Conservative MPs urge Labour to reconsider its funding to UNRWA
Conservative MP Greg Smith has urged the new Labour Government to reconsider funding UNRWA after committing £21 million of taxpayer’s money to the organisation, in an op-ed for The Express, as well as Conservative MP for Huntingdon Ben Obese-Jecty also expressing his “concern”.
This week, UNWRA announced that nine of their employees will be fired after admitting “they may have been involved” in Hamas’ 7th October massacre in Israel.
The probe, which only looked into 19 employees, was labelled “a disgrace” by Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan.
Smith, the MP from Mid-Buckinghamshire noted that “the last Conservative Government withdrew UNRWA funding amid serious allegations of UNRWA staff having been directly involved in the evil 7th October attacks and further deep infiltration by Hamas of UNRWA activities across Gaza”.
He underscored that “according to Israeli intelligence figures, 23% of UNRWA’s male employees have ties to Hamas and 50% of UNRWA employees have close relatives who belong to Islamist terror groups”. “Most concerning of all”, he adds, “is the infiltration of schools and use of children as human shields. 1,700 of those who work in UNRWA’s education system have ties to terror organisations according to Israel– the largest of any UNRWA sector”.
“No one wants the violence to continue in the Middle East”, said Smith. “We must get the hostages out and defeat those terrorist forces that maintain hatred, murder and sexual violence”. “That task is all the more harder given the mountain of evidence against UNRWA’s involvement and under Labour, our funding of it”, he highlighted.
In a statement on X, Ben Obese-Jecty MP said he was “deeply concerned by the announcement by the UN that there is sufficient evidence that UNRWA employees were involved in the massacre in Israel on October 7th”, noting that “the previous [Conservative] Government “suspended funding to UNRWA in response to the allegations of staff involvement”. He asked Foreign Secretary David Lammy what assurances he can give “that these 9 UNRWA staff were the only Hamas-linked operatives involved in the massacre”, after making no “reference to the investigation into UNRWA staff involvement on October 7th”.
Nasrallah threatens large retaliation as exchanges continues
General Secretary of Hezbollah Hassan Nasrallah warned that Hezbollah “are obligated to respond to the murder of Fouad Shukar [Hezbollah’s second in command]”, and that “Israel’s waiting is part of the punishment”.
In a televised address on Tuesday, Nasrallah threatened that Hezbollah “can destroy the factories in the north in just one hour, including chemical and food factories”, asserting that “Israel is no longer as strong as before… asking for help from America and the Western countries to provide it with protection because it is unable to defend itself against the Iranian attack”.
Exerting psychological warfare, Nasrallah taunted: “Perhaps we will respond alone and perhaps we will respond together with the entire resistance axis, a comprehensive response. But our response will come and be significant”.
Hezbollah targeted the northern Israel city of Nehariyah on Tuesday, launching a barrage of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) towards the area. 19 people were taken to hospital for medical attention following the attacks including a male in critical condition. A barrage of 30 rockets were then fired towards the Golan Heights, with most intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome defence system. Fires were sparked with no injuries reported.
Nasrallah determined that “the Israelis asked themselves what happened today, was this the reaction to the murder of Fuad Shukar? And we say – no, this is not our reaction”.
Hezbollah’s death toll in Lebanon since 8th October surpassed 400 this week, after the Israeli Air Force (IAF) targeted a building in Maifadoun on Tuesday used by Hezbollah’s southern command. Six Hezbollah officials were killed in the attack, as well as terrorists spotted leaving a rocket launching site used to attack Israel earlier in the day.
Overnight, the IAF targeted a Hezbollah command center in Hanaouay as well as terrorist infrastructure in Ayta ash Shab including a rocket launcher site. Red alert sirens sounded in Kiryat Shmona this morning after Hezbollah launched a barrage of rockets towards the area. Residents who remain in the area have been instructed to remain in safe spaces and not in open areas.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps published videos Thursday morning of their military exercises in preparation of a perceived imminent attack on Israel. The IRGC have also been behind the social media recruitment of Israelis to carry out tasks to harm Israel’s national security. Israel’s national security agency, the Shin Bet, published a list yesterday, of the fake social media accounts activated in this process.
Sinwar declared Head of Hamas’ Political Bureau
Leader of Hamas in Gaza, and orchestrator of the 7th October massacre on Israel, Yahya Sinwar, has been declared Head of Hamas’ Political Bureau following the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.
Sinwar, who has led Hamas in the Gaza Strip since 2017, has not been since 7th October, hiding in Hamas’ terror-tunnel network whilst spearheading Hamas’ military operations and ceasefire demands.
Commander-in-Chief of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Hossein Salami, extended his congratulations to Sinwar, declaring that Israel will “soon be uprooted from the holy land of Palestine”, offering IRGC assistance; “as always, we will spare no effort in helping you and other steadfast fighters”.
IDF Chief of General Staff Herzi Halevi stated that Sinwar’s “political title won’t absolve him from being a murderer connected to the planning and execution of what happened on October 7th”. “The change in his title not only doesn’t prevent us from pursuing him, it motivates us to find him,” he added.
Sinwar has since appointed Khalil al-Hayya to resume ceasefire negotiations according to Israel’s Channel 12 News.
Revealed: Hamas embedded rocket launch pit nearby Gaza’s largest fuel storage facility
The IDF has revealed evidence of rocket launch pits embedded by Hamas, located 230 metres away from Gaza’s largest fuel storage facility containing over 500,000 litres of fuel.
The rocket launch pits, discovered along the Philadelphi corridor, have been dismantled by the IDF without damage to the fuel storage facility.
The Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), highlighted on X that “any damage to the [fuel] facility – including rocket fire from these nearby launch pits – could endanger the lives of tens of thousands of Gazan citizens in the surrounding areas”, adding that this is “another example of Hamas’s systematic abuse of civilian and humanitarian infrastructure”.
Rocket launchers used to fire dozens of rockets into Israel, were also discovered embedded nearby two humanitarian aid and distribution centres, including one owned by UNRWA this week.
Two schools in Daraj Tuffah were targeted yesterday in an IAF strike after being used as command and control centres by Hamas. Precision missiles and increased surveillance were used in the strike in order to minimise harm to civilians.
The IDF commented that “Hamas systematically violates international law, exploiting civilian structures and their population as human shields for its terrorist attacks against the State of Israel”.
The IDF have confirmed they have started a new operation in Khan Younis due to “intelligence indicating the presence of terrorists and terror infrastructure in the area”. 30 terrorist sites have been targeted so far including weapon warehouses and terrorist command centres.
Last missing person from 7th October declared dead
Bilha Yinon, from Netiv Ha’asara was declared dead after being considered missing since 7th October.
The 76-year-old is thought to have been killed in her home on 7th October when Hamas terrorists burnt it down.
A panel of health experts, IDF officials, and the Chief Rabbi of Israel announced her murder.
CST Antisemitism Report records highest levels of Antisemitism in first half of a year
The Community Security Trust (CST) published its January-June 2024 Antisemitism Report, recording the highest levels of antisemitism in the first six months of any year.
1,978 antisemitic incidents were recorded across the UK in the first half of 2024, a 105% increase from the 964 antisemitic incidents recorded by CST in same period of 2023.
The rise in antisemitic incidents “is a reflection of the ongoing high volume of anti-Jewish hate reported since the Hamas terror attack in Israel on 7 October 2023”, the Report concluded.
CST underscored that “events in the Middle East trigger a surge of antisemitic responses in the UK; from those who celebrate attacks on Israel and Israelis, those who direct their anger over this geopolitical conflict towards British Jews, and those who use these events as an excuse to express their pre-existing, general anti-Jewish prejudice”.
“The most common form of anti-Jewish discourse present in antisemitic incidents reported to CST throughout the first half of 2024 referenced or was linked to Israel, Palestine, the Hamas terror attack or the subsequent war”. 836 antisemitic incidents showed “explicitly anti-Zionist motivation alongside anti-Jewish hate speech or targeting”, with Zionism/Zionist substituted for Jew in 208 cases. “Direct comparisons were [also] drawn between Israel or Jewish people and the Nazis on 186 occasions”.
CST recorded over 210 incidents where “Free Palestine” was directed at Jewish people and Jewish infrastructure, damage to Jewish property rose by 246% including the desecration of a public chanukiah, desecration of Jewish schools and synagogues, and the targeting of hostage posters.
Incidents of Antisemitism in schools and higher education facilities also rose sharply, with an increase of 465% at university settings, which the Conservative Government called out putting extra safeguards in place.
