Author: AFSI Staff

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu ordered IDF Chief of Staff Major General Herzi Halevi to come up with alternatives to relying on UNRWA in the Gaza Strip in everything related to the transfer of humanitarian aid, which is currently being transferred directly to the UN agency.

According to intelligence reports examined by The Wall Street Journal, at least 12 UNWRA employees were linked to Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel. Additionally, approximately 10% of the agency’s Gaza staff are reported to have connections to Islamist terror groups.

Nitsana Darshan-Leitner stated in an interview today that, UNRWA “exists for the sole purpose of keeping the war of 1948 open until the war ends the way that the Arabs initially intended: for there not to be a Jewish State. UNRWA exists so that the refugees from that war, the Arab refugees, will continue generation after generation, never settling.”

Since UNRWA neither perpetuates nor contributes anything productive to its own people, it’s time to close it down. With so much fact emerging in the news about who they really are and what their goals are, the decision to close it should be easy to understand.

Sources:
Netanyahu Orders IDF to Replace UNWRA Distribution System in Gaza by Next Week, by David Israel/Jewish Press, February 6, 2024

Former MK: ‘UNRWA exists to keep the 1948 war going’, by Yoni Kempinski/Israel National News, February 8, 2024

Police have served a summons for a hearing before the imposition of an administrative restriction order to Yinon Levi, a husband, father, and farmer near the town of Michmas in the Binyamin region. The order comes from General Yehuda Fox, who is appointed over the IDF’s Central Command.

As part of the restrictions imposed on him, Yinon is forbidden to enter Judea and Samaria, including his house and farm, for four months, of which two have already passed. He is also forbidden to contact several dozen of his friends, has been dismissed from reserve service in the IDF, and his personal firearm confiscated at the direction of the Shin Bet, and against the advice of military officials in the area. The confiscation of his firearm has left the farm effectively defenseless.

A military source claimed that the orders are unconnected to the sanctions imposed by President Biden against four “settlers,” and added that the order had indeed been signed months ago, but that the responsibility for serving it lay with the police.

Just the other day, Bank Leumi notified Yinon, one of four Israelis who were targeted last week by US sanctions, that his accounts in Israel have been frozen.

The Israel Postal Bank has sequestered and closed the account of David Chai Chasdai, one of four Israelis who were targeted by US sanctions for claims of violence against Arabs in Judea and Samaria. The account is shared with Chasdai’s wife. “The fact that a government bank decides to sequester the accounts of settlers because of pressure from far-left organizations and the hostile American government is unfathomable, but the fact that it is happening under a right-wing government a moment after the worst massacre in history is a national embarrassment,” he stated.

Go ahead and make us believe this is unconnected to Biden’s recently signed executive order against Israeli “extremist settlers. We’ve seen this scenario before and it’s very obvious as to WHY this is happening now. This is clearly a theatrical performance to appease Biden. The fact that it’s taking place while a right-wing government is at war with terrorists is appalling.

Sources:
Day after US sanctions: Farmer served administrative restriction order, by Israel National News, February 2, 2024

Israeli bank freezes accounts of farmer targeted by US sanctions, by Israel National News, February 4, 2024

Joining US sanctions | Israel Postal Bank closes account of David Chasdai, by Israel National News, February 5, 2024

Bank Leumi has informed the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) that its account has been blocked following the detection of “unusual activity.”

Among other things, the bank suspected the funds in the account were being used for terrorist purposes against the State of Israel, and that funds were being transferred from the account to terrorist elements in Gaza.

This is a long overdue action that Israel should be taking. This is helpful and meaningful unlike the disgraceful actions we noted in the previous article against Israel’s “settlers.”

Source:
UNRWA Account Blocked by Bank Leumi, by Hana Levi Julian/Jewish Press, February 4, 2024

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday met with the delegation of United Nations ambassadors visiting Israel led by Israeli Ambassador Gilad Erdan.

“The UN is not a stellar organization when it comes to dealing with Israel. It has a UN so-called human rights commissions that devotes an enormous part of its resolutions against Israel, and nothing against Iran or Yemen or arenas of savagery,” the Prime Minister told the ambassadors.

Netanyahu told the ambassadors that they should care because “Israel is fighting the war of civilization against barbarism. Because Israel is responding to unbelievably brutal and unprovoked attacks. Because it’s doing so with the greatest effort by any army to minimize civilian casualties.”

He continued, “And we have discovered in the last few weeks, that UNRWA officials were complicit in the massacre. I think it’s time that the international community and the UN itself understand that UNRWA’s mission has to end.”

Source:
Netanyahu to UN ambassadors: ‘The world must understand that UNRWA’s mission has to end’, by Israel National News, January 31, 2024

Israeli soldiers discovered an underground tunnel running beneath the Bani Suheila cemetery in Khan Yunis, the Israel Defense Forces announced on Monday. This cemetery was one of many that IDF was accused of desecrating in recent Western media reports.

“While investigating the tunnel, the forces came across explosives, sliding doors, and blast-proof doors, and eliminated terrorists who were inside,” the IDF statement said.

“Inside the tunnel route, the forces located an office from which a Khan Yunis Brigade battalion commander managed the attack on October 7th, an operations room, a command-and-control center, and the living quarters of senior officials of the Hamas terrorist organization. The tunnel was also used by Hamas to command their attacks against IDF forces both above and below ground.”

The IDF said the shaft was one kilometer long and 20 meters below the cemetery, adding that it was part of a larger underground network.

Source:
Hamas command center uncovered under Gaza cemetery, by Pesach Benson/TPS via World Israel News, January 30, 2024

A plan for military control of Gaza which would gradually lead to a Palestinian state and Saudi Arabia’s normalization of relations with Israel was reported in Ma’ariv on Tuesday.

The first phase of the plan is a military government that will oversee humanitarian aid to Gazan civilians during the transition period.

The second phase will usher in rule of Gaza comprised by a coalition of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Morocco, the UAE, and Bahrain.

Included in the second phase is a normalization agreement that will create a new Palestinian Authority not involving Hamas or Fatah.

Israel will be allowed security control over the area similar to Judea and Samaria.

With the establishment of a new Palestinian Authority, reforms will be put in place to prevent the pro-terrorist indoctrination that characterized education in Gaza prior to October 7th.

The plan is expected to take four years and at the end of that period, a successful outcome will see the recognition of a demilitarized Palestinian state.

This is only one of several plans that have been proposed concerning the governance of Gaza after the war. While nothing is set in stone and the word “state” is a highly charged word in this context, we hope we can see an alternative without a Palestinian “state.”

Source:
Netanyahu aides propose demilitarized Palestinian state, Saudi normalization, by Vered Weiss/World Israel News, January 31, 2024

The United States is suspending additional funding to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East temporarily as it reviews charges that 12 UNRWA employees took part in Hamas’s Oct. 7 terror attack on Israel.

“The United States is extremely troubled by the allegations,” stated Matthew Miller, the U.S. State Department spokesman. Miller added that the United States is reviewing “the steps the United Nations is taking to address them.”

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with António Guterres, UN secretary-general, on Jan. 25 “to emphasize the necessity of a thorough and swift investigation of this matter,” Miller stated on Friday.

“We welcome the decision to conduct such an investigation and Secretary General Guterres’s pledge to take decisive action to respond, should the allegations prove accurate,” Miller said. “We also welcome the UN’s announcement of a ‘comprehensive and independent’ review of UNRWA.”

While this may be a “better late than never” scenario, there was significant evidence that UNRWA has been a problem for many years. Reports are coming out now that 10% of UNWRA employees have ties to terrorism. Though we would like to trust that a “thorough and swift investigation” will uncover the truth and that proper action will be taken to put a full stop to UNRWA funding, we will have to wait and see.

Sources:
UNRWA Ties to Oct. 7 Massacre Exposed – US Suspending Funding, by Hana Levi Julian/Jewish Press, January 27, 2024

Report: 10% of UNRWA staff affiliated with terror groups, by Israel National News, January 29, 2024

An estimated 5,000 people and a dozen Israeli government ministers attended a conference in Jerusalem on Sunday calling for the re-establishment of Jewish communities in Gaza.

Speaking at the conference, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich pointed out that many of the soldiers fighting in Gaza were forcibly removed 19 years earlier when Jewish communities on the Gaza Strip were dissolved. Smotrich said, “We knew what that would bring and we tried to prevent it. Without settlements, there is no security.”

“We yelled and we warned,” Ben Gvir said. “If you don’t want another October 7, we need to return home and control the land.”

Source:
Israeli ministers demand Jewish resettlement of Gaza at Jerusalem conference, by Vered Weiss/World Israel News, January 28, 2024

The IDF has been establishing a wide buffer zone inside Gaza by demolishing buildings along the border, ignoring US warnings against reducing Gaza’s territory to just such ends.

A person close to Israel’s security apparatus said the work is intended to “keep this area completely clean of any terrorists or infrastructure, rocket launchers, mortars, and to give us the freedom of operation in that space.”

To enforce the buffer zone, the IDF has demolished an estimated 1,100 buildings along the border inside Gaza, according to News12, which noted that the demolition plan calls for toppling 2,800 buildings altogether.

Former Shin Bet chief and current Agriculture Minister Avi Dichter explained, “On the Gaza Strip all along, we will have a margin. And they will not be able to get in. It will be a fire zone. And no matter who you are, you will never be able to come close to the Israeli border.”

While the U.S. will express criticism of this, Israel must do what it needs to do to keep its sovereign nation safe.

Source:
Report: 1,100 Buildings Bulldozed to Produce Broad Buffer on Gaza’s Side of the Border, by David Israel/Jewish Press

Twenty-one Israeli soldiers were killed Monday when they came under attack in the southern Gaza Strip, triggering a blast that collapsed two buildings with soldiers inside them, the military said Tuesday morning.

The buildings were being rigged for demolition by troops when Palestinian gunmen fired an RPG at a tank securing the forces. A second blast then occurred in the buildings, possibly as a result of a second RPG, leading to their collapse.

It was the single deadliest incident since the start of Israel’s ground offensive in the enclave and raised the military death toll in the operation to 219.

This tragedy is another example of why Israel must be allowed to finish the war – to eliminate Hamas and all terrorist entities.

Source:
In deadliest incident of Gaza combat, 21 soldiers killed as buildings collapse in blast, by Emanuel Fabian/Times of Israel, January 23, 2024