US rejects Hamas, UNRWA roles in Gaza as Israeli aid blockade persists

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United States apical diplomat Marco Rubio says the United Nations bureau for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) “is not going to play immoderate role” successful assistance transportation successful Gaza, arsenic helium besides rejected the anticipation of Hamas being progressive successful immoderate aboriginal governance of the Strip.

Speaking during a quality league portion connected a sojourn to Israel connected Friday, the US caput of authorities claimed UNRWA had go “a subsidiary of Hamas”, echoing an Israeli authorities enactment that has been discredited by the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

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In response, UNRWA insisted that its beingness “remains captious to gathering urgent humanitarian needs” crossed the bombarded and starved enclave, wherever a deadly Israeli violative has killed much than 68,000 Palestinians successful 2 years.

In a connection posted connected X, the bureau besides highlighted that the ICJ has recognised that “no organisation tin regenerate the UNRWA’s relation successful supporting the radical of Gaza”.

Israel banned the bureau from operating aft accusing immoderate of its unit of taking portion successful the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led onslaught without providing evidence.

Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh said the proclamation by Rubio that UNRWA was a Hamas “subsidiary” is “quite shocking” and “devastating” for UNRWA and each who are progressive successful Gaza.

UNRWA was not lone exonerated by the ICJ and 2 abstracted commissions of inquiry, but besides has the largest, astir extended assistance mechanics successful Gaza, Odeh said.

“It has thousands of employees, it has the information to administer assistance to Palestinians with dignity and successful an orderly fashion,” she said.

“Nobody has that benignant of infrastructure and past successful Gaza.”

Despite a US-mediated ceasefire that took effect earlier this month, Israel has continued launching attacks crossed Gaza and kept the Rafah crossing adjacent Egypt sealed, blocking large-scale assistance deliveries stipulated successful the agreement.

In his remarks connected Friday, Rubio voiced anticipation of soon putting unneurotic an planetary information unit to constabulary the ceasefire successful Gaza and said Israel, which opposes including Turkiye, could veto participants.

The unit volition person to beryllium made up of countries that Israel is “comfortable with”, Rubio said.

NATO subordinate Turkiye, 1 of the astir vocal critics of Israel’s warfare connected Gaza, has joined the ceasefire negotiations arsenic a mediator aft mostly indirect involvement. Its accrued relation followed a gathering past period betwixt Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and US President Donald Trump astatine the White House.

Erdogan said connected Friday that talks are continuing connected the task unit and that the “modalities of this are not yet clear”.

“We are acceptable to supply Gaza immoderate signifier of enactment connected this issue,” helium said.

Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim-majority state, has said it is acceptable to nonstop troops to Gaza.

The United Arab Emirates, which normalised ties with Israel successful 2020, has already been progressive successful ceasefire monitoring.

GazaA drone presumption shows tents utilized by displaced Palestinians amid destroyed buildings by Israeli attacks successful Gaza City, October 24, 2025 [Dawoud Abu Alkas/Reuters]

‘Daily conflict for survival’

Rubio said that immoderate imaginable relation for the Palestinian Authority (PA) has yet to beryllium determined, but the main Palestinian factions, including the PA, said connected Friday they had agreed that an autarkic committee of technocrats would instrumentality implicit governing Gaza.

During a gathering successful Cairo, the factions agreed to manus “over the medication of the Gaza Strip to a impermanent Palestinian committee composed of autarkic ‘technocrats’, which volition negociate the affairs of beingness and basal services successful practice with Arab brothers and planetary institutions”.

According to Husam Badran, the caput of Hamas’s nationalist relations and a subordinate of its governmental bureau, each Palestinian factions hold connected a “unified vision” for implementing the statement successful a mode that serves the interests of the Palestinian people.

Meanwhile, the concern connected the crushed successful Gaza remains catastrophic for the 2.1 cardinal radical who person mostly been displaced respective times.

Mahmoud Basal, the spokesperson for Gaza’s civilian defence, said homes stay destroyed, bodies are inactive trapped beneath the rubble, and roads are blocked by debris.

He said teams proceed to enactment with astir nary resources amid monolithic devastation “that covers each country of the Strip”.

In a abstracted statement, the civilian defence called connected residents to debar staying successful buildings that person been damaged by Israeli bombings aft 1 gathering abruptly collapsed connected Palestinians successful Gaza City.

A pistillate   sorts done  her belongings adjacent  to a tentHiba al-Yazji has been displaced respective times during Israel’s warfare connected Gaza, and is present surviving successful a structure successful Gaza City [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]

Some families person opted to instrumentality to their homes successful bluish Gaza, with galore returning to “nothing” arsenic they look a “daily conflict for survival”, Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud said.

Reporting from Gaza City, helium said radical are returning to “only skeletons of these buildings”.

“There is thing inside, nary entree to water, nary entree to nutrient supplies … We’ve seen radical locomotion for hours, sometimes days, successful hunt of flour, oregon lentils, oregon immoderate canned nutrient successful bid to past these hard conditions.”

Farhan Haq, lawman spokesperson for the UN secretary-general, said Israel indispensable let successful “more [aid] trucks astatine much crossing points”, as aid levels remain acold little than specified by the ceasefire agreement.

He said that astatine nary constituent since the ceasefire went into effect person 600 UN trucks entered Gaza connected immoderate fixed time – the minimum magnitude needed regular to conscionable the needs of Palestinians there.

The World Health Organization besides said that determination had been small betterment successful the magnitude of assistance going into Gaza – and nary observable simplification successful hunger.

“The concern inactive remains catastrophic due to the fact that what’s entering is not enough,” WHO main Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

Hamas said connected Friday successful a connection that it had received “clear guarantees” from mediators Egypt, Qatar and Turkiye that “the warfare has efficaciously ended”, and called for greater unit connected Israel to let successful humanitarian aid.

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