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UNRWA earning ‘global vote of confidence’: Jordanian FM

UNRWA earning ‘global vote of confidence’: Jordanian FM
Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi. (AFP/File)
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Updated 27 September 2024

UNRWA earning ‘global vote of confidence’: Jordanian FM

UNRWA earning ‘global vote of confidence’: Jordanian FM
  • Ayman Safadi: Agency for Palestinian refugees is victim of Israeli ‘political assassination campaign’
  • UNRWA chief: Gaza ‘definitely horrifies even the most seasoned humanitarians’

NEW YORK CITY: A high-level meeting on the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugee produced a “global vote of confidence” in the agency despite Israel’s “political assassination campaign” against it, Jordan’s foreign minister said on Thursday.

Ayman Safadi was speaking at a joint press conference with UNRWA Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini following the meeting at the UN headquarters.

Safadi said: “Today rallied international support behind an agency which carries out heroic work in helping the Palestinian people through the misery that Israel continues to bring to Gaza.

“Nobody can do the job that UNRWA is doing. It’s irreplaceable. It’s indispensable. It’s needed now more than ever before.

“UNRWA and its staff made the ultimate sacrifice. Israel has killed 222 UNRWA staff members. It targets them. It doesn’t allow them to operate.”

Safadi said more than 50 countries attended the meeting. He hailed UNRWA’s “noble job” in saving the lives of thousands of Palestinian children from paralysis through a polio vaccination campaign.

The agency has become the victim of an Israeli “political assassination campaign” designed to undermine support for the Palestinian people, Safadi said.

It is “incomprehensible” that a UN member state would designate a UN agency as a terrorist organization, he added.

“That can’t happen, and we must stand against that,” Safadi said, because “it’s undermining the whole UN system, and the world mustn’t allow that, and we’ll stand up to it, along with all our partners who showed up in support of UNRWA today.”

He added: “We’ll continue to do everything to ensure that UNRWA stands because UNRWA is also a beacon of hope for Palestinians, and that’s why Israel has launched the political assassination campaign on UNRWA, because it wants to liquidate the cause of the Palestinian refugees, which shouldn’t be done and won’t be done.”

Lazzarini echoed Safadi’s words, describing the Israeli campaign against the agency as “relentless” and “coming from every corner.” 

He said: “These aren’t just attacks against UNRWA. They’re attacks against the broader UN system, attacks against the broader international community.

“They aim, first, at stripping Palestinians from the refugee statute, but secondly, they aim at weakening or putting an end to the aspirations of the Palestinians for self-determination.”

The UNRWA chief said his agency and others, as well as international NGOs, have seen staff being “phased out” in the Occupied Territories as a result of Israeli practices.

Calls to dissolve UNRWA or end its presence in the Middle East would be “unconscionable, unprecedented, and would open an extraordinary Pandora’s Box,” Lazzarini warned.

To counter the Israeli campaign, “we’ll continue to push the true narrative that UNRWA deserves to be supported,” Safadi said.

“UNRWA deserves to be thanked for the tremendous sacrifices that it continues to do in the execution of its global mandate.”

Both officials described conditions on the ground in Gaza almost one year on from Israel’s invasion.

The UNRWA chief warned that the Palestinian enclave is a “place which definitely horrifies even the most seasoned humanitarians who’ve seen it all over the last 20, 30 years.”

He said more than 1 million school-age children in Gaza are “deeply traumatized” and living amongst rubble.

“An entire generation might be sacrificed if they aren’t brought back to learning,” he added. “Obviously learning in this environment is extraordinary difficult, but we’re trying to make sure that they lose as little as possible.”

Lazzarini discussed the financing of his agency, warning that the shortfall in funding from October to the end of the year stood at $60-$80 million.

But he said UNRWA would make sure to “bridge the gap” despite some donor countries signaling a decline in foreign aid due to austerity measures.

Lazzarini also highlighted UNRWA operations in Lebanon, saying shelters are now open to “not only Palestinian refugees, but also Lebanese and Syrian refugees.”

The UNRWA meeting on Thursday was backed by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and French Minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-Noel Barrot.

“Virtually all donors have reversed their funding suspensions” to UNRWA, Guterres said in a statement, adding that “123 countries have signed up to the declaration on shared commitments to UNRWA.

“This underscores the consensus that UNRWA’s role across the West Bank and the region is vital. Friends, there is no alternative to UNRWA.”

Barrot said: “The role of UNRWA is necessary in the Gaza Strip to provide vital humanitarian aid to a civilian population of Gaza whose needs are immense.

“France pays tribute to the UNRWA personnel and to all the humanitarian personnel killed in Gaza while they were trying to rescue civilians.”


Gaza civil defense says Israeli strikes kill six

Gaza civil defense says Israeli strikes kill six
Updated 13 sec ago

Gaza civil defense says Israeli strikes kill six

Gaza civil defense says Israeli strikes kill six
  • In central Gaza on Friday, the Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat said it received several casualties after Israeli forces had opened fire at civilians near an aid distribution point
GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories: Gaza’s civil defense agency said Israeli strikes on Friday killed at least six people in the Palestinian territory’s north, including five at a school-turned-shelter.
“Five martyrs and others injured in an Israeli strike on Halima Al-Saadia School, which was sheltering displaced persons in Jabalia Al-Nazla, northern Gaza,” the agency said in a brief statement.
In a separate strike on Gaza City, to the south, the agency said at least one person was killed and several others wounded.
In central Gaza on Friday, the Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat said it received several casualties after Israeli forces had opened fire at civilians near an aid distribution point.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which has recently intensified its operations in the Gaza Strip as the war against Hamas militants entered its 22nd month.
Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by the civil defense agency and other parties.
A Palestinian speaking to AFP from southern Gaza on condition of anonymity said there were ongoing attacks and widespread devastation, with Israeli tanks seen near the city of Khan Yunis.
“The situation remains extremely difficult in the area – intense gunfire, intermittent air strikes, artillery shelling and ongoing bulldozing and destruction of displacement camps and agricultural land to the south, west and north of Al-Maslakh,” an area to Khan Yunis’s south, said the witness.

Kurdish PKK fighters to begin disarming at key ceremony

Kurdish PKK fighters to begin disarming at key ceremony
Updated 44 min 42 sec ago

Kurdish PKK fighters to begin disarming at key ceremony

Kurdish PKK fighters to begin disarming at key ceremony
  • Disarmament ceremony marks a turning point in the transition of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party from armed insurgency to democratic politics
  • Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan said peace efforts with the Kurds would gain momentum after the PKK begin laying down its weapons

SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq: PKK fighters were to begin laying down their weapons at a ceremony in Iraqi Kurdistan Friday, two months after the Kurdish rebels ended their decades-long armed struggle against the Turkish state.

The disarmament ceremony marks a turning point in the transition of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) from armed insurgency to democratic politics, as part of a broader effort to draw a line under one of the region’s longest-running conflicts.

Founded in the late 1970s by Abdullah Ocalan, the PKK took up arms in 1984, beginning a string of bloody attacks on Turkish soil that sparked a conflict that cost more than 40,000 lives.

But more than four decades on, the PKK in May announced its dissolution, saying it would pursue a democratic struggle to defend the rights of the Kurdish minority in line with a historic call by Ocalan, who has been serving a life sentence in Turkiye since 1999.

Friday’s ceremony was to take place during the morning at an undisclosed location in the mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan — where most of the PKK’s fighters have been holed up for the past decade — near the northeastern city of Sulaimaniyah.

Although there were limited details about the ceremony, a PKK source said around 30 fighters would destroy their weapons and then return to the mountains.

“As a gesture of goodwill, a number of PKK fighters, who took part in fighting Turkish forces in recent years, will destroy or burn their weapons in a ceremony,” a PKK commander said on July 1, speaking on condition of anonymity.

But tensions rose ahead of the ceremony as two drones were shot down overnight near Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga bases, one in Sulaimaniyah, and the other in Kirkuk to the west, according to officials who did not say was behind the attacks. No casualties were reported.

The start of the PKK’s disarmament is a key step in the months-long indirect negotiations between Ocalan and Ankara that began in October with the blessing of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and have been facilitated by Turkiye’s pro-Kurdish DEM party.

Among those expected to attend the ceremony were several DEM lawmakers, who arrived in Sulaimaniyah on Thursday, and a handful of journalists.

It was not clear whether the ceremony would be broadcast live.

“I believe in the power of politics and social peace, not weapons. And I urge you to put this principle into practice,” Ocalan said in a video message released on Wednesday, pledging that the disarmament process would be “implemented swiftly.”

Erdogan said peace efforts with the Kurds would gain momentum after the PKK began laying down its weapons.

“The process will gain a little more speed when the terrorist organization starts to implement its decision to lay down arms,” he said at the weekend.

“We hope this auspicious process will end successfully as soon as possible, without mishaps or sabotage attempts,” he added on Wednesday.

In recent months, the PKK has taken several historic steps, starting with a ceasefire and culminating in its formal dissolution announced on May 12.

The shift followed an appeal on February 27 by Ocalan, who has spent the past 26 years in solitary confinement on Imrali prison island near Istanbul.


Francesca Albanese, UN investigator and critic of Israel’s actions in Gaza, shocked by US sanctions

Francesca Albanese, UN investigator and critic of Israel’s actions in Gaza, shocked by US sanctions
Updated 11 July 2025

Francesca Albanese, UN investigator and critic of Israel’s actions in Gaza, shocked by US sanctions

Francesca Albanese, UN investigator and critic of Israel’s actions in Gaza, shocked by US sanctions
  • Francesca Albanese: The powerful are trying to silence me for defending those without any power of their own
  • Albanese accuses US officials of receiving Israeli leader with honor and standing side-by-side with someone facing an arrest warrant

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina: An independent UN investigator and outspoken critic of Israel’s actions in Gaza said Thursday that “it was shocking” to learn that the Trump administration had imposed sanctions on her but defiantly stood by her view on the war.

Francesca Albanese said in an interview with The Associated Press that the powerful were trying to silence her for defending those without any power of their own, “other than standing and hoping not to die, not to see their children slaughtered.”

“This is not a sign of power, it’s a sign of guilt,” the Italian human rights lawyer said.

The State Department’s decision to impose sanctions on Albanese, the UN special rapporteur for the West Bank and Gaza, followed an unsuccessful US pressure campaign to force the Geneva-based Human Rights Council, the UN’s top human rights body, to remove her from her post.

She is tasked with probing human rights abuses in the Palestinian territories and has been vocal about what she has described as the “genocide” by Israel against Palestinians in Gaza. Both Israel and the US have strongly denied that accusation.

“Albanese’s campaign of political and economic warfare against the United States and Israel will no longer be tolerated,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio posted on social media. “We will always stand by our partners in their right to self-defense.”

The US announced the sanctions Wednesday as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was visiting Washington to meet with President Donald Trump and other officials about reaching a ceasefire deal in the war in Gaza. Netanyahu faces an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court, which accuses him of crimes against humanity in his military offensive in Gaza.

In the interview, Albanese accused American officials of receiving Netanyahu with honor and standing side-by-side with someone wanted by the ICC, a court that neither the US nor Israel is a member of or recognizes. Trump imposed sanctions on the court in February.

“We need to reverse the tide, and in order for it to happen – we need to stand united,” she said. “They cannot silence us all. They cannot kill us all. They cannot fire us all.”

Albanese stressed that the only way to win is to get rid of fear and to stand up for the Palestinians and their right to an independent state.

The Trump administration’s stand “is not normal,” she said at the Sarajevo airport. She also defiantly repeated, “No one is free until Palestine is free.”

Albanese was en route to Friday’s 30th anniversary commemoration of the 1995 massacre in Srebrenica where more than 8,000 Bosniak Muslim men and boys in a UN-protected safe zone were killed when it was overrun by Bosnian Serbs.

The United Nations, Human Rights Watch and the Center for Constitutional Rights opposed the US move.

“The imposition of sanctions on special rapporteurs is a dangerous precedent” and “is unacceptable,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

While Albanese reports to the Human Rights Council – not Secretary-General Antonio Guterres – the US and any other UN member are entitled to disagree with reports by the independent rapporteurs, “but we encourage them to engage with the UN human rights architecture.”

Trump announced the US was withdrawing from the council in February.

The war between Israel and Hamas began Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel and killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 people captive. Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed over 57,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which says women and children make up most of the dead but does not specify how many were fighters or civilians.

Nearly 21 months into the conflict that displaced the vast majority of Gaza’s 2.3 million people, the UN says hunger is rampant after a lengthy Israeli blockade on food entering the territory and medical care is extremely limited.


ICC warns of worsening atrocities in Darfur, cites evidence of war crimes, crimes against humanity

ICC warns of worsening atrocities in Darfur, cites evidence of war crimes, crimes against humanity
Updated 11 July 2025

ICC warns of worsening atrocities in Darfur, cites evidence of war crimes, crimes against humanity

ICC warns of worsening atrocities in Darfur, cites evidence of war crimes, crimes against humanity
  • Court’s deputy prosecutor, Nazhat Shameem Khan, tells UN Security Council the humanitarian situation in the region has reached an ‘intolerable’ level
  • ‘People are being deprived of food and water. Rape and sexual violence are being weaponized. Abductions have become common practice,” she says

NEW YORK CITY: The International Criminal Court has “reasonable grounds to believe” that war crimes and crimes against humanity are being committed in Darfur, its deputy prosecutor, Nazhat Shameem Khan, told the UN Security Council on Thursday.

The humanitarian situation in the region has reached an “intolerable” level, he warned.

Speaking in New York, Khan described an escalating crisis marked by widespread famine, targeted attacks on hospitals and aid convoys, and sexual violence.

“People are being deprived of food and water,” she said. “Rape and sexual violence are being weaponized. Abductions have become common practice. Things can still get worse.”

Her comments came amid escalating violence in Sudan’s Darfur region, where the Rapid Support Forces, one of two main rival military factions in the country, and allied groups have been accused of targeting civilians at displacement camps such as Zamzam and Abu Shouk, and during attacks on the regional capital, Al-Fashir.

Khan said the findings of the ICC were based on extensive evidence gathered from various sources over the past six months, including field missions to refugee camps in Chad, and cooperation with civil society organizations and UN fact-finding agencies.

“We have collected over 7,000 evidence items, documentary, testimonial and digital, supporting our conclusion,” she added.

Highlighting gender-based crimes as a key focus of the investigations, Khan detailed ongoing efforts to increase the visibility of such violations, which remain “underreported and insufficiently recognized.”

A dedicated team is working with Darfuri women and girls to gather testimonies of sexual violence, she said, adding: “There is an inescapable pattern of offending targeting gender and ethnicity through rape and sexual violence. These crimes are being given particular priority.”

There were signs of growing cooperation with the court from the Sudanese government, including a recent visit to Port Sudan that allowed investigators to identify potential new witnesses, Khan said, and a second visit is planned in the near future.

But she urged Sudanese authorities to take bolder steps, particularly in the execution of ICC warrants for the arrest of senior officials, including the former president, Omar Bashir, as well as Ahmad Harun and Abdul Raheem Mohammed Hussein, former officials wanted by the ICC over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the Darfur conflict of the early 2000s.

“Transferring Mr. Harun now would carry exceptional weight,” Khan said. She noted that the charges against him closely resemble those at the heart of another ongoing case, against Ali Mohammed Ali Abd-Al-Rahman, also known as Ali Kushayb, a former Janjaweed militia leader accused by the ICC of orchestrating war crimes and crimes against humanity during the Darfur conflict. A verdict in that case is expected this year.

Khan urged the Security Council and the wider international community to act collectively to address the crisis and break what she described as a “seemingly never-ending cycle of violence fueled by impunity.”

She added: “Every single state here is appalled by what is happening in Darfur. Let us take our report as a blueprint. With your support, we can not only deliver justice but prevent this cycle of violence.”

Despite mounting challenges, including limited resources and obstruction on the ground, Khan said the ICC remains determined to pursue accountability in Darfur.

“We need your support now more than ever before,” she said. Though the ICC’s progress is “never sufficient, relative to the scale of the suffering,” if it can be reinforced through international support, “justice delivered collectively can reduce suffering and lay foundations for peace,” Khan added.

“If we can come together, if we can agree that such suffering needs the support of all those who are able to provide it, I believe the present crisis can ultimately demonstrate how justice delivered collectively can set the foundations for the reduction of suffering and the beginning of work towards peace.”


Palestinians in Gaza pay high price to get hold of scarce cash

Palestinians in Gaza pay high price to get hold of scarce cash
Updated 11 July 2025

Palestinians in Gaza pay high price to get hold of scarce cash

Palestinians in Gaza pay high price to get hold of scarce cash
  • People reliant on an unrestrained network of powerful cash brokers to get money for daily expenses
  • To curtail Hamas’ ability to purchase weapons and pay its fighters, Israel stopped allowing cash to enter Gaza

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip: Cash is the lifeblood of the Gaza Strip’s shattered economy, and like all other necessities in this war-torn territory – food, fuel, medicine – it is in extremely short supply.

With nearly every bank branch and ATM inoperable, people have become reliant on an unrestrained network of powerful cash brokers to get money for daily expenses – and commissions on those transactions have soared to about 40 percent.

“The people are crying blood because of this,” said Ayman Al-Dahdouh, a school director living in Gaza City. “It’s suffocating us, starving us.”

At a time of surging inflation, high unemployment and dwindling savings, the scarcity of cash has magnified the financial squeeze on families – some of whom have begun to sell their possessions to buy essential goods.

The cash that is available has even lost some of its luster. Palestinians use the Israeli currency, the shekel, for most transactions. Yet with Israel no longer resupplying the territory with newly printed bank notes, merchants are increasingly reluctant to accept frayed bills.

Gaza’s punishing cash crunch has several root causes, experts say.

To curtail Hamas’ ability to purchase weapons and pay its fighters, Israel stopped allowing cash to enter Gaza at the start of the war. Around the same time, many wealthy families in Gaza withdrew their money from banks and then fled the territory. And rising fears about Gaza’s financial system prompted foreign businesses selling goods into the territory to demand cash payments.

As Gaza’s money supply dwindled and civilians’ desperation mounted, cash brokers’ commissions – around 5 percent at the start of the war – skyrocketed.

Someone needing cash transfers money electronically to a broker and moments later is handed a fraction of that amount in bills. Many brokers openly advertise their services, while others are more secretive. Some grocers and retailers have also begun exchanging cash for their customers.

“If I need $60, I need to transfer $100,” said Mohammed Basheer Al-Farra, who lives in southern Gaza after being displaced from Khan Younis. “This is the only way we can buy essentials, like flour and sugar. We lose nearly half of our money just to be able to spend it.”

In 2024, inflation in Gaza surged by 230 percent, according to the World Bank. It dropped slightly during the ceasefire that began in January, only to shoot up again after Israel backed out of the truce in March.

Cash touches every aspect of life in Gaza

About 80 percent of people in Gaza were unemployed at the end of 2024, according to the World Bank, and the figure is likely higher now. Those with jobs are mostly paid by direct deposits into their bank accounts.

But “when you want to buy vegetables, food, water, medication – if you want to take transportation, or you need a blanket, or anything – you must use cash,” Al-Dahdouh said.

Shahid Ajjour’s family has been living off of savings for two years after the pharmacy and another business they owned were ruined by the war.

“We had to sell everything just to get cash,” said Ajjour, who sold her gold to buy flour and canned beans. The family of eight spends the equivalent of $12 every two days on flour; before the war, that cost less than $4.

Sugar is very expensive, costing the equivalent of $80-$100 per kilogram (2.2 pounds), multiple people said; before the war, that cost less than $2.

Gasoline is about $25 a liter, or roughly $95 a gallon, when paying the lower, cash price.

Bills are worn and unusable

The bills in Gaza are tattered after 21 months of war.

Money is so fragile, it feels as if it is going to melt in your hands, said Mohammed Al-Awini, who lives in a tent camp in southern Gaza.

Small business owners said they were under pressure to ask customers for undamaged cash because their suppliers demand pristine bills from them.

Thaeir Suhwayl, a flour merchant in Deir Al-Balah, said his suppliers recently demanded he pay them only with brand new 200-shekel ($60) bank notes, which he said are rare. Most civilians pay him with 20-shekel ($6) notes that are often in poor condition.

On a recent visit to the market, Ajjour transferred the shekel equivalent of around $100 to a cash broker and received around $50 in return. But when she tried to buy some household supplies from a merchant, she was turned away because the bills weren’t in good condition.

“So the worth of your $50 is zero in the end,” she said.

This problem has given rise to a new business in Gaza: money repair. It costs between 3 and 10 shekels ($1-$3) to mend old bank notes. But even cash repaired with tape or other means is sometimes rejected.

People are at the mercy of cash brokers

After most of the banks closed in the early days of the war, those with large reserves of cash suddenly had immense power.

“People are at their mercy,” said Mahmoud Aqel, who has been displaced from his home in southern Gaza. “No one can stop them.”

The war makes it impossible to regulate market prices and exchange rates, said Dalia Alazzeh, an expert in finance and accounting at the University of the West of Scotland. “Nobody can physically monitor what’s happening,” Alazzeh said.

A year ago, the Palestine Monetary Authority, the equivalent of a central bank for Gaza and the West Bank, sought to ease the crisis by introducing a digital payment system known as Iburaq. It attracted half a million users, or a quarter of the population, according to the World Bank, but was ultimately undermined by merchants insisting on cash.

Israel sought to ramp up financial pressure on Hamas earlier this year by tightening the distribution of humanitarian aid, which it said was routinely siphoned off by militants and then resold.

Experts said it is unclear if the cash brokers’ activities benefit Hamas, as some Israeli analysts claim.

The war has made it more difficult to determine who is behind all sorts of economic activity in the territory, said Omar Shabaan, director of Palthink for Strategic Studies, a Gaza-based think tank.

“It’s a dark place now. You don’t know who is bringing cigarettes into Gaza,” he said, giving just one example. “It’s like a mafia.”

These same deep-pocketed traders are likely the ones running cash brokerages, and selling basic foodstuffs, he said. “They benefit by imposing these commissions,” he said.

Once families run out of cash, they are forced to turn to humanitarian aid.

Al-Farra said that is what prompted him to begin seeking food at an aid distribution center, where it is common for Palestinians to jostle over one other for sacks of flour and boxes of pasta.

“This is the only way I can feed my family,” he said.