Israel/Palästina

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed determination Wednesday to achieve a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas that includes the release of hostages Hamas is holding in Gaza, and said the only reason that goal would not be achieved “is because of Hamas.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that the Israeli military will launch a ground offensive in Rafah “with or without” a truce with Hamas in Gaza.

The United Nations’ top court on Tuesday rejected Nicaragua's request for an emergency order for Germany to halt military aid to Israel.

With the situation in Gaza “worsening by the day”, UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Tuesday appealed for Israeli and Hamas leaders currently taking part in intense negotiations to reach a ceasefire agreement.

The UN's human rights chief has said he is "horrified" by the destruction of Gaza's Nasser and al-Shifa hospitals and the reports of "mass graves" being found at the sites after Israeli raids. Volker Türk called for independent investigations into the deaths.

A new mechanism for getting lifesaving aid into Gaza will start in the coming days, UN Senior Humanitarian and Reconstruction Coordinator Sigrid Kaag announced in a briefing to the Security Council on Wednesday.

Germany said on Wednesday it would resume cooperation with the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), signalling a resumption of funding that was frozen after Israel accused 12 UNRWA staff of participating in the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attack.

An independent panel released its much-awaited report on Monday about the UN relief agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA), providing 50 recommendations and noting that Israeli authorities have yet to provide proof of their claims that UN staff are involved with terrorist organisations.

The head of the embattled U.N. agency that assists Palestinian refugees said Wednesday that as famine is taking hold across Gaza, the agency is facing an Israeli campaign to push it out of the occupied Palestinian territories and prevent it from carrying out its humanitarian mission. 

Jamie McGoldrick, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator overseeing crisis relief in Gaza, pushed back at Israeli claims that more than 1,000 trucks had entered Gaza in the last few days, but only around 800 had been collected on the Palestinian side. The veteran aid official also maintained that the deconfliction system in which humanitarians shared their coordinates with the warring sides was “consistently inaccurate”.