The IDF seized the Philadelphi Corridor to cut off Hamas’ main resupply line. Now the US has acted to assist Israel in cutting off its other resupply provider. It comes about 15 months late, but Donald Trump just told the United Nations to go pound sand.
Israel had ordered the so-called relief agency UNRWA to close its offices and end its operations in Gaza and the West Bank. Trump has followed suit via the acting ambassador to the UN:
Breaking with the previous Biden administration, the Trump administration came out on Tuesday in favor of Israeli legislation to sever Jerusalem’s ties with the UN relief agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA and to severely restrict its operations in Gaza and the West Bank.
“It is Israel’s sovereign decision to close UNRWA’s offices in Jerusalem on January 30. The United States supports the implementation of this decision,” US chargé d’affaires ad interim Dorothy Shea said in remarks during the UN Security Council’s monthly session on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The Biden administration raised concerns over the extent to which Hamas has managed to infiltrate UNRWA and moved to freeze US funding to the agency following revelations that a number of its members actively participated in Hamas’s October 7 onslaught.
“Raised concerns”? Yes, but that’s all that Biden’s team did. Hamas had so thoroughly infiltrated the UNRWA that a significant number of its employees were actually Hamas fighters. They used UNRWA offices for weapons storage and even as military operations centers. Even before this conflict erupted, Hamas had corrupted UNRWA’s supposed educational efforts to indoctrinate Gaza children with Jew-hatred propaganda that essentially formed children to become suicide bombers for Hamas.
Not only did Hamas use UNRWA for logistics and command functions, but they also controlled the aid flow into Gaza — and not just food, either. They used that to exert control over the populace by withholding resources from opponents while converting other aid into military use. The extensive tunnel system represents a massive misdirection of “humanitarian” aid under UNRWA’s auspices to military/terror purposes, which means UNRWA is largely responsible for Hamas’ dug-in status in Gaza. The UN empowered Hamas in every imaginable sense of that term, and its hands are covered in blood.
Returning to the status quo ante of asymmetric hostages-for-prisoners swaps is bad enough. Israel simply cannot allow the UN to control aid flowing into Gaza any longer, not after 20 years of collaborating with terrorists. Trump and his administration recognize this, even if Biden & Co refused to do so. “Raising concerns” is something one does when an agency bungles its budget. When they begin collaborating with terrorist networks, the time has come to end those agencies and arrest the corrupt officials that allowed it to happen.
On the topic of hostage/prisoner exchanges, the first phase of the cease-fire agreement remains active, although perhaps just barely. Seven hostages got released today, including five Thai nationals in a side deal with their government. However, Israel delayed the release of Palestinian prisoners after Hamas staged a chaotic rally in which they displayed the two Israelis hostages, with Benjamin Netanyahu threatening retaliation for these stunts:
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday slammed the “shocking scenes” of mob chaos at the Gaza handover of two Israeli hostages and five Thai hostages to the Red Cross, and delayed Israel’s reciprocal release of Palestinian security prisoners as he demanded mediators prevent a repeat in future hostage releases.
“I view with utmost severity the shocking scenes during the release of our hostages,” Netanyahu said in a statement. “This is additional proof of the inconceivable brutality of the Hamas terrorist organization.”
The prime minister said he was insisting that “mediators ensure that such terrible scenes do not recur, and guarantee the safety of our hostages.” He added that “whoever dares to harm our hostages will pay.”
Mediators apparently reached an agreement with Hamas, which has used these exchanges for maximum propaganda effect all along. Even the checkpoint releases to the Red Cross have been chaotic, and in previous exchanges hostages were forced to accept “gifts” and reportedly warned to smile and look happy. Under the Geneva Convention, these would be war crimes, but of course Hamas has no intention of ever abiding by any laws or conventions.
So far, we have not seen an American hostage released, but reportedly one will get exchanged tomorrow. The Trump administration wants to accelerate the exchange process in order to get to the end of the three phases and lay out the next steps in a Gaza solution:
The US is applying pressure to get as many hostages out as possible and “as quickly as possible,” a senior diplomatic source told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday.
The source added, “This is what the Americans want [more hostages in shorter periods of time], and I hope it happens.”
An additional source approved that the US is actually in negotiations on the issue.
That does make some sense, since the longer this process lingers, the more opportunities Hamas will have to renege. But the odds are still long on getting all three phases to completion on any pace. Once the hostages are back, the Israelis will likely adopt an even harder line against Hamas, and Hamas knows it.
