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Japan Today
26-05-2025
- Politics
- Japan Today
Gaza aid plan makes faltering start as airstrikes kill dozens
FILE PHOTO: Palestinians inspect the damage at a school sheltering displaced people, following an Israeli strike, in Gaza City, May 26, 2025. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas/File Photo By Alexander Cornwell and Nidal al-Mughrabi A U.S.-backed foundation tasked with supplying aid to Gaza made a faltering start on Monday, with no clear sign that it had distributed promised supplies, a day after its chief unexpectedly stepped down. The aid plan, which has been endorsed by Israel but rejected by the U.N., is unfolding amid fierce Israeli attacks on the enclave, including on a school building where dozens of Palestinians sheltering inside were killed. With food still critically short after a nearly three-month blockade, Washington says it is working to restore a ceasefire more than 19 months into the war, but progress is elusive. A Palestinian official said Hamas had agreed to a U.S. proposal for a truce and the release of 10 Israeli hostages, but an Israeli official dismissed the proposal as unacceptable, denying it was Washington's. U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff rejected reports that Hamas had agreed to his proposal, telling Reuters that what he has seen is "completely unacceptable." Israel has faced a mounting international outcry this month, including from Western allies, as it launched a new offensive in Gaza, already largely destroyed by Israeli bombardment and where the population of 2 million is at risk of famine. Close ally Germany said Israel's recent attacks in Gaza were inflicting a toll on civilians that could no longer be justified as a fight against Hamas, which ignited the war with its cross-border Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel. Israeli authorities last week allowed a trickle of aid into the Palestinian enclave for the first time since March. But the few hundred trucks carried only a tiny fraction of the food needed. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which intends to use private contractors working under a broad Israeli security umbrella, said it would begin deliveries on Monday, with the aim of reaching one million Palestinians by the end of the week. "We plan to scale up rapidly to serve the full population in the weeks ahead," it said in a statement. Israeli media showed photos of aid pallets lined up in the Tel Al-Sultan neighborhood in Rafah alongside empty tables which appeared to be set up to aid distribution. The foundation and the relevant Israeli officials did not answer requests for comment. Palestinians said they had seen no sign of any aid distribution on Monday by the new company. The foundation's executive director, Jake Wood, announced his resignation on Sunday, saying it could not adhere "to the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence". The Switzerland-registered foundation has been heavily criticised by the United Nations, whose officials have said the private company's aid distribution plans are insufficient for reaching the more than two million Gazans. The new operation will rely on four major distribution centres in southern Gaza that will screen families for involvement with Hamas militants, potentially using facial recognition or biometric technology, according to aid officials. But many details of how the operation will work remain unexplained, and it was not immediately clear whether aid groups that have refused to cooperate with the foundation would still be able to send in trucks. Hamas condemned the new system, saying it would "replace order with chaos, enforce a policy of engineered starvation of Palestinian civilians, and use food as a weapon during wartime". Israel says the system is aimed at separating aid from Hamas, which it accuses of stealing and using food to impose control over the population, a charge rejected by Hamas, which says it protects aid convoys from gangs of armed looters. 'NO SECURITY OR SAFETY' Israeli strikes killed at least 45 people on Monday, local health authorities said. In Gaza City, medics said, 30 Palestinians, including displaced women and children who were seeking shelter in a school, were killed in an airstrike. Images shared widely on social media showed what appeared to be badly burned bodies being pulled from the rubble. Israel's military confirmed that it had targeted the school. It said that the building was being used as a centre by Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants to plan and organise attacks. Farah Nussair, who survived the attack, said "just the tired ones" who needed food and water were in the school. She added, a child in her lap: "We fled to the south, they bombed us in the south. We returned to the north, they bombed us in the north. We came to schools .... There is no security or safety, neither at schools, nor hospitals - not anywhere." Israel's military said it used precise weapons, surveillance and other steps to mitigate the risk of harming civilians. It did not provide evidence that the school was being used by militants. Another strike on a house in Jabalia, adjacent to Gaza City, killed at least 15 other people, medics said. Sweden said it would summon Israel's ambassador in Stockholm over the humanitarian aid situation in Gaza. Israel stepped up military operations in the enclave in early May, saying it is seeking to eliminate Hamas' military and governing capabilities and bring back remaining hostages. The campaign, which Netanyahu has said will end with Israel in complete control of Gaza, has squeezed the population into an ever-narrowing zone in coastal areas and around the southern city of Khan Younis. The Israeli campaign, triggered after Hamas-led Islamist militants stormed Israeli communities on October 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people, has devastated Gaza and pushed nearly all of its residents from their homes. The offensive has killed more than 53,000 people in Gaza, many of them civilians, according to its health authorities. © Thomson Reuters 2025.
GMA Network
26-05-2025
- Politics
- GMA Network
Israeli strike kills 20 in Gaza school housing displaced people, health authorities say
Palestinians inspect the damage at a school sheltering displaced people, following an Israeli strike, in Gaza City, May 26, 2025. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas An Israeli strike on a school housing displaced people in Gaza killed at least 20 people and injured dozens, local authorities told Reuters early on Monday. Israel stepped up its military operations in the enclave in early May, saying it is seeking to eliminate Hamas' military and governing capabilities and bring back the remaining hostages who were seized in October 2023. Medics said the dozens of casualties in the strike on the school, in the Daraj neighborhood of Gaza City, included women and children. Some of the bodies were badly burned according to images circulating on social media, which Reuters could not immediately verify. There was no immediate comment by the Israeli military. Despite mounting international pressure that pushed Israel to lift a blockade on aid supplies in the face of warnings of looming famine, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last week that Israel would control the whole of Gaza. Israel has taken control of around 77% of the enclave either through its ground forces or evacuation orders and bombardments that keep residents away from their homes, Gaza's media office said. The Israeli campaign, triggered after Hamas Islamist militants attacked Israeli communities on October 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people, has devastated Gaza and pushed nearly all of its two million residents from their homes. The offensive has killed more than 53,000 people, many of them civilians, according to Gaza health authorities. —Reuters
Barnama
13-05-2025
- Health
- Barnama
UN Says Number Of Daily Meals Provided To Gaza Decreased By 70 Pct This Week
Palestinian children queue at a damaged school, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in Gaza City, February 25, 2025. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas Palestinian children gather to receive food cooked by a charity kitchen, during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, March 3, 2025. REUTERS/Hatem Khaled Palestinian children wait to receive food cooked by a charity kitchen, during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, March 9, 2025. REUTERS/Hatem Khaled A boy trying to receive food relief during Ramadan in Gaza City, on March 4, 2025. (Photo by Mahmoud Zaki/Xinhua) NEW YORK, May 13 (Bernama-WAFA) -- United Nations (UN) spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said the number of daily meals provided to civilians in the Gaza Strip has decreased by 70 per cent this week compared to last week, the Palestine News and Info Agency (WAFA) reported. He stressed the importance of UN teams entering Gaza and identifying citizens' needs on the ground. "The number of daily meals in the Gaza Strip decreased from 840,000 meals last week to 260,000, a 70 per cent decrease,' he said during a press conference at UN headquarters in New York on Tuesday, bootstrap slideshow Dujarric emphasised that humanitarian aid is not limited to food alone. He pointed to the need to provide direct water, healthcare, nutrition, education and protection services to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. The UN spokesman warned that fuel is running out in health and water facilities inside the Gaza Strip, which has been under a tight Israeli blockade since last March. He added: "Healthcare in Gaza is on the brink of collapse, as hospitals are facing large numbers of wounded amid a severe shortage of basic supplies, equipment, blood, and medical personnel." The World Health Organisation had previously stated that preventing immediate access to food and essential supplies in the Gaza Strip was causing "further deaths and a slide into famine." It pointed to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis released on Monday, which stated that 470,000 people in Gaza were facing "catastrophic levels of hunger (IPC Phase 5)," and that the entire population was suffering from acute food insecurity.
Straits Times
11-05-2025
- Politics
- Straits Times
Hamas in talks with US about Gaza ceasefire and aid, says senior Palestinian official
Palestinians displaced by the Israeli military offensive, shelter in tents, in Gaza City May 11, 2025. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas Hamas in talks with US about Gaza ceasefire and aid, says senior Palestinian official CAIRO - Talks between Hamas and the U.S. administration regarding a ceasefire in Gaza and the entry of humanitarian aid to the besieged enclave were underway, a senior Palestinian official familiar with the discussions told Reuters on Sunday. U.S. President Donald Trump recently repeated a pledge to help get food to Palestinians in Gaza. A U.S.-backed mechanism for getting aid into Gaza should take effect soon, Washington's envoy to Israel also said on Friday. There was no immediate comment from the U.S. State Department. The U.S. had previously conducted discussions with the Palestinian militant group on securing the release of U.S. hostages held in Gaza. Since March 2, Israel has completely cut off all supplies to the 2.3 million residents of Gaza, and food stockpiled during a ceasefire at the start of the year has all but run out. On March 18, Israel effectively ended the January ceasefire agreement with Hamas and renewed its military campaign in Gaza. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Straits Times
08-05-2025
- Politics
- Straits Times
Gaza's Christians confident new Pope will give importance to enclave's peace
FILE PHOTO: Palestinian Christians attend a Mass at the Holy Family Church after the death of Pope Francis was announced by the Vatican, in Gaza City, April 21, 2025. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas/File Photo FILE PHOTO: Palestinian Christians attend a Mass at the Holy Family Church after the death of Pope Francis was announced by the Vatican, in Gaza City, April 21, 2025. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas/File Photo CAIRO - Gaza's tiny Christian community said that they were happy about the election of a new leader of the Catholic Church on Thursday, adding they were also confident he would give importance to the war-torn enclave like his predecessor Pope Francis did. Cardinal Robert Prevost, a little known missionary from Chicago, was elected in a surprise choice to be the new head of the Catholic Church, becoming the first U.S. pope and taking the name Leo XIV. "We are happy about the election of the Pope ... We hope that his heart will remain with Gaza like Pope Francis," George Antone, 44, head of the emergency committee at the Holy Family Church in Gaza, told Reuters. The late Pope Francis, who campaigned for peace for the devastated enclave, called the church hours after the war in Gaza began in October 2023, the start of what the Vatican News Service would describe as a nightly routine throughout the war. "We appeal to the new pope to look at Gaza through the eyes of Pope Francis and to feel it with the heart of Pope Francis. At the same time, we are confident that the new pope will give importance to Gaza and its peace," Antone added. War in Gaza erupted when Hamas militants launched an attack against southern Israel, in which 251 people were taken hostage and some 1,200 were killed, according to Israeli tallies. Since the abductions, Israel has responded with an air and ground assault on Gaza that has killed more than 52,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run health authorities there, and reduced much of Gaza to ruins. Hamas, in a statement, congratulated Pope Leo saying that it looked forward to "his continuation of the late Pope's path in supporting the oppressed and rejecting the genocide in Gaza." The Holy Family Church compound in Gaza houses 450 Christians as well as a shelter for the elderly and children that also accommodates 30 Muslims, Antone said. Gaza's 2.3 million population comprises an estimated 1,000 Christians, mostly Greek Orthodox. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
