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Israeli ships strike UN humanitarian food convoy

According to UNRWA's director in Gaza Thomas White, no one was injured

DUBAI, February 6. /TASS/. Israeli ships have struck by gunfire a humanitarian convoy of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), Al Jazeera reported.

In turn, UNRWA's director in Gaza, Thomas White, published photos showing a damaged truck.

"In Gaza this morning a food convoy waiting to move into Northern Gaza was hit by Israeli naval gunfire - thankfully no one was injured," he wrote on his X page.

Earlier, several countries, including the US, the UK, Germany and Canada, announced the suspension of UNRWA funding over suspected links to the radical Palestinian movement Hamas. UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini ordered the dismissal of several agency employees allegedly involved in the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel by Hamas militants. UN officials said that without a resumption of funding, UNRWA's operations could be in jeopardy by the end of February.

Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7, 2023, when militants from the Gaza Strip-based radical Palestinian movement Hamas staged a surprise attack on Israeli territory from Gaza, killing residents of Israeli border settlements and taking over 240 hostages, including women, children and the elderly. Hamas described its attack as a response to the aggressive actions of Israeli authorities against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City. In response, Israel declared a total blockade of the Gaza Strip, home to 2.3 million Palestinians before the crisis, and has been delivering air strikes on Gaza as well as some parts of Lebanon and Syria. Clashes have also been reported on the West Bank.