UN chief meets with UNRWA donor countries to appeal against funding freeze

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres met behind closed doors with 35 donor nations and appealed again for a restoration of funding and new donations for the embattled UN agency for Palestinian refugees.

The UN chief briefed the ambassadors, including from the European Union, late Tuesday on actions he had taken following accusations that 12 employees of the agency known as UNRWA participated in Hamas’ shock Oct. 7 attacks in southern Israel.

He has called the Israeli allegations “horrific” and urged for a swift investigation.

Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian UN ambassador, told reporters after the meeting that the secretary-general appealed to many countries that suspended funding to UNRWA after the allegations “to reconsider” and urged other countries “including those in the region, to step up to the plate.”

He praised Norway, Spain and others who said they would not suspend aid.

UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters earlier that “no other organization than UNRWA has the infrastructure to do what they do” in Gaza and the Middle East and “it’s not feasible in any way, shape or form” to quickly replace the UN agency.

Dujarric also told reporters that every year UNRWA provides a list of its 13,000 staff in Gaza to Israel and the Palestinian Authority. “As far as I’m told by UNRWA, concerns have not been raised when the list of staff have been shared,” he said.

Biden says he’s decided on response to killing of 3 US troops in Jordan

WASHINGTON — US President Joe Biden on Tuesday indicated he had decided how to respond after the killing of three American service members Sunday in a drone attack in Jordan that his administration has pinned on Iran-backed militia groups, saying he does not want to expand the war in the Middle East but demurring on specifics.

US officials said they are still determining which of several Iran-backed groups was responsible for the first killing of American troops in a wave of attacks against US forces in the region since the Oct. 7 Hamas assault on Israel. Biden plans to attend the dignified transfer to mark the fallen troops’ return to American soil on Friday and answered in the affirmative when asked by reporters if he’d decided on a response, as he indicated he was aiming to prevent further escalation.

“I don’t think we need a wider war in the Middle East,” Biden said at the White House before departing for a fundraising trip to Florida. “That’s not what I’m looking for.”

It was not immediately clear whether Biden meant he had decided on a specific retaliatory plan. A U.S. official told The Associated Press that the Pentagon is still assessing options to respond to the attack in Jordan.

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters traveling with Biden aboard Air Force One that he would not preview the US response, but indicated it would come in phases.

“It’s very possible that what you’ll see is a tiered approach here, not just a single action, but potentially multiple actions over a period of time,” he said.

Families of six Israeli-American hostages held by Hamas meet US officials in Washington

The families of six Israeli-American hostages held in the Gaza Strip by the Hamas terror group met tonight with National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Middle East Coordinator Brett McGurk, a White House official said, according to CNN.

The report says the families were updated on the ongoing hostage release talks following Sullivan’s meeting this week with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, as well as meetings in Paris with the Qatari PM and the directors of the CIA, the Mossad, and Egyptian intelligence.

US shoots down missile fired by Houthis toward Red Sea, Pentagon says

Iranian-backed Houthi militants fired one anti-ship cruise missile from Yemen toward the Red Sea on Tuesday, the US military’s Central Command says, adding that a US destroyer in the area shot it down.

No injuries or damage were reported, the Central Command says.

UNRWA funding halt ‘catastrophic’ for Gaza, say UN agencies

Cutting off funding to the United Nations’ Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA will have “catastrophic consequences” for Gaza, the heads of multiple UN bodies say in a joint statement.

“Withdrawing funds from UNRWA is perilous and would result in the collapse of the humanitarian system in Gaza, with far-reaching humanitarian and human rights consequences in the occupied Palestinian territory and across the region,” said the statement from the heads of the organizations that form the UN Inter-Agency Standing Committee.

UNRWA is facing funding cuts from a host of countries including the US, Canada, Japan, France, and Germany, pending an investigation into Israeli intelligence finding that 12 of its employees took part in the October 7 massacre and hundreds more are terror operatives or have close ties to Hamas members.