UN chief Antonio Guterres pays tribute to fallen UNRWA employees
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has paid tribute to the 188 staff who died in the line of duty last year, including 135 employees of the agency for Palestinian refugees.
“That is by far the highest number of our personnel killed in a single conflict or natural disaster since the creation of the United Nations – a reality we can never accept,” Guterres said in remarks to the UN’s annual memorial service for fallen staff on Thursday.
“Some were killed with their families by bombardment of their homes; others were at work, both in offices and shelters.”
Guterres said there needed to be a “full accounting” for every death.
“We owe this to their family members and friends, to their colleagues and to the world. Our UNRWA personnel lived and died as representatives of the international community in Gaza, and that community deserves an explanation.”
UN chief @antonioguterres paid tribute to the 188 staff who lost their lives last year in the line of duty.
Amongst those were 135 men and women who worked for @UNRWA in #Gaza - the highest number of UN staff ever killed in a single conflict or natural disaster. pic.twitter.com/wHbJwW8VDH
— UN News (@UN_News_Centre) June 6, 2024
US pundit Briahna Joy Gray fired after interview with sister of Israeli captive
A talk show host in the United States has been fired after a backlash over her interview with the sister of an Israeli captive.
Briahna Joy Gray said on Thursday that The Hill had terminated her employment as a co-host of the online talk show, Rising. Gray said in a post on that X that her firing reflected a “clear pattern of suppressing speech – particularly when it’s critical of the state of Israel”.
During an interview with Yarden Gonen, the sister of Hamas captive Romi Gonen, on Tuesday, Gray sighed and rolled her eyes after Gonen said the host should believe women who say they were victimised by Hamas.
“I really hope that you, specifically, will believe women when they say that they got hurt,” Gonen said.
Gray has previously questioned claims that Hamas carried out rapes during the group’s October 7 attacks on Israel.
Gray, who served as the press secretary for Bernie Sanders during his 2020 presidential campaign, last month attracted criticism when she said during a panel discussion that Hamas’s calls for the elimination of Israel did not mean it was calling for the killing of all Jews in the country.
Oh well, that's it for The Hill: Rising then. She was indeed the critical one on the channel.
Israel privately objects to US ceasefire resolution circulated at UN Security Council: Report
The Associated Press (AP) news agency reports that Israel is privately objecting to a US attempt to pass a resolution at the UN Security Council that would lead to a ceasefire in Gaza.
According to the AP, the US has circulated a revised draft of a UNSC resolution aimed at bringing about a ceasefire in Gaza, and which states that the council “welcomes the new ceasefire proposal announced on May 31, which is acceptable to Israel … [and] calls upon Hamas to also accept it”.
But an Israeli official told the AP that the language overlooks Israel’s stated aim of destroying Hamas as a military force. Israel also objects to the proposed language in the resolution that “rejects any attempt at demographic or territorial change in the Gaza Strip”.
The official told the AP, speaking on condition of anonymity, that Israel also objects to the resolution’s reference to “actions that reduce the territory of Gaza, such as through the permanent establishment officially or unofficially of so-called buffer zones”, which Israel said it plans to establish.
