The Ministry of Health in Gaza reported that the Israeli occupation forces committed 13 massacres against civilians in the Strip in the past 24 hours, killing 113 people and injuring 205 others. The ministry added that some victims are still trapped under rubble or on the roads, as the occupation prevented ambulance and civil defense crews from reaching them.
The ministry said on Monday that the death toll of the war, which started on 7 October, had risen to 27,478, while the number of wounded had reached 66,835.
The Palestinian Prisoners’ Club also said on Monday that the Israeli occupation forces had arrested 28 Palestinians in the West Bank since Sunday evening, including a woman. The club said that the total number of detainees since 7 October had reached 6,540 prisoners.
Meanwhile, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) announced on Monday that its food aid convoy was hit by Israeli naval fire while it was waiting to enter the northern Gaza Strip.
Thomas White, the Director of UNRWA Affairs in Gaza, said on the X platform: “This morning, a food convoy that was waiting to move to northern Gaza was exposed to Israeli naval fire, and fortunately no one was hurt.”
The UNRWA account shared White’s post, and commented: “We cannot deliver humanitarian aid under fire.” It stressed that “there is an urgent need for safe and sustainable humanitarian access to everywhere, including northern Gaza.”
On Sunday, European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell warned that cutting funding for UNRWA would endanger the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. “Cutting funding for UNRWA would be an inappropriate and dangerous measure,” Borrell said in a post on the X platform.
Several countries – including the United States, Britain, and Italy – have temporarily suspended their funding for UNRWA, which said on Thursday that it would likely have to stop its operations in the Middle East, not just in Gaza, by the end of February if its funding remained suspended.
On Monday, Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani received the Commissioner-General of UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini.
The Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister said that Qatar would continue its support for UNRWA, which has increased its responsibilities due to the catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza. He also expressed Qatar’s keenness to ensure the continuous and unhindered delivery of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.
Bin Abdul Rahman praised UNRWA’s important role in providing aid to millions of people in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon. He also warned of the disastrous consequences of stopping funding the agency.
On the ground, the Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), said that it had targeted an Israeli Merkava tank with an Al-Yassin 105 shell, west of the city of Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip.
The Al-Qassam Brigades had previously said that they had ambushed Israeli occupation army vehicles, destroyed a Merkava tank, and hit another with an Al-Yassin 105 shell, also west of Khan Yunis.
In addition, the Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad Movement, said that they had shelled a gathering of Israeli occupation soldiers with mortar shells east of the village of Al-Masdar in the central Gaza Strip.
The Brigades said that they had fired missiles and mortar shells at gatherings of occupation soldiers and vehicles near the industry and passport offices in Gaza City.
