UN humanitarian operations in Gaza forced to halt: UN

AFP | United Nations, United States

The Daily Tribune - www.newsofbahrain.com

The United Nations said yesterday it had been forced to halt its humanitarian operations in Gaza due to a new Israeli evacuation order for the Deir al-Balah area, a senior UN official said. "We are not operating today.

As of this morning, we're not operating in Gaza," the official said, adding that since the start of the war the UN has sometimes had to "delay or take a pause."

"This is not a decision that we're saying we're stopping to operate, but practically we cannot operate," the official said.

According to the official, the UN “had relocated most of our personnel in our operations” to Deir al-Balah following a Rafah evacuation order several months ago. “We need to find solutions,” the UN official said. “And if it means that we need to anchor down for 24-48 hours and reset, we do that.

But we’re not leaving. “Right now the challenge is to find a place where we can reset and effectively operate.”

US says still a threat of Iran, proxies attacking Israel T h e United States assesses there is still a threat of a new attack on Israel by Iran or its proxies, the Pentagon said yesterday, after Lebanon’s Hezbollah launched a rocket and drone barrage over the weekend.

Iran and its regional allies have threatened to attack Israel in response to high-profile killings in Tehran and Beirut late last month, and Hezbollah said its recent strikes on Israel were in response to one of those assassinations.

“We continue to assess that there is a threat of attack, and we... remain well-postured to be able to support Israel’s defense as well as to protect our forces should they be attacked,” Pentagon spokesman Major General Pat Ryder told journalists.

On Sunday, the Israeli military said it launched air strikes on Hezbollah targets that posed an imminent threat, with around 100 fighter jets striking more than 270 targets, most of them short-range rockets aimed at northern Israel.

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah said the Israeli strikes came half an hour before his group launched more than 300 Katyusha rockets at 11 Israeli military sites, and that drones then targeted deeper inside the country, in response to the killing of senior commander Fuad Shukr in July.