Over 500,000 Return Home in North Gaza

The UN on Tuesday reported that “more than 565,000 people have crossed from the south to the north of Gaza since” Jan. 27.

Citing the Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), spokesman Stephane Dujarric reported during a news conference that “more than 45,000 people have been observed moving from the north to the south” of the Gaza Strip.

He stated that the UN and its partners on the ground are “working to mitigate the impact of the widespread destruction of critical water, sanitation and hygiene infrastructure that has taken place throughout the Gaza Strip.”

Asked about US President Donald Trump’s impending executive order to withdraw from the UN Human Rights Council and block funding for the UN relief agency for Gaza (UNRWA), Dujarric said: “We will obviously see what is being signed right.”

“But the US will take the decision that it takes. It doesn’t alter our position on the importance of the Human Rights Council,” he said according to Anadolu.

Describing the executive order as “something that’s very new,” Dujarric affirmed that the decision will not change the UN’s ” commitment to supporting UNRWA in its work and in its work of delivering critical services to Palestinians under its jurisdiction, its mandate.”

The US funding to the UNRWA was suspended in 2024 under the Joe Biden administration after Israel accused 12 of UNRWA’s thousands of employees in Gaza of being involved in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel.

Amid a probe of the claims, at least 16 countries, including the US, paused or suspended funding to the agency, and its aid work for Gaza’s famine-stricken population. But most of the key donors resumed aid after an independent review of UNRWA found that Israel had not provided any evidence to back its claims.

UNRWA was created by the UN General Assembly more than 70 years ago to assist Palestinians who were forcibly displaced from their land

Israel had ordered UNRWA to shut down all operations in East Jerusalem by Thursday, in line with a directive communicated in a letter from Israel’s Permanent Representative to the UN Danny Danon to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Jan. 24.

Following the order, UNRWA evacuated its headquarters in Sheikh Jarrah in East Jerusalem, where it had operated since 1951, as well as a clinic in the Old City and multiple schools, including a vocational training center.

The move came amid growing tensions between Israel and international organizations, as multiple UN bodies continue to raise concerns over the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza and the West Bank.