Israel / Palestine

Humanitarian needs are continuing to grow again across Gaza, the UN agency assisting Palestine refugees (UNRWA) said on Wednesday, amid mounting pressures on aid delivery and the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. 

Envoys from US President Donald Trump's "Board of Peace" have met representatives of Hamas in Cairo in an effort to safeguard the Gaza ceasefire, under serious strain since the United States and Israel began bombing Iran, three sources told Reuters.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called Monday for Israel to re-open Gaza border crossings it closed after launching the war against Iran along with the United States.

The international community must ensure that any efforts to reconstruct Gaza are guided by international law and human rights norms and standards, rather than by neo-colonial interests that rest on impunity and avarice, UN experts said today.

Arab and Muslim nations on Sunday sharply condemned remarks by the United States Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee after he suggested Israel could claim large parts of the Middle East based on a biblical reading. … In a joint statement released on Sunday, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Jordan, Indonesia, Pakistan, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, Lebanon, Syria, the Palestinian Authority, as well as the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the Arab League and the Gulf Cooperation Council, denounced the remarks.

At the inaugural Board of Peace summit on February 19, Kazakhstan promised substantial funding to be administered through the World Bank’s Gaza Reconstruction and Development Fund. It also said it would deploy troops to an International Stabilization Force (ISF), including security personnel and a field hospital staffed by military medical experts. By doing so, Kazakhstan joins a small group of countries such as Indonesia, Kosovo, and Albania, that have publicly promised peacekeepers.

US Major General Jasper Jeffers said the Gaza “International Stabilization Force” will first deploy to Rafah and hopes to eventually have 20,000 soldiers. Indonesia, which has pledged 8,000 troops, will serve as deputy commander of the force.

U.S. President Donald Trump told the first meeting of his Board of Peace on Thursday that nations had contributed $7 billion to a Gaza reconstruction fund that aims to rebuild the enclave once Hamas disarms, an objective that is far from becoming a reality.

Members of the UN Security Council have warned that Israel's efforts to expand control in the West Bank posed a threat to prospects of a two-state solution. The situation is "deteriorating rapidly" in the occupied West Bank, UN Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs Rosemary DiCarlo said in a briefing late on Wednesday.

The UN has the funds and capacity to scale up relief and reconstruction operations in Gaza but does not have the necessary access to carry out these vital tasks, Alexander De Croo, the head of the UN Development Programme (UNDP), told journalists on Tuesday.