(LONDON) — More than three months after Israel began its siege in response to the surprise attack by the terrorist group Hamas on Oct. 7, the United Nations has been issuing major warnings of a catastrophic food crisis in Gaza, where they say more than half a million people are already starving.
Even before the war, roughly two-thirds of Gazans were reliant on food aid, according to the World Food Program.
But now the need is far higher with nearly 2 million people displaced and with Israel only allowing in roughly half the number of trucks compared to enter prior to the war, while intense fighting has made it dangerous to deliver food, according to the U.N.
The scale of the crisis is now such that roughly 577,000 Gazans, or 26% of the population, are starving, according to Arif Husain, the chief economist for WFP.
“If things continue as they are, or if things worsen, we are looking at a full-fledged famine within the next six months,” he told ABC News.
Almost all Gazans are now reliant on food aid for sustenance, according to the U.N.
Maryam al-Dahdough, a mother of four who is pregnant with another child, was one of the thousand people who line up daily at a soup kitchen in Rafah in southern Gaza.
She told ABC News that she has not eaten eggs, milk, or anything healthy for three months and it’s been worse for her other children.
“Fever, vomiting, diarrhea all day, not a single one of them is healthy,” she said.
Husain said that he has never seen a food crisis grow this dire so quickly in his 20 years of experience, saying in terms of scale, severity and speed it was “unprecedented.”
Israeli officials, who control the routes into Gaza, say they send 200 trucks of food and aid a day into the country. Before the war, 500 trucks were being sent to Gaza, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, or UNRWA.
Israeli officials denied accusations they are not letting enough food into Gaza and blamed Hamas for stealing aid. They also blamed the U.N. and other aid agencies for creating logistical bottlenecks.
The U.N. has disputed the Israeli officials’ claims, saying on average far less than two hundred trucks are entering most days. UN officials have said excessive Israeli inspections, as well as arbitrary rejections of some aid, frequently hold up deliveries.
“We are getting the average of trucks near 80, 80 trucks per day,” UNRWA spokesman Adnan Abo Hasna told ABC News.
UNRWA officials also say Israel provides too few authorizations to make deliveries into some areas and that heavy fighting often makes it too dangerous for aid workers to operate. Israel disputes the criticisms.
UNRWA has come under fire over the last week after Israeli officials accused a dozen of its workers of taking part in the Oct. 7 Hamas assault. Israeli officials claim one of those members participated in the kidnappings.
The U.N. condemned the alleged attacks and nine of those workers were fired. Two of the accused are reportedly dead and one has not immediately been identified, the U.N. said.
Not long after the allegations were announced on Friday, several nations and other organizations, including the U.S. State Department, announced that it would pause funding to the UNRWA as the investigation continues.
On Monday, a coalition of 20 non-governmental organizations, including Save the Children, sent out a letter condemning the funding pause, stressing that innocent Gazans will be left to suffer without aid from the organization.
“We are shocked by the reckless decision to cut a lifeline for an entire population by some of the very countries that had called for aid in Gaza to be stepped up and for humanitarians to be protected while doing their job,” the statement read.
UNRWA, which is the primary aid provider in Gaza and shelters around 1.4 million people, has warned that the funding suspension could impact its operations within weeks.
The worst of the situation is in northern Gaza, according to the U.N. which said Israel is granting few permissions for aid groups.
Some northern Gazan residents say deliveries are hard to reach, and those that manage to, often re-sell food for high prices.
Videos have shown stampedes breaking out, and hundreds of people crushed together scrabbling for food. A video captured in December showed shots were fired near an aid distribution point, though ABC News has not confirmed who fired the shots and IDF has said they had no known operations in the area at the time.
“I had seen people looking into the garbage of other people for food. And I felt so sad for them. But I never imagined that I would do something similar,” a northern Gazan woman who asked not to be identified over fears for her safety told ABC News.
There are also severe shortages of clean water, according to humanitarian groups.
The U.N. said 1.9 million Palestinians, roughly 85% of the country’s population, have been displaced to camps and other settlements where fresh water is hard to come by and humanitarian aid groups have warned of disease epidemics in those locations.
Ahmad Ismael, who has been living in a tent in a camp with thousands of other displaced people in Rafah with his four children, told ABC News that they have to use a small bucket for a toilet.
“You wake up to think about the situation of the tent. Is there water flowing or not,” he said.
“We receive canned food from the agency’s warehouse every two or three days. It doesn’t meet our needs, and comes incomplete, but we buy other things, and we make our food here over the fire,” Ismael added.
As Israel continues to advance in southern Gaza, more Palestinians continue to flee combat areas and there is more pressure on aid agencies to deliver needed supplies.
“We hope to God that the war will stop, we have had enough,” Ismael said. “Let us go back to our lives.”
(NEW YORK) — Israeli Forces may have violated international law in the raid they conducted inside a hospital in the West Bank that resulted in the death of three Palestinian men both Hamas and the Islamic Jihad claimed as members, several experts told ABC News.
Israeli commandos disguised themselves as doctors and patients to infiltrate the Ibn Sina Hospital in Jenin on Monday and killed three Palestinian men whom Hamas and the Islamic Jihad both claimed as members, Dr. Wisam Sebehat, general director of the Palestinian Health Ministry in Jenin, told ABC News.
One member of the Israeli group had a wheelchair, two carried a doll in a baby carrier, several wore nurses’ clothing, another wore doctors’ clothing and several others were dressed in civilian clothing, Sebehat said. Doctors and patients are granted “protected status” in armed conflict under the Geneva Convention.
An initial statement from the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) described the raid as a “joint IDF, ISA, and Israel Police counterterrorism activity.” The IDF have since clarified to ABC News that their forces were not involved in physically carrying out the operation.
The experts cautioned that ultimately the International Criminal Court is the body that can determine if international law was violated during the raid, but they pointed to elements of the Rome Statute, the governing treaty of the ICC, and the study on the rules of customary international humanitarian law the IDF may have violated in conducting the raid. The United States, along with China, India, Russia — about 40 countries total — did not sign the Rome Statute and are not party to the ICC, according to the Council on Foreign Relations.
The ICC is different from the International Court of Justice, which issued a preliminary ruling last week in a case brought by South Africa against Israel accusing Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians. The ICC can “exercise jurisdiction” in the form of preliminary examination, investigation and, at times, ultimately trials, over “genocide, crimes against humanity or war crimes,” it says.
Israel is not a member of the ICC and rejects the court’s jurisdiction, but the ICC prosecutor has investigated Israel’s actions toward Palestinians before.
It’s a violation of international law to feign protected status, in this case, by dressing up as a doctor or patient, “in order to invite the confidence of the adversary and then proceed to kill or injure them,” Aurel Sari, associate professor of public international law at the University of Exeter, told ABC News. This violates the prohibition to kill or injure the adversary by resorting to perfidy, Sari said.
“The rule is part of customary international law in both international and non-international armed conflicts, which means Israel is bound by it,” Sari said.
“Based on what has been reported, it appears that the Israeli forces involved in the operation in the Ibn Sina Hospital in Jenin did resort to perfidy in violation of the law of armed conflict,” Sari added.
It’s unclear if the IDF used disguises to gain access to the hospital or to gain the confidence of the adversaries they were targeting directly.
The other possible violation of international law the IDF may have committed in this case is violating the prohibition on attacking combatants who have been incapacitated by wounds or sickness, or attacking persons “hors de combat,” associate professor of international law Tom Dannenbaum told ABC News.
One of the Palestinian men who was killed, Basel Ghazawi, was being treated in the Ibn Sina Hospital and was paralyzed, Sebehat said. The IDF denied the reports that Ghazawi was paralyzed.
Ghazawi had been in the hospital undergoing treatment for three months. He was injured after a drone attack in Jenin in October, Sebehat said. His older brother, Muhammad Ghazawi, and their friend, Muhammed Jalamneh, were in the hospital room with Basel Ghazawi when all three were killed by the Israeli forces, according to Sebehat.
“Combatants who have been incapacitated by wounds or sickness are protected from attack as persons ‘hors de combat,'” under international law, Dannenbaum said. “Clearly, someone who is paralyzed is incapacitated in that respect, so an attack on that individual would be prohibited. Violating that prohibition would be a war crime.”
The IDF accused Jalamneh of transferring weapons and ammunition “to terrorists in order to promote shooting attacks and planned a raid attack inspired by the October 7” Hamas terror attack on Israel, the IDF said in a statement about the raid.
“Along with Jalamneh, two additional terrorists who hid inside the hospital were neutralized,” the IDF said in the statement.
The IDF did not specify why the two other men were killed but said all three men were Hamas operatives.
“For a long time, wanted suspects have been hiding in hospitals and using them as a base for planning terrorist activities and carrying out terror attacks, while they assume that the exploitation of hospitals will serve as protection against counterterrorism activities of Israeli security forces,” the IDF said.
The IDF has repeatedly claimed that Hamas uses hospitals in Gaza to mask terrorist activities. The IDF has said it is only targeting Hamas and other militants in Gaza and alleges that Hamas deliberately shelters behind civilians, which the group denies.
The ICC would ultimately be the body that could determine if a war crime was committed or if international law was violated in this raid. In March 2023, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for crimes related to the invasion of Ukraine.
“To conclude that a war crime has been committed, criminal tribunals avail themselves not rarely of years of investigations and assessments,” Robert Kolb, professor of public international law and international organization at the University of Geneva, told ABC News.
More than 26,000 people have been killed in Gaza and over 65,000 others injured since Oct. 7, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry. In Israel, at least 1,200 people have been killed and 6,900 others injured since Oct. 7, according to the Israeli prime minister’s office. Israeli officials say 556 Israel Defense Forces soldiers have been killed, including 221 since the ground operations in Gaza began.
A Palestinian elderly woman crosses a street which has been bulldozed by the Israeli forces during a raid in Jenin in the occupied West Bank on January 29, 2024 amid ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza. (Photo by ZAIN JAAFAR/AFP via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — More than 100 days since Hamas terrorists invaded Israel on Oct. 7, the Israeli military continues its bombardment of the neighboring Gaza Strip.
The conflict, now the deadliest between the warring sides since Israel’s founding in 1948, shows no signs of letting up soon and the brief cease-fire that allowed for over 100 hostages to be freed from Gaza remains a distant memory.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Jan 30, 9:08 PM
Experts say Israel may have violated international law with hospital raid
The Israel Defense Forces in the raid they conducted inside a hospital in the West Bank resulted in the death of three Palestinian men both Hamas and the Islamic Jihad claimed as members, several experts told ABC News.
Members of the IDF disguised themselves as doctors and patients to infiltrate the Ibn Sina Hospital in Jenin on Monday and killed three Palestinian men whom Hamas and the Islamic Jihad both claimed as members, Dr. Wisam Sebehat, general director of the Palestinian Health Ministry in Jenin, told ABC News.
Doctors and patients are granted “protected status” in armed conflict under the Geneva Convention.
The experts cautioned that ultimately the International Criminal Court is the body that can determine if international law was violated during the raid, but they pointed to elements of the governing treaty of the ICC, and the study on the rules of the IDF may have violated in conducting the raid. The United States, along with China, India, Russia — about 40 countries total — did not sign the Rome Statute and are not party to the ICC, according to the Council on Foreign Relations.
Jan 30, 4:23 PM
US details money earmarked for UNRWA held up by pause
For the first time, a member of the Biden administration Tuesday offered some detail on how many U.S. dollars earmarked for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East are held up under the current pause.
“We have provided in this fiscal year already $121 million to UNRWA,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said. “We have remaining about $300,000 — a little more than $300,000 — in funds that we were planning to provide to UNRWA. That funding has been suspended. That would not be the total of our funding in this fiscal year.”
Miller went on to say that it was “really impossible” to say what the total amount for the fiscal year would be due to operating under a continuing resolution, and he did not know what its exact budget would be, but that historically the Biden administration had provided “somewhere between” $300 million and $400 million a year.
Nine countries, including the U.S., have paused funding for the UNRWA in wake of allegations that some UNRWA employees were involved in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel. The commissioner-general of UNRWA is investigating.
-ABC News’ Shannon Crawford
Jan 30, 3:11 PM
Israel channeling water into Gaza tunnels
The Israel Defense Forces said its soldiers are sending “large volumes of water” into Gaza tunnels to try to stop terrorist infrastructure.
“The pumping of water was only carried out in tunnel routes and locations that were suitable, matching the method of operation to each case,” the IDF said in a statement. “This project was developed following combat procedures, accelerated force-building efforts, and while training forces with technological expertise.”
“This tool represents a significant engineering and technological breakthrough in combating the threat of underground terror infrastructure and is the result of a collaborative effort between various bodies in Israel’s security establishment,” the IDF added.
Jan 30, 12:52 PM
Proposed hostage deal includes at least 6-week pause in hostilities: US officials
The latest proposed hostage deal includes an at least six-week pause in hostilities, during which the remaining civilian hostages in Gaza would be returned in phases, with the elderly, women and any remaining children released first, two U.S. officials confirmed to ABC News.
When the six-week truce nears the end, the framework calls for the parties to begin discussing: the return of all Israeli soldiers detained by Hamas; paving the way for all hostages in Gaza to be freed; and possibly extending the pause, the U.S. officials said.
The framework also includes the release of a large number of Palestinian prisoners held in Israel and additional humanitarian provisions for civilians in Gaza, the officials said.
According to an Israeli source, Israel has rejected this current hostage and cease-fire deal on the table.
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said Tuesday the group is studying a proposal for a hostage and cease-fire deal that was put forward during talks this weekend in Paris. He said he would visit Egypt to discuss the plan and ways to implement it.
The White House is expressing confidence to secure the release of the remaining hostages being held by Hamas even after Israel rejected the current deal.
“The president’s view is we got to continue to do everything we can to get those hostages out,” National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said Tuesday. “We are making progress on trying to get an extended pause in place so that we can get those hostages out. And the president’s not going to wait on that.”
Kirby would not say if President Joe Biden was disappointed that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would not release thousands of prisoners and pull troops out of Gaza as part of the deal.
“I think we’ll let the prime minister speak for himself. There’s no reason for us to change course here. We still believe that this is the right thing to do,” he said.
Kirby said national security adviser Jake Sullivan met with Amir Sheikh Al Thani of Qatar Tuesday to discuss the war and efforts to get a hostage deal in place. Sullivan is also meeting Tuesday with the families of hostages being held by Hamas.
ABC News’ Shannon Crawford and Justin Gomez
Jan 30, 12:08 PM
Israel rejects current hostage deal on the table: Israeli source
Israel has rejected the current hostage and cease-fire deal that was on the table, an Israeli source told ABC News Tuesday.
The deal included the release of women, the elderly and the injured hostages. This is likely to be the terms of the first round of a future deal, the source said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday, “I hear talk about all kinds of deals. I would like to make it clear: We will not conclude this war without achieving all of its goals. This means eliminating Hamas, returning all of our hostages and ensuring that Gaza never again constitutes a threat to Israel.”
Meanwhile, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said Tuesday the group is studying a proposal for a hostage and cease-fire deal that was put forward during talks this weekend in Paris. He said he would visit Egypt to discuss the plan and ways to implement it.
ABC News’ Jordana Miller, Ayat Al-Tawy and Dana Savir
Jan 30, 6:41 AM
UNRWA funding cuts threaten Palestinian lives, NGOs warn
Twenty aid organizations have joined together to express deep concern and outrage that some of the largest donors suspended funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the largest humanitarian agency in the Gaza Strip and the main provider for millions of Palestinians in the wider region.
A wave of countries, including the United States, have cut funding for UNRWA in recent days over Israel’s accusations that 13 UNRWA staff members in Gaza were involved in the Oct. 7 terror attack. UNRWA said it is investigating the allegations.
In a joint statement released Monday, 20 non-governmental organizations, including Oxfam and Save the Children, urged the donor states to reverse their suspensions and warned that not doing so could lead to “a complete collapse of the already restricted humanitarian response in Gaza.”
“We are shocked by the reckless decision to cut a lifeline for an entire population by some of the very countries that had called for aid in Gaza to be stepped up and for humanitarians to be protected while doing their job,” the NGOs said. “This decision comes as the International Court of Justice ordered immediate and effective action to ensure the provision of humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza.”
The NGOs warned: “If the funding suspensions are not reversed we may see a complete collapse of the already restricted humanitarian response in Gaza.”
“The suspension of funding by donor states will impact life-saving assistance for over two million civilians, over half of whom are children, who rely on UNRWA aid in Gaza,” they added. “The population faces starvation, looming famine and an outbreak of disease under Israel’s continued indiscriminate bombardment and deliberate deprivation of aid in Gaza.”
Jan 30, 5:35 AM
Israeli soldiers dressed in disguise kill 3 in raid at hospital in West Bank
The Palestinian Ministry of Health on Tuesday released security camera footage showing Israeli troops in disguise as they raideda hospital in the occupied West Bank overnight.
In the video, soldiers are seen dressed as doctors and patients while holding rifles and walking through the corridors of Ibn Sina Hospital in the city of Jenin. The Palestinian Ministry of Health said three people were killed during the raid, which it called a “flagrant violation of all international norms and laws.”
The Israel Defense Forces confirmed the overnight raid in a statement early Tuesday, saying its troops “neutralized” three “terrorists” who were “hiding” inside Ibn Sina Hospital, one of whom was a member of Hamas and was allegedly planning an attack “inspired by the October 7th massacre.”
“For a long time, wanted suspects have been hiding in hospitals and using them as a base for planning terrorist activities and carrying out terror attacks, while they assume that the exploitation of hospitals will serve as protection against counterterrorism activities of Israeli security forces,” the IDF said. “This is another example of the cynical use of civilian areas and hospitals as shelters and human shields by terrorist organisations.”
Jan 29, 3:29 PM
Qatari prime minister: Hostage talks in ‘much better place’ now than a few weeks ago
The Qatari prime minister said Monday that the hostage talks between Israel and Hamas are in a “much better place” now than they were “a few weeks ago,” according to Reuters.
He also said he hoped the drone attack by Iran-backed militants that killed three American service members in Jordan won’t derail progress that’s been made on a hostage deal.
“I hope that nothing would undermine the efforts that we are doing or jeopardize that process,” Qatari Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Bin Jassim Al-Thani said at a think tank event in Washington, D.C., according to Reuters. “Yet it will definitely have an impact on it and one way or another, it will have an impact on the regional security and we hope that things get contained and not to get escalated beyond control.”
Jan 29, 12:30 PM
IDF: Quarter of Hamas terrorists killed
One “quarter of Hamas’ terrorists have been killed and at least another quarter are wounded,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Monday while visiting troops at the Gaza border.
Gallant said fighting the remaining terrorists “will take months.”
“On the other hand,” he continued, “the terrorists don’t have supplies, they don’t have ammunition, they don’t have reinforcements.”
ABC News’ Dana Savir
Jan 29, 11:50 AM
Dossier from Israel alleges 4 UNRWA employees involved in kidnappings
A dossier from the Israeli military has revealed new allegations against employees of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees who are accused of being involved in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel.
The report obtained by ABC News alleges that 13 UNRWA employees participated in the Oct. 7 attack, including six employees who allegedly infiltrated Israel.
Four UNRWA employees were allegedly involved in kidnappings and one employee allegedly supplied logistical support, the report said.
One UNRWA teacher is accused of kidnapping a hostage, who has returned to Israel and identified the UNRWA teacher, the report said.
Nine countries, including the U.S., have paused funding for the UNRWA in wake of the allegations. The commissioner-general of UNRWA is investigating.
ABC News’ Matt Gutman
Jan 29, 7:00 AM
IDF general answers questions about alleged war crimes in southern Gaza
ABC News embedded with Brig. Gen. Dan Goldfus, commander of the Israel Defense Forces’ 98th Division that currently controls the southern Gaza Strip, and questioned him about alleged war crimes, the recent killing of an unarmed Palestinian carrying a white flag and the controversial buffer zone.
On Saturday, ABC News met with Goldfus in what looked like a post-apocalyptic neighborhood in Khan Younis, where machine guns chattered, detonations thundered and the blasts of tank fire rang out. Some of the explosions were so powerful that they blew in the curtains of the commandeered Palestinian home that the general and his staff have turned into a temporary headquarters.
Outside the headquarters were a series of arena-sized basins. One was about 60 feet deep and larger than a football field. A month ago, it was a multi-acre cemetery. Flanking the destroyed cemetery was the remains of a mosque — half of a dome listing on its side like a sinking ship. Goldfus told ABC News that his troops had dug up most of the cemetery looking for tunnel shafts belonging to Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that rules Gaza. The general pointed out where he said they found tunnel shafts, but ABC News could not visually verify due to the depth of the pit.
When asked what his troops do with the bodies if they dig up graves while hunting for tunnel shafts, Goldfus told ABC News: “We’ll put them aside.”
The intentional destruction of religious sites, such as cemeteries, without military necessity violates international law and could amount to war crimes. But Goldfus said he’s not concerned because Hamas had turned the cemetery and the adjacent mosque into a “military compound” that was “used to attack my forces again and again and again.”
“I’m not digging up a cemetery, I’m digging up a military compound,” he added.
When asked what he would say to the families of the people who were buried there, the general told ABC News: “I’m very sorry about it. Your relatives are being used as a human shield.”
Last week, British television network ITV captured what it said were Israeli snipers in Khan Younis gunning down an unarmed Palestinian man carrying a white flag who had moments earlier told the news team that he was trying to cross the battle lines to reach his family. At the time, Israel claimed the ITV video was edited and that there was no way of telling who fired the shots. However, while speaking to ABC News on Saturday, Goldfus appeared to take responsibility for the incident.
“Yes, it was my troops and I’m investigating that incident,” he told ABC News. “That is not the way we carry out rules of engagement. No, we don’t fire people waving white flags. We don’t fire at civilians.”
When pressed on the fact that Israeli troops have killed civilians in Gaza, the general said: “They are mistakes. It is war.”
Asked whether Israeli soldiers could face criminal charges for the fatal shooting, Goldfus told ABC News that “it depends.”
“We investigate every mistake that is done,” he added.
The general also answered questions about the buffer zone the IDF is creating inside Gaza along the coastal enclave’s border with Israel.
“This is part of the area that will become a buffer zone … to dismantle Hamas and prevent any entity that will try to carry out any terror attacks against our people,” he told ABC News while looking at a table-sized aerial map of the Gaza-Israel border.
Goldfus said the buffer zone will create an area inside Gaza that is under Israel’s control.
-ABC News’ Matt Gutman and Sohel Uddin
Jan 28, 2:24 PM
‘Constructive meeting’ with officials but ‘gaps’ remain, Israeli PM’s office says
The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office released a statement on Sunday’s talks between CIA Director Bill Burns, the prime minister of Qatar and intelligence officials from Israel and Egypt.
The meeting was “constructive” but “significant gaps” remain, the statement said, adding that more meetings are expected this coming week.
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller
Jan 28, 4:40 AM
UN chief appeals for continued UNRWA funding
The secretary-general of the United Nations appealed on Sunday for continuing funding for the U.N. aid agency responsible for Gaza.
Nine countries, including the United States, paused their funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees after Israel accused 12 of its employees of being involved in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack.
Mark Regev, an Israeli spokesman, told ABC News in a phone interview Sunday that Israel gathered intelligence about the alleged connection to terrorism through videos released by Hamas and others during the Oct. 7 attack and claimed there’s “clear unrefutable evidence that U.N. paid staff were involved in crimes against humanity.”
About 2 million people in Gaza depend on the agency for daily survival, Secretary-General António Guterres said in a statement Sunday.
According to Guterres, “Of the 12 people implicated, nine were immediately identified and terminated by the Commissioner-General of UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini; one is confirmed dead, and the identity of the two others is being clarified.”
“The abhorrent alleged acts of these staff members must have consequences,” he said in the statement.
He added, “But the tens of thousands of men and women who work for UNRWA, many in some of the most dangerous situations for humanitarian workers, should not be penalized. The dire needs of the desperate populations they serve must be met.”
-ABC News’ Matt Gutman, Edward Szekeres and Kevin Shalvey
Jan 27, 5:13 PM
9 nations suspend contributions to UNRWA due to Oct. 7 allegations
The number of nations pausing funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East has risen to 9 — an unprecedented number for a UN agency. This withdrawal of funding comes amid allegations from Israeli officials that some of the agency’s staff were involved in the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks.
On Saturday, Britain, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Finland joined the U.S., Australia and Canada in pausing funding to UNRWA.
“UNRWA lifesaving assistance is about to end following countries decisions to cut their funding to the Agency. Our humanitarian operation, on which 2 million people depend as a lifeline in Gaza, is collapsing. I am shocked such decisions are taken based on alleged behavior of a few individuals and as the war continues, needs are deepening & famine looms,” the commissioner general of UNRWA said in a statement.
“Palestinians in Gaza did not need this additional collective punishment. This stains all of us,” the statement said.
A Palestinian elderly woman crosses a street which has been bulldozed by the Israeli forces during a raid in Jenin in the occupied West Bank on January 29, 2024 amid ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza. (Photo by ZAIN JAAFAR/AFP via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — More than 100 days since Hamas terrorists invaded Israel on Oct. 7, the Israeli military continues its bombardment of the neighboring Gaza Strip.
The conflict, now the deadliest between the warring sides since Israel’s founding in 1948, shows no signs of letting up soon and the brief cease-fire that allowed for over 100 hostages to be freed from Gaza remains a distant memory.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Jan 30, 3:11 PM
Israel channeling water into Gaza tunnels
The Israel Defense Forces said its soldiers are sending “large volumes of water” into Gaza tunnels to try to stop terrorist infrastructure.
“The pumping of water was only carried out in tunnel routes and locations that were suitable, matching the method of operation to each case,” the IDF said in a statement. “This project was developed following combat procedures, accelerated force-building efforts, and while training forces with technological expertise.”
“This tool represents a significant engineering and technological breakthrough in combating the threat of underground terror infrastructure and is the result of a collaborative effort between various bodies in Israel’s security establishment,” the IDF added.
Jan 30, 12:52 PM
Proposed hostage deal includes at least 6-week pause in hostilities: US officials
The latest proposed hostage deal includes an at least six-week pause in hostilities, during which the remaining civilian hostages in Gaza would be returned in phases, with the elderly, women and any remaining children released first, two U.S. officials confirmed to ABC News.
When the six-week truce nears the end, the framework calls for the parties to begin discussing: the return of all Israeli soldiers detained by Hamas; paving the way for all hostages in Gaza to be freed; and possibly extending the pause, the U.S. officials said.
The framework also includes the release of a large number of Palestinian prisoners held in Israel and additional humanitarian provisions for civilians in Gaza, the officials said.
According to an Israeli source, Israel has rejected this current hostage and cease-fire deal on the table.
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said Tuesday the group is studying a proposal for a hostage and cease-fire deal that was put forward during talks this weekend in Paris. He said he would visit Egypt to discuss the plan and ways to implement it.
The White House is expressing confidence to secure the release of the remaining hostages being held by Hamas even after Israel rejected the current deal.
“The president’s view is we got to continue to do everything we can to get those hostages out,” National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said Tuesday. “We are making progress on trying to get an extended pause in place so that we can get those hostages out. And the president’s not going to wait on that.”
Kirby would not say if President Joe Biden was disappointed that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would not release thousands of prisoners and pull troops out of Gaza as part of the deal.
“I think we’ll let the prime minister speak for himself. There’s no reason for us to change course here. We still believe that this is the right thing to do,” he said.
Kirby said national security adviser Jake Sullivan met with Amir Sheikh Al Thani of Qatar Tuesday to discuss the war and efforts to get a hostage deal in place. Sullivan is also meeting Tuesday with the families of hostages being held by Hamas.
ABC News’ Shannon Crawford and Justin Gomez
Jan 30, 12:08 PM
Israel rejects current hostage deal on the table: Israeli source
Israel has rejected the current hostage and cease-fire deal that was on the table, an Israeli source told ABC News Tuesday.
The deal included the release of women, the elderly and the injured hostages. This is likely to be the terms of the first round of a future deal, the source said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday, “I hear talk about all kinds of deals. I would like to make it clear: We will not conclude this war without achieving all of its goals. This means eliminating Hamas, returning all of our hostages and ensuring that Gaza never again constitutes a threat to Israel.”
Meanwhile, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said Tuesday the group is studying a proposal for a hostage and cease-fire deal that was put forward during talks this weekend in Paris. He said he would visit Egypt to discuss the plan and ways to implement it.
ABC News’ Jordana Miller, Ayat Al-Tawy and Dana Savir
Jan 30, 6:41 AM
UNRWA funding cuts threaten Palestinian lives, NGOs warn
Twenty aid organizations have joined together to express deep concern and outrage that some of the largest donors suspended funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the largest humanitarian agency in the Gaza Strip and the main provider for millions of Palestinians in the wider region.
A wave of countries, including the United States, have cut funding for UNRWA in recent days over Israel’s accusations that 13 UNRWA staff members in Gaza were involved in the Oct. 7 terror attack. UNRWA said it is investigating the allegations.
In a joint statement released Monday, 20 non-governmental organizations, including Oxfam and Save the Children, urged the donor states to reverse their suspensions and warned that not doing so could lead to “a complete collapse of the already restricted humanitarian response in Gaza.”
“We are shocked by the reckless decision to cut a lifeline for an entire population by some of the very countries that had called for aid in Gaza to be stepped up and for humanitarians to be protected while doing their job,” the NGOs said. “This decision comes as the International Court of Justice ordered immediate and effective action to ensure the provision of humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza.”
The NGOs warned: “If the funding suspensions are not reversed we may see a complete collapse of the already restricted humanitarian response in Gaza.”
“The suspension of funding by donor states will impact life-saving assistance for over two million civilians, over half of whom are children, who rely on UNRWA aid in Gaza,” they added. “The population faces starvation, looming famine and an outbreak of disease under Israel’s continued indiscriminate bombardment and deliberate deprivation of aid in Gaza.”
Jan 30, 5:35 AM
Israeli soldiers dressed in disguise kill 3 in raid at hospital in West Bank
The Palestinian Ministry of Health on Tuesday released security camera footage showing Israeli troops in disguise as they raideda hospital in the occupied West Bank overnight.
In the video, soldiers are seen dressed as doctors and patients while holding rifles and walking through the corridors of Ibn Sina Hospital in the city of Jenin. The Palestinian Ministry of Health said three people were killed during the raid, which it called a “flagrant violation of all international norms and laws.”
The Israel Defense Forces confirmed the overnight raid in a statement early Tuesday, saying its troops “neutralized” three “terrorists” who were “hiding” inside Ibn Sina Hospital, one of whom was a member of Hamas and was allegedly planning an attack “inspired by the October 7th massacre.”
“For a long time, wanted suspects have been hiding in hospitals and using them as a base for planning terrorist activities and carrying out terror attacks, while they assume that the exploitation of hospitals will serve as protection against counterterrorism activities of Israeli security forces,” the IDF said. “This is another example of the cynical use of civilian areas and hospitals as shelters and human shields by terrorist organisations.”
Jan 29, 3:29 PM
Qatari prime minister: Hostage talks in ‘much better place’ now than a few weeks ago
The Qatari prime minister said Monday that the hostage talks between Israel and Hamas are in a “much better place” now than they were “a few weeks ago,” according to Reuters.
He also said he hoped the drone attack by Iran-backed militants that killed three American service members in Jordan won’t derail progress that’s been made on a hostage deal.
“I hope that nothing would undermine the efforts that we are doing or jeopardize that process,” Qatari Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Bin Jassim Al-Thani said at a think tank event in Washington, D.C., according to Reuters. “Yet it will definitely have an impact on it and one way or another, it will have an impact on the regional security and we hope that things get contained and not to get escalated beyond control.”
Jan 29, 12:30 PM
IDF: Quarter of Hamas terrorists killed
One “quarter of Hamas’ terrorists have been killed and at least another quarter are wounded,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Monday while visiting troops at the Gaza border.
Gallant said fighting the remaining terrorists “will take months.”
“On the other hand,” he continued, “the terrorists don’t have supplies, they don’t have ammunition, they don’t have reinforcements.”
ABC News’ Dana Savir
Jan 29, 11:50 AM
Dossier from Israel alleges 4 UNRWA employees involved in kidnappings
A dossier from the Israeli military has revealed new allegations against employees of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees who are accused of being involved in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel.
The report obtained by ABC News alleges that 13 UNRWA employees participated in the Oct. 7 attack, including six employees who allegedly infiltrated Israel.
Four UNRWA employees were allegedly involved in kidnappings and one employee allegedly supplied logistical support, the report said.
One UNRWA teacher is accused of kidnapping a hostage, who has returned to Israel and identified the UNRWA teacher, the report said.
Nine countries, including the U.S., have paused funding for the UNRWA in wake of the allegations. The commissioner-general of UNRWA is investigating.
ABC News’ Matt Gutman
Jan 29, 7:00 AM
IDF general answers questions about alleged war crimes in southern Gaza
ABC News embedded with Brig. Gen. Dan Goldfus, commander of the Israel Defense Forces’ 98th Division that currently controls the southern Gaza Strip, and questioned him about alleged war crimes, the recent killing of an unarmed Palestinian carrying a white flag and the controversial buffer zone.
On Saturday, ABC News met with Goldfus in what looked like a post-apocalyptic neighborhood in Khan Younis, where machine guns chattered, detonations thundered and the blasts of tank fire rang out. Some of the explosions were so powerful that they blew in the curtains of the commandeered Palestinian home that the general and his staff have turned into a temporary headquarters.
Outside the headquarters were a series of arena-sized basins. One was about 60 feet deep and larger than a football field. A month ago, it was a multi-acre cemetery. Flanking the destroyed cemetery was the remains of a mosque — half of a dome listing on its side like a sinking ship. Goldfus told ABC News that his troops had dug up most of the cemetery looking for tunnel shafts belonging to Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that rules Gaza. The general pointed out where he said they found tunnel shafts, but ABC News could not visually verify due to the depth of the pit.
When asked what his troops do with the bodies if they dig up graves while hunting for tunnel shafts, Goldfus told ABC News: “We’ll put them aside.”
The intentional destruction of religious sites, such as cemeteries, without military necessity violates international law and could amount to war crimes. But Goldfus said he’s not concerned because Hamas had turned the cemetery and the adjacent mosque into a “military compound” that was “used to attack my forces again and again and again.”
“I’m not digging up a cemetery, I’m digging up a military compound,” he added.
When asked what he would say to the families of the people who were buried there, the general told ABC News: “I’m very sorry about it. Your relatives are being used as a human shield.”
Last week, British television network ITV captured what it said were Israeli snipers in Khan Younis gunning down an unarmed Palestinian man carrying a white flag who had moments earlier told the news team that he was trying to cross the battle lines to reach his family. At the time, Israel claimed the ITV video was edited and that there was no way of telling who fired the shots. However, while speaking to ABC News on Saturday, Goldfus appeared to take responsibility for the incident.
“Yes, it was my troops and I’m investigating that incident,” he told ABC News. “That is not the way we carry out rules of engagement. No, we don’t fire people waving white flags. We don’t fire at civilians.”
When pressed on the fact that Israeli troops have killed civilians in Gaza, the general said: “They are mistakes. It is war.”
Asked whether Israeli soldiers could face criminal charges for the fatal shooting, Goldfus told ABC News that “it depends.”
“We investigate every mistake that is done,” he added.
The general also answered questions about the buffer zone the IDF is creating inside Gaza along the coastal enclave’s border with Israel.
“This is part of the area that will become a buffer zone … to dismantle Hamas and prevent any entity that will try to carry out any terror attacks against our people,” he told ABC News while looking at a table-sized aerial map of the Gaza-Israel border.
Goldfus said the buffer zone will create an area inside Gaza that is under Israel’s control.
-ABC News’ Matt Gutman and Sohel Uddin
Jan 28, 2:24 PM
‘Constructive meeting’ with officials but ‘gaps’ remain, Israeli PM’s office says
The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office released a statement on Sunday’s talks between CIA Director Bill Burns, the prime minister of Qatar and intelligence officials from Israel and Egypt.
The meeting was “constructive” but “significant gaps” remain, the statement said, adding that more meetings are expected this coming week.
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller
Jan 28, 4:40 AM
UN chief appeals for continued UNRWA funding
The secretary-general of the United Nations appealed on Sunday for continuing funding for the U.N. aid agency responsible for Gaza.
Nine countries, including the United States, paused their funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees after Israel accused 12 of its employees of being involved in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack.
Mark Regev, an Israeli spokesman, told ABC News in a phone interview Sunday that Israel gathered intelligence about the alleged connection to terrorism through videos released by Hamas and others during the Oct. 7 attack and claimed there’s “clear unrefutable evidence that U.N. paid staff were involved in crimes against humanity.”
About 2 million people in Gaza depend on the agency for daily survival, Secretary-General António Guterres said in a statement Sunday.
According to Guterres, “Of the 12 people implicated, nine were immediately identified and terminated by the Commissioner-General of UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini; one is confirmed dead, and the identity of the two others is being clarified.”
“The abhorrent alleged acts of these staff members must have consequences,” he said in the statement.
He added, “But the tens of thousands of men and women who work for UNRWA, many in some of the most dangerous situations for humanitarian workers, should not be penalized. The dire needs of the desperate populations they serve must be met.”
-ABC News’ Matt Gutman, Edward Szekeres and Kevin Shalvey
Jan 27, 5:13 PM
9 nations suspend contributions to UNRWA due to Oct. 7 allegations
The number of nations pausing funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East has risen to 9 — an unprecedented number for a UN agency. This withdrawal of funding comes amid allegations from Israeli officials that some of the agency’s staff were involved in the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks.
On Saturday, Britain, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Finland joined the U.S., Australia and Canada in pausing funding to UNRWA.
“UNRWA lifesaving assistance is about to end following countries decisions to cut their funding to the Agency. Our humanitarian operation, on which 2 million people depend as a lifeline in Gaza, is collapsing. I am shocked such decisions are taken based on alleged behavior of a few individuals and as the war continues, needs are deepening & famine looms,” the commissioner general of UNRWA said in a statement.
“Palestinians in Gaza did not need this additional collective punishment. This stains all of us,” the statement said.
(NEW YORK) — A leading Ukrainian arms manufacturer said Russia increasingly views the growth of Ukraine’s own domestic military-industrial sector as a “threat.”
Ukrainian Armor, a firm that produces mortar launchers and shells as well as several models of armored infantry fighting vehicles, said Russia has been increasingly targeting Ukrainian arms production sites lately when it launches barrages of missiles and drones.
“That means that they now consider Ukrainian military industry as a big threat,” the company’s director general Vladislav Belbas, told ABC News during an interview at one of the firm’s secret production facilities.
The threat from Russian missiles and drones is so acute that Ukrainian Armor said it spreads its production base thinly across multiple sites to minimize the impact of a potential strike.
“Whenever they attack, we have to be sure that only (a) small part of the manufacturing process will be destroyed,” Belbas added.
Employees have access to bunkers because, Belbas said, the lives of his workers are paramount, and any destroyed equipment can be rebuilt.
ABC News was given exclusive access to a series of non-descript industrial hangars at an undisclosed location in Ukraine.
Visits to these sensitive sites are restricted in order to minimize the risk of Moscow discovering their location.
Ukrainian efforts to increase domestic arms production have taken on added urgency amid the hold-up in Congress over securing additional American military aid for Kyiv.
Ukrainian Armor said it now produces around 20,000 mortar shells every month and around 100 mortar launchers of varying calibers.
The largest version, which is wheeled and towed around the battlefield, can hit enemy positions at more than four miles, the firm claims.
Mortar shell production in Ukraine surged last year, with the country manufacturing 42 times the number of shells compared to 2022, Oleksandr Kamyshin, the minister for Strategic Industries announced in December.
Ukrainian Armor also manufactures infantry fighting vehicles. Its “Novator” model, a 5-seater armored personnel carrier, is built on top of a reinforced chassis of a Ford SUV and runs off a Ford engine.
The company claims the Novator can be made at about 70-80% of the cost of a similar model produced abroad.
Belbas, the company’s director general, said an added bonus of making the hardware in Ukraine is that most of the repairs and maintenance can be performed close to the war’s frontlines, which is not the case for some western-supplied military equipment.
However, he emphasized that the U.S. and other Western support for Ukraine was critical, both in terms of military aid and financial support for the country’s war-ravaged economy so that the government in Kyiv could continue to invest in its own arms industry.
Even during the last two years of war, Ukraine’s defense industry has been expanding rapidly, officials said. The sector employed 300,000 people last year, according to Ukrainian media.
In his New Year’s message, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy predicted that in 2024 Russia “will feel the wrath of domestic production.”
Key for the sector’s growth will be help from Ukraine’s allies.
At the end of last year, Ukraine said it had signed “dozens” of new contracts with Western arms companies.
That announcement followed a joint Ukraine-U.S. defense conference in Washington.
Joint ventures between Ukraine and western defense firms will typically mean that weaponry is produced inside Ukraine, with those western companies providing guidance, technology and expertise.
For security reasons a senior Ukrainian official was unable to comment on the overall scale of planned arms production under these joint ventures but said work is already “moving” and called it a top priority for the Ukrainian government to ensure the country’s sustainability in the longer-term.
Ukrainian Minister Kamyshin also announced in December “agreements with two leading American companies” to jointly produce, in Ukraine, much-needed NATO-standard 155-mm artillery shells.
Ukraine has warned its stocks of those munitions are running low.
However, in an indication of the time needed to build up some areas of its manufacturing base, production of the 155-mm artillery shells is not expected to begin for at least two years, Kamyshin said.
A report published in December by the American think tank the Institute for the Study of War said Ukraine and its partners were “executing a realistic plan to create a sustainable basis for Ukraine to be able to defend itself over the long term, with dramatically reduced foreign military assistance.”
Belbas, the boss of arms firm Ukrainian Armor noted, said Russia started building-up its military industrial base when Vladimir Putin first became president 24 years ago so. He said it will take Ukraine “years and years” to catch up with Russia.
Ukraine might struggle to match the quantity of weaponry Russia can produce, he added, but Ukraine’s strong industrial base, together with Western technology and know-how could, he hopes, give it a qualitative edge.
A Palestinian elderly woman crosses a street which has been bulldozed by the Israeli forces during a raid in Jenin in the occupied West Bank on January 29, 2024 amid ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza. (Photo by ZAIN JAAFAR/AFP via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — More than 100 days since Hamas terrorists invaded Israel on Oct. 7, the Israeli military continues its bombardment of the neighboring Gaza Strip.
The conflict, now the deadliest between the warring sides since Israel’s founding in 1948, shows no signs of letting up soon and the brief cease-fire that allowed for over 100 hostages to be freed from Gaza remains a distant memory.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Jan 30, 6:41 AM
UNRWA funding cuts threaten Palestinian lives, NGOs warn
Twenty aid organizations have joined together to express deep concern and outrage that some of the largest donors suspended funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the largest humanitarian agency in the Gaza Strip and the main provider for millions of Palestinians in the wider region.
A wave of countries, including the United States, have cut funding for UNRWA in recent days over Israel’s accusations that 13 UNRWA staff members in Gaza were involved in the Oct. 7 terror attack. UNRWA said it is investigating the allegations.
In a joint statement released Monday, 20 non-governmental organizations, including Oxfam and Save the Children, urged the donor states to reverse their suspensions and warned that not doing so could lead to “a complete collapse of the already restricted humanitarian response in Gaza.”
“We are shocked by the reckless decision to cut a lifeline for an entire population by some of the very countries that had called for aid in Gaza to be stepped up and for humanitarians to be protected while doing their job,” the NGOs said. “This decision comes as the International Court of Justice ordered immediate and effective action to ensure the provision of humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza.”
The NGOs warned: “If the funding suspensions are not reversed we may see a complete collapse of the already restricted humanitarian response in Gaza.”
“The suspension of funding by donor states will impact life-saving assistance for over two million civilians, over half of whom are children, who rely on UNRWA aid in Gaza,” they added. “The population faces starvation, looming famine and an outbreak of disease under Israel’s continued indiscriminate bombardment and deliberate deprivation of aid in Gaza.”
Jan 30, 5:35 AM
Israeli soldiers dressed in disguise kill 3 in raid at hospital in West Bank
The Palestinian Ministry of Health on Tuesday released security camera footage showing Israeli troops in disguise as they raideda hospital in the occupied West Bank overnight.
In the video, soldiers are seen dressed as doctors and patients while holding rifles and walking through the corridors of Ibn Sina Hospital in the city of Jenin. The Palestinian Ministry of Health said three people were killed during the raid, which it called a “flagrant violation of all international norms and laws.”
The Israel Defense Forces confirmed the overnight raid in a statement early Tuesday, saying its troops “neutralized” three “terrorists” who were “hiding” inside Ibn Sina Hospital, one of whom was a member of Hamas and was allegedly planning an attack “inspired by the October 7th massacre.”
“For a long time, wanted suspects have been hiding in hospitals and using them as a base for planning terrorist activities and carrying out terror attacks, while they assume that the exploitation of hospitals will serve as protection against counterterrorism activities of Israeli security forces,” the IDF said. “This is another example of the cynical use of civilian areas and hospitals as shelters and human shields by terrorist organisations.”
Jan 29, 3:29 PM
Qatari prime minister: Hostage talks in ‘much better place’ now than a few weeks ago
The Qatari prime minister said Monday that the hostage talks between Israel and Hamas are in a “much better place” now than they were “a few weeks ago,” according to Reuters.
He also said he hoped the drone attack by Iran-backed militants that killed three American service members in Jordan won’t derail progress that’s been made on a hostage deal.
“I hope that nothing would undermine the efforts that we are doing or jeopardize that process,” Qatari Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Bin Jassim Al-Thani said at a think tank event in Washington, D.C., according to Reuters. “Yet it will definitely have an impact on it and one way or another, it will have an impact on the regional security and we hope that things get contained and not to get escalated beyond control.”
Jan 29, 12:30 PM
IDF: Quarter of Hamas terrorists killed
One “quarter of Hamas’ terrorists have been killed and at least another quarter are wounded,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Monday while visiting troops at the Gaza border.
Gallant said fighting the remaining terrorists “will take months.”
“On the other hand,” he continued, “the terrorists don’t have supplies, they don’t have ammunition, they don’t have reinforcements.”
ABC News’ Dana Savir
Jan 29, 11:50 AM
Dossier from Israel alleges 4 UNRWA employees involved in kidnappings
A dossier from the Israeli military has revealed new allegations against employees of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees who are accused of being involved in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel.
The report obtained by ABC News alleges that 13 UNRWA employees participated in the Oct. 7 attack, including six employees who allegedly infiltrated Israel.
Four UNRWA employees were allegedly involved in kidnappings and one employee allegedly supplied logistical support, the report said.
One UNRWA teacher is accused of kidnapping a hostage, who has returned to Israel and identified the UNRWA teacher, the report said.
Nine countries, including the U.S., have paused funding for the UNRWA in wake of the allegations. The commissioner-general of UNRWA is investigating.
ABC News’ Matt Gutman
Jan 29, 7:00 AM
IDF general answers questions about alleged war crimes in southern Gaza
ABC News embedded with Brig. Gen. Dan Goldfus, commander of the Israel Defense Forces’ 98th Division that currently controls the southern Gaza Strip, and questioned him about alleged war crimes, the recent killing of an unarmed Palestinian carrying a white flag and the controversial buffer zone.
On Saturday, ABC News met with Goldfus in what looked like a post-apocalyptic neighborhood in Khan Younis, where machine guns chattered, detonations thundered and the blasts of tank fire rang out. Some of the explosions were so powerful that they blew in the curtains of the commandeered Palestinian home that the general and his staff have turned into a temporary headquarters.
Outside the headquarters were a series of arena-sized basins. One was about 60 feet deep and larger than a football field. A month ago, it was a multi-acre cemetery. Flanking the destroyed cemetery was the remains of a mosque — half of a dome listing on its side like a sinking ship. Goldfus told ABC News that his troops had dug up most of the cemetery looking for tunnel shafts belonging to Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that rules Gaza. The general pointed out where he said they found tunnel shafts, but ABC News could not visually verify due to the depth of the pit.
When asked what his troops do with the bodies if they dig up graves while hunting for tunnel shafts, Goldfus told ABC News: “We’ll put them aside.”
The intentional destruction of religious sites, such as cemeteries, without military necessity violates international law and could amount to war crimes. But Goldfus said he’s not concerned because Hamas had turned the cemetery and the adjacent mosque into a “military compound” that was “used to attack my forces again and again and again.”
“I’m not digging up a cemetery, I’m digging up a military compound,” he added.
When asked what he would say to the families of the people who were buried there, the general told ABC News: “I’m very sorry about it. Your relatives are being used as a human shield.”
Last week, British television network ITV captured what it said were Israeli snipers in Khan Younis gunning down an unarmed Palestinian man carrying a white flag who had moments earlier told the news team that he was trying to cross the battle lines to reach his family. At the time, Israel claimed the ITV video was edited and that there was no way of telling who fired the shots. However, while speaking to ABC News on Saturday, Goldfus appeared to take responsibility for the incident.
“Yes, it was my troops and I’m investigating that incident,” he told ABC News. “That is not the way we carry out rules of engagement. No, we don’t fire people waving white flags. We don’t fire at civilians.”
When pressed on the fact that Israeli troops have killed civilians in Gaza, the general said: “They are mistakes. It is war.”
Asked whether Israeli soldiers could face criminal charges for the fatal shooting, Goldfus told ABC News that “it depends.”
“We investigate every mistake that is done,” he added.
The general also answered questions about the buffer zone the IDF is creating inside Gaza along the coastal enclave’s border with Israel.
“This is part of the area that will become a buffer zone … to dismantle Hamas and prevent any entity that will try to carry out any terror attacks against our people,” he told ABC News while looking at a table-sized aerial map of the Gaza-Israel border.
Goldfus said the buffer zone will create an area inside Gaza that is under Israel’s control.
-ABC News’ Matt Gutman and Sohel Uddin
Jan 28, 2:24 PM
‘Constructive meeting’ with officials but ‘gaps’ remain, Israeli PM’s office says
The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office released a statement on Sunday’s talks between CIA Director Bill Burns, the prime minister of Qatar and intelligence officials from Israel and Egypt.
The meeting was “constructive” but “significant gaps” remain, the statement said, adding that more meetings are expected this coming week.
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller
Jan 28, 4:40 AM
UN chief appeals for continued UNRWA funding
The secretary-general of the United Nations appealed on Sunday for continuing funding for the U.N. aid agency responsible for Gaza.
Nine countries, including the United States, paused their funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees after Israel accused 12 of its employees of being involved in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack.
Mark Regev, an Israeli spokesman, told ABC News in a phone interview Sunday that Israel gathered intelligence about the alleged connection to terrorism through videos released by Hamas and others during the Oct. 7 attack and claimed there’s “clear unrefutable evidence that U.N. paid staff were involved in crimes against humanity.”
About 2 million people in Gaza depend on the agency for daily survival, Secretary-General António Guterres said in a statement Sunday.
According to Guterres, “Of the 12 people implicated, nine were immediately identified and terminated by the Commissioner-General of UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini; one is confirmed dead, and the identity of the two others is being clarified.”
“The abhorrent alleged acts of these staff members must have consequences,” he said in the statement.
He added, “But the tens of thousands of men and women who work for UNRWA, many in some of the most dangerous situations for humanitarian workers, should not be penalized. The dire needs of the desperate populations they serve must be met.”
-ABC News’ Matt Gutman, Edward Szekeres and Kevin Shalvey
Jan 27, 5:13 PM
9 nations suspend contributions to UNRWA due to Oct. 7 allegations
The number of nations pausing funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East has risen to 9 — an unprecedented number for a UN agency. This withdrawal of funding comes amid allegations from Israeli officials that some of the agency’s staff were involved in the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks.
On Saturday, Britain, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Finland joined the U.S., Australia and Canada in pausing funding to UNRWA.
“UNRWA lifesaving assistance is about to end following countries decisions to cut their funding to the Agency. Our humanitarian operation, on which 2 million people depend as a lifeline in Gaza, is collapsing. I am shocked such decisions are taken based on alleged behavior of a few individuals and as the war continues, needs are deepening & famine looms,” the commissioner general of UNRWA said in a statement.
“Palestinians in Gaza did not need this additional collective punishment. This stains all of us,” the statement said.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro delivers a speech during a meeting celebrating International Youth Day at Miraflores Presidential Palace in Caracas, on Feb. 12, 2023. (FEDERICO PARRA/AFP via Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — A little over three months after the Biden administration lifted most economic sanctions on Venezuela, they are reimposing some of them — warning the regime of Nicolas Maduro that if he does not lift a ban on opposition candidates, they will reimpose the rest.
A National Security Council spokesperson confirmed Monday night that the Treasury Department has ended a waiver that authorized transactions with Venezuela’s state-owned gold mining company, effective two weeks from now. They warn that the waiver for Venezuela’s oil and gas sectors — the strongest U.S. penalties — will end in April “unless the Maduro [government] and his representatives in Venezuela are able to get back on track with allowing all presidential candidates to run.”
“We have made clear that all who want to run for President should be allowed the opportunity, and are entitled to a level electoral playing field, to freedom of movement, and to assurances for their physical safety. It is up to Maduro and his representatives to correct course,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
Last week, Venezuela’s top court upheld a ban on Maria Corina Machado, the conservative opposition figure who is supposed to face off against Maduro in presidential elections later this year. That’s a clear violation of the agreement reached in October between the Maduro government and the opposition — a deal the U.S. backed by granting Maduro sanctions relief, until Monday’s reimposition.
But Maduro’s team had been violating parts of that deal for months now, and the pressure had been growing on President Joe Biden to do something in response — with even a group of Democratic senators writing a letter to the administration Monday calling for sanctions to be reimposed.
Critics, especially Republican lawmakers, have claimed the Biden administration — desperate for Maduro’s cooperation on migration or energy — had not done enough to impose costs on the Venezuelan leader for flagrantly violating the October deal.
(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. Department of State has issued a new warning for American travelers headed to the Bahamas due to violent crime that has impacted the local population.
The advisory, issued on Jan. 26, urged travelers to “exercise increased caution” should they decide to visit the Caribbean country.
What to know about US travel advisory for the Bahamas
According to the State Department, the majority of crime — which includes burglaries, armed robberies and sexual assaults — has occurred on the island of New Providence, home of the Bahamian capital of Nassau, and on the island of Grand Bahama.
“In Nassau, practice increased vigilance in the ‘Over the Hill’ area (south of Shirley Street) where gang-on-gang violence has resulted in a high homicide rate primarily affecting the local population,” the government alert states.
Violent crime has been happening “in both tourist and non-tourist areas,” according to the alert, so the State Department is urging travelers to “be vigilant when staying at short-term vacation rental properties where private security companies do not have a presence.”
The State Department also suggested that U.S. travelers steer clear of activities like boat tours with commercial recreational watercraft because they are “not consistently regulated.”
“Watercraft may be poorly maintained, and some operators may not have safety certifications. Always review and heed local weather and marine alerts before engaging in water-based activities,” according to the State Department. “Commercial watercraft operators have discretion to operate their vessels regardless of weather forecasts; injuries and fatalities have occurred. Due to these safety concerns, U.S. government personnel are not permitted to use independently operated jet-ski rentals on New Providence and Paradise Islands.”
Click here for additional travel information on the country information page.
The U.S. Embassy in the Bahamas also issued a security alert on Wednesday, advising “U.S. citizens to be aware that 18 murders have occurred in Nassau since the beginning of 2024.”
“Murders have occurred at all hours including in broad daylight on the streets,” the statement declared. “Retaliatory gang violence has been the primary motive in 2024 murders.”
Safety tips for travel to the Bahamas
If you do decide to travel to the Bahamas, the State Department shared a checklist of dos and don’ts to help Americans stay safe.
Do not answer your door at your hotel/residence unless you know who it is.
Do not physically resist any robbery attempt.
Enroll in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP) to receive Alerts and make it easier to locate you in an emergency.
Follow the Department of State on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Review the Country Security Report for the Bahamas.
Prepare a contingency plan for emergency and medical situations. Review the Traveler’s Checklist.
Visit the CDC page for the latest Travel Health Information related to your travel.
The embassy in Nassau also issued its own list of safety precautions for U.S. travelers.
Exercise extreme caution in the eastern part of New Providence Island (Nassau).
(NEW YORK) — At least four people are dead after a boat carrying over a dozen tourists sank in the waters off the coast of Cancun.
The boat, which was traveling from Isla Mujeres to Puerto Juárez, caught a strong sea swell and the vessel began to sink as it took on water, ABC News has learned from officials close to the investigation.
The boat was carrying 16 tourists and three crew members at the time of the accident, authorities said.
At least four people have been confirmed dead — two adult males, one adult female and one minor — while seven people are still missing. Authorities have not yet released any of the passenger’s identities while the rescue operation is still underway.
Eight people have been rescued so far but their conditions, as well as the nationalities of the passengers involved, are currently unknown.
(WASHINGTON) — The working theory about how an enemy drone slipped past defenses at a U.S. base in Jordan is that American personnel mistook the enemy drone for one of their own returning from a surveillance mission, two U.S. officials confirmed Monday.
One U.S. official confirmed that the explosive-laden attack drone approached the base at a low altitude and hit a housing area at the remote Tower 22 base in the Jordanian desert near the border with Syria and Iraq.
The attack on Sunday by Iran-backed militants killed three American service members and wounded at least 40 others, U.S. officials said, with President Joe Biden warning that the strike will be met with American retaliation as Iran denied involvement.
The Pentagon on Monday announced the names of the three Army reservists killed as Sgt. William Jerome Rivers, 46, of Carrollton, Georgia.; Spc. Kennedy Ladon Sanders, 24, of Waycross, Georgia.; and Spc. Breonna Alexsondria Moffett, 23, of Savannah, Georgia., all from an Army Reserve engineering unit from Georgia.
At a Monday briefing, while Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh couldn’t say where the one-way attack drone came from, she said it had the “footprint of Kataib Hezbollah” and that U.S. officials believe Iran is behind the attack.
The drone hit early in the morning while many troops were still in bed, she added.
“Iran continues to arm and equip these groups to launch these attacks, and we will certainly hold them responsible,” she said, adding, “We don’t seek a wider conflict with Iran. We don’t want to go to we don’t want a war with Iran.”
The deaths are expected to spur more U.S. involvement in the region since they mark the first in the line of fire for American troops since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in October in response to Hamas’ terror attack.
The U.S. has supported Israel against Hamas in Gaza while trying to prevent the fighting from enveloping the broader Middle East, even as the U.S. has said Iran-supported militants carried out a series of strikes in Iraq, Syria and Yemen in opposition to Israel’s campaign.
But Pentagon officials have also said that the deaths of American service members would elicit a strong response — though such a step could draw the U.S. and other regional and international powers further into a mushrooming conflict.
“Have no doubt — we will hold all those responsible to account at a time and in a manner our choosing,” Biden said in a statement Sunday.
Later, during an event in South Carolina, Biden held a moment of silence for the dead and said, “We shall respond.”
In response to the strikes, a spokesperson for the Iranian Mission for the U.N. said late Sunday, “Iran has nothing to do with the attacks in questions. The conflict has been initiated by the United States military against resistance groups in Iraq and Syria; and such operations are reciprocal between them.”
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin lamented the attack in his own statement, promising that “the president and I will not tolerate attacks on American forces, and we will take all necessary actions to defend the United States, our troops, and our interests.”
CENTCOM initially said 25 troops were injured in the attack by a one-way drone, also known as a “suicide” drone. The number of injured later increased to at least 40, officials said. and then to at least 34. At least eight were evacuated for high-level treatment.
Some of the injured service members received serious wounds from shrapnel and some were being screened for traumatic brain injuries, an official with the White House National Security Council said.
Biden was briefed multiple times in the hours after the strike and said in his statement on Sunday that the U.S. was “still gathering the facts” surrounding the “wholly unjust attack,” which he said occurred Saturday night.
The White House clarified that the attack occurred early Sunday in Jordan, or late Saturday Eastern time.
The president in his statement on Sunday hailed the killed service members for being “unwavering in their bravery. Unflinching in their duty. Unbending in their commitment to our country.”
Located in the northeastern region of Jordan, the Tower 22 is a small outpost that supports operations across the border at the U.S. base at al-Tanf in Syria and contributes to the Pentagon’s advise-and-assist mission for the Jordanian military.
Iran-backed militias have in recent months carried out more than a hundred attacks in the region, primarily on U.S. troops stationed in Iraq and Syria but also on American ships and international commercial vessels in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
The strikes have wounded scores of American troops, including one who sustained a serious injury on Christmas Day in an attack on the Erbil air base in Iraq.
Two Navy SEALS were also presumed dead after they were lost at sea during a mission that successfully intercepted a vessel carrying Iranian-made missile parts destined for Yemen.
U.S. forces began conducting targeted, retaliatory strikes on fighters in the Middle East in October, which the Pentagon has consistently described as defensive measures intended to degrade the militias’ proficiency and deter them from escalating.
After months of attacks primarily targeting commercial vessels in the waters surrounding Yemen, the U.S. also launched a number of strikes against the country’s Houthi rebels in January.
U.S. officials initially expressed hope that carrying out operations in the two theaters would diminish the belligerent groups’ capabilities for further conflict, but the tit-for-tat exchanges with militants in Syria, Iraq and Yemen have instead steadily escalated.
That protracted pattern has fueled questions about the broader military strategy.
“What do they [critics of the current approach] want? A broader conflict? Do you want us in a full-scale war?” Gen. CQ Brown Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in a recent interview with ABC News Chief Global Affairs Correspondent Martha Raddatz.
Some lawmakers have also criticized the White House for not first seeking authorization from Congress for the Yemen strikes, though the administration maintains it acted under existing legal authority to carry out such operations.
In the hours after the Jordan strike was confirmed, a growing number of members of Congress spoke out. Many of them offered condolences to the slain and wounded service members, and Republicans argued that the Biden administration had failed to adequately address Iran.
“We need a major reset of our Middle East policy to protect our national security interests and restore deterrence,” House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul said in a statement as House Speaker Mike Johnson called for “a crystal clear message across the globe that attacks on our troops will not be tolerated.”
In the interview taped last week with “This Week” co-anchor Martha Raddatz, Gen. Brown was asked if Americans being killed in the Middle East would impact his decision making.
He said the military was doing “everything we can to protect our forces” and noted the U.S. does not want “broader conflict” in the region — and that he doesn’t believe Iran wants war with the U.S., either.
“We don’t want to go down a path of greater escalation that drives to a much broader conflict within the region,” Brown said.
Before the start of the Israeli-Hamas war, U.S. forces in the Middle East experienced a two-year period of relative calm.
The last major attack to result in multiple American service members killed in action was the bombing outside of the Kabul, Afghanistan, airport in August 2021, which claimed the lives of 13 U.S. troops and more than 180 Afghan citizens.
ABC News’ Will Gretsky, Mariam Khan, Meghan Mistry, Lauren Peller, Martha Raddatz, Fritz Farrow and MaryAlice Parks contributed to this report.
Editor’s note: This developing story has been updated.
