
Save the Children halts ties with BCG over Gaza displacement work
In a staff-wide email dated 8 July, CEO Inger Ashing referenced Financial Times reporting that BCG helped launch the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) and supported the US security firm providing armed personnel for GHF-run aid sites in Gaza.
GHF, a militarised aid programme serving Israeli war objectives, has faced widespread condemnation from humanitarian agencies. The organisation is backed by both the US and Israel.
The FT also revealed that BCG developed cost estimates for forcibly relocating large numbers of Palestinians out of Gaza—work Save the Children slammed as unethical and dehumanising.
'The modelling of a plan to forcibly relocate Palestinians from Gaza, and the calculation of a per person cost for displacement, devoid of any humanity, disregards fundamental rights and dignity, and raises serious ethical and legal questions,' Ashing wrote.
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The National
an hour ago
- The National
Gaza aid lorries back at Rafah crossing as Egypt strains to avoid famine blame
After months of closure due to an Israeli military blockade, Egypt 's Rafah border crossing has been revived as a critical lifeline for Gaza -bound aid. Thousands of lorries laden with aid have returned to North Sinai province, preparing to enter the besieged strip. The crossing has become a contentious issue for Egypt, accused by critics of keeping it shut, arresting activists and assisting Israel. Speaking to The National from the border point on Wednesday, the governor of North Sinai, Maj Gen Khaled Megawer, described the accusations as baseless and part of a 'comprehensive smear campaign' by Muslim Brotherhood factions aiming to undermine the state. Seeking to counteract the criticism, the heads of Egypt's largest aid providers to Gaza – including the Egyptian Red Crescent and the National Alliance for Development Work – gave speeches from Rafah to journalists transported by the government from Cairo. In an impassioned address, Red Crescent chief Amal Imam revealed the organisation had delivered more than 500,000 tonnes of aid to Gaza since the war began on October 7, 2023, carried by 36,000 lorries. Dr Imam denounced what she called the injustice and brutality of Israel's war on Gaza, and joined the many aid workers on the border who told The National their biggest hope was for a ceasefire and an end to Palestinians' suffering. The National Alliance, which is made up of more than a dozen charities that pool their resources, said it has delivered 70,000 tonnes of aid to Gaza since the start of the war. It has organised 11 convoys, the latest being mobilised on Wednesday. Representing the alliance, former immigration minister Nabila Makram hailed Egypt's support of Palestine and said an awareness campaign had been launched to educate young Egyptians about their country's backing for the Palestinian people and their cause. Responding to calls from Egyptians for any action to help mitigate the famine, Egypt began putting pressure on the Israeli side to allow the entry of aid last month. Deliveries had been halted for months and 'Gaza was starving to death', said Maj Gen Megawer. The governor recounted a poor elderly woman bringing him a carton of food and asking him to send it to Gaza, a testament to how distressing Egyptians have found the famine caused by Israel's blockade. The pressure was successful, he said, in that Israel made an informal agreement with Cairo in July 'outside the framework of its dealings with Hamas ' to allow the entry of aid. Israel has also faced intense criticism from governments all over the world, including France, Germany, the UK and even some factions within the Trump administration, for starving Gazans and killing civilians on their way to receive aid from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. However, beyond humanitarian concerns, Maj Gen Megawer said Egypt was also protecting its strategic interests by cranking up pressure to resume aid and end the famine. Chief among those goals is not allowing the displacement of Palestinians from their land in Egypt, as US President Donald Trump has suggested. Zionists have for decades called for the absorption of Palestinians by neighbouring countries. 'When Gazans starve, what are they going to do?" the governor said. "They are going to try to enter Israel or throw themselves into the sea or come to Egypt, which to us is a red line, so we had to get food inside and bear the economic losses that come with that." That position was reiterated by Egypt's Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty, who told a state news outlet that Egypt rejected the displacement of Palestinians and that their right to their land needed to be protected through a permanent and immediate ceasefire. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi has accused Israel of turning the war "into a war of starvation, extermination and the liquidation of the Palestinian cause," arguing that "it is no longer a war to achieve political goals or release hostages". He said the war "has long surpassed any logic or justification," and that "the lives of the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank are being used as a political bargaining chip". However, even as Egypt has defensively sought to remedy its image and highlight its pivotal role in aid deliveries to the enclave, reports from inside Gaza say that aid is not being delivered in sufficient amounts and that some is being looted by armed gangs or turned back at Israeli security checkpoints. An Egyptian Red Crescent worker stationed at the border told The National that each day, the lorries are prepared and around 600 enter at 5.30am. The aid workers are then forced to wait until the end of the day to see how many of the lorries have actually made it in. She explained that every day since aid deliveries resumed through Rafah in July, hundreds of lorries have been turned back daily. 'Yes, of course there is a great deal of obstruction from the Israeli side, this is a war after all, not a commercial exchange,' Maj Gen Megawer told The National. 'And you are dealing with Hamas on one side and Israel on the other, two parties of the utmost difficulty. But we will continue to push for more food and for an end to the famine and the war.' While journalists were being briefed on Wednesday afternoon, the governor's speech was repeatedly interrupted by the loud honks from lorries exiting the access road to the right of the Rafah crossing, which they use to get to the Karem Abu Salem crossing where cargoes are inspected by Israel. Since July, aid deliveries to Gaza have resumed but remain severely constrained. Between July 20 and August 3, more than 12,000 tonnes of food were brought into Gaza through the UN-run mechanism. However, the UN says more than 90 per cent of these supplies were looted by armed groups or offloaded by starving crowds before reaching warehouses.


Khaleej Times
2 hours ago
- Khaleej Times
Trump says 'important' for Middle Eastern countries to join Abraham Accords
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Middle East Eye
2 hours ago
- Middle East Eye
Israel torches ‘safe zone' in south Gaza as four more killed by starvation
Overnight attacks by Israel on displacement tents caused fires to erupt in al-Mawasi area, west of Khan Younis in south Gaza, resulting in a number of civilian casualties. Clips shared online show flames engulfing the tents, as local sources noted that Palestinians attempting to extinguish the fires had to use primitive equipment, due to the absence of emergency crews after their repeated targeting. The aerial assault on the Israeli-designated "humanitarian zone" follows several expulsion orders issued to residents of al-Zeitoun neighbourhood, in Gaza City. The residents had been ordered to immediately head towards al-Mawasi. The forced displacement spanned some 1.5 square miles across five neighbourhoods in Gaza and Khan Younis governorates, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) indicated in its latest update. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters Although al-Mawasi has been considered a "safe zone", the Israeli military has repeatedly bombed the area over the past year and a half. Palestinians in Gaza, along with the UN, have long stated that there are no safe zones in the territory. Ocha said late in July that "there is simply nowhere safe to go" in the Gaza Strip. "About 88 percent of Gaza is either subject to displacement orders or located within Israeli-militarised zones. The 12 percent that remains is already overcrowded and underserved," its report read. Assaults on schools sheltering civilians Safe zones and shelters across the besieged enclave, including those located in schools, have not been spared in Israel's bombardment campaign. Human Rights Watch indicated in a report on Thursday that Israeli attacks on schools sheltering Palestinians "highlight the absence of safe places for Gaza's displaced people. "Israeli strikes on schools sheltering displaced families provide a window into the widespread carnage that Israeli forces have carried out in Gaza," said Gerry Simpson, associate crisis, conflict and arms director at Human Rights Watch. 'Other governments should not tolerate this horrendous slaughter of Palestinian civilians merely seeking safety' – Human Rights Watch "Other governments should not tolerate this horrendous slaughter of Palestinian civilians merely seeking safety." According to recent figures from the Occupied Palestinian Territory education cluster, 97 percent of schools in the Gaza Strip have sustained some level of damage. The assessment found that 432 school buildings sheltering civilians (76.6 percent of the total) have been directly hit by the Israeli army since the start of Israel's war on Gaza. Overall, the Israeli army has killed more than 61,150 Palestinians since October 2023, including at least 18,000 children. 'Systematic chaos' The Government Media Office in Gaza has indicated that amid what it described as "systematic chaos", Israel has prevented the entry of nearly 6,600 relief trucks. So far, only 14 percent of the intended quota of humanitarian aid has entered the besieged enclave, as starvation runs rampant among the population. Over the past 24 hours, the Gaza Health Ministry recorded four new deaths from malnutrition caused by Israel's blockade on Gaza. This brings the total number of victims of famine and malnutrition to 197, with nearly half of the casualties children. Falling aid crate kills Palestinian nurse in Gaza Read More » "The Gaza Strip needs more than 600 trucks daily to meet the minimum needs of 2.4 million people, amid the near-total collapse of infrastructure due to the ongoing war and genocide," the ministry wrote in its press release. The Palestinian territory has been under complete siege since the war began, but Israeli officials have strengthened the blockade in recent months, leading to malnutrition and what the UN describes as a "worst-case scenario" of famine. As Israel controls land entrances to Gaza and refuses to allow adequate aid into the territory over land, several countries have dropped aid over the territory from the air. Aid groups criticise the strategy as inefficient and incapable of providing the level of food and other resources needed by Palestinians in Gaza. Cindy McCain, director of the World Food Programme (WFP), criticised the relief distribution method, writing on X: "We can't airdrop our way out of an unfolding famine. Not in Gaza." She explained that land delivery is the best method for aid to reach the majority of those who need it. "We're grateful for the support, but we can't afford to wait - Gaza is out of food and out of time."