From Le Figaro with AFP
Published 2 hours ago, updated 27 minutes ago
UNRWA workers distribute food to residents of the Gaza Strip on December 12. MOHAMMED ABED / AFP
UPDATE ON THE SITUATION – According to Hamas, 174 people were killed in the last 24 hours.
Fighting between the Israeli army and the Islamist movement Hamas continues in Gaza. This Saturday, January 27th, Le Figaro takes stock of the situation.
New death toll
This Saturday, the Hamas Ministry of Health announced that 26,257 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement, most of them women, teenagers and children.
According to Hamas, which is in power in Gaza, 174 people were killed and 64,797 injured in the last 24 hours.
Deadly fighting continues in Palestinian territory
Khan Younes, the largest city in the southern Gaza Strip, seen by Israel as a Hamas stronghold, is now at the center of the war. The fighting is raging primarily around the city's two largest hospitals, which are working slowly and are accommodating the sick and thousands of displaced people.
A few kilometers further south in Rafah, tens of thousands of civilians are crowded into a small space on the closed border with Egypt. Heavy rains flooded tent camps overnight, worsening the plight of displaced people who trampled in the muddy water. “Heavy rains are flooding thousands of displaced people in Rafah, Khan Younes,” as well as Nouseirat, Deir el-Balah and Gaza City further north, Civil Defense spokesman Mahmoud Bassal said.
Future of UN agency in Gaza seriously threatened
This Saturday, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said he wanted the UN Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) to no longer play a role in Gaza. According to Israel, some of its employees were actually involved in the October 7 Hamas attack.
The government wants to “ensure that UNRWA will not be part” of the solution in the Palestinian territory after the war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement, the head of Israeli diplomacy said in a press release, and hopes to “stop all activities of the agency.” . On Friday, Philippe Lazzarini, head of Unrwa, announced that he had parted ways with several employees and had “initiated an investigation so that the truth emerges without delay.”
Australia, Canada, the United States and Italy have currently suspended their funding of UNRWA.