Diplomacy over Gaza truce steps up as EU's Borrell warns over UNRWA funding

Efforts to pause the fighting between Gaza and Israel are intensifying with international mediators and foreign diplomats continuing discussions in France and the Middle East.

The conflict, set this week to enter its fifth month, shows few signs of slowing down. Israel said on Monday its forces had killed dozens of Palestinian gunmen in operations throughout the Gaza Strip with a focus on the southern hub city of Khan Younis over the last 24 hours. 

The health ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza said at least 127 people were killed in Israeli strikes in the previous 24 hours in the territory.

Israeli, Egyptian, Qatari and U.S. officials have been pressing to seal a proposed truce deal in a meeting in Paris. French foreign minister Stephane Sejourne, on his first Middle East tour, met his counterparts in Egypt and Jordan, with Amman's foreign minister Ayman Safadi saying "immediate international action" was needed "to stop the war in Gaza."

Sejourne said he had told Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi of France's desire "for a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza and restarting talks for a two-state solution." A top Hamas official in Lebanon, Osama Hamdan, said on Saturday the group needed more time to "announce our position" on the deal.

Hamdan added that Hamas wanted "to put an end as quickly as possible to the aggression that our people suffer." A Hamas source said the proposal involves an initial six-week pause that would see more aid delivered into Gaza and the phased release of Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is also pushing for a new truce on his fifth trip to the Middle East since the October 7 attack by Hamas that set off the crisis. He is expected to begin his trip on Monday in Saudi Arabia before visits to Israel, Egypt and Qatar.

Humanitarian aid will also be high on the agenda for the diplomacy, and the European Union's top diplomat Josep Borrell has expressed severe concerns over the cutting of funds to the UN Palestinian refugee agency.

Several countries, including the U.S., the UK and Italy, have paused funding to UNRWA, which has opened an investigation into several of its thousands of employees and severed ties with those people following allegations some staff were involved in the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel.

UNRWA on Thursday said its entire operations in the Middle East, not only in Gaza, will likely be forced to shut down by the end of February if its funding remains suspended. "Defunding UNRWA would be both disproportionate and dangerous," EU foreign policy chief Borrell said in a blog post.

"The wrongdoing of individuals should never lead to the collective punishment of an entire population. The lives of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, not only in Gaza, are at stake."

Borrell said neither the European Commission, nor the EU's two biggest economies, Germany or France, had ended their contributions. Funds paused by other donors amount to more than $440 million, nearly half of the agency's expected income this year, he said.

Spain, however, announced on Monday they would send UNRWA an additional $3.8 million in aid.

UNRWA employs 30,000 Palestinians to serve the civic and humanitarian needs of 5.9 million descendants of those refugees - in the Gaza Strip, in the West Bank and in vast camps in neighboring Arab countries.

"I am confident the UN will take all the necessary measures following the Israeli allegations, and that UNRWA will continue to be a vital lifeline for millions of Palestinian people," Borrell added.

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Meanwhile, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country was not ready to accept a deal at any price to release hostages held by Hamas amid rifts in his coalition over a U.S. push to get more aid into Gaza.

The comments came during the latest episode in a rumbling coalition row between religious nationalist parties opposed to any concessions to the Palestinians and a centrist group including former army generals.

"The efforts to free the hostages are continuing at all times," Netanyahu said ahead of a cabinet meeting. "As I also emphasized in the Security Cabinet – we will not agree to every deal, and not at any price."

He also appeared to deliver a rebuke to his far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who wants Jewish settlers to return to Gaza, and who criticised U.S. President Joe Biden, Israel's staunchest ally, for pressing for humanitarian aid deliveries to the enclave.

"Instead of giving us his full backing, Biden is busy with giving humanitarian aid and fuel [to Gaza], which goes to Hamas," Ben-Gvir told U.S. media, during which he openly backed Donald Trump, Biden's likely rival in the November U.S. presidential election.

"If Trump was in power, the U.S. conduct would be completely different," he added.

Without naming Ben-Gvir directly, Netanyahu, who has had a sometimes tense relationship with Biden, rejected the comment. "I am not in need of any assistance in navigating our relations with the U.S. and the international community, while steadfastly upholding our national interests," he said at Sunday's cabinet meeting.

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