Live Blog Update| Israel's genocide in Gaza
This is an entry from: Israel-Palestine live: Netanyahu rejects Hamas ceasefire proposal, vows ‘total victory’

Late night wrap

27 January 2024 23:53 GMT

Hello MEE readers, 

The number of Palestinians killed in Gaza since 7 October now stands at 26,257, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

At least 64,797 others have been wounded, the ministry added.

Meanwhile, nine countries have now suspended funding for the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa). 

The development came after Israel alleged that 12 out of the 30,000 employees at Unrwa were involved in the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel on 7 October.

The US announced on Friday that it would pause funding to the agency until the allegations were addressed and since then, Australia, Germany, Canada, Italy, Finland, the UK, and the Netherlands have also announced they would halt Unrwa funding.

Today, Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner-general of Unrwa, said that the countries' decisions to suspend funding were shocking, and urged them to reverse course.

"These decisions threaten our ongoing humanitarian work across the region including and especially in the Gaza Strip," Lazzarini said in a statement.

"Palestinians in Gaza did not need this additional collective punishment," he continued on X. "This stains all of us."

Other updates from Saturday include: 

  • Gaza’s Government Media Office confirmed that Israeli forces killed journalist Iyad Ahmed al-Rawag in an attack on the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza
  • Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on Qatar to apply leverage on Hamas in order to bring about the release of the Israelis being held captive in Gaza. 
  • Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert criticised ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir in an interview on Saturday with Israel's Channel 12 News, calling Ben-Gvir “an enemy of the state”. 
  • A federal judge in Oakland, California is studying testimony heard in a lawsuit against US President Joe Biden, who is being sued by a group of American Palestinians and aid groups accusing him of failing to prevent genocide in the Gaza Strip.
  • Demonstrators carried posters of Israelis held captive in Gaza and banners calling to "bring them home" near Netanyahu's private residence in the upscale coastal town of Caesarea