The UN Palestinian relief agency UNRWA is continuing to deliver assistance and services in the Gaza Strip, West Bank and East Jerusalem on Thursday, said

The ban effectively cuts off the UN aid agency from delivering critical aid to Gaza, putting millions of Palestinians at risk after 15 months of war have devastated the region.

Israel on Thursday formally banned the main United Nations aid agency for Palestinian refugees from operating on its territory despite heavy diplomatic

In the Shuafat refugee camp, a hardscrabble district in east Jerusalem surrounded by a concrete wall, cars inched their way toward an Israeli checkpoint.

U.N. officials vowed Thursday that the agency would continue to deliver services in the occupied Palestinian territories for as long as possible.

Israel's imminent ban of the UN agency deepens the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, and aims to criminalise all international aid for Palestinians across the occupied territories

Iman Helles, a displaced mother sheltering in a facility run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees in Gaza, fears that she will now be “thrown out to the streets” with her three children.

Three Israeli and five Thai hostages have been freed under a phased ceasefire deal that has halted fighting in Gaza. The first hostage, 20-year-old female Israeli soldier Agam Berger, was released in northern Gaza.

Palestinian militants on Thursday freed three Israeli hostages and five foreigners captured in the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel as the third hostage-prisoner exchange of the Gaza ceasefire got under way.

In a significant development during the Gaza ceasefire, Hamas has released Israeli soldier Agam Berger in the third prisoner exchange. The carefully orchestrated swap, which includes the planned release of three more Israelis and five Thai captives,

The agency, UNRWA, will be banned from operating on Israeli soil, and contact between it and Israeli officials will also be forbidden.

The Israeli military says Hamas released a female Israeli soldier on Thursday morning. The Islamic group says it will free two more captives later in the day.