Israel’s Unrwa ban is ‘jeopardising peace’, warns agency chief – as it happened | Israel

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Summary

We’re closing our live coverage of the latest news from the Middle East for the day. In case you missed anything, here’s a quick round-up of all today’s developments.

Israel has vowed to go ahead with its ban on the UN’s Palestinian relief agency, UNRWA, which has been told to vacate its headquarters in East Jerusalem by Thursday

The head of the body, Philippe Lazzarini, told the UN Security Council that the ban was “jeopardizing any prospect for peace and security” and “harming the lives and future of Palestinians across the occupied Palestinian territory”.

Numerous US allies – including Jordan, Qatar, and France – have rejected Donald Trump’s proposal that people in Gaza should be moved into Jordan or Egypt

The Jordanian air force has begun delivering 20 tonnes of food and medical supplies to Gaza, a government spokesperson said

The death toll from the conflict in Gaza provided by the Palestinian Ministry of Health – which currently stands at 47,354 – is probably an underestimate, a spokesperson for the World Health Organisation has said.

The mayor of the southern Gaza city of Rafah, Ahmed al-Soufi, has urged residents not to return to parts yet because it remains “extremely dangerous”, despite the start of the withdrawal of Israeli troops

Israeli forces have detained at least 25 Palestinians from the occupied West Bank, including former prisoners, according to a statement by the Palestinian Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees

Israel has said it is “continuing defensive operations” in southern Lebanon following the extension of a deadline – originally last Sunday – for the withdrawal of its forces from the area

Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Mikhail Bogdanov, will travel to Damascus next week to meet Syria’s new government, according to reports. The trip would mark the first visit by a Russian official since the fall of the Assad regime

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Updated at 17.52 GMT

The US supports Israel’s move to ban the UN’s Palestinian relief agency, UNRWA, and sever all contact, a US envoy to the UN told a Security Council meeting on Tuesday.

UNRWA has been told to vacate its headquarters in East Jerusalem by Thursday following bills passed by the Israeli parliament in October banning its operations in Israel and the Palestinian territories and designating it a terror organisation.

“The United States supports the implementation of this decision,” said Dorothy Shea, a United States representative to the UN who suggested UNRWA officials were “exaggerating the effects of the laws.”

Israel has claimed that around a dozen UNRWA employees were involved in the 7 October attacks and that some of the hostages taken by Hamas were kept in UNRWA facilities in Gaza, which include schools, clinics, and depots.

Shea called for “a full and independent investigation to assess these very serious allegations”.

“Unfortunately, this follows a pattern of serious allegations on the misuse of UN facilities – particularly UNRWA facilities – by Hamas terrorists,” she said.

Several probes, including one last year led by former French foreign minister Catherine Colonna, identified “neutrality-related issues” at UNRWA, but stressed that Israel had not provided evidence for its central claims.

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Palestinian health ministry death count probably too low, says WHO

The death toll from the conflict in Gaza provided by the Palestinian Ministry of Health is probably an underestimate, a spokesperson for the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said.

Since the start of the conflict, many have questioned the reliability of the ministry’s statistics on the grounds that the government of Gaza is still run by Hamas.

The ministry’s tolls currently stand at 47,354 people killed – including at least 12,298 women and 17,841 children – and 111,563 injured.

Discussing the WHO’s confidence in the figures on Tuesday, Christian Lindmeier said: “In terms of the death toll, yes, we do have confidence.

“But let’s not forget, the official death toll given by the Ministry of Health is deaths accounted in morgues and in hospitals, so in official facilities.

“As people go back to their houses, as they will start looking for their loved ones under the rubble, this casualty figure is expected to increase.”

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Updated at 17.06 GMT

Thousands of people displaced to southern Gaza by the conflict between Israel and Hamas have been returning to the north.

Pictures taken today show cars ladened with belongings and people standing in what remains of their homes.

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The Jordanian air force has begun delivering 20 tonnes of aid to Gaza, a government spokesperson said.

Fourteen Jordanian helicopters and two provided by the Italian military took off from the King Abdullah II air base in the country’s north, kicking off what Jordan said would be eight days of shipments.

The craft were carrying food and medical supplies and landed at an air strip in the city of Khan Younis in southern Gaza.

Jordan said it would hand the aid to the World Food Programme, whose teams would be responsible for distributing it to people in Gaza.

On Monday, tens of thousands of people displaced to southern Gaza by the conflicting began returning to the north.

The spokesperson told reporters the aid deliveries were intended to help “alleviate their suffering”.

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Updated at 16.26 GMT

Regional powers reject Trump proposal to ‘clean out’ Gaza

Regional powers have rejected Donald Trump’s suggestion that people in Gaza could be moved into Jordan or Egypt.

Speaking on Saturday, Trump described Gaza as a “demolition site” and suggested it would be best to “just clean out that whole thing”, adding that the move “could be temporary” or “could be long-term”.

On Tuesday, Jordanian government spokesman Mohammad Momani said in response that Jordan’s “national security dictates that the Palestinians must remain on their land”.

“The Palestinian people must not be subjected to any kind of forced displacement whatsoever,” he added.

Qatar, which played a central role in mediating the truce between Israel and Hamas, said it often did not see “eye to eye” with its allies, including the US.

“Our position has always been clear to the necessity of the Palestinian people receiving their rights, and that the two-state solution is the only path forward,” said foreign ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari.

The Egyptian government has denied reports that Trump spoke with President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi over the weekend.

On Monday, Trump told reporters he had spoken to Sisi, adding: “I wish he would take some (Palestinians).”

After Trump’s original comments, Egypt rejected any forced displacement of people from Gaza, reiterating its “continued support for the steadfastness of the Palestinian people on their land”.

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Updated at 16.06 GMT

Israel’s ban on UNRWA jeopardising peace, says agency chief

Israel’s ban on the UN’s relief agency for the Palestinians, UNRWA, is jeopardising the chances of peace in the region, the head of the body has said.

Philippe Lazzarini told a meeting of the UN Security Council: “The relentless assault on UNRWA is harming the lives and future of Palestinians across the occupied Palestinian territory.

“It is eroding their trust in the international community, jeopardizing any prospect for peace and security.”

UNRWA has been told to vacate its headquarters in East Jerusalem by Thursday following bills passed by the Israeli parliament in October banning its operations in Israel and the Palestinian territories and designating it a terror organisation.

While most of Unrwa’s activities take place in the West Bank and Gaza, it is hugely dependent on an agreement with Israel to operate, including access to border crossings into Gaza including for humanitarian aid.

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Updated at 15.44 GMT

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has been quoted as saying that Gaza had brought Israel “to its knees”, in a reference to the recent ceasefire between Hamas and Israel that came into effect on 19 January. You can read more about the three stages of the agreement in this explainer.

“The small, limited Gaza brought the Zionist regime, armed to the teeth and fully supported by America, to its knees,” Khamenei, the ultimate authority in Iran, said during a meeting with officials in Tehran.

Tehran has recently suffered strategic setbacks in Lebanon after Israeli attacks against Iranian-backed Hezbollah and the toppling of Tehran’s ally President Bashar Al-Assad in Syria last month.

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Summary of the day so far…

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is planning to meet US President Donald Trump in Washington as early as next week, according to reports, in what could be the first trip a foreign leader makes to the White House since his inauguration on 20 January.

Donald Trump repeated his suggestion that large numbers of Palestinians should leave Gaza for Egypt or Jordan, despite widespread opposition to the proposal that has been condemned by the UN, Hamas, the Palestinian Authority and US allies in the region. Adding to the growing criticism, France on Tuesday said any forced displacement of Palestinians would be “unacceptable”.

Palestinian people are continue to return to northern Gaza after Israel yesterday opened military checkpoints that had divided the strip for more than a year.

Rafah’s mayor has urged displaced Palestinians seeking to return to the devastated southern city to exercise caution as Israeli soldiers remain stationed along the Philadelphi Corridor, a narrow strip of land running along Gaza’s southern border with Egypt. Ahmed al-Soufi, told Al Jazeera that the city, as a whole, remains “extremely dangerous” and will stay this way until the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces.

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The Times of Israel has quoted an anonymous security cabinet minister as saying that Donald Trump’s comments on resettling Palestinians outside Gaza – which draw comparisons to a proposal for ethnic cleansing – had likely been “partially designed to help Netanyahu hang on to support from far-right allies who have destabilised his coalition” in protest against the ceasefire deal.

As a reminder, the Republican president, a close ally of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said over the weekend that Gaza’s Palestinian population could be “cleaned out” and moved to Egypt and Jordan.

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Updated at 14.34 GMT

Israeli forces are “continuing defensive operations” in southern Lebanon, the IDF has said.

Recent days have seen growing protests over the continued presence of Israeli troops in the area as residents previously displaced by fighting try to return to their homes.

Under the terms of a ceasefire deal reached between Israel and Hezbollah in November, the troops were supposed to have withdrawn by Sunday, but Israel said on Friday that the terms of the ceasefire had not been fully implemented by the Lebanese state and that it’s troops would remain. The deadline has now been extended to 18 February.

At least 26 people were killed and more then 140 were wounded by Israeli gunfire during demonstrations on Sunday and Monday.

In a statement on Tuesday, the IDF its forces were continuing operations to “remove threats and terrorist infrastructure in southern Lebanon, in accordance with understandings between Israel and Lebanon and in order to preserve operational achievements in the region”.

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Forced displacement of Palestinians would be ‘unacceptable’, says France

Any policy that would force people in Gaza to vacate the territory would be “unacceptable”, the French government has said.

It comes after US President Donald Trump, speaking on Saturday, described Gaza as a “demolition site” and suggested it would be best to “just clean out that whole thing”, adding that the move “could be temporary” or “could be long-term”.

Asked about the comment on Tuesday, a spokesperson for the French foreign ministry said: “Any forced displacement of the population in Gaza would be unacceptable”.

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Updated at 14.07 GMT

When insurgents threw open the doors of Aleppo central prison in northern Syria as they overran the city in December, Wafa Mustafa, 34, watched videos of the scenes from exile in Germany in disbelief. Shocked detainees could be seen running into the night as a decades-long dictatorship built on a network of prisons and torture chambers crumbled.

Mustafa began praying that the insurgents would reach the detention centres in Damascus, where she believed her father, Ali, was being held by the feared intelligence services. He was kidnapped from their home in the Syrian capital more than a decade ago and she has not seen or heard from him since.

In the intervening years, Mustafa became the public face of tens of thousands of families suffering under the constant weight of enforced disappearances in Syria; she is a relentless campaigner intent on making sure the missing are not forgotten.

“I have done everything I could these past years,” she says. “I exhausted myself. I cried, I got angry, I talked to politicians, I protested, and then… someone just opened the door and everyone is free. All that stood between me and my father’s prison was just a door that could easily open.”

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US and Israel would be ‘crazy’ to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities, foreign minister says

In an interview with Sky News, Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi has said that Israel and America would be “crazy” to attack its nuclear facilities.

“Any attack against our nuclear facilities would be faced with an immediate and decisive response,” Araghchi said, adding such a move would be “crazy”, and would “turn the region into a very bad disaster”.

He said the new US administration should work to win back Tehran’s trust if it wants a new round of nuclear negotiations. He said there is “mistrust” between the countries, which needs to be “overcome” before the two sides enter into any new negotiations.

“The situation is different and much more difficult than the previous time, lots of things should be done by the other side to buy our confidence,” Araghchi said.

During his first term, US President Donald Trump pursued a policy of “maximum pressure” towards Iran, withdrawing from a landmark 2015 deal that imposed curbs on Iran’s nuclear programme in return for sanctions relief.

Following the withdrawal, the US reimposed sanctions on Tehran, prompting the Islamic republic to begin rolling back its commitments, including by increasing its level of uranium enrichment.

“There should be enough confidence for Iran to once again engage in negotiations, and I think we are still far from that,” Araghchi told Sky News.

“We haven’t heard anything but the nice words (from the new US administration) and this is obviously not enough.”

On Thursday, Trump said he wished to avoid military strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, hoping instead for an agreement.

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