Israel’s war on Gaza updates: UNRWA in ‘unprecedented crisis’, says chief

Israel says it is “moving ahead” with its planned operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah despite an international outcry over fears for the 1.5 million Palestinians sheltering there.

“Israel is moving ahead with our operation to target Hamas in Rafah,” government spokesman David Mencer said at a news briefing.

“The four [Hamas] battalions which remain in Rafah cannot be shielded from Israel. They will be attacked.”

Netanyahu has said repeatedly that Israel will press ahead with the threatened assault on Rafah, the last major population centre in Gaza that Israeli ground troops have yet to enter.

Parts of the city are already being bombarded on a daily basis.

Thank you for joining us for updates on everything related to Israel’s war on Gaza. Please check our homepage for the latest news.

We will be closing this live page soon. Here’s a quick recap from today:

• Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees, said Israel’s campaign against the agency has had it operating “hand to mouth” after donors pulled funding.
• At least 310 bodies have been recovered from a mass grave in the vicinity of the Nasser Medical Complex in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis, according to civil defence teams.
• Three people have been killed in an Israeli attack on a home in southern Gaza’s Rafah, while several others were killed in a string of attacks on areas in northern and central Gaza, local media reported.
• The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor has warned that Israeli forces will likely carry out a “new massacre” in northern Gaza’s Beit Lahiya after the army issued new evacuation orders to people who have remained in the area.
• Unions representing tens of thousands of student workers in the US have demanded the “reinstatement of all student and student workers disciplined for pro-Palestine protests,” and called for an end to the “repression of protest” on Columbia University’s campus.

A video posted on X shows “upwards of 1,000 [University of Minnesota] students and staff” protesting against Israel’s war on Gaza, according to activist Sean Lim.

Similar protests are taking place across the US, and have been met with a heavy-handed response from university administrations and local police departments.

Now, at the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities:

an emergency protest has mobilized upwards of 1,000 UMN students & staff — now gathered outside Memorial Union.

student protestors arrested this morning have been released, and the Solidarity Encampment is being re-established. pic.twitter.com/7dngI6VlzQ

— Sean Lim (@SeanLimMN) April 23, 2024

A video posted on Instagram by Palestinian journalist Ahmad Ibrahim shows people digging through rubble after the Israeli army shelled a residential home in the Salam neighbourhood of Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip.

Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, citing Gaza Civil Defence, reports that at least three people were killed by the strike and four others were injured. All the casualties were from the same family.

More than 1.5 million displaced Palestinians are sheltering in Rafah, the last major urban area in Gaza untouched by an Israeli army ground offensive.

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A post shared by Ahmad Ibraheem (@ahmad.ibraa)

Local media reported that protesters again have come out to the streets of Amman in support of Palestinians in Gaza, a near-daily occurrence over the last few weeks.

The protesters routinely march towards the Israeli Embassy in the capital and have been met with residence and crackdowns by police. Demonstrators often call for a cancellation of Jordan’s peace treaty with Israel and for a lasting ceasefire in Gaza.

US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin has thanked his Greek counterpart for “contributions to security in the Red Sea”, a statement by the Pentagon said.

Austin spoke with Greece’s Defence Minister Nikos Dendias in a phone call, the statement said, where he also thanked him for “strategic access that has bolstered deterrence and defense of NATO’s Eastern Flank”.

The two also discussed international efforts to provide humanitarian assistance to Gaza, the statement added.

Find out more about the student protest movement gaining traction on university campuses across the US, and hear from Cameron Jones, one of the lead organisers at Columbia University’s chapter of Jewish Voices for Peace, a group that opposes the Israeli occupation of Palestine:

Several Palestinians have been killed and wounded in various attacks across Gaza in the past several hours, the Wafa news agency has reported.

We reported earlier on an attack that killed three people in southern Gaza’s Rafah. A series of Israeli air strikes also hit areas in northern and central Gaza, Wafa said.

Gaza City’s Zeitoun and Tuffah neighbourhoods were targeted and several people were “killed and wounded”, it said.

Israeli air attacks also destroyed a tower and a shopping centre on Jalaa Street in Gaza City, while Israeli forces launched artillery attacks east of the Shujayea neighbourhood.

In central Gaza’s Deir el-Balah, a vehicle was hit in an air strike, killing at least one person and wounding several others. Both the Breij and Nuseirat refugee camps came under attack, as well.

In northern Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp, Israeli forces targeted a residential home. In Beit Lahiya, “violent and continuous” air raids forced hundreds of families to flee their homes.

Israeli forces have raided several towns and villages in the occupied West Bank, mainly areas in and around the Jenin governorate, the Wafa news agency reports.

These include the villages of Rummanah, Taybeh and Anin, west of Jenin, as well as the village of al-Fandaqumiya, south of Jenin.

Israeli soldiers launched a “massive search campaign”, Wafa said, but did not report any arrests.

It said these raids come as Israeli forces continue their raid of Jalbun, east of Jenin, for a second consecutive day.

The head of UNRWA has said on X that “more than 310 trucks of aid” entered Gaza yesterday, adding that this is the highest number of trucks since October 7.

“This shows that when there is a will there is a way. It needs now to be sustained and further increased. Trucks should include both commercial and humanitarian supplies so that the markets can re-open” he said.

Earlier, we reported on comments from David Satterfield, the US’s special humanitarian envoy, who said that the risk of famine in Gaza is “very high”.

Lazzarini said that famine in northern Gaza can be averted, but only with “meaningful and uninterrupted supply [of aid], including through UNRWA”.

In an interview today, he told Al Jazeera that Israel’s ongoing campaign to dismantle and discredit his agency would spell disaster for Palestinians facing famine in Gaza, as UNRWA is the only agency with the infrastructure in place in the Strip to supply adequate humanitarian assistance.

Some good news for #Gaza
Yesterday, more than 310 trucks of aid entered.
This is the highest # since the war began on 7 October.
This shows that when there is a will there is a way.

It needs now to be sustained & further increased.
Trucks should include both commercial and… pic.twitter.com/n0IsgH1VyK

— Philippe Lazzarini (@UNLazzarini) April 23, 2024

The head of the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees told Al Jazeera that his organisation is facing an “unprecedented crisis”, as Israel wages a campaign against it.

Find out more of what he said in his candid interview:

There are more than 3,660 Palestinians held in administrative detention by Israel, the Palestinian Prisoners Club, an advocacy organisation, says.

The unprecedented figure includes Palestinians from the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the besieged Gaza Strip. Among them are 22 women and more than 40 children, it said.

Prior to October 7, some 1,320 Palestinians were held in administrative detention. The widely criticised practice involves holding Palestinians on secret evidence, without charge or trial, indefinitely.

At least three Palestinians have been shot with live ammunition by Israeli forces in Beit Ummar, on the northern outskirts of Hebron in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.

It said several others suffered tear gas inhalation during confrontations with Israeli soldiers, which broke out shortly after Israeli forces raided the town.

Those shot have been taken to a nearby hospital, and their conditions have been described as “moderate”.

The Israeli defence minister has taken to X to express gratitude towards the body, as well as its leaders, Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer and Republican Senator Mitch McConnell.

The Senate voted overwhelmingly today to advance legislation that would send $26bn in aid to Israel after it was stalled in both houses of the US Congress for months.

Gallant also thanked President Joe Biden for standing with Israel.

Thank you @SenSchumer and @LeaderMcConnell for your leadership – bringing the security package to a vote in the Senate today. Final vote tomorrow is critical.

Thank you @POTUS and the U.S. Admin for standing with Israel.

This is a clear message to Iran and our common enemies.

— יואב גלנט – Yoav Gallant (@yoavgallant) April 23, 2024

Billions of dollars in foreign aid for Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan have advanced in the US Senate, heading for a final vote just days after the House of Representatives abruptly ended a months-long stalemate and approved the assistance.

The Senate voted 80-19 in favour of advancing the package of four bills passed by the House, far more than the 60 votes needed to pave the way for a final vote as soon as Tuesday or Wednesday.

One of the bills would provide $26bn for Israel.

Biden has promised to sign the legislation as soon as it passes the Senate.

A group called No Tech For Apartheid says Google fired at least 20 more workers in the aftermath of protests over technology the company is supplying the Israeli government amid its war on Gaza.

It said that brings the total number of terminated staff to at least 50.

This is the latest sign of internal turmoil at the tech giant centred on “Project Nimbus,” a $1.2bn contract signed in 2021 for Google and Amazon to provide the Israeli government with cloud computing and artificial intelligence services.

Workers held sit-in protests last week at Google offices in New York and Sunnyvale, California. The company responded by calling police, who made arrests.

Unions representing tens of thousands of student workers are demanding “the immediate reinstatement of all student and student workers disciplined for pro-Palestine protests and the end to the repression of protest on Columbia’s campus”.

The unions represent students at Johns Hopkins University, the University of North Carolina, New York University and Harvard University, among others.

Last week, Columbia University President Nemat Minouche Shafik called in New York police to clear a tent encampment that protesters had set up on Columbia’s main lawn to demand the school divest from Israel-related investments.

The school said the encampment violated rules. Police arrested more than 100 students from Columbia on charges of trespassing. Columbia and the affiliated Barnard College have suspended dozens of students involved in the protests.

The union representatives said they “stand in solidarity” with those who were arrested and face suspension. “An injury to one is an injury to all,” they said in a statement.

The Geneva-based Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor says the Israeli military will likely carry out a “new massacre” in northern Gaza’s Beit Lahiya, after the army issued new evacuation orders to people who have remained in the area.

Israeli forces will be “wipe out the last remnants” of Beit Lahiya, and will cause yet another wave of mass displacement in the area, where some 50,000 Palestinians reside, the monitor said in a statement.

Earlier, Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee said on X the military “will use extreme force against terrorist infrastructure and subversive elements in the region”, telling residents to “evacuate the area immediately and head towards known shelters in blocks number 1770, 1766”.

However, rights groups have repeatedly said that “nowhere is safe” in the besieged territory, pointing to Israeli attacks on places previously deemed “safe”.

The shelters the Israeli army asked Palestinians to flee to, Euro-Med said, are destroyed areas that are “unfit for any form of life, and lack water supply as well as functioning sewage systems”.