Live Middle East: WHO ‘urgently calls on’ Israel to allow UNRWA food aid back into Gaza

11:39 PM, Yesterday

WHO ‘urgently calls on’ Israel to allow UNRWA food aid back into Gaza

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Sunday ‘urgently called on’ Israel to allow UNRWA food convoys into northern Gaza. Earlier in the day, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees announced that humanitarian aid is being blocked by Israel.

WHO head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus believes that Israel must ‘urgently reverse’ that decision, he wrote on X. ‘The hunger is acute. All food delivery efforts should not only be allowed, food deliveries should be expedited immediately.”

Editorial

11:30 PM, Yesterday

Welcome to the live blog of Monday, March 25

This was the most important news about the crisis in the Middle East on Saturday March 23 and Sunday March 24:

• UN Secretary General António Guterres called for an immediate ceasefire at the Rafah border crossing on Saturday. According to him, there is international agreement that an Israeli ground offensive in the Gazan city of Rafah will result in a humanitarian disaster.

• The Israeli army has again besieged two hospitals in the southern Gazan city of Khan Younis, the Palestinian Red Crescent reported. According to the aid organization, the Israelis attacked with tanks and from the air. An employee of the Palestinian Red Crescent is said to have died.

• Israel has banned the United Nations Organization for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) from sending food aid convoys to the north of the Gaza Strip. The Commissioner General of UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, reports this on X. He calls it a ‘scandalous’ decision.

Read the full live blog from last weekend here.