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The Israeli office of the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories slammed UNRWA and accused the United Nations organization of creating a provocation. Despite not having received Israeli approval, UNRWA drove several trucks carrying supplies from Jerusalem to the Gaza border crossing and coordinated their arrival with several media outlets, which filmed the trucks being turned away.

GAZA CITY (Ma’an) -- Gaza government officials on Tuesday urged school children to leave classrooms if human rights lessons included information about the Holocaust. The Hamas-led government said it would do everything it could to prevent children being taught about the Holocaust in UNRWA schools in the Gaza Strip. It accused the UN agency of overstepping its humanitarian and relief role. UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness explained that human rights education has been part of the agency's curriculum in schools across the region since 2002. In Gaza, the agency runs 228 schools, educating over 200,000 children. "Because of the situation in...

'Extreme' desert runner Max Calderan's "Run for Love" may be more about politics than peace, despite claims by United Nations spokesman Chris Gunness that the event has little to do with religion or politics. Nonetheless, Calderan found out the hard way that not all marathons are alike, when he encountered a snag at the Erez Crossing into Gaza, where IDF officials stopped him right in his tracks.

Hamas police in Gaza have seized thousands of blankets and food parcels meant for needy residents, UN spokesman Chris Gunness said Wednesday. Gunness said Hamas police raided a UN warehouse in Gaza City, snatching 3,500 blankets and over 400 food parcels - supplied meant for 500 Palestinian families. He said the incident took place on Tuesday evening, and that it marked the first time Hamas had seized UN aid. The aid is especially vital now because Gazans are facing hardship after Israel's three-week military offensive against Hamas. Israeli officials have charged that the group routinely confiscates supplies meant for needy...

A heated argument is going on via Arutz Sheva between Christopher Gunness, UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency created especially for the Arab "refugees") spokesman in Israel, and David Bedein, head of the Israel Resource News Agency, Center for Near East Policy Research in Jerusalem, about whether UNRWA bears responsibility for programs that promote destroying Israel at UNRWA-aided schools. The story: David Bedein wrote an op-ed for Arutz Sheva claiming UNRWA sponsored programs were based on implementing the "Law of Return", even through violence. UNRWA's spokesman vehemently denied it. ..... .....

Update as of 7:30 a.m. EDT: Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian protester near Hebron in the West Bank early on Monday morning. According to reports, 11 others were injured in confrontations between the Israel Defense Forces, or IDF, and civilians in Hebron, Bethlehem and Ramallah. Meanwhile, Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said in an IDF briefing that Hamas had “suffered great damage” and that IDF will “make Hamas regret that they embarked on a round of fighting with Israel.” Referring to rocket fire from Syria and Lebanon, Ya’alon stated that Israel would “respond aggressively” against such attempts. At least...

  UNRWA lifts suspension on Gaza aid imports http://www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=42740 UNRWA Press Release East Jerusalem 09 Feb 2009FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEUNRWA LIFTS SUSPENSION OF AID IMPORTS INTO GAZA PRESS STATEMENT BY CHRISTOPHER GUNNESS UNRWA SPOKESPERSONThe Hamas authorities in Gaza have returned to the UNRWA warehouses in Gaza City and Rafah all of the aid supplies confiscated on 03 and 05 February. UNRWA will now lift the suspension on the import of its humanitarian supplies into Gaza, which went into effect on 05 February.However, the Agency's food distribution operation to 900,000 refugees continues to be jeopardized by the decision of the Israeli...

The IDF was not responsible for the death of a Palestinian aid worker contracted to the UN and the wounding of two others on Thursday, the IDF Spokesman said Saturday. "An IDF investigation has found that it was not the army who fired on a UN truck at the Erez crossing," the IDF Spokesman's Office said. The IDF is not sure who fired on the truck, and is still investigating. "The army further wishes to point out that the Palestinian wounded were evacuated by the Red Cross to the Israeli border, where they were taken by Israeli medical personnel for...

Hamas on Monday claimed to have confiscated three ambulances that were imported into the Gaza Strip for UNRWA several weeks ago, backing up an earlier IDF claim that the ambulances had been seized. But UNRWA, which last week denied an earlier Jerusalem Post article quoting IDF claims that the ambulances had been confiscated, reiterated Monday that the reports were false, said that the ambulances were safe and sound in its Gaza compound, and even distributed a photograph of one of its officials, Christer Nordal, posing with what it said were the vehicles in question. According to a statement released by...

Israel is calling out a United Nations aid agency for falsely claiming that the Israeli Defense Forces did not permit civilians to evacuate a Gaza school where 15 people were killed today. The U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) laid blame for the civilian deaths on the IDF, claiming it never received approval from the IDF for an evacuation from the facility. UNRWA—which has been under fire in recent days for allowing Hamas to use its facilities to store rockets—released a statement claiming: “UNRWA had been attempting to negotiate with the [IDF] a pause in the fighting during which they...

As usual, there is a big gap between what Arab countries promise and what they deliver. Ki-moon walks through a Hamas terror tunnel from Gaza to Israel last year. Photo Credit: Haim Zach / GPO UNRWA said Tuesday it has suspended it program rehabilitate Gaza, which may be good news for Israel since it says material shipped to Gaza are also being used to rehabilitate terror tunnels. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told President Reuven Rivlin in New York Monday night that the United Nations has sent a team to Gaza to investigate assertions by Israel that metal and cement shipped...

Israel on Thursday called out a United Nations aid agency for falsely claiming that the Israeli Defense Forces did not permit civilians to evacuate a Gaza school where 15 people were killed in an Israeli attack, reports the Washington Free Beacon. The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) laid blame for the civilian deaths on the IDF, claiming it never received approval from the IDF for an evacuation from the facility. UNRWA released a statement claiming, “UNRWA had been attempting to negotiate with the [IDF] a pause in the fighting during which they would guarantee a safe corridor to relocate...

Thou shall not cross Dear Leader. With their gutter sniping failing to stop Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s planned March speech before Congress, White House aides are unloading their full arsenal of bile. “He spat in our face publicly, and that’s no way to behave,” one Obama aide told an Israeli newspaper. “Netanyahu ought to remember that President Obama has a year and a half left to his presidency, and that there will be a price.” It is pointless to say petty threats do not become the Oval Office. Trying to instruct this White House on manners recalls what Mark Twain...

In the hubbub surrounding the “battle of the flotilla,” Netanyahu’s quick reversal of his decision to remain in the United States has been largely ignored. It turns out that Obama told him to leave because he didn’t want Netanyahu to use the White House as a stage on which to present Israel’s side of the story. The flotilla violence caught Netanyahu in the midst of a diplomatic trip to North America. He was in the Canadian capital of Ottawa at the time, about to leave for Washington for a meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama. The meeting was to have...

President emphasizes backing of Jewish state’s right to defend itself against rocket fire, says current offensive focused on tunnels. President Barack Obama said Friday that he encouraged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to minimize civilian deaths in Israel’s ground push into Hamas-ruled Gaza, while letting him know that the US supports Israel’s right to self defense “No nation should accept rockets being fired into its borders,” Obama told reporters at the White House. The US president said he spoke by phone with Netanyahu earlier in the day, over the sounds of sirens going off in the background in Tel Aviv, and...

A huge front-page story in today's Wall Street Journal is called "Israel Outflanks White House in Pressing Gaza Strategy." The piece contends among other things that Israel has been doing an end-around the White House by securing munitions directly from the Pentagon. That contention is false. In fact, buried in the twenty-first paragraph of the piece is an explanation that the weapons purchase that they suggest is an end-around in the first few paragraphs is actually standard operating procedure. The WSJ piece begins: White House and State Department officials who were leading U.S. efforts to rein in Israel's military campaign...

President Obama’s refusal to meet with Benjamin Netanyahu when the Israeli prime minister comes to Washington in March to address a joint meeting of Congress is a petulant, juvenile snub — one that couldn’t be more badly timed. The Israeli leader “spat in our face,” an unnamed senior U.S. official told Israeli newspaper Haaretz, “and there will be a price.” An unnamed source “close to Kerry” told the Washington Post the House speech “could blunt Secretary Kerry’s enthusiasm for being Israel’s primary defender.” That’s gangster talk, aimed at one of America’s closest allies — all because the Israeli leader dared...

“If you like your Ebola free United States, you can keep your Ebola free United States” could be another Barack Obama promise. Just another in the long time of promises with, as Jim Geraghty of National Review has noted, comes with an expiration date. This one set on September 20, 2014, when the Ebola patient arrived in Dallas carrying the disease. Since then, the Obama administration has been asked about stopping flights into West African countries where Ebola is a problem. Their position is to keep the flights going. But don’t worry. We are taking people’s temperature before they board...

NOTE The following text is a quote: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-obama-and-president-abbas-palestinian-authority-after-meeting Home • Briefing Room • Speeches & Remarks The White House Office of the Press Secretary For Immediate Release June 09, 2010 Remarks by President Obama and President Abbas of the Palestinian Authority after Meeting Oval Office 11:58 A.M. EDT PRESIDENT OBAMA: Hello, everybody. Be careful, careful. Before I begin, I know that there was just a vote in the United Nations Security Council. I'm going to comment on that separately. I don't want to detract from the topic at hand here. So for reporters who are interested in that issue, I...

U.S.-Israeli relations sink to new low. President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had a “particularly combative” phone call Wednesday over efforts to secure a lasting peace in Gaza, a sign that relations between the two countries have fallen to a new low, according to a Wall Street Journal report from Jerusalem. White House officials are said to think Netanyahu and his national-security team are both reckless and untrustworthy. The U.S. administration was caught off guard when it learned the Israeli military had been quietly securing tank rounds from the Pentagon during the Gaza conflict.