Israel continues to block aid deliveries into Gaza: UNRWA

Israel banned UNRWA’s operations in occupied East Jerusalem at the end of 2024 and has imposed mounting restrictions on the agency.

Israel has cut water and electricity supplies to the headquarters of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) in occupied East Jerusalem, according to Israel’s energy minister Eli Cohen.

Cohen said he personally oversaw the disconnection of utilities at the UNRWA compound, confirming that both electricity and water services had been shut off.

“By word and by deed, I have closed the tap on UNRWA,” he said in a post on X on Wednesday evening.

Cohen earlier told an Israeli radio station that he was heading to East Jerusalem to personally witness the cutoff of water and electricity to UNRWA facilities.

“There is no place for UNRWA in the State of Israel,” Cohen said.

Israeli forces have also carried out daily air strikes across Gaza in violation of the October ceasefire, killing 574 Palestinians and wounding 1,518 others, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

Israel’s genocide in Gaza has killed nearly 72,000 Palestinians and wounded more than 171,000, most of them women and children, and destroyed roughly 90 percent of Gaza’s civilian infrastructure.