On the ground, in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army described “intense fighting” in Khan Younes, the large city in the south of the Palestinian territory, now the epicenter of the war. She said she had killed “terrorists and seized large quantities of weapons”.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) is in turmoil. The head of the United Nations called, on Sunday January 28, on donor countries to guarantee the continuation of activities carried out in favor of civilians in Gaza by the agency, weakened by the suspected involvement of employees in the Hamas attack on the Israeli soil on October 7, 2023. Nine countries have already suspended their aid, including the United States, France and Japan.
Information to remember
⇒ In Iran, four men executed for spying for Israel
⇒ Japan suspends funding to UNRWA
⇒ Israelis demand return of settlements in Gaza
Iran: four men executed for spying for Israel
Four men were hanged at dawn in Iran on Monday after being sentenced to death for having cooperated, according to Tehran, with Israeli spy services in a plan to sabotage an Iranian defense site, announced justice agency.
The four convicts were arrested on July 23, 2022 while they were preparing an operation against a Ministry of Defense center in Isfahan, a large city in central Iran, on behalf of the Mossad, said the Mizan Online agency. of the judicial authority. The Ministry of Intelligence then announced that it had “identified a network of agents of the Zionist spy organization, all of whose members had been arrested”. They were sentenced to death in September 2023.
Gaza: Japan in turn suspends funding to UNRWA
Japan announced that it was in turn suspending funding for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa), due to Israeli accusations that some of its employees were involved in the attack carried out by Hamas on October 7.
Japan is the ninth country to suspend its funding to the UN agency, following in particular the United States, Germany and France. Tokyo said on Sunday evening it was “extremely concerned about the alleged involvement of UNRWA personnel in the terrorist attack against Israel on October 7 last year.”
American soldiers killed in Jordan, Biden promises to respond
United States President Joe Biden promised to respond after the drone attack in Jordan which killed three American soldiers, pointing to pro-Iran groups, while Tehran on Monday refuted any involvement. This is the first time that American soldiers have been killed in the Middle East since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip on October 7, raising renewed fears of an escalation of tensions against a backdrop of war. latent between Israel and Iran.
“We will respond,” Joe Biden said on Sunday on the sidelines of a trip to South Carolina, after this attack launched against an American base in the middle of the desert on the border with Iraq and Syria. According to the US military Middle East Command (Centcom), the attack injured at least 34 people at the base, eight of whom had to be evacuated.
Thousands of Israelis, including ministers, demand settlements in Gaza
A few thousand Israelis in favor of reestablishing settlements in the Gaza Strip, including ministers, gathered Sunday evening in Jerusalem, urging the Prime Minister to see the project through. Members of Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party and other far-right ministers took part in the rally, as fighting intensified between the Israeli army and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in Gaza.
“The time has come to return to Gush Katif and encourage voluntary emigration,” said National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, referring to a group of Israeli settlements once established in Gaza. Speakers called for the expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza, judging that the reestablishment of settlements was the only way to ensure Israel’s security.