GENEVA: The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) does not have a mandate to replace the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees in Gaza, its director general said in comments published on Monday.
UNRWA was swept into controversy in January when Israel accused 12 of its 30,000 employees of being involved in the October 7 Hamas attacks which led to the deaths of around 1,160 people — mostly civilians — according to an AFP count based on official Israeli figures.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed nearly 35,000 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run Palestinian territory.
The UN immediately fired the implicated staff members and launched an internal investigation to assess the agency’s neutrality.
“We have completely different mandates,” ICRC director general Pierre Krahenbuhl told Swiss daily Le Temps in an interview.
UNWRA’s mandate “comes from the UN General Assembly, the ICRC’s from the Geneva Convention. The ICRC cannot take over UNRWA’s mandate,” he said.
“We already have enough to do without replacing other organizations,” said Krahenbuhl, who himself had headed UNRWA between 2014 and 2019.
Last week, a report by an independent group led by French former foreign minister Catherine Colonna concluded that Israel had failed to furnish proof that some UNRWA employees had links to “terrorist organizations” such as Hamas.
UNWRA is a crucial provider of food to Palestinian refugees, defined as Palestinians who fled or were expelled around the time of Israel’s 1948 creation, or their descendants.
In March, UNRWA head Philippe Lazzarini said UNRWA had “reached a breaking point,” with israel calling for its dismantling, major donors freezing their funding due to the Israeli accusations, and the people of Gaza facing a desperate humanitarian crisis.
Red Cross has no mandate to replace UNRWA in Gaza, chief says
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Red Cross has no mandate to replace UNRWA in Gaza, chief says
- Earlier report concluded that Israel had failed to furnish proof that some UNRWA employees had links to “terrorist organizations” such as Hamas
Blinken says Israel needs a clear and concrete plan for Gaza’s future
Israel says it intends to keep overall security control and has baulked at proposals for the Palestinian Authority to take charge
KYIV: Israel needs a clear and concrete plan for the future of Gaza where it faces the potential for a power vacuum that could become filled by chaos, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday.
Washington and its ally Israel say Hamas cannot continue to run Gaza after militants from the group ignited the conflict with attacks on southern Israel that killed 1,200 people on Oct. 7.
“We do not support and will not support an Israeli occupation. We also of course, do not support Hamas governance in Gaza... We’ve seen where that’s led all too many times for the people of Gaza and for Israel. And we also can’t have anarchy and a vacuum that’s likely to be filled by chaos,” Blinken said during a press conference in Kyiv.
The US top diplomat has held numerous talks with Israel’s Arab neighbors on a post-conflict plan for Gaza since Israel vowed to root out Hamas from the Palestinian enclave more than seven months ago.
But Israel says it intends to keep overall security control and has baulked at proposals for the Palestinian Authority, which governs with partial authority in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, to take charge.
“It’s imperative that Israel also do this work and focus on what the future can and must be,” Blinken said. “There needs to be a clear and concrete plan, and we look to Israel to come forward with its ideas.”
Turkiye tells US that Israel’s attack on Rafah unacceptable, Turkish source says
- Fidan also told Blinken that it was important to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza as soon as possible
ANKARA: Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told his US counterpart Antony Blinken in a call on Wednesday that Israel’s attack on the Gazan city of Rafah is unacceptable, a Turkish diplomatic source said.
Fidan also told Blinken that it was important to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza as soon as possible, while emphasising that obstacles to the access of humanitarian aid into the enclave must be removed, the source said.
Ireland to recognize Palestinian statehood ‘this month’: FM Martin
- FM Micheal Martin: ‘We will be recognizing the state of Palestine before the end of the month’
- Martin: ‘The specific date is still fluid because we’re still in discussions with some countries in respect of a joint recognition of a Palestinian state’
DUBLIN: Ireland is certain to recognize Palestinian statehood by the end of May, the country’s Foreign Minister Micheal Martin said on Wednesday, without specifying a date.
“We will be recognizing the state of Palestine before the end of the month,” Martin, who is also Ireland’s deputy prime minister, told the Newstalk radio station.
In March the leaders of Spain, Ireland, Slovenia and Malta said in a joint statement that they stand ready to recognize Palestinian statehood.
Ireland has long said it has no objection in principle to officially recognizing the Palestinian state if it could help the peace process in the Middle East.
But Israel’s war against Hamas militants in Gaza has given the issue new impetus.
Last week, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Spain, Ireland and Slovenia planned to symbolically recognize a Palestinian state on May 21, with others potentially following suit.
But Martin on Wednesday shied away from pinpointing a date.
“The specific date is still fluid because we’re still in discussions with some countries in respect of a joint recognition of a Palestinian state,” he said.
“It will become clear in the next few days as to the specific date but it certainly will be before the end of this month.
“I will look forward to consultations today with some foreign ministers in respect of the final specific detail of this.”
Last month during a visit to Dublin by Spanish premier Pedro Sanchez, Irish prime minister Simon Harris said the countries would coordinate the move together.
“When we move forward, we would like to do so with as many others as possible to lend weight to the decision and to send the strongest message,” said Harris.
Harris’s office said Wednesday that he updated King Abdullah II of Jordan by telephone on Ireland’s plan for statehood recognition.
Harris “outlined Ireland and Spain’s ongoing efforts on Palestinian recognition and ongoing discussions with other like-minded countries,” a statement read.
“The King and the Taoiseach (prime minister) agreed that both Ireland and Jordan should stay in touch in the coming days,” it added.
The conflict in Gaza followed Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack against Israel, which resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.
Militants also seized about 250 hostages, 128 of whom Israel estimates remain in Gaza, including 36 the military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 35,000 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.
Hezbollah says struck Israel after field commander’s killing
- Hezbollah fighters on Wednesday attacked “the Meron base with dozens of Katyusha rockets, heavy rockets and artillery shells“
- The attacks were “part of the response to the assassination carried out by the Israeli enemy in the south” the previous day, it said
BEIRUT: Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group said it launched dozens of rockets at north Israel military positions Wednesday in retaliation for the killing of a member Israel said was a field commander.
Israel and Hamas ally Hezbollah have exchanged near-daily fire following the Palestinian group’s October 7 attack on southern Israel that sparked the war in Gaza.
Hezbollah fighters on Wednesday attacked “the Meron base with dozens of Katyusha rockets, heavy rockets and artillery shells” as well as targeting a barrack with “heavy rockets,” the group said.
The attacks were “part of the response to the assassination carried out by the Israeli enemy in the south” the previous day, it said.
Israel’s army said sirens sounded in Meron on Wednesday without providing further details.
On Tuesday evening, Hezbollah said Israeli fire had killed its member Hussein Makki, who was identified as a field commander by a source close to the group.
The Israeli army later confirmed it had launched the strike that killed Makki.
It described him as “a senior field commander” in Hezbollah responsible for planning and executing “numerous terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians and territory.”
“He previously served as the commander of Hezbollah’s forces in the coastal region,” the army added.
Lebanon’s official National News Agency had reported two people killed in an “enemy drone strike that targeted a car on the Tyre-Al-Hush main road.”
But another source close to Hezbollah later told AFP that while Makki was killed, the other person was injured.
At least 412 people have been killed in Lebanon in more than seven months of cross-border violence, mostly militants but also including 79 civilians, according to an AFP tally.
Israel says 14 soldiers and 10 civilians have been killed on its side of the border.
Tens of thousands of people have been displaced in areas on both sides of the border.
Jordan foils militant attempt to smuggle arms
- Investigations are ongoing on the smuggling attempt
AMMAN: Jordan foiled an attempt by foreign-backed militants to smuggle arms into its territory, a security official told state news agency PETRA on Wednesday.
Security services seized the arms and detained the smugglers, who were Jordanians, in March.
“Investigations and operations are ongoing,” read the PETRA statement.
Jordan had recently blocked several attempts to smuggle arms including mines, explosives, Kalashnikov rifles, and Katyusha rockets.
