Diyar Guldogan
30 January 2025•Update: 30 January 2025
WASHINGTON
The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) continues to work in the Gaza Strip despite Israel's ban, an official said Thursday.
"I can tell you that UNRWA told us today, and we've been speaking to them by phone a number of times this morning that they are continuing to deliver assistance and services to the communities they're serving.
"UNRWA clinics across the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, are open. Meanwhile, the humanitarian operations in Gaza continues,” spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters.
Dujarric added that UNRWA is "committed" to staying, delivering and turning to the situation in the occupied Palestinian territory.
UNRWA "will continue to deliver on its mandate," he added.
Israel ordered UNRWA to shut down all its operations in East Jerusalem by Thursday, in line with a directive communicated Jan. 24 in a letter from Israel’s envoy to the UN Danny Danon to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
UNRWA, established in 1949, provides health, education and social services to Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem, Lebanon, Jordan and Gaza.
- 462,000 people crossed south to north
Dujarric said more displaced families are returning to northern Gaza as the ceasefire continues to hold, according to the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
Since the opening Monday of the Salah ad-Din and Al Rashid roads, partners estimate that more than 462,000 people have crossed from the south to the north, he said.
"Our partners also report that displaced Palestinians are also moving from north to south, albeit in smaller numbers, with about 1,400 people traveling in that direction as of today," he said.
Turning to the West Bank, Dujarric said Israeli forces’ operations in northern areas have expanded beyond Jenin and Tulkarm to the nearby governorate of Tubas.
"Yesterday, an Israeli air strike hit a group of Palestinians in the village of Tammun in Tubas governorate, with reports of 10 people killed.
“This brings the death toll from the ongoing Israeli operation in the northern West Bank to 30, including two children," he said.
More than 3,200 families have been displaced from the Jenin refugee camp since December, Dujarric said.
The escalation in the West Bank came after a ceasefire and prisoner exchange deal took effect Jan. 19 in Gaza, following 15 months of an Israeli genocidal war that killed more than 47,000 victims and reduced the enclave to rubble.
Since the beginning of Israel’s onslaught in October 2023, at least 890 Palestinians have been killed across the occupied territory in attacks by Israeli forces and illegal Israeli settlers.
