Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East "must be terminated" as it deals with allegations that 12 of its staff were involved in Hamas' Oct. 7 attack.

The prime minister accused UNRWA on X of being "infiltrated" with Hamas members. He went on to suggest that the body be replaced by some other agency to provide aid, which Israel has been ordered by the International Court of Justice to allow.

"I say this with great sadness, because we wished for an objective and useful body to offer aid," Netanyahu said. "We need such a body today in Gaza. UNRWA is not this body. It must be replaced by an organization or organizations that will carry out the task."

The United Nations terminated nine of the 12 people accused and said it is working to confirm the identities of two others and that the last remaining person has been confirmed to be deceased. It has also launched an investigation into the matter.

Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA commissioner-general, also said that the agency submits a list of its staff to host countries every year and that Israel had not raised concerns about individuals prior to this.

"It would be immensely irresponsible to sanction an Agency and an entire community it serves because of allegations of criminal acts against some individuals, especially at a time of war, displacement and political crises in the region," Lazzarini said in a statement.

In a video post on X, UNRWA official Thomas White said that UNRWA, along with people in Khan Younis, have had to move south out of western Khan Younis. “We’ve lost a health clinic, major shelters- facilities that were supporting the people of Khan Younis,” White said in the post.

In another statement released Wednesday, UNRWA urged countries that paused funding to the U.N. aid organization for Palestinians to reconsider.

"Decisions by various Member States to pause funds from UNRWA will have catastrophic consequences for the people of Gaza. No other entity has the capacity to deliver the scale and breadth of assistance that 2.2 million people in Gaza urgently need," the agency said in the statement.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken will return to the Middle East in the coming days, a senior U.S. official told NBC News, for his fifth trip to the region since the Oct. 7 attacks.

Blinken was in the region earlier this month as he met with officials in Israel, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. News of his visit comes amid reports that a potential framework proposal on a new hostage deal is being shepherded through Israel's war Cabinet.

BRUSSELS — The European Union plans to launch a naval mission in the Red Sea within three weeks to help defend cargo ships against attacks by Houthi rebels in Yemen that are hampering trade and driving up prices, the bloc’s top diplomat said Wednesday.

E.U. foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said he wants the mission to be up and running by Feb. 17. Officials say that seven E.U. countries are ready to provide ships or planes. Belgium has already committed to send a frigate. Germany is expected to do the same.

Last week, U.S. and British forces bombed multiple targets in eight locations used by the Iranian-backed Houthis. It was the second time the two allies have conducted coordinated retaliatory strikes on the rebels’ missile-launching capabilities.

The Houthis have waged a persistent campaign of drone and missile attacks on commercial ships since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in October, but Borrell insisted that the E.U. mission will not take part in any military strikes.

“This is the purpose: protection of the ships. Intercepting of the attacks against the ships. Not participating in any kinds of actions against the Houthis. Only blocking the attacks of the Houthis,” Borrell told reporters before chairing a meeting of E.U. defense ministers in Brussels.

The ministers were expected to decide later Wednesday which member country should lead the naval effort — France, Greece and Italy are vying for that role — and where the mission’s headquarters should be based.

As a number of donors including the U.S. suspend their funding to UNRWA, E.U.'s top diplomat Josep Borrell said today that the agency's role in delivering humanitarian aid in Gaza is "irreplaceable."

"It’s critical to preserve" to preserve that role, he said in a post on X.

The first group of injured Palestinian children have arrived in Rome for treatment in hospitals, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said on X yesterday.

The 11 children are part of up to 100 children who are expected to arrive in Rome to be treated in Italian hospitals.

Amid Israelis protesting against aid for Gazans, the IDF today said it had declared the area around the Nitzana crossing a closed military zone.

Yaron Finkelman, the commander of the southern command, had signed an order to "implement a closed military zone in the area of Route 211 and the Nitzana Border Crossing," the IDF said in a statement on Telegram.

Protesters, including the families of the hostages, have been trying to prevent aid from crossing into the besieged Gaza Strip.

There is no substitute for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency's work in Gaza, the U.N.'s senior humanitarian and reconstruction coordinator for the enclave said yesterday.

“There is no way any organization can replace or substitute the tremendous capacity and the fabric of UNRWA and its ability and knowledge,” Sigrid Kaag told reporters outside the U.N. Security Council chamber in New York. 

She added that commercial goods should be let back into the enclave. “There will be no recovery, let alone reconstruction in future, without that broad bandwidth,” she said.

Separately, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres met with UNRWA donors yesterday to appeal against the funding freeze after a dozen of its employees were accused of taking part in Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has condemned the killing of three Palestinian militants by Israeli forces who disguised themselves as civilian medics.

Security camera footage from the hospital showed about a dozen undercover forces wearing Muslim headscarves, hospital scrubs or white doctor’s coats. Most of them were armed and one carried a rifle in one arm and a folded wheelchair in the other.

Without providing evidence, Israel's military said the militants were using the hospital as a hideout and alleged that one of those targeted had transferred weapons and ammunition to others for a planned attack on Israel.

In a statement, the U.N. Human Rights Office described the incident as "a seemingly planned extrajudicial execution," and called on the Israeli authorities "to immediately end the unlawful killing of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank."