‘Intolerable’, ‘dangerous precedent’: World condemns Israel’s UNRWA ban The new Israeli laws will prevent UNRWA from providing life-saving support to Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank. Israeli soldiers operate next to the UNRWA headquarters in the Gaza Strip, in February 2024 [File: Dylan Martinez/Reuters] By Al Jazeera Staff 29 Oct 2024 The United Nations and countries across the globe have denounced Israel after its parliament passed two laws that brands the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) a “terror” group and bans the humanitarian organisation from operating on Israeli soil. The legislation, approved on Monday, would – if implemented – prevent UNRWA from providing life-saving support to Palestinians across Israeli-occupied Gaza and the West Bank. UNRWA was created by the UN General Assembly in 1949 to support Palestinian refugees expelled from their homes during the creation of Israel and it remains the main organisation providing humanitarian services in Gaza, and supports millions of Palestinians refugees in the occupied West Bank, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria. Here’s a round-up of the global reaction to Israel’s move: Palestine The Palestinian presidency rejected and condemned the Israeli legislation. “We will not allow this. The overwhelming vote of the Knesset reflects Israel’s transformation into a fascist state,” said Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesman for the presidency in Ramallah. Hamas also denounced the move saying it considers the bill a “part of the Zionist war and aggression against our people”, while the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) called it “an escalation in the genocide” against Palestinians. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called UNRWA’s work “indispensable” and said there is “no alternative” to the agency. “The implementation of the laws could have devastating consequences for Palestine refugees in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, which is unacceptable,” he said, urging Israel to “act consistently with its obligations under the Charter of the United Nations and its other obligations under international law”. UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini, meanwhile, said the Knesset move set a “dangerous precedent” as it “opposes the UN Charter and violates the State of Israel’s obligations under international law”. “These bills will only deepen the suffering of Palestinians, especially in #Gaza where people have been going through more than a year of sheer hell,” he wrote on X. China Fu Cong, the Chinese envoy to the UN, called the Israeli move “outrageous”. “We are firmly opposed to this decision. As I said, this is an outrageous decision and we do believe that UNRWA has played a key role in maintaining a lifeline for the Palestinian people in Gaza,” he told reporters in New York. Russia Vasily Nebenzia, Russia’s UN ambassador, described Israel’s UNRWA ban as “terrible” and said it worsens the situation in Gaza. He also called on Israel’s main ally, the United States, to “pay their dues to UNRWA to demonstrate their commitment to the agency”. The US had withdrawn funding from UNRWA after Israel accused some of the agency’s staff of taking part in Hamas’s October 7 attacks on southern Israel – a move by the US that critics have labelled disproportionate. United Kingdom British Prime Minister Keir Starmer expressed grave concern and said the Israeli legislation “risks making UNRWA’s essential work for Palestinians impossible”. He described the humanitarian situation in Gaza as “simply unacceptable” and said Israel must ensure sufficient aid reaches civilians in the enclave. “Only UNRWA can deliver humanitarian aid at the scale and pace needed,” he said. Jordan Jordan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs “strongly condemned” the Israeli move, describing it as a “flagrant violation of international law and the obligations of Israel as the occupying power” in Palestine. He warned that the Israeli campaign “aimed at assassinating UNRWA politically” would have “catastrophic consequences”. Ireland, Norway, Slovenia and Spain The governments of the four European countries – all of which have recognised Palestinian statehood – issued a joint statement condemning the Knesset’s targeting of the agency. “UNRWA has a mandate from the United Nations General Assembly,” the statement noted. “The legislation approved by the Knesset sets a very serious precedent for the work of the United Nations and for all organizations of the multilateral system.” Australia Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said UNRWA does life-saving work and her government opposes the Israeli Knesset’s decision to “severely restrict” the agency’s operations. “Australia again calls on Israel to comply with the binding orders of the [International Court of Justice] to enable the provision of basic services and humanitarian assistance at scale in Gaza,” she wrote on X. Belgium Belgian Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib urged Israeli authorities to let UNRWA carry out its UN General Assembly-ordered mandate across the Middle East. Lahbib said the agency provided “life-saving services in Gaza, the West Bank – including East Jerusalem – and across Lebanon, Syria and Jordan”. “UNRWA is crucial to regional stability,” she wrote on X. Switzerland The Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a post on X that it is “concerned about the humanitarian, political and legal implications” of the Israeli laws banning cooperation with UNRWA. World Health Organization WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said UNRWA has been an “irreplaceable lifeline” for the Palestinian people for the past seven decades. “UNRWA was created by the UN member states. Today’s decision by the Israeli parliament barring UNRWA from its life-saving and health-protecting work on behalf of millions of Palestinians will have devastating consequences,” he said in a post on X. “This is intolerable. It contravenes Israel’s obligations and responsibilities, and threatens the lives and health of all those who depend on UNRWA.” Source: Al Jazeera
South Africa’s legal team says ‘intent is clear’ in Israel’s Gaza genocide Lawyers submit hundreds of pages of evidence to meet Monday ICJ deadline to prove, on paper, that Israel is guilty of genocide in Gaza. Outside the International Court of Justice, a protester draped in a Palestinian flag calls for an end to Israel's war on Gaza [File: Johanna Geron/Reuters] By Qaanitah Hunter 28 Oct 2024 Johannesburg, South Africa – While South African legal researchers were in an undisclosed location last week, racing against time to finalise hundreds of pages of evidence proving Israel’s intent to commit genocide in Gaza, in Israel, leaders gathering near the Gaza border were calling for the besieged and bombarded Strip to be emptied of Palestinians. During the “preparing to settle Gaza” conference, held at a restricted military zone in Be’eri last Monday, Israeli Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir was recorded calling for the “migration” of Gaza’s current inhabitants, and the possibility of future Israeli settlement expansion there – something considered illegal under international law. “[We will] tell them, ‘we are giving you the chance, leave from here to other countries’,” Ben-Gvir said, while Israeli forces continued their more than yearlong bombardment of Gaza. “The Land of Israel is ours.” South African diplomats assert that statements like these offer undeniable evidence of Israel’s genocidal intent – something they must prove before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in an ongoing case. Monday (October 28) is the deadline for South Africa to submit a detailed memorial against Israel to the ICJ, lawyers and diplomats told Al Jazeera. Its legal submission aims to definitively establish that Israel’s military actions in Gaza amount to genocide. Despite new evidence emerging daily, senior South African officials instructed the legal team to stick to what they had already collected to meet the approaching deadline. The legal team is however confident that the hundreds of pages of evidence are more than enough to sustain their case. “The problem we have is that we have too much evidence,” Ambassador Vusimuzi Madonsela, South Africa’s representative to The Hague, explained to Al Jazeera. Zane Dangor, the director-general of South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation, said: “The legal team will always say we need more time, there’s more facts coming. But we have to say you have to stop now. You [have] got to focus on what you have.” The more than 500-page South African legal submission aims to expose a pattern of mass casualties in Gaza, where almost 43,000 Palestinians have been killed since October 2023, which South African officials argue exceeds any proportional military response to Hamas’s attacks on October 7 last year. Director-General of South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation Zane Dangor and South African Ambassador to the Netherlands Vusimuzi Madonsela at the ICJ [File: Yves Herman/Reuters] South Africa has maintained since its interim application in December last year that Israel’s intent goes beyond military objectives, aiming instead at the wholesale depopulation of Gaza through extreme violence and forced displacement. In its initial application, South Africa submitted 84 pages pleading with the court to find Israel guilty of suspected genocide and order it to, among other things, halt its invasion in Gaza. During oral arguments in The Hague, the South African legal team relied on statements made by Israeli politicians at the time, video clips of the destruction in Gaza and maps that showed how Palestinian land had been encroached on. ‘Unprovable’? The ICJ set firm its Monday deadline for South Africa to prove, on paper, that Israel is guilty of genocide. However, this is a feat described by international law experts as “nearly unprovable”. Professor of international law at the University of Cape Town, Cathleen Powell, said South Africa’s challenge is to prove genocidal intent on behalf of the state of Israel and to show a link between comments made by officials and the programmatic nature of the destruction of Gaza. “If they can find genocidal statements from state officials and show that that directly led to a particular programme that led to destruction on the ground, then that’s probably a very strong case, but it is a very difficult link to prove.” She said there was no doubt war crimes were being committed in Gaza, but invoking the genocide convention meant that South Africa had to prove that the state was responsible. “It is difficult to attribute the intent of officials to the state. You have to find something different on behalf of the state [of Israel] to show genocidal intent,” Powell explained. Legal insiders said if South Africa fails to prove dolus specialis – the specific intent to destroy a group, either in whole or in part – its case would fall flat. A Palestinian man walks past the rubble after Israeli strikes in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip [File: Stringer/Reuters] South Africa’s Dangor said his country’s case was rock solid. “It’s a textbook case of genocide,” Dangor said, adding that the “intent is clear”. “Genocidal acts without intent can be crimes against humanity. But here, the intent is just front and centre. “You are seeing statements from leaders, but also ordinary Israelis saying ‘kill all Gazans, even the babies’,” he said. ‘Working flat out’ Working within tight deadlines, South Africa assembled an elite team of legal minds, including three top senior counsels from South Africa, an international law professor, a British barrister, and numerous junior counsel and researchers. Close to 100 people have been working on different parts of the case for the last nine months, insiders detailed. While top government officials provided oversight, teams worked separately in drafting the document, which has been marked “Top Secret” until it is filed before the court. “We have been working flat out to put together the submission,” Ambassador Madonsela noted. Tasked with project management, a respected Johannesburg law firm handled the intricate logistical elements, chapter by chapter, including translations and citation verification. Junior counsel concentrated on drawing a clear link between Israeli officials’ rhetoric and the military actions in Gaza, while senior lawyers crafted the case’s legal arguments to show a systematic campaign. They had to condense thousands of pages of evidence of “unthinkable brutality” into thematic legal arguments, Dangor explained. ICJ judges during a hearing on South Africa’s case against Israel in May 2024 [File: Yves Herman/Reuters] Over nine months, legal researchers were instructed not only to list examples of Israel’s terrible killings and destruction in Gaza but to focus the evidence on what would clearly depict what South Africa argues is “Israel’s ultimate objective” to obliterate Gaza and force out the Palestinians living there. In the hundreds of pages due to be submitted, South Africa listed a litany of examples where Israeli politicians and senior government officials spoke about “wiping out Gaza” and “forcing Palestinians out”. South Africa interprets these statements as clearly articulating genocidal intent. For instance, remarks by Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant in November 2023, in which he referenced plans for Gaza while alluding to possible actions against Lebanon, are positioned as evidence of a broader Israeli agenda. “I am saying here to the citizens of Lebanon, I already see the citizens in Gaza walking with white flags along the coast … If Hezbollah makes mistakes of this kind, the ones who will pay the price are, first of all, the citizens of Lebanon. What we are doing in Gaza, we know how to do in Beirut,” Gallant said at the time. While the minister’s comments were cited as examples of genocidal intent, the legal team opted not to argue that Israel’s now invasion of Lebanon was further proof that “it was Israel’s intention all along”. “That will come in oral hearings,” Dangor said when asked about it. Israeli leaders, including Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, right, have made statements that South Africa argues shows genocidal intent [File: Abir Sultan/Reuters] High-stakes case Dangor explained that the case has become a landmark in international law for several reasons. First, it is unprecedented that genocide allegations are being presented to an international tribunal while the atrocities continue to unfold – rather than retrospectively, as seen in cases like the Srebrenica or Rwanda genocides. Secondly, the case benefits from the real-time documentation of alleged genocidal acts, which captures intent and execution with immediate clarity. Dangor said this is markedly different from historical cases where evidence emerged much later and in fragments. Additionally, he emphasised that South Africa’s case uniquely implicates a Western-backed state. This factor raises the stakes considerably and challenges longstanding assumptions in international legal responses to genocide. According to Dangor, genocidal acts without intent may fall under crimes against humanity, but in this case, the intent is unambiguously prominent. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa expressed confidence in the submission, stating before Parliament in August that he believed the case was solid and was hopeful about its outcome. “We are confident that we have a strong case to prove that genocide is happening in Palestine,” he said at the time. Once submitted, Israel has until July 2025 to submit its counter-arguments. After that, oral hearings at the ICJ are anticipated in 2026 – which means the legal process may extend for years. If accepted, the case would mark a historic first, as no state has successfully prosecuted another for genocide under the Genocide Convention of 1948. Pro-Palestinian protesters gather near the ICJ, calling for Israel’s war on Gaza to end [File: Thilo Schmuelgen/Reuters] The potential verdict could resonate far beyond Israel and Palestine, setting a new standard in how international law addresses state-sanctioned violence, experts say. “What we have been saying is that genocide is a crime of crimes,” said Chrispin Phiri, a spokesperson for South Africa’s Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Ronald Lamola. Head of the International Association of Genocide Scholars, Melani O’Brien, said South Africa’s submission was the start of an “important and lengthy” process. “It’s part of the process of the prevention of genocide. It serves as a deterrent,” she said of the case, which is one of the four currently before the ICJ invoking the genocide convention. O’Brien said while a guilty verdict may not stop Israel, it would pressure other countries to reconsider their relationship with it. Dangor acknowledged that a guilty verdict might not change Israel’s actions but could force an arms embargo. “With this level of depravity, wilful killing and immunity, where Israel says, ‘We will commit genocide and get away with it, how dare you call it a genocide’, we are duty-bound to stop it,” he said. “We don’t have the ability to stop it with military means or economic sanctions. We are hoping that the actions we take can lead to others having to take action. This is because the legal consequences that emerge from a finding of genocide mean that third-party states can no longer find excuses to provide arms [to Israel].” Speaking at the BRICS summit in Russia last week, Ramaphosa told world leaders that alongside its legal action at the ICJ, South Africa remained “unwavering” in its support of the establishment of a Palestinian state. “We do believe the world cannot stand by and watch the slaughtering of innocent people continuing,” the president said. Source: Al Jazeera
At least 93 killed and missing in Israeli strike on Gaza, health ministry says 32 minutes ago Gabriela Pomeroy BBC News Reuters At least 93 people are dead or missing after an Israeli air strike on the town of Beit Lahia in northern Gaza, the Hamas-run health ministry says. Rescuers said a five-storey residential building was hit, and videos on social media showed bodies covered in blankets on the floor. There has been no immediate comment on the strike from Israel's military, which began a new offensive in the area earlier this month after saying Hamas was regrouping there. The director of the nearby Kamal Adwan hospital in Jabalia, Hussam Abu Safia, told the AFP news agency that children were being treated at the hospital, which was struggling to treat patients due to a lack of staff and medicines. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have been operating in northern Gaza during the past two weeks, particularly in the areas of Jabalia, Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun. Israel says it is trying to prevent Hamas fighters from regrouping and accuses them of embedding among the civilian population, which Hamas denies. In a statement on Tuesday, it said it killed 40 “terrorists” in Jabalia, and in central Gaza it said it “eliminated many terrorists" over the past 24 hours including some who "attempted to plant explosives near the troops". The northern Gaza Strip faces a deepening humanitarian crisis, with hundreds of thousands of people living in desperate conditions. UN human rights chief Volker Türk said on Friday that "the Israeli military is subjecting an entire population to bombing, siege and risk of starvation". He also said it was unacceptable that Palestinian armed groups were reportedly operating among civilians, including inside shelters for the displaced, and putting them in harm’s way. On Monday, Israel's parliament voted through legislation to ban the UN's Palestinian refugee agency, Unrwa, from operating in the country, sparking warnings the delivery of aid to Gaza could be severely impacted.. Israel launched a campaign to destroy Hamas in response to the group's unprecedented attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage. More than 42,924 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and fighters in its figures. Israel is not allowing international journalists from media organisations, including the BBC, independent access to Gaza, making it hard to verify facts on the ground.
I agree that Israel's ban of UNRWA is not a wise decision. Israel needed to pressure the U.N. with other nations to completely defund & disband UNRWA but the organization needed to be replaced with some other entity responsible for distributing aid to make this happen. The best option would be to use an existing private organization such as the Red Crescent. Until a transfer to responsibilities to provide aid are put in place UNRWA still needed to be active. I can understand Israel's dismay that hundreds of UNRWA workers are actually terrorists but there was a better way of going about this than simply banning UNRWA within Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank -- shutting down their offices and not allowing cooperation with them. Here is some more information on the situation from the BBC. Gaza aid fears as Israel bans UN Palestinian refugee agency https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gp2ejzpxeo
Israel has made great strides in eliminating the Hamas militants in northern Gaza. Something that very much needed to be done. 'Complete surprise': IDF surrounds remaining terrorists in north Gaza, 600 surrender The remaining terrorists in the northern Gaza Strip had gathered in Jabalya, prompting the military to encircle the area. https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-826573 The IDF's military operation in Jabalya in the northern Gaza Strip came as a surprise to the terrorists in the area, the military said on Monday. “The surprise for Hamas was complete. We trapped hundreds of terrorists inside the camp, including senior operatives," the IDF said, adding that the terror group had used the population as human shields for over a week and had shot at the legs of residents who attempted to escape. According to the IDF, the remaining terrorists in the northern Gaza Strip had gathered in Jabalya, prompting the military to encircle the area, evacuate the civilian population, isolate the terrorists, and prevent them from escaping. Within hours, in a single night, the army surrounded the area. Three brigades surrounded the camp: the 460th, Givati, and the 401st. The 460th Brigade, which reached schools and shelters, reported that this approach allowed them to evacuate five thousand residents. By the following day, twenty thousand more had left, and forces said that the residents' "fear barrier was broken." The IDF stated that fifty thousand residents have left. Approximately 600 terrorists surrendered in total, while hundreds of others were eliminated in the refugee camp. The Kamal Adwan Hospital, the last location from which Hamas was able to operate in Jabalya, was encircled by the 460th Brigade. This prevented Hamas from regrouping before the encirclement was completed. Some 60 terrorists surrendered in one instance, and 20 others were eliminated while attempting to flee the hospital. Troops from Shayetet 13 entered the hospital and captured an additional 60 terrorists who were hiding in the hospital wards and were using patients as human shields. At least one detainee posed as a staff member and was found to have participated in the October 7 massacre. The decision to operate in the hospital came as a result of intelligence, which showed that the hospital served as a Hamas command center, housing dozens of terrorists. The IDF estimated that only a few hundred terrorists remain in the center of the refugee camp. Currently, the IDF is closing in on the center of the camp, but the military said that, despite the fighting in the camp not being fully completed, "the story of Jabalya is no longer what it was just a few days ago." 'On the verge of breaking' According to the IDF, Hamas's tactics in Jabalya include an increase in the use of explosives and guerrilla warfare. “These are not the battalions and companies we saw at the beginning of the fighting a year ago. They are on the verge of breaking. Their combat capability is significantly lower. In the first round, we didn’t see 600 terrorists surrendering," the IDF said. However, the full encirclement of the area is what trapped the terrorists, preventing them from escaping as they had in the past. On Tuesday, the military said ground troops of the 162nd Division had eliminated dozens of terrorists in Jabalya and destroyed terror infrastructure.
Israeli strike kills dozens in north Gaza residental block, US calls incident 'horrifying' Palestinians gather at the site of Israeli strikes on houses and residential buildings, amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict, in Beit Lahiya, in the northern Gaza Strip, Oct 20, 2024. PHOTO: Reuters file October 30, 2024 CAIRO — At least 93 Palestinians were killed or missing and dozens wounded in an Israeli strike on a residential building in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya on Tuesday (Oct 29), the Gaza health ministry said, and the US called the incident "horrifying". Medics said at least 20 children were among the dead. "A number of victims are still under the rubble and on the roads, and ambulance and civil defence crews cannot reach them," the territory's health ministry said in a statement. Later on Tuesday, Ismail Al-Thawabta, director of the Gaza government media office, put the number of fatalities at 93. There was no immediate Israeli comment. The Israeli military has frequently questioned figures on death toll published by the Hamas-run media office, saying they were often exaggerated. Israel's main ally the United States said it was concerned by the high casualty toll, with State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller calling it a "horrifying incident with a horrifying result". US officials have reached out to the Israeli government to ask what happened, Miller told reporters, adding he was aware of reports that many of the dead were children.
It's long overdue that the U.N. take responsibility for their terrorist employees. Mom whose son, 21, was murdered Oct. 7 and body taken to Gaza by UNRWA employee in UNRWA vehicle, tells WINS: 'The United Nations should take responsibility' https://www.audacy.com/1010wins/news/local/ayelet-samerano-un-responsible-for-sons-murder Israel's Knesset on Monday passed a bill barring the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) from activity within Israel, a move that was welcomed just a few hours later -- at Manhattan's Park East Synagogue at an October 7 commemoration ceremony -- by Ayelet Samerano, whose son Jonathan, 21, was murdered on Oct. 7 and his body taken by an UNRWA employee from Israel to Gaza in an UNRWA vehicle. "It was my goal [to ban UNRWA] since the day I heard about [Jonathan being murdered by an UNRWA employee], and we made history, we really made history," Samerano, told 1010 WINS, at the "From Darkness to Light We Stay United" ceremony, attended by 600 people and organized by the Consulate General of Israel in New York, as well as the Israeli American Council and the La'Aretz Foundation. "A lot of organizations tried to do it for a lot of years. And I think at least after all the suffering we had this year, at least we have Samerano didn't mince words about the United Nations, which has come under fire for being anti-Israel and anti-Jewish, because of Security Council motions but especially when it came to light earlier this year that employees of UNRWA participated in the Oct. 7 massacre, during which more than 1,200 people were murdered and more than 250 people were kidnapped. The murdered and kidnapped included non-Israeli citizens, such as those from the U.S., Canada, Ireland, Thailand and elsewhere. "There is no way that an organization that calls themselves humanitarian [should be] doing terror," she told 1010 WINS. So what's the message Samerano hopes the Knesset's bill sends to the New York-headquartered United Nations? "To start doing their job and not just talking, talking," she said. "They should start doing their real job to investigate the people that's coming to work with them, to check and verify that those people that are working under the umbrella of United Nations are really humanitarian, and are really working to implement the aim and the goals of the United Nations." Samerano continued, "First of all, I say, for me, I say the United Nations kidnapped my son ... I'm a big manager in my company and if something is going wrong with one of my employees, it's my responsibility. So I think the United Nations should take the responsibility and make all the efforts they can to fix what their employees make do. And one of these is to help and make, to bring all the hosages back. It's one of their missions ... So I don't want the United Nations just to talk. I want them to implement their rules." And in describing Jonathan, she said he was "the most liveliest person in the world .... the most happy child, charming and full of joy." Another parent who suffered a loss at the ceremony was Avi Harush, whose 20-year-old son, Sgt. Rif Harush, was killed in combat last April fighting Hamas in Khan Yunis in Gaza. “In these difficult days that we, as a people and as a nation are going through, I think it would be good for us to see the virtues of each and every one of our friends, rather than their shortcomings, and to let no hatred arise between us," Harush told the audience. "The people of Israel, especially now must be united.” Also at the commemoration ceremony was French-Israeli artist Mia Schem, now 22, who spent 55 days in Gaza after being shot in the hand by a Hamas terrorist and kidnapped from the Nova music festival along with her friends. “A year has passed. My body is here, but my innocence remains in the fields of blood, and my heart remains captive in Gaza with those five young women still held there – abused and exploited, without air, in the depths of hell," a somber Schem told the audience, as her mother Keren stood next to her on the podium. "Today, I stand before you. I am no longer a girl. I am a strong woman – who won’t rest until every single hostage is brought back from the depths of hell." Ofir Akunis, Israel's Consul General in New York, echoed Samerano's comments on UNRWA being banned from operating in Israel, asking 1010 WINS rhetorically, "Did you hear Ayelet Samarano? Did you hear her? That's the whole story. You saw one of the UNRWA employees. He was a terrorist." But Akunis, who assumed his role earlier this year, continued, "The whole world must know that it's impossible that UNWRA will be there anymore. This is impossible. This is against all the ideas of the free world. The people who are working for UNRWA are actually terrorists. So the Knesset decision is very important ... UNRWA is still there in Gaza or in Jerusalem or wherever, and they are working for the terror organizations. I think that the United Nations themselves should already decide about it, but they were are naïve or I don't know, maybe you'll find a better word. It's unbelievable really."
When Israeli citizens lament the Hamas attack, you'll never hear mention of Israeli Settler attacks and land theft. Israel, always the victim!