Eyewitnesses and local sources reported that the Israeli army has arrested a number of workers from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) while they were fleeing from Khan Yunis city in southern Gaza to Rafah city.
Fatima Abu Juwaid, in a statement to Anadolu Agency, stated that the Israeli forces detained several UNRWA workers on Monday while they were heading from Khan Yunis to Rafah. She did not have precise information about the number of detainees.
Abu Juwaid confirmed that the young men working for UNRWA who were arrested do not belong to any Palestinian factions.
These arrests come days after Israel accused 12 UNRWA employees of participating in the “Al-Aqsa Typhoon” operation carried out by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) on October 7, 2023, against Israeli military bases and settlements in the Gaza Strip.
In response to this claim, the agency launched an investigation into the incident. Following Israel’s allegations, 18 countries and the European Union decided to suspend funding for UNRWA.
According to the United Nations, the countries that have decided to suspend their funding for UNRWA until Tuesday evening are: the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan, Italy, Britain, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, France, Switzerland, Austria, Sweden, New Zealand, Iceland, Romania, Estonia, and the European Union.
Israeli accusations against the agency are not the first of their kind. Since the beginning of the aggression on Gaza, Israel has accused agency employees of working for Hamas.
According to observers, this accusation is a prelude to targeting UNRWA schools and facilities in the Strip, which host tens of thousands of displaced people, most of whom are children and women.
In the same context, another eyewitness reported that the Israeli army arrested dozens of Palestinian youth who fled from Khan Yunis after tanks infiltrated the western and southern areas of the city.
The witness mentioned that the Israeli forces raided a school for the displaced in Khan Yunis and asked all males, including children, to stay inside, while they took out the women and girls. The soldiers asked the males to sit on the ground and then fired shots above their heads to terrorize them before taking them to an unknown location.
In the span of 10 days, the Israeli army escalated its operations and shelling in the western and southern areas of Khan Yunis. At the beginning of last week, residents of these areas were asked to evacuate immediately and move to Rafah city.
Since the “Al-Aqsa Typhoon,” Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza, resulting in the martyrdom of 26,900 Palestinians and the injury of 65,949 others as of Tuesday. The majority of the casualties are children and women. The aggression has also caused massive destruction of infrastructure, leaving behind an “unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe,” according to Palestinian and international reports.
