'Intensive battles' continue in Gaza as UN chief calls on donors to maintain aid

Heavy fighting raged in Gaza Sunday amid a fierce row over the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees that has called its future into question.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called on donor states to guarantee the flow of vital aid to Gaza after several halted funding to the agency, UNRWA, over Israeli claims that some of its staff participated in the October 7 attacks.

The Israeli army on Sunday said special forces were continuing to engage in "intensive battles" in Gaza's main southern city of Khan Yunis, where it said troops eliminated "terrorists and located large quantities of weapons".

Strikes were also carried out in central and northern Gaza, it added.

As heavy fighting sent more people fleeing south towards the Egyptian border, the row over the UNRWA aid agency for Palestinian refugees deepened. 

UNRWA said on Friday it had fired several employees over Israel's unspecified accusations about the involvement of some of its staff in Hamas's October 7 attack.

Donors including Germany, Britain, Italy, Australia and Finland on Saturday followed the lead of the United States, which said it had suspended additional funding to the agency over the accusations.

"While I understand their concerns -- I was myself horrified by these accusations -- I strongly appeal to the governments that have suspended their contributions to, at least, guarantee the continuity of UNRWA's operations," Guterres said late Saturday.

He said the "abhorrent alleged acts" of some UNRWA staff should not mean that its thousands of other humanitarian workers should be penalised.

"The dire needs of the desperate populations they serve must be met," he said.

Israel's envoy to the UN slammed Guterres, saying the UN chief had repeatedly ignored "evidence" presented to him regarding UNRWA's involvement in "incitement and terrorism".

"Any country that continues to fund UNRWA before a comprehensive investigation of the organisation should know that its money will be used for terrorism," Gilad Erdan said Sunday.

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz called on UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini to quit after saying earlier the body "must be replaced with agencies dedicated to genuine peace and development".

"Mr Lazzarini please resign," Katz said on X, formerly Twitter, late on Saturday, in response to a post by the UNRWA chief warning that the funding cuts meant the agency's operation in Gaza was close to collapse.

- UN shelter hit -
 

Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel resulted in about 1,140 deaths, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official figures.

Militants also seized about 250 hostages and Israel says around 132 of them remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 28 dead captives.

Israel's ensuing military offensive has killed at least 26,422 people, most of them women and children, in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.

Long-strained relations between Israel and UNRWA deteriorated rapidly after the UN body condemned tank shelling it said had hit a shelter for displaced people in Khan Yunis on Wednesday.

It said the tank shelling killed 13 people at the shelter where tens of thousands of displaced people had been registered.

The Israeli military has promised a thorough review but has also said it was examining the possibility it was a "result of Hamas fire".

The Israeli army is the only force known to operate tanks in the Gaza Strip.

There were heavy clashes in Khan Yunis overnight, including mortar rounds fired by militants at Israeli tanks, the armed wings of militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad said.

Rockets were also fired into southern Israel, they said, and there was fighting in several neighbourhoods of Gaza City and further north.

The Kerem Shalom crossing with Israel, where aid is inspected and sent into Gaza, was blocked Sunday by protesters including the families of hostages, said COGAT, the Israeli agency in charge of civilian affairs in the Palestinian territory.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is facing growing domestic pressure over his handling of the conflict, doubled down on his vow to eliminate Hamas from besieged Gaza.

"If we don't eliminate Hamas terrorists... the next massacre is only a matter of time," he said in a televised statement on Saturday.

Experts have told AFP Netanyahu's target of eliminating Hamas is increasingly seen within his war cabinet as incompatible with returning the hostages held in Gaza.

- Ceasefire sought -
 

The UNRWA row follows the UN's International Court of Justice ruling on Friday that Israel must prevent possible acts of genocide in the conflict, and allow in more aid, although it stopped short of calling for a ceasefire.

Diplomatic efforts to find a solution have also gathered pace.

CIA chief William Burns is to meet his Israeli and Egyptian counterparts, as well as Qatar's prime minister, in Paris soon to seek a ceasefire, a security source told AFP.

A week-long cessation of hostilities in November saw Hamas release dozens of hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

The New York Times said on Saturday US-led negotiators were getting closer to an agreement under which Israel would suspend its war in Gaza for about two months in return for the release of more than 100 hostages.

Quoting unidentified US officials, it said negotiators had developed a draft agreement that would be discussed in Paris on Sunday.

Palestinians are meanwhile fleeing further south from Khan Yunis towards Rafah, close to the Egyptian border, where the United Nations says most of Gaza's estimated 1.7 million displaced people have gathered.

Many of them live in the street in "conditions of desperation conducive to a complete breakdown in order", said Ajith Sunghay of the UN Human Rights Office.

AFP images showed people wading through ankle-deep water around plastic shelters in Rafah, where bombardment still threatens.

The Doctors Without Borders (MSF) aid group has said surgical capacity at the Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis was "virtually non-existent".

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said the Al-Amal hospital was also "under siege with heavy gunfire".