premises & operations have been blatantly & unabatedly disregarded since the beginning of the war.”
Across Gaza, many school buildings have been repurposed to shelter displaced families, with the vast majority of the territory’s 2.4 million people repeatedly uprooted by the war.
In Gaza City, civil defense spokesman Bassal said two strikes in the Zeitun neighborhood killed seven people — including two children.
Later, he said two people were killed in the Jabalia camp. Medical sources said five people were killed in strikes on the Khan Yunis area.
The bloodshed shows no signs of abating despite months of ceasefire negotiations mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the United States.
A Hamas delegation met Qatari and Egyptian mediators in Doha on Wednesday, the Palestinian Islamists said, though there was no indication of a breakthrough.
The October 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Among the dead included in that count were hostages killed in captivity.
Israel’s retaliation has killed at least 41,118 people in Gaza, according to the territory’s health ministry. The UN rights office says most of the dead are women and children.