Sweden resumes aid to UNRWA as Israel steps up Gaza attacks

[Uncle Joe]

(snip)

The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), the main humanitarian agency in Gaza, faced an unprecedented funding crisis after its major international donors led by the United States cut its funding over “terror” allegations.

(snip)

The Swedish move came after the European Commission earlier this month said it would release 50 million euros ($54.7m) in UNRWA funding.

On Friday, Canada announced it was lifting a freeze on funding for the UNRWA, after it joined the US, the United Kingdom and other countries in cutting aid in late January.

(snip)

The UNRWA has said that Israeli authorities have not allowed it to deliver supplies to the north of the Strip since January 23.

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https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/9/sweden-resumes-aid-to-un-agency-for-palestinians





Israeli road splitting Gaza in two has reached the Mediterranean coast, satellite imagery shows

(CNN) - A road being built by the Israeli military splitting Gaza in two has reached the Mediterranean coast, a CNN analysis of satellite imagery shows. It’s part of a security plan to control the territory for months and possibly years to come, Israeli officials have said.

A satellite image from March 6 reveals that the east-west road, which has been under construction for weeks, now stretches from the Gaza-Israeli border area across the entire roughly 6.5-kilometer-wide (about 4-mile-wide) strip, dividing northern Gaza, including Gaza City, from the south of the enclave. About 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) includes an existing road, while the rest is new, according to CNN’s analysis.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) told CNN they were using the route to “establish (an) operational foothold in the area” and allow “the passage of forces as well as logistical equipment.” When asked about the route’s completion, the IDF said the road existed before the war and was being “renovated,” due to armored vehicles “damaging it.” It added that there was: “No beginning and ending.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu unveiled a plan, obtained by CNN, to his security cabinet on February 23 for a post-Hamas future for Gaza, including the “complete demilitarization” of the enclave, and the overhaul of its security, civil administration and education systems. Palestinians living in Gaza fear Israel’s post-war security plans will further restrict their freedom of movement, remembering the days of Israeli occupation prior to 2005, when checkpoints were placed between neighboring villages and exclusive bypass roads were built to link Israeli settlements to each other and to Israel.

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https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/08/middleeast/israel-building-road-splitting-gaza-cmd-intl/index.html

[Beastly Boy]

1. Somebody is building a road in Gaza.

How refreshing!

[Uncle Joe]

2. I don't believe that's a road, so much as a wall.

I find walls to be exceptionally stale.

[Beastly Boy]

3. The article says "road". Surely the AP editors know the difference between a road and a wall!

In any event, it is not a tunnel under an UNRWA headquarters, which in itself is a great improvement.

[Uncle Joe]

4. Roads are built to unite, not divide, it may look like a road but it operates

as a wall.

Drones and guards will be all over that "road" to prevent anything from crossing that line.

[Beastly Boy]

5. "About 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) includes an existing road"

So who was it that built 1.2 miles of the road to operate as a wall?

[Uncle Joe]

6. Directly across the middle of the Gaza Strip

Didn't Israel order all the Palestinians in the north to go south?

"So who was it that built 1.2 miles of the road to operate as a wall?"

Who do you think?

There is only party capable of building anything of substance in the Gaza Strip and you know who that is.

[Beastly Boy]

7. If you say so.

I have my doubts about anyone building a road to operate as a wall (wouldn't a wall be more efficient to operate as a wall?), or the only party being capable of building anything in Gaza before they ever set foot in Gaza, or the imaginary drones flying over a wall that look like a road ( or is it a road that operates as a wall?), or guards preventing anyone from crossing the road which operates like a wall, but you seem to have already made up your mind about all of it. So who am I to question any of it?

[Uncle Joe]

8. A formal wall will be next along that road.

It doesn't take that much imagination to see what is going on, if one wants to look.

&t=29s

[Beastly Boy]

9. Right after the drones and the guards prevent anything from crossing that line.

That's when the wall will make the most sense. I get it.

[Uncle Joe]

10. ....