EXPLAINER
Israel confirms flooding tunnels with seawater, the UN rallies to renew UNRWA funding.
Right here’s how issues stand on Wednesday, January 31, 2024:
Newest updates
- The Israeli military confirmed on Tuesday that it has been flooding tunnels in Gaza with seawater for a number of weeks.
- A Hamas official advised Reuters information company on Tuesday that the group is learning a brand new proposal for a three-stage truce with Israel.
- Not less than half of the buildings throughout the Gaza Strip have been destroyed since October 7, in accordance with evaluation verified by the BBC on Tuesday.
- Israel has repeated new evacuation orders for neighbourhoods in western Gaza Metropolis, the place 88,000 Palestinians had been dwelling in shelters, the United Nations Workplace for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) mentioned in a report on Monday.
Human influence and preventing
- The US Central Command (CENTCOM) mentioned a US warship shot down a Houthi antiship cruise missile within the Crimson Sea on Tuesday.
- US-based suppose tanks Institute for the Research of Conflict (ISW) and the Important Threats Mission (CTP) mentioned on Wednesday that Palestinian armed teams are probably within the early levels of rebuilding their army and governance capabilities within the north of the Gaza Strip solely. Their evaluation added that Hamas just isn’t essentially making ready for an offensive marketing campaign in the way in which that Western media have recommended.
- The Israeli army introduced on Wednesday that three troopers have been killed in fight in Gaza, whereas 5 extra have been severely injured.
- The destiny of an ambulance crew and a six-year-old lady they have been trying to rescue from a automobile shelled by the Israeli army in Gaza Metropolis stays “unknown”, the Palestine Crimson Crescent Society (PRCS) mentioned on Tuesday.
‘Collapse’ of support system in Gaza
- UN Secretary-Common Antonio Guterres appealed to key donors to renew funding the UN’s company for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) in a closed-door assembly of 35 nations on Tuesday, reported The Occasions of Israel.
- Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu opposes the fast closure of UNRWA because it fears this might trigger a “humanitarian catastrophe”, a senior authorities official mentioned on Tuesday, in accordance with The Occasions of Israel.
- Martin Griffiths, the UN’s undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs, warned in an announcement launched on Tuesday that the suspension of funding of UNRWA “would result in the collapse” of the help system within the Gaza Strip.
- The US has “reached out to the government of Israel to seek more information” about allegations Israel made towards 12 employees members of UNRWA being concerned in Hamas’s October 7 assaults, Washington’s ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, advised reporters on Tuesday.
- In a publish on X on Wednesday, UN Particular Rapporteur Francesca Albanese mentioned the governments suspending funds to UNRWA represents “double standards” after they proceed to assist Israel, whose actions “plausibly constitute” genocide.
Diplomacy
- The UN Safety Council is predicted to fulfill to debate the Worldwide Courtroom of Justice’s interim ruling on Israel’s struggle in Gaza on Wednesday at 11am New York time (16:00 GMT).
- The UN’s human rights workplace launched an announcement on Tuesday calling the “planned extrajudicial execution” of three Palestinian males inside Ibn Sina Hospital within the occupied West Financial institution metropolis of Jenin “unlawful”.
- The Iran-backed Kataib Hezbollah group in Iraq mentioned in an announcement launched on Tuesday that it has suspended all army operations towards US forces within the area to forestall the “embarrassment of the Iraqi government”.