Israel’s War Cabinet approved a visit by a United Nations delegation wishing to map civilian needs in northern Gaza, Ynet has learned on Monday. The decision came after the U.S. urged Israel to allow the delegation to assess the situation in the Strip.
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However, three conditions were set by the cabinet in their meeting on Thursday: Defense Minister Yoav Galant insisted that before entering Gaza, the delegation must visit Israeli communities near the border that fell victim to the Hamas massacre, Israel clarified the visit would not imply an intention to allow Gazans to return to their homes after evacuating to the safety of the South, and the inclusion of Americans in the UN mission.
The visit is to be coordinated by the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Tor Wennesland. However, an issue that remains unsolved is who will provide security for the delegation, the IDF, or UN security personnel.
This is, in fact, a commitment made by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken during his visit to Israel on January 9. "We agreed today on a plan for the UN to carry out an assessment mission to determine what needs to be done to allow Palestinians to return safely to homes in the north.
The mission will start a process that evaluates these obstacles and how they can be overcome,” Blinken said in a press conference at the time.
Netanyahu told Blinken during their meeting that it wasn’t possible to allow Gazans to return to northern Gaza at this stage. Still, the two agreed to advance a UN delegation's visit to the area to assess the damage and explore the possibility of establishing temporary structures to which residents could return in the future.