UN slams Israel's curbs on Gaza aid
The United Nations took aim Tuesday at Israel's months-long block on bringing tents into the Gaza Strip, despite continual displacement orders being issued to civilians in the devastated territory.
Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN humanitarian agency OCHA, said shelter items had been banned from entering Gaza for about five months — a period in which more than 700,000 people had been displaced or re-displaced.
"They may have been provided with a tent, and then they are displaced again and they have no possibility of taking the tent with them," he told a press briefing in Geneva.
He said Israel had classified tents as "dual use" because they considered tent poles could potentially be used for a military purpose.
He decried "layers of bureaucracy which seem designed not to facilitate fast entry of anything but rather the opposite".
Israel announced earlier this month that it intended to take over Gaza City and issued another displacement order to residents on Saturday.
Laerke said tents were still not being allowed into the territory.
The UN human rights office meanwhile said the Gaza City takeover plans bore "huge risks for civilians".
"There are risks of mass displacement and more and more killings and more misery," said spokesman Thameen Al-Kheetan.
He accused Israel of displacing Palestinians to areas where strikes were continuing.
Kheetan said "hundreds of thousands" were being told to go south to Al-Mawasi, which he said was still under bombardment.
He said Palestinians in Al-Mawasi had "little or no access to essential services and supplies, including food, water, electricity and tents".
Across the Gaza Strip, Kheetan said the risk of starvation was "everywhere".
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Business Recorder
6 hours ago
- Business Recorder
Tech selloff casts gloom over markets
SINGAPORE: Global share markets came under pressure on Wednesday after a tech-led selloff on Wall Street, while the dollar gained some ground ahead of a key meeting of central bankers later in the week. Stock futures pointed to a lower opening in Europe and most Asian bourses were in the red, with tech-heavy indexes in Taiwan and South Korea among the biggest losers, in part due to worries about the Trump administration's growing influence on companies in the sector. U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is looking into the government taking equity stakes in Intel as well as other chip companies in exchange for grants under the CHIPS Act that was meant to spur factory-building around the country, sources told Reuters. The move comes on the back of other unusual deals Washington has recently struck with US companies, including allowing AI chip giant Nvidia to sell its H20 chips to China in exchange for the U.S. government receiving 15% of the revenue from those sales. 'These developments signal that the U.S. government is heading in a concerning and more interventionist direction,' said Tony Sycamore, a market analyst at IG. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan slid more than 1%, while EUROSTOXX 50 futures lost 0.64% and DAX futures shed 0.63%. S&P 500 futures dipped 0.27% and Nasdaq futures lost 0.44%, extending a fall from the cash session overnight. Japan's Nikkei lost 1.7% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Tech Index shed 1.3%. In commodities, oil prices trimmed losses from the previous session, as investors awaited the next steps in talks to end Russia's war on Ukraine, with uncertainty over whether oil sanctions might be eased or tightened. While a meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and a group of European allies over the Russia-Ukraine war concluded without much fanfare, Trump said the United States would help guarantee Ukraine's security in any deal to end Russia's war there. He later said on Tuesday that the United States might provide air support to Ukraine, while ruling out putting U.S. troops on the ground. 'The U.S. is not categorically underwriting anything, any security for Ukraine, even if they're open to provide some, because we don't know the conditions under which they will. So there's quite a bit of risk left out there,' said Vishnu Varathan, head of macro research for Asia ex-Japan at Mizuho. Brent crude futures were last up 0.15% at $65.89 a barrel, while U.S. crude tacked on 0.1% to $62.41 per barrel. Awaitng Jackson hole All eyes are now on the Kansas City Federal Reserve's August 21-23 Jackson Hole symposium, where Fed Chair Jerome Powell is due to speak on the economic outlook and the central bank's policy framework on Friday. Focus will be on what Powell says about the near-term outlook for rates, with traders almost fully pricing in a rate cut next month. 'Given the apparent tensions between US CPI and PPI data, (it) does come across as … premature to declare one way or the other. And most importantly, given this kind of dilemma embedded within the data, it is hard to decipher whether the Fed would take or would emphasise the risks that start to mount on the job side of the equation or (the) need to sit firm,' said Mizuho's Varathan. Ahead of the gathering, the dollar firmed slightly, pushing the euro down 0.13% to $1.1633, while sterling fell 0.16% to $1.3470. The New Zealand dollar tumbled more than 1% after its central bank cut rates as expected and flagged further reductions in coming months as policymakers warned of domestic and global headwinds to growth. The kiwi last bought $0.5835. Elsewhere, spot gold fell 0.07% to $3,312.89 an ounce.
Business Recorder
6 hours ago
- Business Recorder
US, NATO planners start to craft Ukraine security guarantee options
US and European military planners have begun exploring post-conflict security guarantees for Ukraine, U.S. officials and sources told Reuters on Tuesday, following President Donald Trump's pledge to help protect the country under any deal to end Russia's war. Ukraine and its European allies have been buoyed by Trump's promise during a summit on Monday of security guarantees for Kyiv, but many questions remain unanswered. Officials told Reuters that the Pentagon is carrying out planning exercises on the support Washington could offer beyond providing weapons. But they cautioned that it would take time for U.S. and European planners to determine what would be both militarily feasible and acceptable to the Kremlin. One option was sending European forces to Ukraine but putting the U.S. in charge of their command and control, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. The sources added that the troops would not be under a NATO banner but operate under their own nations' flags. The Pentagon and NATO did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the idea. In a press briefing, the White House said that the United States could help coordinate a security guarantee for Ukraine. Russia's Foreign Ministry has ruled out the deployment of troops from NATO countries to help secure a peace deal. Possible US air support Trump has publicly ruled out deploying U.S. troops in Ukraine but on Tuesday appeared to leave the door open to other U.S. military involvement. In an interview with Fox News 'Fox & Friends' program, he suggested Washington could provide air support to Ukraine. 'When it comes to security, (Europeans) are willing to put people on the ground, we're willing to help them with things, especially, probably, … by air because nobody has stuff we have, really they don't have,' Trump said. He did not provide further details. U.S. air support could come in a variety of ways including providing more air defence systems to Ukraine and enforcing a no-fly zone with U.S. fighter jets. Since Russia's full-scale invasion of its neighbor in 2022, the United States has shipped billions of dollars worth of weapons and munitions to Kyiv. The Trump administration briefly halted those weapons shipments, including after a contentious White House meeting between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in February and again in July. Shipments have resumed and Trump has pledged to send weapons, primarily defensive ones, to help the war-torn country. NATO military leaders to meet NATO military chiefs will focus on Ukraine and the way forward when they meet virtually on Wednesday, a conference first reported by Reuters. U.S. Air Force General Alexus Grynkewich, who also oversees NATO operations in Europe, will brief the chiefs of defense on the Alaska meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin last week. A U.S. official speaking on condition of anonymity said U.S. General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was expected to attend the meeting. The official added that Caine would meet with some of his European counterparts in Washington on Tuesday evening. Trump has pressed for a quick end to Europe's deadliest war in 80 years, and Kyiv and its allies have worried he could seek to force an agreement on Russia's terms after the president last week rolled out the red carpet for Putin. Russia says it is engaged in a 'special military operation' in Ukraine to protect its national security, claiming NATO's eastward expansion and Western military support for Ukraine pose existential threats. Kyiv and its Western allies say the invasion is an imperial-style land grab.
Express Tribune
8 hours ago
- Express Tribune
'Bandits' kill 13 in Nigeria despite recent peace deals
Gunmen in Nigeria's northwest Katsina state killed 13 people at a mosque Tuesday, according to a report produced for the UN and seen by AFP, despite recent peace deals meant to stem such attacks. Gangs locally known as "bandits" have for years preyed on rural communities in northwest and central Nigeria, raiding villages, kidnapping residents for ransom and burning homes after looting them. With security forces unable to defeat them militarily, authorities at the state, local and federal levels have at times opted for peace deals, including in Katsina state. However, the local government of Malumfashi where the killings took place, had not signed any truce agreement. The report said that early on Tuesday, "armed bandits" attacked a mosque in the town of Unguwan Mantau, in what was potentially a "retaliatory attack after Nigerian army troops repelled an attempted bandit attack" nearby. Abubakar Sadiq-Aliyu, spokesman for the Katsina State police, told AFP that the attack left 15 people dead. Even in communities that do strike peace deals, the reprieve can be short lived if the gunmen or authorities fail to uphold the bargain. Bandits — who often retain the majority of their weapons — have also been known to exploit truces to establish safe havens in areas covered by such agreements, while continuing to launch attacks elsewhere. Security in Kaduna state's Birnin Gwari district improved after a truce in November but neighbouring Katsina and Niger states have seen a rise in bandit attacks. After a truce last month with notorious bandit leader Bello Turji, some disgruntled residents told AFP the agreement had left Turji's gang intact. Tuesday's report noted that banditry "continues to rise" in Katsina state and that "bandit groups are likely to continue exploiting security gaps in the short-term". The ongoing banditry crisis originated in conflicts over land and water rights between herders and farmers but has morphed into organised crime.
