A Palestinian woman walks past a damaged wall with the logo of the UN Relief and Works Agency at a camp for internally displaced people in Rafah, southern Gaza, May 28, 2024 (Eyad Baba/AFP)
EA on The Focus VideoCast: Israel, Iran, and War in the Middle East
Waging a battle against the UN amid “open-ended” wars in Gaza and Lebanon, Israel has cut off the organization’s humanitarian assistance to Palestinians.
The Israeli Knesset voted on Monday to ban the UN Relief and Works Agency, which assists displaced and deprived Palestinians. The measure affects Gaza, where more than 1.9 million of 2.3 million residents have been forced from their homes; the occupied West Bank; and southern Lebanon, where Israel is pursuing airstrikes and a ground invasion.
I joined Anton Savage on Dublin NewsTalk on Tuesday to discuss the politics, the military situation, and the likelihood that the humanitarian crisis will continue indefinitely.
The Israeli Government’s policy is to make token concessions on humanitarian issues while maintaining a chokehold on Gaza.
At the same time, it goes after the UN and its ability to operate in these areas. You push the UN back on the aid front as you push it back on the security front, bottling up UN peacekeepers in Lebanon.
