News - Middle East: The UN agency for Palestinian refugees says nothing has changed on the ground since the Israeli military announced “tactical pauses” in hostilities along a road in the southern city of Rafah.

Philippe Lazzarini, the UNRWA chief, said on Monday “operationally nothing had changed” in the southern Gaza Strip.

Israel had said it would implement the halts during daylight hours from the Karem Abu Salem land crossing to the Salah a-Din highway, a main north-south road.

Benjamin Netanyahu was not happy about the military plan for pauses. He said over the weekend that it was “unacceptable.”

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have already fled the city since Israel’s savagery expanded into the city in early May.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Lazzarini said UNRWA has funding until July but the future beyond that was unknown.

The UNRWA chief also warned that a “silent war” was taking place in the occupied West Bank.

Israel turned Gaza into ‘hell on earth’: UN official

Separately, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths said the Israeli bombing of the besieged Palestinian territory since October 7 has turned it into “hell on earth.”

Griffiths said it was almost impossible to deliver humanitarian aid to the residents of Gaza, who are on the brink of famine.