Shameless grave robber
Israel returns dozens of exhumed Gazan bodies
WHO: UNRWA issue distraction from Gaza crisis
The spokesman for the World Health Organization Christian Lindmeier called the row over the United Nations’ Palestinian refugee agency “a distraction from what’s really going on every day, every hour, every minute in Gaza”.
His remarks came after Israel accused around a dozen staff of the main UN aid agency for Palestinians of taking part in the Hamas October 7 attack on the occupied territories. The issue has led to suspension of UNRWA funding by some Western nations.
“As important as this discussion is, let’s not forget what the real issues are on the ground,” said Lindmeier.
Russia on Tuesday also criticized the decision by several countries to suspend their funding, calling it a form of “collective punishment”.
“What has happened and is happening is collective punishment, prohibited by international humanitarian law,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.
An investigation into accusations UNRWA staff were involved in the October 7 attack should not be replaced by “collective punishment” of the agency and Gazan people, he added.
UNRWA has fired several employees and promised a thorough investigation into the claims, which were not specified.
Bombardment continues
Deadly fighting and bombardment rocked Gaza on Tuesday as international mediators pushed for a new halt in the Israel’s war on Gaza and a deal to release captives.
Heavy Israeli strikes and urban combat across the besieged Gaza Strip killed 128 more people overnight, the health ministry in the Palestinian territory said on Tuesday.
The epicenter of fighting has been the southern city of Khan Yunis, where vast areas have been reduced to a muddy wasteland of bombed-out buildings.
In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where violence has surged since the start of the war, Israeli undercover troops raided a hospital in the northern city of Jenin, killing three men.
Some of the Israeli agents were dressed as medical staff and carried a wheelchair and baby carrier as props, according to officials and hospital CCTV footage released by the Ramallah-based Palestinian health ministry. Hamas said one of the three killed, Muhammad Jalamnah, was a commander in its armed wing.
The Palestinian health ministry stressed that hospitals enjoy special protection under international law and urged the United Nations to help end Israel’s “daily string of crimes... against our people and health centers”.
In the latest efforts to broker a new truce, a meeting in Paris on Sunday between top US, Israeli, Egyptian and Qatari officials resulted in a proposed framework. Hamas confirmed on Tuesday that it had received the proposal, saying on its Telegram account that it was “in the process of examining it and delivering its response”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose office earlier also called the talks “constructive”, on Tuesday ruled out releasing “thousands” of Palestinian prisoners as part of any deal to halt fighting in Gaza.
In southern Gaza, Palestinians buried dozens of bodies in a mass grave after officials said Israel returned remains it had exhumed from the territory. The Israeli military did not respond to a request to comment, although it has previously made remarks about exhuming bodies from Gaza graves in search of Israeli captives.
A second source at Gaza’s ministry of religious affairs said Israel “stole them from Bani Suheila cemetery, east of Khan Yunis” around two weeks ago.
The government media office in Gaza accused Israel of removing organs from the bodies.
Hamas fighters took captive of 250 people, of whom Israel says around 132 remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 28 dead captives.