Israel/Palästina

U.S. allies and adversaries alike on Wednesday denounced President Donald Trump’s proposal for the United States to take ownership of the Gaza Strip, force 2 million Palestinians to move to other countries and then turn the territory along the Mediterranean Sea into “the Riviera of the Middle East.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will visit the White House next week, making him the first foreign leader to meet with Donald Trump in Washington, DC, since the United States president’s return to power.

The implementation of new Israeli laws banning the UN Palestine refugee agency, UNRWA – set to take effect on Thursday – will heighten instability and deepen despair in the occupied Palestinian territory, the Security Council has heard.

The European Union will restart a civilian mission to monitor the border crossing between Gaza and Egypt at Rafah, the bloc’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on Monday. Kallas said there was broad agreement that the European Union Border Assistance Mission (EUBAM) could play "a decisive role in supporting the ceasefire."

The UN human rights office, OHCHR, on Friday expressed grave concerns over escalating violence in the Jenin area of the occupied West Bank, condemning the use of “unlawful lethal force” by Israeli security forces.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Wednesday that Israel will remain in control of the Rafah crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt throughout the first phase of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas. … European Union monitors will supervise the crossing, with Israeli troops surrounding the area and Israel in charge of approving the passage of people and goods through the crossing. 

The crisis in Gaza continues to remain acute, with UN humanitarians reporting critical shortages of water, food and efforts to deliver vital aid to the war-torn region. Meanwhile, escalating violence in the West Bank has further deepened concerns over civilian safety and access to assistance.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said 915 aid trucks entered the Gaza Strip on Monday, the second day of a ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militants Hamas after 15 months of war.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken offered his most detailed picture yet of his long-awaited plans for post-war Gaza on Tuesday as he stressed the importance of not leaving a power vacuum in the decimated enclave. 

[…] Stressing that the priority must be to ease the tremendous suffering caused by the conflict, he said the UN stands ready to support the implementation of the deal and scale up the delivery of sustained humanitarian relief.