The Knesset has passed legislation, on the first reading, on the 22nd of July to designate UNRWA a terrorist organization, to cut off the privileges and access to the territory of Israel of the organization’s personnel and to cease its operations there, as well. This is indeed a worrisome development as the international organization, which has been founded on the 8th of December 1949, as a subsidiary of the United Nations, has been operational in Palestine and Israel since the 1st of May 1950 and has been managing the relief and human development of the Palestinian refugees caused by the 1948 war and since.
While it is required that the bills to pass two more readings in the Knesset to come into effect, this action can be regarded as a step back in the relations with the refugees, but there is a possibility that this might be stopped from coming to fruition by further negotiations – regardless of the moral infringement of using such an action as a bargaining chip, it brings forth a precedent in international relations, a dangerous one, we might add. The organization provides assistance and protection to refugees in three other countries, such as Syria, Lebanon and The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and it has done so by now for millions of civilians in need.
On the 23rd of July, the IDF reported that it has eliminated two high-ranking officers of Hamas, respectively Al-Aqsa Brigade in clashes and a drone strike in Tulkarem, West Bank. On the same day, in Gaza, a humanitarian convoy came under gunfire which did not cause any casualties, fortunately.
The talks regarding hostage exchanges are said to be going on, with Netanyahu insisting that the conditions for such an action are “becoming ripe” due to the military pressure the IDF is exerting on Hamas, while the actual peace talks are still stalling. Israel’s prime minister refused to give details regarding this. Some sources also report that secret talks between Israel, UAE and the US have been held in Abu Dhabi regarding the postwar plan for Gaza, while an UAE official showed the country’s availability to contributing to peacekeeping forces inside Gaza.
In the Middle East, the context is evolving and we have seen for some time that efforts are being made for the normalization of relations between Turkiye and Syria’s president, Bashar al Assad. The latest evidence of this is a report, through a source, which states that Turkiye’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and the upper-mentioned are set to meet in Moscow for talks. The same source states that this will be a mediation effort by Vladimir Putin.
The UN’s special envoy to Syria, Geir Pederson, has recently stated that the escalation in the country remains “undiminished” and that there must be an active quest for a political solution to the conflict. He also stated that the country remains in “a state of profound conflict, complexity and division”. The international organization indicates that Syria continues to suffer one of the worst humanitarian crises, with over 16 million people in need and an estimated 7.2 million internally displaced people.
The United States representative on the UN Security Council has reiterated the position the Russian Federation and Syria continue to obstruct the implementation of resolution 2254 (2015) – the roadmap towards for peace process in Syria and that Syria has become an increasingly larger operations platform for Iran, and its proxies in the country, for the destabilization of the Middle East. The US representative has declared the 15 July elections which happened in Syria a sham and has upheld their country’s position regarding any normalization effort or the lifting of sanctions without an authentic and enduring political solution to the process.
The plethora of factions, tribes, gangs, political organizations present on the territory of multiple countries within the Middle East presents a fractal map of disunity and challenges for the future and it certainly provides a troubling humanitarian status quo, if not actually evolving into a worse direction.