UN mission to visit Gaza, but Israel will allow ONLY when…

Israel has finally acceded to a UN visit to northern Gaza, reportedly under US pressure, according to media reports. The decision, according to a Ynet report, the war cabinet had last Thursday approved allowing a delegation of the United Nations to enter northern Gaza to assess the situation. While the date of the visit is yet to be decided, Tel Aviv has made the UN visit conditional. Ynet said Defence Minister Yoav Gallant had made it clear that allowing the visit was not tantamount to agreeing for Gazan to return to the Strip. Gallant, reportedly, has also placed the condition that the Gaza visit would have to be preceded by a visit to the Israeli settlements and communities that were ravaged in the October 7 Hamas attack. A third condition to the UN visit is that an official from the US would have to be in attendance. Earlier this month a deal had been reached between Israel and the US to pave the way for an assessment mission by the UN. “As Israel’s campaign moves to a lower intensity phase in northern Gaza, and as the IDF scales down its forces there, we agreed today on a plan for the UN to carry out an assessment mission," Blinken had said during a press conference in Tel Aviv.