Israeli PM says UN agency for Palestinians must close amid fierce fighting

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on Wednesday for the closure of the UN Palestinian refugee agency as his forces confirmed it was flooding Hamas's attack tunnels and conducted more air strikes in Gaza amid the ongoing truce talk. 

"It's time the international community and the UN itself understand that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA)'s mission has to end," Netanyahu told visiting UN delegates, according to his office.

He said UNRWA should be replaced by other aid agencies "if we are going to solve the problem of Gaza as we intend to do."

Israel has accused some UNRWA staff of involvement in the October 7 Hamas assault in southern Israel that triggered the deadly conflict in Gaza. Donors including the United States and Britain have paused funding pending an investigation, but aid agencies say ending UNRWA operations would wreck humanitarian efforts in devastated Gaza.

Earlier, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described UNRWA as "the backbone of all humanitarian response in Gaza" and appealed to all countries to "guarantee the continuity of UNRWA's life-saving work."

The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) also warned on Wednesday that cutting funds to the UN agency would have "catastrophic consequences" for people in Gaza. 

"No other entity has the capacity to deliver the scale and breadth of assistance that 2.2 million people in Gaza urgently need," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in Geneva.

IDF confirms flooding Hamas tunnels with seawater

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Tuesday that it had been flooding some tunnels in the Gaza Strip with seawater. "It is part of a range of tools deployed by the IDF to neutralize the threat of Hamas's subterranean network of tunnels," it said.

However, experts warned it was dangerous and poses huge risks to civilians.

With the latest ceasefire talk underway, world powers hope to prevent a wider conflict, but tensions in the Middle East remain high.

On Wednesday, the U.S. military said an American warship shot down three Iranian drones and a ballistic missile fired by Yemen's Houthi group, who have launched a wave of exploding drones and missiles at commercial vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden in recent weeks, calling it a response to Israel's military operations in Gaza and a show of solidarity to Palestinians.

Relations between Tehran and Washington are also tense after the deaths of three U.S. soldiers in a drone strike in Jordan that U.S. officials blame on Iran-backed militants. Washington has not yet outlined its response, but Iran's Revolutionary Guards said on Wednesday they would respond to any U.S. threat.

Three-stage truce

Hamas, the militant Palestinian group that runs Gaza, is currently studying the proposal, which envisages the release of all remaining hostages seized on October 7. Israel says they number around 136. Hamas has demanded an end to Israel's offensive.

A senior Hamas official told Reuters the Gaza ceasefire proposal involved a three-stage truce, during which Hamas would release the remaining civilians among hostages captured on October 7, then soldiers, and finally the bodies of dead hostages.

The proposal followed talks in Paris involving intelligence chiefs from Israel, the U.S. and Egypt, with the prime minister of Qatar.

Palestinians said the fighting in Gaza must end for good.

(With input from agencies)