Gaza war continues despite Israel's 'cease' declaration: UNRWA

UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said Israeli forces continued to battle Palestinian groups in Rafah and elsewhere in southern Gaza despite the Israeli army's announcement of a strategic pause in operations on Sunday to allow humanitarian aid to enter.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday criticized the army's announced plan to hold a daily pause in fighting on one of the main roads in the besieged Palestinian enclave, which has been under relentless Israeli bombardment for more than eight months.

Commissioner General Lazzarini of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), the main agency providing humanitarian aid to Gaza, said there was no pause in the fighting.

“There is information that a decision has been made, but the political level is saying that no such decision has been made,” Lazzarini said at a press conference on Monday.

“So for now, I can tell you that hostilities continue in Rafah and south of Gaza. And that, effectively, nothing has changed yet.”

The Israeli military said on Monday that its forces were continuing operations in the Rafah area, including ground battles.

Israeli forces are advancing deeper into the central and western areas of Rafah city, residents said. Hamas forces were fighting at close range inside the Shabora camp in downtown Rafah, according to the group's armed wing and residents, who heard constant explosions and gunfire.

The Israeli military announced a daily curfew over the weekend from 05:00 GMT to 16:00 GMT in areas from the Kerem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) crossing to Salah al-Din Road and then to the north.

It later clarified that operations would continue in Rafah, the main center of ongoing attacks in southern Gaza.

International humanitarian officials have repeatedly said that Israeli inspections, ongoing fighting and looting of desperate residents have hampered aid delivery. Israeli ground forces have been operating in the southern city of Rafah since early May. They have since closed the crucial Rafah border with Egypt.

Before the Rafah Ground operation, there was already an insufficient flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza, and the number of trucks entering the southern Gaza Strip stood in the hundreds – not nearly enough to sustain the daily needs of the enclave's 2.3 million population.

'Hell on Earth'

“As we have reiterated, humanitarian operations in Gaza must be fully facilitated and all obstacles must be lifted,” UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haque told The Associated Press on Monday. “We need to be able to deliver aid safely across Gaza.”

With the Israeli offensive in Gaza now in its ninth month, Haq said displaced Palestinians in the territory urgently need food, water, sanitation, shelter and health care, “many living near piles of solid waste, increasing health risks”.

He said Israel must ensure that the movement of aid convoys and staff members through checkpoints is expedited, that all roads are open and that fuel – which is in critical short supply – enters Gaza regularly.

Meanwhile, UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said in an opinion piece in The New York Times that the famine had turned the impoverished and besieged Gaza Strip into “hell on earth”.

Humanitarian aid is hampered and politicized while hunger and disease spread, “and humanitarian workers, health care workers and journalists have all suffered unacceptable losses,” he said.

Echoing his statement, Gaza's official media office accused Israel and the United States of “deliberately” worsening the famine-like situation in Gaza by “withholding humanitarian aid as a tool of political pressure.”

In a statement on Monday, the media office accused Israel and the US administration of “deliberately worsening the humanitarian situation” in Gaza to achieve political goals.

Separately on Monday, Norway said it had increased its funding to UNRWA by 100 million kroner ($9.3 million).

UNRWA was plunged into a crisis in January, when Israel accused 13,000 of its Gaza employees of involvement in the October 7 Hamas-led attack on southern Israel.

The allegations prompted several countries, including top donor the United States, to suspend funding to the agency, though many have resumed payments.

“UNRWA is the backbone of the humanitarian response in Gaza,” Norwegian International Development Minister Ann Beth Tvinerim said in a statement.

“The war, Israeli accusations, constant attacks on the organization and withholding of funds by major donors have put UNRWA in a very difficult financial situation,” he said.

An independent review by UNRWA, led by former French foreign minister Catherine Colonna, found some “neutrality-related problems” but said Israel had yet to substantiate its main allegations.