DOHA: Gaza war mediator Qatar on Tuesday condemned the Israeli parliament’s decision to ban the UN agency for Palestinian refugees from operating in Israel, the Gulf emirate’s foreign ministry said.
Israeli lawmakers on Monday overwhelmingly voted to ban the agency, UNRWA, from working in Israel and annexed east Jerusalem.
The lawmakers also passed a measure prohibiting Israeli officials from working with UNRWA and its employees.
“We emphasize that stopping support for UNRWA will have disastrous consequences,” ministry spokesman Majed Al-Ansari told reporters.
“The international community cannot stand silent in the face of this disregard for its international institutions,” he added.
Qatar, along with the United States and Egypt, has mediated months of negotiations for a deal to end the Gaza war and exchange Israeli hostages held there for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
The talks have thus far failed to result in an agreement, with both of the warring parties accusing the other of blocking it.
In a bid to break the deadlock at the tail end of US President Joe Biden’s administration, Washington and Doha last week announced a fresh round of in-person Doha talks that would explore new options.
With the US election around the corner, Ansari told reporters that Qatar did not see “any negative result of the elections on the mediation process itself.”
He added that Qatar believes it is “dealing with institutions and in a country like the United States, the institutions are invested in finding a resolution to this crisis.”
UNRWA has provided essential aid, schooling and health care across the Palestinian territories and to Palestinian refugees elsewhere for more than seven decades.
UNRWA and other humanitarian agencies have accused Israeli authorities of restricting aid flows into Gaza, where almost all of the territory’s 2.4 million people have been displaced at least once during the war.
The agency itself has suffered heavy losses, with at least 223 of its staff killed and two-thirds of its facilities in Gaza damaged or destroyed since the war began.
In January, Israel accused a dozen of UNRWA’s Gaza employees of involvement in the October 7 attack by Hamas.
A series of probes found some “neutrality related issues” at UNRWA, and determined that nine employees “may have been involved” in the October 7 attack, but found no evidence for Israel’s chief allegations.
Qatar condemns Israel’s UNRWA ban, will work with Biden administration until ‘last minute’ for Gaza ceasefire deal
https://arab.news/gsebb
Qatar condemns Israel’s UNRWA ban, will work with Biden administration until ‘last minute’ for Gaza ceasefire deal
- Israeli lawmakers on Monday overwhelmingly voted to ban the agency
UN alarm at escalating drone attacks, worsening humanitarian crisis in Sudan’s North Kordofan and Darfur
- El-Obeid, a strategically vital hub linking Khartoum with Darfur region, remains under siege as Rapid Support Forces seeks to consolidate control over critical corridor
- Number of displaced people sheltering near town of Tawila has grown to 715,000 since RSF attacks on El-Fasher began to intensify last year, says UN spokesperson
NEW YORK CITY: The UN on Tuesday expressed alarm over continuing drone attacks in North Kordofan state, warning that the violence and worsening humanitarian conditions are compounding civilian suffering across Sudan.
El-Obeid, the capital of the state, has experienced a series of intense attacks by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, marked by frequent drone strikes targeting key infrastructure across the city.
Government and other public buildings, including the headquarters of the Legislative Council, a police facility, a telecommunications company and a hospital, have sustained significant damage. Last month, drone attacks targeted the city’s power supply and residential neighborhoods, resulting in civilian casualties, including children.
El-Obeid, a strategically vital hub linking Khartoum with Darfur region, remains under siege as the Rapid Support Forces, which has been engaged in a civil war with the Sudanese Armed Forces since April 2023, seeks to consolidate its control over this critical corridor. Since beginning of this month there have been near-daily drone assaults on the city and surrounding areas, including parts of North Kordofan State.
“We continue to be very concerned by the deteriorating humanitarian situation, notably in North Darfur state, and by reports of continuing drone attacks in North Kordofan state,” UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters in New York.
Drone attacks targeted El-Obeid for at least three consecutive days beginning on Feb. 20. One strike hit the University of Kordofan’s campus in the city on Monday, causing significant structural damage.
In North Darfur, escalating violence in the area around the border town of Tine has forced civilians to flee into neighboring Chad, Dujarric said, and is constraining humanitarian access.
Humanitarian movements through the Adre border crossing nevertheless are continuing and UN aid officials are maintaining close contact with the governments of Chad and Sudan to ensure the safe and efficient passage of supplies and personnel, as the Adre crossing remains indispensable for humanitarian operations in Darfur, the UN said.
Elsewhere in North Darfur, the area around the town of Tawila has become one of the region’s largest and fastest-growing displacement hubs, Dujarric said. It is hosting more than 715,000 people displaced by attacks last year on El-Fasher and nearby camps. Prior to this mass influx, Tawila’s population was estimated at about 40,000. Now more than half a million displaced people are sheltering at four major sites just outside the town.
The UN’s Children’s Fund has found that more than half of the people in North Darfur are not receiving the minimum daily water requirement for survival, which is set by the World Health Organization at 7.5 liters per person per day. More than 40 percent of latrines are non-functional, more than 80 percent of families lack soap, and only 8 percent of women and girls reported having access to sufficient menstrual hygiene supplies.
Humanitarian agencies are calling for rapid funding, as well as safe and unhindered access for the delivery of aid and the scaling up water and sanitation services in Tawila to prevent further deterioration of the public health conditions there.
The UN’s 2026 Humanitarian Response Plan for Sudan is seeking $2.9 billion in funding to assist more than 20 million people nationwide.
