Report: Under US pressure, Israel okays UN visit to northern Gaza, places conditions

Acceding to US pressure, the war cabinet last Thursday approved allowing a United Nations delegation to enter northern Gaza to assess the situation there and map the residents’ needs ahead of a mass return home, the Ynet news site reports, adding the Jerusalem has placed conditions.

The move is largely procedural after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said earlier this month that Israeli leaders had agreed to facilitate the visit.

There are no details on when the visit will take place.

Ynet says Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has conditioned the visit on the UN team first touring Israeli communities ravaged during Hamas’s October 7 onslaught; on Israel clarifying that okaying the visit doesn’t constitute an intention to return Gazans to the Strip’s north; and on having a US official join the UN delegation.