The U.N. aid agency serving Palestinians in Gaza faced more funding cuts Monday amid accusations that 12 of its employees were involved in the Oct. 7 attack that sparked the Israel-Hamas war.
An Israeli document obtained by The Associated Press on Monday details Israeli claims that U.N. teachers and a social worker employed by the agency, known as UNRWA, allegedly stormed into Israel that day, in some cases helping to take hostages or coordinating weapon transfers.
The allegations over the weekend triggered a wave of funding cuts by major donors, including the U.S., Britain and France. Austria said Monday that it would suspend its financial assistance.
UNRWA employs roughly 13,000 Palestinians in Gaza and says it will be forced to halt operations within weeks if funding isn’t restored. The war has led to a humanitarian catastrophe that has displaced the vast majority of the embattled enclave’s population and caused widespread hunger.
Hamas’ attack on Oct. 7 killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians. About 250 people were taken captive, according to Israeli authorities.
It set off an air, sea and ground offensive by Israel’s military that has killed more than 26,000 Palestinians, most of them women and minors, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza. It has also threatened to set off a wider regional conflict.
Currently:
— Biden says US ‘shall respond’ after drone strike by Iran-backed group kills 3 US troops in Jordan.
— What is Tower 22, the military base that was attacked in Jordan?
— Israel notes ‘significant gaps’ after cease-fire talks with US, Qatar, Egypt but says constructive.
— Israel’s president says the UN world court misrepresented his comments in its genocide ruling.
— What is UNRWA, the main aid provider in Gaza that Israel accuses of militant links?
— Find more of AP’s coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war.
Here’s the latest:
JERUSALEM — Israel’s defense minister says Israel has gained the upper hand in its battle against Hamas.
Speaking to troops in southern Israel on Monday, Yoav Gallant said Israel has killed or wounded half of Hamas’ army.
“”The terrorists don’t have supplies, they don’t have ammunition, they don’t have reinforcements,” he said.
The military says it has battled militants and called in airstrikes in recent days in northern Gaza, where entire neighborhoods have been destroyed and where the military has been operating for months.
New evacuation orders were issued on Monday for parts of Gaza City, indicating there is still heavy fighting there. Palestinian militants have also kept up rocket fire, including a barrage that set off air raid sirens in central Israel on Monday.
“We have already eliminated at least a quarter of Hamas’ terrorists, I think even more, and there is a similar number of wounded,” he added, without giving any specific figures. Israel has previously said it has killed about 9,000 Hamas militants, though it has not provided evidence to back up the claim.
Gallant said the campaign to eliminate Hamas’ capabilities will take months, but that the “hourglass has flipped against them.”
WASHINGTON — Qatar’s prime minister said senior U.S. and Mideast mediators had achieved a framework proposal to present to Hamas for freeing hostages and pausing fighting in Gaza.
Prime Minister Mohammed al-Thani spoke at the Atlantic Council in Washington after talks Sunday in Paris among U.S., Israeli, Qatari and Egyptian officials seeking a new round of cease-fires and hostage releases in Gaza.
Al-Thani said the mediators had made “good progress” and achieved a “foundation for the way forward.”
The foreign mediators had tried to bridge gaps in Israeli and Hamas demands and intended to now present them to Hamas, he said.
“We are hoping to get them to a place … where they engage positively and constructively in this process,” he said of Hamas.
Al-Thani gave no details of the proposal, but said an outline presented by one of the event moderators that called for a phased release of hostages and an extended cease-fire was “well-informed.” Hamas has demanded a permanent cease-fire ahead of any further releases of hostages held by Hamas militants and others in Gaza.
WASHINGTON — A drone that killed three American troops and wounded dozens of others in Jordan may have been confused with an American drone returning to the U.S. installation, according to a U.S. official.
The official, who was not authorized to comment and insisted on anonymity, said Monday the preliminary accounts suggest the enemy drone that struck the installation known as Tower 22 may have been mistaken for an American drone that was also in the air at the same time.
The official said that as the enemy drone was flying in at a low altitude, a U.S. drone was also returning to base. As a result, there was no effort to shoot down the enemy drone.
Associated Press writer Lolita C. Baldor contributed.
JERUSALEM — Israel’s parliament has held a hearing on whether to expel a lawmaker for supporting South Africa’s case accusing Israel of genocide at the U.N. world court.
The lawmaker, Ofer Cassif, is from the Arab-Jewish Hadash party in the Israeli parliament and one of the most outspoken critics of Israel’s military operation in Gaza.
The proceedings Monday came in response to Cassif signing a petition supporting South Africa’s case against Israel at the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
Cassif defended himself in front of other lawmakers, denying the charge that he was encouraging “armed struggle” against Israel. If his fellow lawmakers vote otherwise, he could be removed from his post.
Cassif has repeatedly faced reprimand from other lawmakers for his anti-war positions.
Following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, Cassif was suspended from the parliament for 45 days after other lawmakers said some of his statements had drawn inappropriate parallels between the Holocaust and Israel’s wartime policy. Since the attack, Israel has cracked down on anti-war speech and demonstrations.
KFAR AZA, Israel — Members of a devastated kibbutz in southern Israel visited the shells of their destroyed homes nearly four months after the Hamas attack.
Those who gathered in Kfar Aza on Monday, including a woman who was released from captivity and family members of hostages still held in Gaza, called for a cease-fire deal to return their loved ones.
Amit Soussana, who was held hostage for 55 days in Gaza, stood outside her roofless home on Monday and recalled how she hid for three hours as Hamas militants rampaged through her community. Eventually, the attackers lobbed a grenade into her living room to force her out.
Security footage from the kibbutz captured her struggling against her attackers before a group of seven eventually subdued her.
The wide-ranging Hamas-led attack into southern Israel killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and led to the capture of around 250. Soussana was among more than 100 who were released in November in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.
In the first weeks of her captivity, she says her ankles were chained and she was held in complete darkness. She says the guards “abused me and the other hostages” and held them deep underground in a tunnel with very little food.
Of the 37 young people living in her neighborhood, 12 were killed, and seven were kidnapped. Two of Soussana’s neighbors, Alon Shamriz and Yotam Haim, managed to escape their captors but were mistakenly killed by Israeli soldiers in December.
Relatives of those still held in Gaza have staged mounting protests calling for another cease-fire and exchange.
Liran Berman’s twin brothers, Gali and Ziv, 26, are among those still being held in Gaza.
“We see that when there’s a deal, hostages return, and in between, when there isn’t, only bodies come back,” he said.
BERLIN — Germany has condemned the fatal attack on U.S. troops in Jordan that Washington has blamed on Iran-backed militias and is calling on Tehran to exert its influence on regional allies to prevent further escalation.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Sebastian Fischer on Monday underlined Berlin’s solidarity with Jordan and the U.S.
He added that “in view of the extremely tense situation in the region, this act is completely irresponsible and could lead to pushing the region further toward escalation.”
Fischer said: “We expect from Iran that it finally exert its influence on its allies in the region so that there is no uncontrolled conflagration, in which no one can have an interest.
RAMALLAH, West Bank — Palestinian authorities say five Palestinians, including a 16-year old boy, have been killed by Israeli forces in separate shootings across the occupied West Bank on Monday.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said the boy was killed near the Israeli settlement of Tekoa. The ministry gave no further details, but the Israeli military said the boy had attempted to carry out a stabbing attack on soldiers at a guard post.
In other violence, the Palestinian Health Ministry said two men, one of them age 18, were shot dead by Israeli troops in the southern West Bank city of Dura. The official Palestinian news agency Wafa said that Israeli forces opened fire after clashing with Palestinians from the area.
Two other men were killed — one of them in the southern city of Hebron and the other in the central town of Silwad, it said.
The Israeli army said one of its counterterrorism operations in the town of Dura overnight Sunday sparked a riot in the town. It said its forces then opened fire in response to dozens of Palestinian protesters hurling stones at its troops.
In the town of Yamoun, near Jenin, Israeli forces said its troops returned fire at a wanted suspect they were trying to arrest, hitting the man.
BRUSSELS — The European Union wants to appoint independent experts to conduct an audit of the U.N.’s Palestinian refugee agency to ensure that UNRWA staff can’t be involved “in terrorist activities.”
The 27-nation bloc is one of the biggest donors of humanitarian and development aid to Palestinians in Gaza, but was not scheduled to provide more funding to UNRWA before the end of February.
Israel has accused a dozen UNRWA employees of taking part in the Hamas attack in October that ignited the war and stoked deadly instability across the Middle East. Several countries have frozen funding to the agency.
The EU’s executive branch, the European Commission, says it “expects UNRWA to agree to carrying out an audit of the agency to be conducted by EU appointed independent external experts.”
The audit would focus “specifically on the control systems needed to prevent the possible involvement of its staff in terrorist activities.”
BAGHDAD — Iraq’s government condemned the drone strike that killed three U.S. troops in Jordan near the Syrian border Sunday, in an apparent effort to distance itself from an attack that was likely carried out by one of the country’s multiple Iranian-backed militias.
Government spokesman Bassem al-Awadi said in a statement on Monday that Iraq is “monitoring with a great concern the alarming security developments in the region” and called for “an end to the cycle of violence.” The statement said that Iraq is ready to participate in diplomatic efforts to prevent further escalation.
An umbrella group for Iran-backed factions known as the Islamic Resistance in Iraq has claimed dozens of attacks against bases housing U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria since the Israel-Hamas war began. On Sunday, the group claimed three drone attacks against sites in Syria, including near the border with Jordan, and one inside of “occupied Palestine” but so far hasn’t claimed the attack in Jordan.
JERUSALEM — Israeli authorities say a 20-year-old man has been seriously wounded after an attack outside a military base in Haifa in northern Israel.
The Israeli military said a motorist carried out a car ramming attack on Monday before exiting the vehicle and trying to attack soldiers with an ax. The soldiers shot at the attacker, the military said. It wasn’t immediately clear if the attacker was killed.
Israel’s rescue service Magen David Adom said that paramedics were treating a 20-year-old man with “serious lower limb injuries,” and had evacuated him to a hospital in serious condition.
The attack came as tensions have spiked around the region over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. Earlier this month, a woman was killed in a similar attack north of Tel Aviv.
BERLIN — Austria is joining a string of Western partners in suspending payments to the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees after Israel accused a dozen of its employees of taking part in the Hamas attack on Oct. 7 that started the war.
The Foreign Ministry in Vienna said in a statement Monday that Austria “will provisionally suspend all further payments to UNRWA in coordination with international partners” until all the accusations are “fully cleared up” and there is clarity on the consequences.
It called on the UNRWA agency and the wider U.N. to conduct a “comprehensive, quick and complete investigation.”
TOKYO — Japan has suspended additional funding for UNRWA while the agency conducts an investigation into allegations that UNRWA staff were involved in the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Sunday.
It said Japan is “extremely concerned about the alleged involvement of UNRWA staff members in the terror attack on Israel” last year.
The ministry noted the dedication of many UNRWA staff in providing humanitarian assistance to Gaza and said: “Japan has been strongly urging UNRWA to conduct an investigation in a prompt and complete manner and to take appropriate measures, including strengthening governance with UNRWA, so that UNRWA can firmly fulfill the role it should play.”
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