Israel to cease all contact with UNRWA Palestinian aid agency
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Israel will cease all contact with the UN's Palestinian relief agency and any other body acting on UNRWA's behalf, Israel's UN envoy Danny Danon said on Tuesday. UNRWA estimates that it has provided 60 percent of the food aid reaching Gaza since the start of the war in October 2023. Follow our liveblog for the latest developments.
- US President Donald Trump reiterated his call to move Palestinians from Gaza to "safer" locations such as Egypt or Jordan.
- Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has received an invitation to meet with Trump in Washington on February 4, the Israeli PM’s office confirmed.
- Israel said it will cut all contact with UNRWA and any other body acting on its behalf, its UN envoy said, after repeatedly accusing the agency of undermining its security. The US supports Israel's move, its UN envoy told a Security Council meeting on the issue.
Staff across the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were ordered Monday to cut off all communications with the World Health Organization, multiple federal health officials confirmed to CBS News, to comply with President Trump's executive order last week.
Beyond calling for the U.S. to begin the yearlong process to formally withdraw from funding the U.N. health agency, Mr. Trump's executive order had also instructed federal agencies to "recall and reassign" any U.S. government personnel from working with the WHO.
The sweeping directive to implement the order was issued by the CDC's Deputy Director for Global Health John Nkengasong in an email Monday, one official said, pending further guidance for when and how exceptions might be carved out.
CDC staff assigned to work for the WHO are also being told not to come into the office, the email said, pending further guidance from leadership.
Mr. Trump has long been critical of the WHO, blaming the organization for mishandling COVID-19 and saying it gets too much money from the U.S., which donates the most of any country.
At an event in Las Vegas on Jan. 25, he said the WHO had offered to cut the U.S. funding commitment down to around the amount given by China.
"Maybe we would consider doing it again. I don't know. Maybe we would. They have to clean it up a little bit," Mr. Trump said.
Former health officials tell CBS News they worry the U.S. withdrawal from the WHO could endanger efforts to respond to diseases, both undermining the U.N. agency and also making it harder for American officials to prepare.
The first way U.S. officials would sometimes hear about worrying outbreaks was through the WHO, especially in countries wary of working with American authorities. The WHO also relies on disease experts dispatched by the U.S. and other countries to fill its ranks.
From X.com
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