Israel's plans for aid supply will endanger lives: UN
International aid agencies have warned that Israeli plans to control aid distribution in Gaza, including a US-backed proposal, will only increase suffering and death in the devastated Palestinian territory.
They are calling on Israel to lift its blockade on food and other supplies, now in its third month.
The US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, said that the new US-devised aid system would be launched soon, urging the UN and other aid groups to participate.
So far, the UN has rejected the new system, saying it "weaponises aid," threatens to cause mass displacement of Palestinians, violates principles of neutrality and simply won't be able to provide the scale of aid needed.
In what has become a daily scene of desperation in Gaza, thousands of Palestinians crowded a charity kitchen in the southern city of Khan Younis, jostling and waving their pots to receive scoops of pasta.
Such kitchens are virtually the only source of food left for the territory's 2.3 million people, but dozens have shut down in recent days as food supplies run out under Israel's blockade.
Aid groups say more closures are imminent.
Raed al-Zaharna and his children walked away empty-handed after the day's meals ran out.
"I'm thinking now, 'What will I feed them?' I can't find anything," he said.
Israel has blocked food, medicine, fuel and other supplies from entering Gaza since March 2, saying it's trying to pressure Hamas into releasing hostages and disarming.
It also shattered a ceasefire deal with Hamas, relaunching bombardment across Gaza and seizing large swaths of the territory. Rights groups have called the blockade a "starvation tactic" and a potential war crime.
Israel has said it won't resume aid until it installs a new distribution mechanism, replacing the massive operation led by the UN and independent relief groups throughout the 19-month-old war.
Israel accuses Hamas and other militants of siphoning off aid, though it hasn't presented evidence for its claims.
The UN denies significant diversion takes place, saying it monitors distribution.
"Humanitarian aid should never be used as a bargaining chip," UNICEF spokesperson James Elder said in Geneva.
"There is a simple alternative. Lift the blockade, let humanitarian aid in, save lives."
Huckabee said details of the new US-backed system would be announced in the coming days, with deliveries set to begin "very soon," though he gave no time frame.
He depicted it as independent from Israel, which he said wouldn't be involved in distribution.
He said private companies would provide security, while Israel's military would secure the perimeters from afar.
He echoed Israel's claims that it was necessary because Hamas was stealing aid.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Age
an hour ago
- The Age
‘Prisoner's dilemma': How China is using the West to try and rule the skies
For example, China's strategy has been to require Western companies to set up co-production facilities within China, where technical knowledge can either be shared or acquired legally or illegally. Airbus, active in China since 1994, operates a final assembly line facility in Tianjin, as well as an R&D Centre and Airbus China Innovation Centre. It will soon open a second assembly line in Tianjin. 'All Airbus sites around the world have robust systems in place to protect intellectual property rights and data,' a company spokesman said. Should COMAC eventually succeed in producing cheaper, competitive jets at scale, the competitive landscape for Boeing and Airbus will change dramatically. 'Airbus welcomes competition, and the entry of COMAC in the market will not affect our commitment to continue working with our customers, partners and suppliers in China,' the company said. The people who are most willing to talk about China's aggressive technology acquisition are not COMAC or Boeing, but the people concerned about the relative power of democracies in the face of China. Emily de La Bruyère, a senior fellow at the US-based Foundation for Defence of Democracies, believes Western aerospace companies are mistaken for partnering with China in their commercial aerospace programs. They are 'incredibly short-termist and blind for ignoring the consequences of their action', de La Bruyère told this masthead. (Airbus rejects the claim of being 'short-term' focused, pointing to its history in China dating back to 1994.) De La Bruyère believes Western aerospace companies face a 'prisoner's dilemma' in China. If any single aerospace company pulls out of China over intellectual property theft fears, they will get punished financially, she says. But their individual action won't stop the larger trend of China's forced technology transfers, industrial espionage and hacking. So the Western companies are 'sowing the seeds of China destroying their [the companies'] markets all over the world for the sake of what is a very short window of access to the Chinese market'. Engine-makers GE Aerospace and Safran were contacted for comment. A market looms Although the price of the C919 has reportedly come in higher than expected, expectations are that if it can be built at enough scale, it would eventually undercut the price of giants Airbus and Boeing. As Michael O'Leary, chief executive of the ultra-low cost Irish carrier Ryanair, put it recently: 'The Chinese are basically building a f---ing A320. So if it was cheap enough – 10 or 20 per cent cheaper than an Airbus aircraft – then we'd order it,' he told aviation publication Skift in May. To eventually establish a large position in the market, COMAC must have a customer base. COMAC has successfully sold a smaller, 80-seat regional jet, the C909, to airlines in South-East Asia: Lao Airline, VietJet, TransNusa (of Indonesia) and soon GallopAir of Brunei. Alton Aviation Consultancy's Beijing-based Jiang Shuai notes: 'If C919 can be successfully operated in Asia, the track record will support COMAC's C919 future sales outside of Asia.' Focus on Asia As for the continued technological development of COMAC's aircraft, China's experience in other industries is instructive. When Western bans on telco equipment-maker Huawei hobbled its exports into developed markets in 2018, the company pivoted to the Global South, where governments were less fussed by the prospect of security concerns. CSIS's Kennedy notes that regulators in most of the world still only consider purchasing aircraft certified by the FAA or the EASA. As for the Huawei example, 'there is no comparable Western-based regulator of telecom equipment'. 'Neither [the FAA nor EASA] has certified or is likely to certify the C919 any time soon because of concerns over safety,' Kennedy says. Yet demand for new jets is real. After years of supply disruptions, difficulty in sourcing parts, and the impact of COVID, the backlog to be delivered to airlines exceeds 17,000 planes, says the International Air Transport Association. Boeing is still contending with the aftermath of two 737 Max jetliner crashes that killed 346 people, blamed on the botched rollout of a software system. Production restrictions have slowed Boeing's all-important 737 further. Alton Aviation's Shuai says: 'Given Boeing's and Airbus' supply chain issues and delayed deliveries, we expect Chinese airlines to continue to demand and take deliveries of C909 and C919 aircraft. 'Domestic demand is sufficient to fill COMAC's production rates for the next few years.' Efficiency matters The economics of aviation are not just the upfront costs of planes. Earnings in commercial aviation are underpinned by ever more inexpensive planes to operate in fleets. Each new plane model must be a full 20-30 per cent more efficient than the last to stay profitable over its lifetime. If COMAC produces a structurally less efficient and more costly plane, it will saddle buyers with more expenses, making the plane less competitive. Yet China is determined to achieve what Aboulafia refers to as 'autonomous (or autarkic) aviation power', autarky being complete economic self-sufficiency. Aboulafia has testified that China hopes to introduce a fully Chinese version of the C919, which includes the hardest part, 'all-Chinese engines', around 2035. With this trajectory, China will be closer to its goal, aided deeply by Western aerospace companies, says Foundation for Defence of Democracy's de La Bruyère. 'Early on, maybe it was harder to see a future in which China would be able to develop real, competitive technology in the field,' she said, so the logic of engaging in China 'maybe made a little more sense'. Loading 'But the fact that the partnerships continue despite China's proven and advancing capabilities, proven intention to disrupt the incumbents and methods of doing all that, is fundamentally destructive for them.' Asked what's wrong with China succeeding in the commercial aerospace, de La Bruyère said Western businesses fundamentally misunderstand the concept of success to the Chinese Communist Party. 'The CCP has a different vision for what industrial and technological success means. 'It's not profit, it's control.'
Sky News AU
5 hours ago
- Sky News AU
‘Plainly preposterous': Alex Ryvchin slams Albanese government's ban of Hillel Fuld
Executive Council of Australian Jewry Co-CEO Alex Ryvchin has called for the Australian government's ban of Israeli-American speaker Hillel Fuld from the country to be 'overturned'. US ambassador to Israel has stepped in after the Albanese government quietly cancelled the travel visa of Hillel Fuld who was due to visit in the coming weeks. 'It's a plainly proposterous decision; Hillel Fuld is a tech entrepreneur, he is an expert in his field, he is an uncontroversial figure,' Mr Rvychin told Sky News host Peta Credlin. 'To think that he was someone that could be deemed of such ill character, that he should be excluded and banned from entering this country, is absurd.'
Sky News AU
5 hours ago
- Sky News AU
US ambassador to Israel intervenes after Hillel Fuld's banning from Australia
Sky News host Peta Credlin says the US ambassador to Israel has stepped in after the Albanese government quietly cancelled the travel visa of Israeli-American tech advocate Hillel Fuld who was due to visit in the coming weeks. In a decision statement, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke cited 'islamophobia rhetoric' which risked inciting discord against Australia's Muslim population. The appeal to have the decision overturned came hours after the Australian Jewish Association (AJA) called on the Trump administration to intervene in what it called an 'attack' on Jewish Australians.
