Aid workers accused of taking part on 7/10 attack on Israel - appalling !

I don't read the daily main and apnews, thanks! you do know who they're owned by, don't you?

Well allegedly he is quite cosy with them so he might do.

Agree

Also do we have a source?
No News channels seem to be covering it.
Does Sulaiman Ahmed have exclusive rights?

Their right to protection and to resist the occupation by all available means.

That sent a shudder down my spine.

It's unbelievable isn't it?

@StarbucksSmarterSister the tone of that!

90% of Gaza is at crisis point with food supplies.
17% are at catastrophe level, very close to the 20% required for a famine.
The malnutrition and deaths follow quickly. Although as WHO has pointed out disease pops up in the gap between the two.
1.9 million out of 2.2 million people are displaced.

I hope that all these Governments defunding have an amazing plan B that they can roll into action of Monday.

A statement from Hamas. I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

https://twitter.com/ShaykhSulaiman/status/1751237712047223216?t=SEzv1xGrie5L4M1DS9qAYg&s=19

Israeli government and parts of the IDF have been praising massacres all over the place. (Yes I know they have the right to defend themselves but what is being done in Gaza often struggles to fit into any reasonable definition of defending yourself.)

Given the issues in Gaza before Oct 7th and the size of UNWRA it isn’t particularly surprising that a very small number of their staff may have links to Hamas or have been involved and isn’t necessarily indicative of widespread corruption. I would be surprised if governments around the world weren’t already aware of the possibility and were happy to fund aid up until this point.

Removing funding that will likely result in thousands of deaths because of 12 workers that have been suspended while continuing to fund bombs that will result in huge civilian casualties and reminding Israel to be a bit more careful with them does seem like a slightly one sided strategy on the face of it.

I'm so glad Ireland are not suspending their UNRWA funding.

"Ireland has no plans to suspend funding for UNRWA's vital Gaza work," Mr Martin said.

"UNRWA’s 13,000 employees provide life saving assistance to 2.3m people and at incredible personal cost - with over 100 staff killed in last four months".

Mr Martin added that Ireland provided the agency with €18m in 2023 and "will continue our support in 2024".

https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2024/0127/1428939-ireland-unrwa/

You are perfectly right, of course! And I fully retract all of my previous statements! Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa!!!

I just really had not considered the possibility that the food might go to pregnant women who might - at this very moment - be gestating the future Hamas!

Obviously, those people need to be starved! It is a moral imperative, so to speak! </sarcasm>

So, you are focusing your questions on infrastructure because you also agree that the loss of life in Gaza is unjust and unbearable? Is that correct?

Do you mean the hospitals and educational institutions that are just a front to the gruesome tunnels underneath that hide the terrorist Hamas? Tunnels were found under a child nursery and a hospital.

Won't Israel report to ICJ that they could not enable aid because of funding being removed? It will be out of their hands, I assume, if UNWRA has insufficient funds to continue.

The propaganda machine is in overdrive, to compensate for the ICJ ruling.

I think everyone in the world knows now how the Israeli propaganda machine has been working for the past 75+ years. And the UK is complicit in (another) genocide along with USA and Israel. I am so proud of South Africa and utterly ashamed to be British. Free Palestine!

But Heidi, they might misuse the food.

I shall disregard the supposed trap and willingly walk right into it ...

Actually, YES! Because ...

UNRWA, while it has a gazillion problems (again, not typically the ones Israel complains about), has 30k employees, 13k around thereof in Gaza and - out of all of these - 12 have been accused (again: by Israel, based on "interrogation", which, in Israel, often means "torture"). And they have been suspended! UNRWA is instrumental to delivering humanitarian aid in Gaza right now!

Meanwhile, the government of Israel is a far-right cabal, several of whose members have had their potentially relevant as "incitement to genocide" statements specifically called out. They - specifically Gallant - have explicitly stated their aim to starve out and thirst out Gaza. And tried to do so - had not their allies been a tad worried about the optics and forced them to downgrade from "no food, no water" to "too little food, too little water, for people to survive on". They have not been sanctioned. They wield an army of <1 million of active and reserve soldiers, and they are using it to flatten Gaza and make it uninhabitable.

Yes, we fucking should de-fund and sanction the genocidal apartheid regime! And we absolutely should at the very, very least be continuing to fund emergency aid to Gaza. Which, at present is UNRWA.

• More than half of Gaza’s homes - 360,000 residential units have been destroyed or damaged
• 378 educational facilities
• 16 out of 35 hospitals are partially functioning
• 122 ambulances
• 221 places of worship

No, the Israeli government has already misused weapons.

• Killed: at least 26,083 people, including more than:
• 10,000 children
• 7,000 women
• Injured: more than 64,487, including at least:
• 8,663 children
• 6,327 women
• Missing: more than 8,000

It is sickening to think anyone could praise a massacre. If they've done this on SM that just shows how strongly they must have endorsed the sickening action. Then to find others played a more active part is just horrendous. I can understand why Israel was so hesitant to let these aid workers take aid in now.

OK so the western world defunds UNWRA while they investigate those 12 suspended employees.

Israel has been bound to take immediate and effective measures to enable the provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance to address the adverse conditions of life faced by Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

This could be tricky.

So we should give aid to UNRWA even though there is a risk it will be misused, but we shouldn’t give aid/weapons to Israel as there’s a risk they’ll be misused?