UN says ‘nothing’ is entering Gaza due to Israeli blockade

UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric says Israel is not allowing anything to enter Gaza, including humanitarian aid and fuel, and calls for the restoration of electricity to the territory.
Israeli negotiators are due in Doha today as mediators from Egypt, Qatar and the US try to revive the Gaza ceasefire.Only a functioning Palestinian state could replace UNRWA: Lazzarini
The head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) has rejected Israel’s assertion that other organisations could replace it in Gaza, insisting that only a Palestinian state “institution” could take over.

Israel has banned UNRWA from operating in Gaza, and UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini hit back after Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Daniel Meron, told reporters that his country was “working to find substitutes to the work of UNRWA inside Gaza”.

But Lazzarini said only a Palestinian state can replace UNRWA.

“It can’t be an NGO, it can’t be another UN agency,” Lazzarini said, adding: “The only viable alternatives are capable Palestinian institutions … in a Palestinian state.”

UNRWA provides vital services, including healthcare and education, to millions of Palestinian refugees across the Middle East.Israeli military chief tells army to prepare for ‘year of war’
Haaretz quotes Eyal Zamir as telling army commanders: “We must be prepared for 2025 to be a year of war.”

Zamir, a former director general of the Defence Ministry, was appointed this month to lead the Israeli military.Israeli air raids target southern Syria
Syria’s official news agency, SANA, reports that Israeli jets have bombed the vicinity of the villages of Jabab and Izraa near Deraa in the south of the country.

Israel has been regularly bombing sites in Syria and expanding its military occupation of the Golan Heights since the fall of Syria’s former President Bashar al-Assad in December of last year.Three Palestinians injured by Israeli gunfire in Hebron
A medical source has told our Al Jazeera Arabic colleagues that three Palestinians have been wounded when Israeli soldiers shot at them in the city of Dura, south of Hebron in the occupied West Bank.

The Wafa news agency also reported the violence, saying Israeli forces stormed Dura, fired live bullets, and used stun grenades and “toxic gas”. It added that the Palestinian Health Ministry described the wounded Palestinians’ conditions as “stable”.

The agency said dozens of Palestinians were affected by the gas used by the Israeli army and were treated at the scene.

Earlier, Wafa, citing the Palestine Red Crescent Society, reported that two other Palestinians were wounded by Israeli army fire in the town of Idhna, west of Hebron.