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Israel passes laws to restrict work of UN agency that aids Gaza [Video]
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Israel passes laws to restrict work of UN agency that aids Gaza [Video]

Israeli lawmakers passed two laws on Monday that could threaten the work of the main U.N. agency providing aid to people in Gaza by barring it from operating on Israeli soil, severing ties with it and deeming it a terror organization.The laws, which do not immediately go into effect, signal a new low for a long-troubled relationship between Israel and the U.N. Israel’s international allies said they were deeply worried about its potential impact on Palestinians as the war’s humanitarian toll is worsening.Under the first law, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, or UNRWA, would be banned from conducting any activity or providing any service inside Israel, while the second would sever diplomatic ties with it. The legislation risks collapsing the already fragile process for distributing aid in Gaza at a moment when Israel is under increased U.S. pressure to ramp up aid.Israel has alleged that some of UNRWAs thousands of staff members participated in the Hamas attacks last year that sparked the war in Gaza. It also has said hundreds of UNRWA staff have militant ties and that it has found Hamas military assets near or under the agency’s facilities.The agency fired nine employees after an investigation but denies it knowingly aids armed groups and says it acts quickly to purge any suspected militants from its ranks. Some of Israel’s allegations prompted major international donors to cut funding to the agency, although some of it has been restored.The law that we passed now is not just another bill. It is a call for justice and a wake-up call, said lawmaker Boaz Bismuth, who co-sponsored one of the bills. UNRWA is not an aid agency for refugees. It is an aid agency for Hamas.The first vote passed 92-10 and followed a fiery debate between supporters of the law and its opponents, mostly members of Arab parliamentary parties. The second law was approved 87-9.Yuli Edelstein, a lawmaker who chaired committee discussions about the bills, said during the debate that the laws were not meant to affect what he said was Israel’s commitment to ensuring humanitarian aid reaches Gaza. But it was not clear how that would look once these bills take effect.Together, the laws would effectively sever ties with the U.N. agency, strip it of legal immunities and restrict its ability to support Palestinians in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. The legislation does not include provisions for alternative organizations to oversee its work.The changes would also be a serious blow to the agency and to Palestinians in Gaza. More than 1.9 million Palestinians are displaced from their homes, and Gaza faces widespread shortages of food, water and medicine.International aid groups and a handful of Israels Western allies, including the U.S., have voiced strong opposition.U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller, speaking to reporters in Washington, said the administration was deeply concerned by the legislation. Theres nobody that can replace them right now in the middle of the crisis, he said.UNRWA provides education, health care and other basic services to millions of Palestinian refugees across the region, including in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.The laws would go into effect 60 to 90 days after Israels Foreign Ministry notifies the U.N., according to the spokesperson of lawmaker Dan Illouz, one of the co-sponsors of one of the laws.Its a disaster said Juliette Touma, communications director for the agency. UNRWA is the largest humanitarian organization in Gaza … Who can do its job?Death toll in Gaza surpasses 43,000 as Israeli raids continueWith no end in sight to the war, officials in Gaza reported Monday that the death toll from the yearlong fighting surpassed 43,000. The Palestinian Health Ministry’s count does not distinguish between civilians and combatants, but it says more than half of the dead are women and children.The rising death toll comes as Israel refocuses its offensive on Gaza’s hard-hit north, including on a hospital where the military says militants were operating from.Israeli forces raided the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza on Friday. An Israeli military official, speaking Monday on condition of anonymity in keeping with regulations, said there was heavy fighting around the hospital, though not inside it, and that weapons were found inside the facility. The military said Monday the raid had ended.Israel has raided several hospitals in Gaza over the course of the yearlong war, saying Hamas and other militants use them for military purposes. Palestinian medical officials deny those allegations and accuse the military of recklessly endangering civilians.The Israeli military said it detained 100 suspected Hamas militants in the latest raid. The Israeli official said medical staff were detained and searched because some of the militants had disguised themselves as medics.The World Health Organization accused Israel of detaining 44 male hospital staff. It was not immediately clear why there was a discrepancy in the figures. Palestinian medical officials said the hospital, which was treating some 200 patients, was heavily damaged in the raid.The Israeli military has called on Palestinians to evacuate northern Gaza, where it has been waging a large offensive for more than three weeks. The official said the operation in the northern Gaza city of Jabaliya would last several more weeks.The U.N. said earlier this month at least 400,000 people are in northern Gaza, an area that was an early target of Israel’s retaliatory war. Hunger there is rampant as the amount of humanitarian aid reaching the north has plummeted over the past month.The Israel-Hamas war began after militants from Hamas and other groups stormed into Israel, killing some 1,200 people mostly civilians and abducting 250 others. The war has roiled the Middle East, setting off fighting between Israel and Hezbollah as well as between Israel and Iran, archenemies who had long kept their conflict a shadow war but are now engaging in open fighting.In Lebanon, successive Israeli airstrikes have pummeled the southern port city of Tyre following an evacuation order from the Israeli military for parts of the city, the state-run National News Agency reported Monday. No casualties were immediately reported.International mediators renew efforts for a Gaza cease-fireAfter collapsing in late summer, international mediators were trying to jump-start cease-fire efforts between Israel and Hamas. Israel said it would continue discussions on a halt in fighting after the head of the Mossad agency, David Barnea, returned from a meeting in Qatar with the head of the CIA, David Burns, and the Qatari prime minister.Mediators are trying varying proposals to try to bring Israel and Hamas toward a deal. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi has suggested a two-day cease-fire in exchange for the release of four hostages.Israel appeared responsive to the idea. One Israeli official said Israel was discussing the proposal both internally and with Egyptian officials. A second official said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed enthusiasm for the proposal in a meeting with his Likud party on Monday.Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss internal deliberations about the proposal with the media.Hamas has yet to formally respond to the plan, and Hamas officials were not reachable for comment on Monday.

Though still grieving, Matthew Perry’s loved ones are turning his death into a legacy of helping others [Video]
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Though still grieving, Matthew Perry’s loved ones are turning his death into a legacy of helping others [Video]

Matthew Perry often spoke about how much he wanted to help people. One year after his death, those who loved him are healing with the same sentiment at the forefront of their minds.”It’s been hard on everyone,” Perry’s sister Caitlin Morrison told CNN in a recent interview.Morrison, who is the daughter of Suzanne Morrison and Perry’s stepfather, ‘Dateline’ correspondent Keith Morrison, serves as the executive director for the Matthew Perry Foundation of Canada, which launched just last week.It had been the actor’s longtime dream help others struggling with addiction. Now, those who knew him best are working to make his wish a reality in his absence.The Matthew Perry Foundation of Canada is focused on providing housing, mental health, career and financial support to individuals in their first year of recovery as they navigate what Morrison described as a “very tenuous time in early sobriety,” a time she said she experienced Perry also struggle with.”I remember him saying quite a few times that that first year was just such a beast. There were so many roadblocks and so many difficulties,” she recalled. “We thought it would be kind of exactly a thing that would be aligned with something he wanted to do, to say, ‘Well, let’s help people. Let’s help people get past that hurdle that was such a high and difficult hurdle to get over when he was first fighting his battle.'”Perry’s mother, his lifelong friend Brian Murray and Cara Vaccarino, the president and CEO of Canadian mental health research firm The Royal, are also involved with the organization.Morrison said that pouring herself into task has aided in her own healing.”If the work that I’m doing right now saves a family from feeling that way, that’s a relief to my own grief,” she added.’He’s still so central to our lives’Perry is best known for playing the quick-witted and lovable Chandler Bing on “Friends,” alongside Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, David Schwimmer and Matt LeBlanc from 1994 to 2004. He also played Oscar Madison in the 2015 reboot of “The Odd Couple” series, and appeared in films including “17 Again,” “The Whole Nine Yards” and “Fools Rush In,” among others.His acting style gravitated toward franticly funny but could veer toward vulnerably human with charming ease. It was always uniquely his own.Behind the scenes, he struggled with addiction, which he chronicled in his 2022 memoir “Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing.” By speaking publicly about it, Perry sought to bring comfort and healing to those facing the same adversities that he did.Perry died at his Pacific Palisades home in October 2023. He was 54.His death, according to the Los Angeles Medical Examiner’s Office autopsy report, was a result of “acute effects of ketamine” and subsequent drowning.Five people have since been charged in connection with his death.Three of the five people charged have taken plea deals, while the other two are set to go to trial this spring.In November 2023, days after Perry’s death, Lisa Kasteler and Doug Chapin his former longtime publicist and manager, respectively established the Matthew Perry Foundation in California. Chapin jokingly calls it “the last order we got from our client.””And we immediately put it into effect,” he said.The organization is sponsored and maintained by the National Philanthropic Trust, which helps the Matthew Perry Foundation provide resources and funding for west coast-based organizations working to combat addiction in their communities.Chapin and Kasteler said that stigma played a role in the challenges that Perry faced along his own recovery journey, and that combating that stigma is one of their main objectives.”I know if Matthew hadn’t been ashamed, he’d be here,” Kasteler said. “If we do nothing more than get rid of the stigma around this, because that just leads to so many other things, then I’ll be happy.”Kasteler who lovingly described Perry as her “favorite” client was planning to retire after a decades-long career leading powerhouse PR agency Wolf Kasteler before Perry died. She now serves as the executive director of the foundation. Chapin is the foundation’s board president.Acknowledging how rare it is in the entertainment industry to have had such a longstanding, deeply personal relationship with a client, both Kasteler and Chapin said their continued work at the foundation throughout this past year has helped keep Perry close to their hearts.”Retirement didn’t exactly work out,” Kasteler said. “But that’s okay because I think this is the most important work that I’ve done.”Added Chapin: “He still feels alive in a lot of ways. He’s still so central to our lives and we’re still basically working for him. It keeps him alive. So it’s a thing that helps on these tough days.”‘Cherish every moment’Many of Perry’s former co-stars have been open about their grief.His “Friends” castmates put out a statement in the days after his death, but individually, they have continued to speak to the pain of his absence.In a tribute last year, Aniston wrote, “Being able to really SIT in this grief allows you to feel the moments of joy and gratitude for having loved someone that deep. And we loved him deeply.”His “Friends” castmates weren’t the only ones. Throughout his career, Perry was part of several ensemble casts.In recent interview with CNN, Yvette Nicole Brown, who starred with Perry and Thomas Lennon on “The Odd Couple,” remembered Perry as “an open book,” whose loss taught her “to cherish every moment.””You don’t know when the last time you’re going to speak to someone is,” she said. “That’s the greatest lesson from him.”As much as Brown looked up to Perry as a professional, she admitted she was also a fan. In their early days on set, she worked to quell her excitement, only looking at Perry in the eye when she had to. Perry caught on.”He was like, ‘Yvette, come on. It’s me. We’re here together,'” she recalled. “He was very aware and not from a conceited or arrogant space of his impact (and) he wanted people to be comfortable. More than anything, Matthew wanted people to be comfortable.”Perry always cared for people and wanted them to be okay, Brown said whether they were costars or a stranger walking their own path through addiction.”That is why I continue to say yes to speaking about him, because I don’t want anything else that comes out in the salacious space to overshadow the heart of him and the kindness of him, the friendship of him,” she said. “The circumstances of how he left here and the people who had a hand in it, that should not be the last word on who he was as a human being. He was so much more than that, so much more than that.”