Israel's ‘violations' in Gaza make world more dangerous, Norway warns
Norway has played a historical role in the region, including by facilitating the Oslo peace accords between Israel and the Palestinians that led to a celebrated breakthrough deal in 1993. Last year it recognised the Palestinian state, one of a minority of European countries to do so.
'For the last one and a half years we have seen very low respect for international law in the war in Gaza and in recent months it is worse than ever before,' Åsmund Aukrust said. 'So for the Norwegian government it is very important to protest against this, to condemn this very clear violation.'
In addition to contributing to the worsening humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, he said Israel's actions posed a global threat to other and future conflicts.
'We are very concerned that there will be a new international standard where food is used as a weapon, where the UN is denied entrance to the war and conflict zone, and other NGOs are denied entrance,' he said. 'And Israel is building up something they call Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which is to militarise humanitarian aid.'
GHF, the controversial Israeli and US-backed logistical group, started distributing food in Gaza this week. Amid chaotic scenes, Israeli forces said they fired 'warning shots' at a distribution centre. Gaza health officials said at least one civilian had been killed and 48 injured.
A UN-backed assessment earlier this month found that the entire population of the Gaza Strip, approximately 2.1 million people, were at critical risk of famine, with half a million people categorised as in catastrophe.
Aukrust said: 'We are afraid and very concerned that this might be a new standard in international law and this will make the world a lot more dangerous to all of us.'
However, he said it was not up to politicians to decide whether the term genocide applied to Gaza, saying that was a decision for the international court of justice. 'Genocide is the worst crime a country can do and the worst crime that politicians can do and this should not be polarised,' he said.
However, he said Oslo would be keeping an 'open line' to all parties – including Hamas – for dialogue and promised that Norway would be 'there for the long run' to rebuild Gaza.
'We have no limitation of who we are talking to. I would say the opposite. We would be happy to, and we want to, talk with those who are responsible, whether it is Israel, Hamas or others,' he said. 'Dialogue is the most important word when it comes to peacemaking and we want to have an open line with all countries, all groups that might have an influence here.'
The Norwegian oil fund, the world's largest sovereign wealth fund that operates under rules set by parliament, has so far blacklisted 11 companies for assisting Israel's occupation.
Next week, the Norwegian parliament is expected to reject calls to stop the fund from investing in companies that sell products and services in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Aukrust said decisions about the wealth fund were made by the bank, not politicians.
'The bank decides where they want to invest. What the politicians do is to decide the rules,' he said. The rules, he added, were 'very clear' that the fund should not invest in anything that contributed to a violation of international law.
Norway's decision to recognise the state of Palestine in May 2024 was 'to send out a message of hope,' said Aukrust.
He urged people across Europe to 'continue to protest' and to keep their faith in politics. 'As long as the war is going on, from the Norwegian government side we will all the time look into what more can we do. What new initiative can we take. How can we send an even clearer message to those who are responsible for this.'
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The Independent
26 minutes ago
- The Independent
Heat and thirst drive families in Gaza to drink water that makes them sick
After waking early to stand in line for an hour under the August heat, Rana Odeh returns to her tent with her jug of murky water. She wipes the sweat from her brow and strategizes how much to portion out to her two small children. From its color alone, she knows full well it's likely contaminated. Thirst supersedes the fear of illness. She fills small bottles for her son and daughter and pours a sip into a teacup for herself. What's left she adds to a jerrycan for later. 'We are forced to give it to our children because we have no alternative,' Odeh, who was driven from her home in Khan Younis, said of the water. 'It causes diseases for us and our children.' Such scenes have become the grim routine in Muwasi, a sprawling displacement camp in central Gaza where hundreds of thousands endure scorching summer heat. Sweat-soaked and dust-covered, parents and children chase down water trucks that come every two or three days, filling bottles, canisters and buckets and then hauling them home, sometimes on donkey-drawn carts. Each drop is rationed for drinking, cooking, cleaning or washing. Some reuse what they can and save a couple of cloudy inches in their jerrycans for whatever tomorrow brings — or doesn't. When water fails to arrive, Odeh said, she and her son fill bottles from the sea. Over the 22 months since Israel launched its offensive, Gaza's water access has been progressively strained. Limits on fuel imports and electricity have hampered the operation of desalination plants while infrastructure bottlenecks and pipeline damage choked delivery to a dribble. Gaza's aquifers became polluted by sewage and the wreckage of bombed buildings. Wells are mostly inaccessible or destroyed, aid groups and the local utility say. Meanwhile, the water crisis has helped fuel the rampant spread of disease, on top of Gaza's rising starvation. UNRWA — the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees — said Thursday that its health centers now see an average 10,300 patients a week with infectious diseases, mostly diarrhea from contaminated water. Efforts to ease the water shortage are in motion, but for many the prospect is still overshadowed by the risk of what may unfold before new supply comes. And the thirst is only growing as a heat wave bears down, with humidity and temperatures in Gaza soaring on Friday to 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit). Searing heat and sullied water Mahmoud al-Dibs, a father displaced from Gaza City to Muwasi, dumped water over his head from a flimsy plastic bag — one of the vessels used to carry water in the camps. 'Outside the tents it is hot and inside the tents it is hot, so we are forced to drink this water wherever we go,' he said. Al-Dibs was among many who told The Associated Press they knowingly drink non-potable water. The few people still possessing rooftop tanks can't muster enough water to clean them, so what flows from their taps is yellow and unsafe, said Bushra Khalidi, an official with Oxfam, an aid group working in Gaza. Before the war, the coastal enclave's more than 2 million residents got their water from a patchwork of sources. Some was piped in by Mekorot, Israel's national water utility. Some came from desalination plants. Some was pulled from high-saline wells, and some imported in bottles. Every source has been jeopardized. Palestinians are relying more heavily on groundwater, which today makes up more than half of Gaza's supply. The well water has historically been brackish, but still serviceable for cleaning, bathing, or farming, according to Palestinian water officials and aid groups. Now people have to drink it. The effects of drinking unclean water don't always appear right away, said Mark Zeitoun, director general of the Geneva Water Hub, a policy institute. 'Untreated sewage mixes with drinking water, and you drink that or wash your food with it, then you're drinking microbes and can get dysentery," Zeitoun said. "If you're forced to drink salty, brackish water, it just does your kidneys in, and then you're on dialysis for decades.' Deliveries average less than three liters (12.5 cups) per person per day — a fraction of the 15-liter (3.3-gallon) minimum humanitarian groups say is needed for drinking, cooking and basic hygiene. In February, acute watery diarrhea accounted for less than 20% of reported illnesses in Gaza. By July, it had surged to 44%, raising the risk of severe dehydration, according to UNICEF, the U.N. children's agency. System breakdown Early in the war, residents said deliveries from Israel's water company Mekorot were curtailed — a claim that Israel has denied. Airstrikes destroyed some of the transmission pipelines as well as one of Gaza's three desalination plants. Bombardment and advancing troops damaged or cut off wells – to the point that today only 137 of Gaza's 392 wells are accessible, according to UNICEF. Water quality from some wells has deteriorated, fouled by sewage, the rubble of shattered buildings and the residue of spent munitions. Fuel shortages have strained the system, slowing pumps at wells and the trucks that carry water. The remaining two desalination plants have operated far below capacity or ground to a halt at times, aid groups and officials say. In recent weeks, Israel has taken some steps to reverse the damage. It delivers water via two of Mekorot's three pipelines into Gaza and reconnected one of the desalination plants to Israel's electricity grid, Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel told The Associated Press. Still, the plants put out far less than before the war, Monther Shoblaq, head of Gaza's Coastal Municipalities Water Utility, told AP. That has forced him to make impossible choices. The utility prioritizes getting water to hospitals and to people. But that means sometimes withholding water needed for sewage treatment, which can trigger neighborhood backups and heighten health risks. Water hasn't sparked the same global outrage as limits on food entering Gaza. But Shoblaq warned of a direct line between the crisis and potential loss of life. 'It's obvious that you can survive for some days without food, but not without water,' he said. Supply's future Water access is steadying after Israel's steps. Aid workers have grown hopeful that the situation won't get worse and could improve. Southern Gaza could get more relief from a United Arab Emirates-funded desalination plant just across the border in Egypt. COGAT, the Israeli military body in charge of humanitarian aid to Gaza, said it has allowed equipment into the enclave to build a pipeline from the plant and deliveries could start in a few weeks. The plant wouldn't depend on Israel for power, but since Israel holds the crossings, it will control the entry of water into Gaza for the foreseeable future. But aid groups warn that access to water and other aid could be disrupted again by Israel's plans to launch a new offensive on some of the last areas outside its military control. Those areas include Gaza City and Muwasi, where much of Gaza's population is now located. In Muwasi's tent camps, people line up for the sporadic arrivals of water trucks. Hosni Shaheen, whose family was also displaced from Khan Younis, already sees the water he drinks as a last resort. 'It causes stomach cramps for adults and children, without exception," he said. 'You don't feel safe when your children drink it.' ___ Metz reported from Jerusalem. Alon Berstein contributed reporting from Kerem Shalom, Israel. ___
The Independent
26 minutes ago
- The Independent
Minister ‘hugely disappointed' as talks to agree UN plastics treaty fail
Environment minister Emma Hardy has said she is 'hugely disappointed' that negotiations for the world's first treaty to combat plastic pollution ended once again in failure. Delegates were seeking to complete a legally binding international agreement on Thursday after 10 days of what was meant to be the final round of UN talks in Geneva, Switzerland. But the gavel came down in overtime on Friday morning with no deal reached after negotiators struggled to break a deadlock over key issues. The biggest sticking point has been whether the treaty should impose caps on producing new plastic or focus instead on things such as better design, recycling and reuse. In a statement later on Friday, Ms Hardy said: 'I'm hugely disappointed that an agreement wasn't reached, but am extremely proud of the way the UK worked tirelessly until the end to seek an ambitious and effective treaty. 'Plastic pollution is a global crisis that no country can solve alone, and the UK is committed to working with others at home and abroad to protect the environment and pave the way to a circular economy.' The UK was part of the 'high ambition coalition' which was calling for binding obligations on reducing production and consumption, sustainable product design, environmentally sound management of plastic waste, and clean-up of pollution. But a smaller number of powerful oil and gas producing nations including Saudi Arabia and Kuwait oppose production limits, which they consider outside the scope of the treaty. Inger Andersen, executive director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), said the talks had been a 'hard-fought 10 days' against the backdrop of geopolitical complexities, economic challenges, and multilateral strains. 'However, one thing remains clear: despite these complexities, all countries clearly want to remain at the table,' he said. 'While we did not land the treaty text we hoped for, we at UNEP will continue the work against plastic pollution – pollution that is in our groundwater, in our soil, in our rivers, in our oceans and, yes, in our bodies.' Over the past few days, Luis Vayas Valdivieso, chairman of the negotiating committee, gathered views from the representatives of 184 countries before writing two drafts of treaty text. But countries ultimately rejected both as the basis for negotiations after they failed to bridge the major rifts between different groups of nations. Mr Vayas Valdivieso said: 'Failing to reach the goal we set for ourselves may bring sadness, even frustration. 'Yet it should not lead to discouragement. On the contrary, it should spur us to regain our energy, renew our commitments, and unite our aspirations.' Every year, the world makes more than 400 million tonnes of new plastic, and that could grow by about 70% by 2040 without policy changes. 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'An ambitious treaty, which leads to decisive action to cut plastic production, is absolutely essential and the UK Government must lead the way in closing the door on oil-producing states and fossil fuel and chemical corporations from future talks.' The Business Coalition for a Global Plastics Treaty, which represents 200 companies including Nestle, PepsiCo Walmart, Tetra Pak and Unilever, said it was 'disappointed' by the lack of an agreement, but said there is 'cause for optimism'. Rebecca Marmot, chief sustainability and corporate affairs officer at Unilever, said: 'The strong alignment among governments, business and civil society groups calling for a treaty with harmonised regulations across the full lifecycle of plastics is encouraging.'
BBC News
27 minutes ago
- BBC News
Itamar Ben Gvir taunts prominent Palestinian prisoner Marwan Barghouti
New footage shared on social media shows the far-right Israeli minister, Itamar Ben Gvir, taunting the most prominent Palestinian prisoner, Marwan Barghouti in his Palestinian Authority has condemned the video. Its Vice President Hussein al-Sheikh described it as "the epitome of psychological, moral and physical terrorism."The 13-second-long video clip is the first time that Barghouti has been publicly seen in years. He appears aged and national security minister, Ben Gvir tells him: "You will not win. He who messes with the people of Israel, he who will murder our children, he who will murder our women, we will wipe him out". As Barghouti tries to interject, Ben Gvir adds: "You need to know this, throughout history."Marwan Barghouti, 66, was jailed by Israel more than 20 years ago after he was convicted of planning attacks that led to five civilians being killed. He is serving five life sentences plus 40 polls have consistently indicated that he remains the most popular Palestinian leader, and that Palestinians would vote for him in a presidential election ahead of the current Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas or Hamas remains a senior figure in the Fatah faction, which dominates the Palestinian Authority (PA). He was targeted by Israel due to his leading role in the Second Palestinian Intifada or uprising from video originally surfaced on messaging groups for Ben Gvir's supporters on Thursday but has now been reposted on his X minister says that having read how "all sorts of "senior officials"" in the PA did not like what he said, he will "repeat it again and again without apologising."Palestinian prisoner rights organisations say that Barghouti has been placed in solitary confinement since the deadly Hamas-led attacks on Israel on 7 October 2023. Last year they accused guards of "brutally assaulting" him in his cell which the Israeli prison service response to the new video, the head of the Palestinian Prisoners' Club, Abdullah al-Zaghari accused Israel of seeking "to eliminate him and assassinate the leaders languishing in its prisons."Barghouti is one of the prisoners whose release Hamas is believed to have sought as part of an exchange deal for the remaining hostages it is holding. However, it is thought very unlikely that Israel would free the video, as Ben Gvir speaks, Barghouti – who is fluent in Hebrew – can be seen nodding and trying to break in, but the short clip ends before he wife, Fadwa, recommended to her husband's followers that only one still be used from the video which she believed showed his widely see Barghouti as the leader who could best unify different political factions and negotiate peace with Israel.
