North Sinai governor: Humanitarian aid enters Gaza through Egyptian efforts as Israeli forces close Rafah crossing
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Al-Ahram Weekly
2 hours ago
- Al-Ahram Weekly
Germany warns 'very insufficient' aid entering Gaza under Israel blockade - War on Gaza
The amount of humanitarian aid entering Gaza remains 'very insufficient' despite some limited improvement, the German government said Saturday, following discussions among ministers on increasing pressure on Israel over its blockade of the territory. The criticism came after Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul visited the region Thursday and Friday, and as the German military carried out its first food airdrops into Gaza. Aid groups warn that Israel's blockade has driven more than two million Palestinians into a manmade famine. Germany 'notes limited initial progress in the delivery of humanitarian aid to the population of the Gaza Strip, which, however, remains very insufficient to alleviate the emergency situation,' government spokesman Stefan Kornelius said in a statement. 'Israel remains obligated to ensure the full delivery of aid,' Kornelius added. Concerns over famine in Gaza have escalated sharply in recent days as Israel's over 21-month war and five-month blockade continue to choke off access to food, clean water, and medical supplies. While Israel and its allies claim progress, international aid agencies say conditions remain catastrophic. They warn that aid deliveries are still dangerously low and have called on Israel to grant immediate, unrestricted humanitarian access to the besieged territory. The World Food Programme (WFP) has said it has 300 aid trucks ready for distribution inside Gaza. UNRWA, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, said it has approximately 6,000 trucks waiting in Jordan and Egypt for approval to enter. 'Allow the U.N., including UNRWA & our partners to operate at scale & without bureaucratic or political hurdles,' Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA's commissioner-general, wrote on X. Lazzarini criticized Israel for allowing foreign countries to airdrop aid, calling it a 'distraction & screensmoke.' A similar effort in March 2024 was widely criticized by humanitarian groups as insufficient to meet basic needs. While Germany has long been a staunch ally of Israel, its government has expressed serious concern over reports that large quantities of humanitarian aid have been looted. Israel has also admitted to empowering Palestinian criminal groups in Gaza to weaken Hamas's control; these groups have been primarily responsible for looting aid supplies. 'The real theft of aid since the beginning of the war has been carried out by criminal gangs, under the watch of Israeli forces,' Jonathan Whittall of OCHA, the U.N. agency coordinating humanitarian affairs, told reporters in May. His comments came in response to Israeli allegations that Hamas was stealing aid. A German government source told AFP that Israel had 'considerably' increased the number of trucks allowed into Gaza, now estimated at about 220 per day. However, this does not match the reality on the ground, where malnutrition is soaring, particularly among children, pregnant women, and the elderly. According to health authorities in Gaza, the death toll from Israel's mass starvation policy has reached 160, including 90 children. A new alert from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) system released this week warned: 'Famine thresholds have been reached for food consumption in most of the Gaza Strip and for acute malnutrition in Gaza City.' It added, 'The worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out in the Gaza Strip.' A German government source confirmed to AFP that the country's security cabinet met Saturday to discuss 'the different options' for increasing pressure on Israel. However, no decision was made. One option under consideration is a partial suspension of arms deliveries to Israel. So far, only Slovenia has taken that step, announcing Thursday a ban on all weapons trade with Tel Aviv. According to Gaza's Health Ministry, the death toll from Israel's war since October 7, 2023, has risen to 60,332, with 147,643 injured. The majority of the dead are women and children. *This story was edited by Ahram Online. Follow us on: Facebook Instagram Whatsapp Short link:
Egypt Independent
5 hours ago
- Egypt Independent
Palestinians say Israeli forces shot at them near aid site visited by US envoy
Palestinians said that the Israeli military shot at them while they waited to receive food near the same US-backed aid distribution hub in southern Gaza visited by US envoy Steve Witkoff on Friday. The nearby Nasser hospital in Khan Younis said it had received at least three people who were killed and six who were injured by gunfire near the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) aid distribution center in al-Shakoush, Rafah. It said many other injured people were being treated at a Red Cross field hospital. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it fired warning shots to prevent a group of people advancing toward its troops, after calling on the group to distance itself. The IDF said it was not aware of any casualties as the result of its fire but was investigating the incident. A US embassy spokesperson said it had not received 'reports of clashes or injuries of any kind in the vicinity of the visit.' Eyewitnesses told CNN the Israeli military shot at people who had gathered at Al Tina, where residents wait before moving on to the distribution site at al-Shakoush. 'As soon as Witkoff was in the area, there was random gunfire. The shooting intensified, along with drones and quadcopters in the air, and they started firing at people,' Ahmad Abu Armanah told CNN shortly after the incident. Bodies were 'scattered all over the place,' he said. CNN has reached out to the GHF for comment. Since the group began operating in Gaza at the end of May, more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli military while trying to get food, hundreds of them near GHF sites, according to the United Nations. The GHF disputes these statistics.
Egypt Independent
5 hours ago
- Egypt Independent
A viable Palestinian state remains far off, despite growing international clamor
First France, then the United Kingdom, and now Canada. Three of the world's most powerful Western nations have added their economic and geopolitical clout to calls for a Palestinian state, an idea already endorsed by more than 140 other countries. The moves have many motives, from a sense of frustration with Israel, to domestic pressure, to outrage over the images of starving Palestinians. Whatever the reason, Palestinians have welcomed the announcements as a boost for their cause. The Israeli government has rejected the calls, describing them as tantamount to rewarding terrorism. US President Donald Trump meanwhile seems increasingly frustrated with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, particularly over the starvation in Gaza that the Israeli leader denies, but has disturbed Trump. Trump wants regional peace, as well as the accolades – namely a Nobel Peace Prize – for making it happen. He wants Saudi Arabia to normalize relations with Israel, expanding the Abraham Accords he cemented between Israel and several other Arab states during his first term. But Riyadh has been firm that this cannot happen without an irreversible path to a Palestinian state. But the latest moves by US allies France, Britain and Canada – while in many ways largely symbolic – have left Washington increasingly isolated over its backing for Israel. Palestinian statehood could help bring an end to a war that has killed more than 60,000 Palestinians in Gaza since Hamas's brutal October 7 attack killed around 1,200 people in Israel almost two years ago, as well as bring home the hostages still being held in Gaza. But one of the toughest challenges is imagining what it looks like, because a modern Palestinian state has never existed before. When Israel was founded in the aftermath of World War II it quickly gained international recognition. That same period, for Palestinians, is remembered as al-Naqba, or 'the catastrophe' – the moment when hundreds of thousands of people fled or were forced from their homes. Since then, Israel has expanded, most significantly during the 'Six Day War' of 1967, when Israel turned the tables on a coalition of Arab states and gained East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza. Palestinian territory has meanwhile only shrunk and splintered. The closest to what a future Palestinian state may look like was hashed out in a peace process in the 1990s which came to be known as the Oslo Accords. Harrowing images of starving children have driven the moves by international powers, and alarmed the White House. UNRWA Roughly speaking, the Palestinian state envisaged in Oslo, agreed to by both Palestinian and Israeli negotiators, would be based on Israel's 1967 borders. The broad outline of Oslo was to have some land trades, a little bit given in one place for the removal of an Israeli settlement, in a negotiated process. The historic handshake on the White House lawn by Israel's then Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat hosted by then-US president Bill Clinton remains one of the triumphs of modern diplomacy. Rabin's assassination by a far-right fanatic in 1995 robbed Israel of its peacemaker leader. And while the framework of Oslo lived on in negotiations and academia, there is little initiative now. What was on offer back then is no longer realistic. In recent years, Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank have expanded massively, often with the encouragement of the Israeli government, threatening the chances of creating a contiguous Palestinian state in the region. Then there is the question of who would govern a future Palestinian state. The Palestinian Authority, which governs parts of the West Bank, is distrusted by many Palestinians who view it as weak or corrupt. Even without all these complications, Netanyahu won't accept a Palestinian state, which he has recently claimed would be 'a launch pad to annihilate Israel.' Some members of his cabinet are far more hard-line, not only refusing to countenance an independent state but wanting to annex the territory. These ministers propping up Netanyahu's government have said they would starve Palestinians in Gaza rather than feed them, and would collapse the coalition if he so much as suggested giving in to the growing international pressure on Israel. Netanyahu has shown no intention of backing down, and will wear whatever France, the UK, and any others force on him as a badge of honor. Without a partner in the Israeli government, recognition of a Palestinian state will fall flat, and could even entrench Netanyahu further. It would be a big price to pay if the outcome were Israel making the possibility of a Palestinian state all the more distant. But at the same time, with a growing number of angry ex-partners in the international community who are likely to increase their pressure on Trump to shift his position, it is Israel that may find itself disadvantaged, however strongly it protests.
