The Palestinian Authority’s foreign ministry has issued a statement condemning the reported burning of cars by Israeli settlers in Al-Bireh in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

In a statement, the ministry said it condemned the “brutal attack” in “the strongest terms”, saying that “it considers it an extension of the crimes of settler gangs throughout the West Bank, including occupied Jerusalem, and a copy of the manifestations of the genocide and displacement of our people in the Gaza Strip.”

It continued:

The ministry affirms that the Jewish terrorist elements who stormed Al-Bireh would not have committed this heinous crime had they not felt protected, supported and immune from the political level in the occupying state, especially the ministers of the extreme Israeli right who openly incite against Palestinian citizens, their land and their property in full view.

Senior members of Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government have repeated stated their intention to prevent the creation of a Palestinian state and their desire to encourage further illegal settlements inside the West Bank.

Al-Bireh is to the north-east of Ramallah.

Israel’s foreign ministry has said in a statement, reported by AFP, that it has formally notified the UN that the country will ban the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency, Unrwa, from operating inside Israel.

Unrwa operates 96 schools in the Israeli-occupied West Bank serving 45,000 students, as well as 43 health centres, food distribution services for refugee families, and psychological support services, according to the agency’s website. It has played a crucial logistical role in facilitating the delivery of humanitarian aid in Gaza, as well as providing shelters for displaced Palestinians.

“On the instruction of foreign minister Israel Katz, the ministry of foreign affairs notified the UN of the cancellation of the agreement between the state of Israel and Unrwa,” the foreign ministry said.

Israel has alleged that 12 Unrwa employees took part in the Hamas attack inside southern Israel on 7 October 2023. The agency fired several staff members as a result of an independent inquiry, but says that Israel’s wider accusations of staff in Gaza supporting Hamas are unfounded.

In Monday’s statement, Katz said “Unrwa, the organisation whose employees participated in the 7 October massacre and many of whose employees are Hamas operatives, is part of the problem in the Gaza Strip and not part of the solution.”

Unrwa’s mandate is to provide life-giving services to anyone who has “lost both home and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 conflict”, a mission widened after the 1967 war, when the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories began.

Foreign minister Katz disputed that cutting off Unrwa would damage the delivery of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, which has been besieged by Israeli forces and subjected to aerial bombardment for over a year. Nearly all of the territory’s 2.4 million people have been displaced from their homes at least once.

“Even now, the vast majority of humanitarian aid to Gaza is delivered through other organisations, and only 13 percent of it is delivered through Uurwa,” Katz said.

“The state of Israel is committed to international law and will continue to facilitate the entrance of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip in a manner that does not harm the security of the citizens of Israel.”

Israel is yet to provide any proposal for how the functions of Unrwa would be replaced. Israel has been repeatedly accused of breaching international humanitarian law in its response to the 7 October attack.

During a recent visit to the region, US secretary of state Antony Blinken cautioned Israel that the US was watching “very carefully” for progress being made on stepping up the amount of aid being delivered to Gaza.

Israel’s ambassador to the UN Danny Danon said “the state of Israel will continue to cooperate with humanitarian organisations but not with organisations that promote terrorism against us.”

In a message on its official Telegram channel, Israel’s military has claimed that on Monday morning it had intercepted what it termed “a suspicious aerial target” that crossed into Israeli-controlled territory “from the east”.

There were no reports of any casualties. In the same message the IDF said it had also intercepted “a suspicious aerial target in the Upper Galilee area” that had crossed into Israeli territory from Lebanon.

Emanuel Fabian, who reports for the Times of Israel, posted to suggest that two drones had headed towards Israeli-controlled territory from Iraq.

In a message on its official Telegram channel, Israel’s military has claimed to have killed a Hezbollah commander who it names as Abu Ali Rida. It said he commanded the Baraachit area in southern Lebanon.

The IDF described him as being “responsible for planning and executing rocket and anti-tank missile attacks on IDF troops.”

In the operational update, Israel said:

IDF troops continue to conduct limited, localised, targeted raids in southern Lebanon, dismantling terrorist infrastructure, locating weapons, and eliminating terrorists.

Huge swathes of Lebanon’s population have been displaced from their homes by Israel’s military action against Hezbollah. According to Lebanese authorities, more than 2,800 people have been killed inside Lebanon by Israeli attacks. Tens of thousands of Israelis in the north of the country have also been displaced from their homes by near constant rocket frie from Hezbollah and other anti-Israeli forces inside Lebanon.