Israel war on Gaza live: Norway increases UNRWA funding

Norway will increase its funding of UNRWA and is sounding the alarm on the PA’s struggles in the occupied West Bank.
The Israeli army is setting up a division of retirement-age reservists due to “urgent need”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The Palestine Red Crescent Society is working with the Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committee and the Gaza-based Atfaluna Society for Deaf Children to build a shelter in Deir el-Balah to accommodate people with disabilities.

At the beginning of the war, there were approximately 50,000 people with disabilities in Gaza.

Limited mobility and other impairments have put these individuals at greater risk during the war. And most shelters, already overcrowded and underequipped, do not have the resources to provide for their special medical needs.

The Government Media Office in Gaza has announced Israel’s killing of Mahmoud Qassem, a Palestinian journalist working with digital publication Palestine Online.

It did not elaborate on the location and the date of the killing.

His death brought the number of journalists killed during Israel’s war on Gaza to 151, it said in a Telegram post.

About 36 percent of the weapons export deals in 2023 were related to air defence systems, according to an annual report by Israel’s Defence Exports Department of the Defence Ministry.

This is compared to19 percent the year before, according to Haaretz.

Other significant exports were radar and electronic warfare systems (11 percent), fire and launch equipment (11 percent), drones and avionics (9 percent) and ammunition and armaments (8 percent), the report said.

It also said that in the last five years, the scope of Israel’s defence exports has doubled and it has broken its export record for three years in a row.

In 2023, nearly half of defence exports (48 percent) were destined for countries in Asia and the Pacific, 35 percent were for Europe, 9 percent for North America, 4 percent for Latin America, 3 percent for the countries that are part of the Abraham Accords and 1 percent for countries in Africa, the report said.

Philippe Lazzarini, the UNRWA chief, has said “operationally nothing has changed” in southern Gaza, where Israel’s military said it would observe daily pauses in fighting along a key aid corridor.

The military had said it would implement “pauses” during daylight hours from the Karem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) land crossing to the Salah a-Din highway, a main north-south road.

However, Prime Minister Netanyahu appeared taken aback by the military plans, announced yesterday, calling them “unacceptable”.

Click here to share on social media
1h ago (11:10 GMT)
Norway to increase contributions to UNRWA by 36 percent, warns of PA’s lack of funding
Norway’s international development minister, Anne Beathe Tvinnereim, has said her country will increase its current 275 million kroner (about $25m) budget to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) by another 100 million kroner (about $9M).

Also speaking today, Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide told the Reuters news agency that the Palestinian Authority could collapse in the coming months, due to a lack of funding, continuing violence in the occupied West Bank and the fact that half a million Palestinians are not allowed to work in Israel.

“The Palestinian Authority, with whom we work closely, are warning us that they might be collapsing this summer,” Barth Eide told Reuters.

Norway chairs the international donor group to the Palestinians and is a backer of the PA.

Al Jazeera is reporting from outside of Israel because it has been banned by the Israeli government.

Amos Hochstein is US President Biden’s special adviser on the Middle East. He’s arriving [to Israel today], the White House says, to avoid further escalation along the Blue Line between Israel and Lebanon.

He arrives because of a real increase in the exchanges of fire across the border. It’s been quieter in the last 48 hours, but before that, there’d been a step-up.

In Israel, this has been a very live political issue since October. There’s been some 60,000 people – from 28 towns and villages – evacuated from the border area. The Israelis who live there want to go home. The government wants them to go home. They want to be there ideally before the start of the school year on September 1. mnc mnc mnc mnc mnc mnc mnc mnc mnc mnc mnc mnc mnc mnc mnc mnc mnc mnc mnc mnc mnc mnc mnc mnc mnc mnc mnc mnc mnc mnc mnc mnc mnc mnc mnc mnc mnc mnc mnc mnc mnc mnc mnc mnc mnc mnc mnc mnc mnc mnc mnc mnc mnc mnc mnc mnc mnc mnc mnc mnc mnc mnc mnc mnc mnc mnc mnc mnc mnc mnc mnc mnc mnc mnc mnc mnc mnc mnc mnc mnc mnc mnc mnc mnc mnc

The post Israel war on Gaza live: Norway increases UNRWA funding appeared first on The Muslim News.