United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East

Major Israeli military action on Rafah, in Gaza's far south, would heap further devastation on civilians, the head of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) warned Friday.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week said he had ordered troops to prepare to go into the city as it hunts down those behind Hamas's unprecedented Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel.

United Nations chief Antonio Guterres announced Monday the creation of an independent panel to assess UNRWA, its embattled agency tasked with helping Palestinian refugees.

UNRWA is under fire over accusations by Israel that 12 staff members were involved in the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7.

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell warned on Sunday that moves to suspend the funding of U.N. Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA were extremely ill-advised.

"Defunding UNRWA would be both disproportionate and dangerous," Borrell said of the agency which is embroiled in controversy over the alleged involvement of employees in the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on Israel.

Suspicion of humanitarian organizations is not a Greek hang-up; it's universal. The case of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) - the agency that has been supporting Palestinian refugees since 1949 - is a typical example.

Fighting raged Friday in Gaza forcing thousands of Palestinians to flee seeking shelter, after Qatar said Hamas had given "initial" support to a hostage-prisoner exchange that would pause its war with Israel.

The Hamas press office reported Israeli air and artillery bombardment around Khan Yunis — southern Gaza's main city and the focus of recent fighting.

The United States has decided to temporarily withhold approximately 0,000 in funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) as the United Nations (UN) investigates allegations of agency staff involvement in the October 7 Hamas attacks, CNN reported.

Nothing can "replace or substitute" the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency, whose staff were implicated in the Hamas attacks on Israel, the U.N.'s coordinator for Gaza aid said Tuesday even as Israel made new claims against it.

A framework to halt the Gaza fighting and for hostage releases is to be relayed to Hamas, mediator Qatar said Monday, as a bitter row flared around the U.N. aid agency for Palestinians.

While deadly fighting again rocked Gaza, fears mounted of a widening regional conflict after Israel's top ally Washington vowed to respond to an attack that killed three U.S. troops in Jordan.

Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan has issued a plea to the international community to intervene and prevent a looming humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip, where hunger and epidemics are rampant among populations denied access to aid.

Ankara has expressed deep concern over the decision of key donor countries to suspend funding to the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees following Israel's allegations that staff members took part in Hamas' Oct. 7 attack.