Latest news with #Gaza
Telegraph
17 minutes ago
- Health
- Telegraph
How Gaza's aid crisis broke Hamas and starved the Strip
When Israel launched its controversial US-backed aid plan for Gaza, it aimed to stop Hamas's alleged profiteering from the seizure and sale of humanitarian supplies. The aid delivery plan overseen by the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) has proved a blood-soaked catastrophe. The Gazan health authorities report that hundreds of people have been killed by gunfire as they queue for food at the GHF aid points controlled by Israeli troops and American contractors. It has also caused Hamas's worst financial crisis in decades, Israeli officials report. The terror group has been unable to pay its fighters or repair its network of tunnels and hideouts beneath the Strip. Cash shortages have also left Hamas reportedly unable to pay salaries for police or ministry employees. Money reserves amassed before, or during the early stages of, the war have run short, while Israeli strikes have devastated the leadership and fractured its grip on the besieged territory. Hamas for years received large sums from Iran, Qatar and others, and was also able to tax cross-border commerce. Israel has long alleged that Hamas also made money by seizing and selling international aid entering Gaza, though this has been denied by the United Nations and aid agencies. That income ended, officials say, when Israel imposed a blockade in March, and then began using the GHF, set up jointly by the US and Israel, to run aid hubs and bypass UN-run distributions. The UN, the European Commission and major international aid organisations have said they have no evidence that Hamas has systematically stolen their aid. The Israeli government has not provided proof. Twenty-eight countries including Britain, this week condemned the new aid arrangements, amid widespread reports of starvation, and hundreds of people being shot as they tried to get food. The countries' joint statement described as 'horrifying' the recent deaths of over 800 Palestinians who were seeking aid, according to the figures released by Gaza's Health Ministry, which is run by Hamas, and the UN human rights office. 'The Israeli government's aid delivery model is dangerous, fuels instability and deprives Gazans of human dignity,' the countries said. 'The Israeli government's denial of essential humanitarian assistance to the civilian population is unacceptable.' Palestinian health officials have said at least 101 people have died of hunger during the conflict, most of them in recent weeks. Food that does arrive in the coastal Strip is often sold and resold at extortionate prices, said Rabiha Abdel Aziz, a 75-year-old mother of nine living in a displacement camp in western Gaza. 'I don't know how people can eat,' she told The Telegraph, explaining that the family can no longer even afford a kilo of flour, which currently costs £26. She said: 'My grandchildren wake up in the morning and ask me for a piece of bread that we don't will we get the money to buy food at this price? We are dying of hunger and bombing.' 'People collapse in the streets' Salem Jehad, a father of four who is living in a camp west of Gaza city, said he was unable to find milk for his newborn son. He said: 'All my children have lost half their weight, and I am the same. Most people don't have money. 'Two years without work during the war, with the crossings closed and aid entering scarcely, people are collapsing in the streets from weakness and hunger. We drink water with salt to satisfy our hunger.' Mr Jehad said access to food had dramatically worsened since GHF took over the distribution and he wanted a return to the previous UN-run model. The UN said on Tuesday that Israeli forces had killed more than 1,000 Palestinians trying to get food aid in Gaza since the GHF began operations in May. Aid distributions have been marred by chaotic scenes and frequent reports of Israeli forces firing on people waiting to collect rations. Israel's military has disputed previous death tolls, but has said its troops have at times fired warning shots, and it is investigating accusations of civilian deaths. Mr Jehad said: 'Now we are running into death traps. Gazans are dying to bring a kilo of flour and rice. Hamas's mistake over 'strategy of suffering' Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, who leads the Realign for Palestine lobby group, said that Hamas had counted on the humanitarian crisis to bring the war to an end. He told the Post: 'Hamas's strategy relied on the suffering of Gazans. 'But when this strategy failed, it foolishly doubled down on this approach, in large part because it had nothing else in its toolbox to deal with Israel's ferocious reaction to Oct 7 and the world's inability to stop it.' Lior Akerman, the head of national resilience at the Institute for Policy and Strategy (IPS) at Reichman University, and a former chief of staff in Shin Bet, Israel's MI5, said Hamas had 'almost completely disintegrated in the Gaza Strip'. He said: 'All the senior commanders were killed and all the frameworks of the fighting disintegrated. 'Today, in the absence of commanders, Hamas members in the Gaza Strip are operating like independent, armed militias. 'In every area, the terrorists continue to do the best they can with the weapons they possess, and they are effectively waging a guerrilla war against the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). 'This type of fighting could last for years and wear down the IDF in a never-ending war.' Truce negotiations held up Israel and Hamas are holding indirect talks in Doha aimed at reaching a 60-day truce and a hostage release deal. But there has been no sign of a deal yet, and discussions have reportedly been held up by Hamas's negotiators in Doha being unable to reach representatives in Gaza since late last week. Ronen Solomon, an Israeli intelligence analyst, said as Hamas had been degraded in Gaza, the group's centre of gravity had shifted to abroad. He said that with only Izz ad-Din al-Haddad, commander of the Gaza City Brigade, remaining as a senior figure in Gaza, 'a dramatic change has occurred'. 'The centre of gravity shifted from the Strip to Hamas abroad,' he said. 'And in particular to Khalil al-Khayya, who was very much involved in the planning of Oct 7 and continues to lead an extremist line from the Hamas base in Qatar.'
Al Arabiya
18 minutes ago
- Politics
- Al Arabiya
US envoy Witkoff to discuss finalizing Gaza aid ‘corridor': State Department
A US envoy is heading Tuesday to the Middle East for talks that aim to finalize a 'corridor' for aid to war-ravaged Gaza, the State Department said. Envoy Steve Witkoff is traveling to the region with 'a strong hope that we will come forward with another ceasefire as well as a humanitarian corridor for aid to flow, that both sides have in fact agreed to,' State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce told reporters.
Arab News
18 minutes ago
- Politics
- Arab News
UK FM ‘sickened' by Israel's conduct in Gaza
LONDON: Britain's foreign secretary said he feels 'appalled' and 'sickened' by Israel's actions in Gaza, and that the UK could launch a new wave of sanctions against Tel Aviv if no ceasefire deal is reached. It follows a joint statement from 25 countries on Monday — including the UK, France, Canada and Australia — urging Israel to end its restrictions on aid entering the Palestinian enclave, The Independent reported. David Lammy said that only a 'change in behavior' from Israel would cause the British government to abandon its plan to introduce new sanctions against it. The Israeli military this week launched a new ground operation on Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza, which is the primary aid hub for the territory. Lammy was interviewed on 'Good Morning Britain' on Tuesday, a day after releasing the joint statement with his 24 counterparts. He was asked what steps the government would take should Israel fail to reach a ceasefire deal with Hamas. 'Well, we've announced a raft of sanctions over the last few months,' he said. 'There will be more, clearly, and we keep all of those options under consideration if we do not see a change in behavior and the suffering that we are seeing come to an end. 'It's important that we continue to work with international partners if we are to have the maximum result. But what I want to see is a ceasefire and it's my assessment that once the Knesset rises on July 28, we are more likely to see a ceasefire come into effect.' Last month, Lammy announced British sanctions against two senior far-right members of the Netanyahu government, Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, both of whom have repeatedly incited violence against Palestinians. Monday's 25-nation joint statement condemned Israel and the US's aid model for Gaza, which was designed to replace much of the existing UN aid system in the enclave. The organization at the center of the new model, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, has faced intense criticism after scores of Palestinians were shot dead by Israeli forces at its designated aid sites. Lammy told 'BBC Breakfast' about his reaction to events in Gaza: 'I feel the same as the British public: appalled, sickened. I described what I saw, yesterday in parliament, as grotesque.' He added: 'These are not words that are usually used by a foreign secretary who is attempting to be diplomatic, but when you see innocent children holding out their hand for food, and you see them shot and killed in the way that we have seen in the last few days, of course Britain must call it out.' Israel's war in Gaza has killed more than 55,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children.
Arab News
18 minutes ago
- General
- Arab News
How heritage defenders are rescuing Gaza's artifacts, preserving cultural identity
LONDON: It is one of the more extraordinary and unexpected images to have emerged from the chaos and destruction in Gaza. Two men, wearing high-visibility vests and stepping carefully through the rubble-strewn streets of Khan Younis, are carrying a priceless Roman-era pottery jar, supported between them on a folded carpet serving as a makeshift sling. The incongruous photograph tells a story of hope and determination — hope that Palestine has a future, and determination that, whatever tomorrow might bring, the heritage of an entire people will not be destroyed. The photograph was taken during the summer last year, when the men, members of the Heritage Guardians Team from the Khan Younis-based Mayasem Association for Culture and Arts, were taking part in the evacuation of thousands of artifacts from Al-Qarara Museum, which had been severely damaged in the fighting. Today, thanks to emergency funding supplied by ALIPH, the International Alliance for the Protection of Heritage, those artefacts are stored in a relatively safe and secret place, in the hope that one day they can be returned to a restored museum. The rescue of Palestine's past is just one of 550 projects in 54 countries that have been funded by ALIPH since 2017. The alliance was founded by France and the UAE at an international conference on heritage in danger, held in Abu Dhabi in December 2016 in the wake of widespread destruction of monuments, museums and heritage sites in conflict areas. Saudi Arabia was one of ALIPH's founding members and remains one of its biggest contributors. This month ALIPH announced additional funding of $16 million for 28 new projects supporting heritage in Gaza, Africa, Syria and Ukraine, bringing the total amount committed worldwide by the organization since 2017 to $116 million. Much of that money has been spent on major projects, such as ALIPH's response to the explosion in the port of Beirut in 2020. Since expanded to cover 37 individual projects — 26 of which have been completed — the commitment to Lebanon has reached $5.4 million. ALIPH's funding for Iraq, much of it in response to the destruction of multiple heritage sites by Daesh, has seen more than $31 million invested in 49 initiatives. It began in 2018 with the massive project to rehabilitate the Mosul Museum, in which ALIPH invested $15.8 million in collaboration with the Louvre, the Smithsonian Institution, and the World Monuments Fund, working with local partners and Iraq's State Board of Antiquities and Heritage. ALIPH has also spent $3 million on 18 projects in Syria since 2019, working with 11 local operators to protect and restore archaeological sites, monuments, historic neighborhoods, museums and religious buildings. The new program that ALIPH wants to implement in the coming months includes the rehabilitation of the Palmyra museum and its artifacts, and the stabilization of damaged monuments at the ancient site, where the destruction inflicted there by Daesh in 2015 was one of the key events that led to the alliance's foundation. But it is the much smaller sums invested in timely, emergency interventions, such as several funded by ALIPH in Gaza, that often have a disproportionately significant impact. 'We have quite a large number of small projects,' said Elke Selter, ALIPH's director of programs. 'And a lot of these are acute emergencies, when you actually can't spend large amounts of money and just need to pay for an evacuation, for boxes to move objects, for tarpaulins to cover a hole in a roof, or for wooden panels to put in front of broken windows.' The cost of such interventions, which can make all the difference to the future of a heritage site, can be just a few thousand dollars. Larger, general applications for funding can be made through the regular calls for projects that are advertised on ALIPH's website — the current call, in partnership with the EU, is for projects in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, and closes on July 31. But ALIPH is also open year-round to requests for emergency assistance grants, worth up to $75,000 each, for which applicants must submit a brief, precise proposal for interventions designed 'to halt or prevent irremediable heritage degradation that cannot wait until the next call for projects.' 'I believe that our emergency response is one of ALIPH's main strategic advantages,' said Selter. 'We do very important projects also, before and after emergencies, but there are many others doing that too. In terms of being actively present, and being able to provide funding within 48 hours, if needed, we're alone.' Part of the consideration of each emergency application is the risk posed to those on the ground. With only a couple of dozen staff at headquarters in Geneva, ALIPH is 'primarily a financial instrument, and so it's not ALIPH that puts on its boots and its helmets and goes on site,' said Selter. 'But we work with local operators and provide funding to people on the ground who ask for it, and who are, at that moment, doing whatever they can to save heritage that is clearly important to them. 'These people are going to do it either way, so we can either help them, or not. And if you know that you're one of the only ones that can help, I think there's a duty to do so.' ALIPH takes steps to ensure projects are as safe as possible. 'We try to do whatever we can in our power to make sure that the teams are as safe as they can possibly be, given the situations in which they work,' Selter added. 'In Gaza, for instance, we've put them in touch with UNMAS, the UN demining service, so that sites could first be checked. 'We stay in touch throughout a project, and in the particular case of Gaza we also make sure they understand that, for us, things like reporting deadlines are not essential. 'Of course, it's important that the administration at some point is in order, but we don't need them to risk their lives in order to send us a report within a deadline.' In Gaza last year, ALIPH partnered with the Khan Younis-based Mayasem Association for Culture and Arts and teams from Al-Qarara Museum and The Palestinian Museum in Birzeit in the West Bank to inventory and evacuate Al-Qarara's collection of more than 3,000 artefacts. • 550 Projects that have been funded by ALIPH since 2017. • $16m Additional funding for new projects unveiled by ALIPH this month. • 28 New projects to support heritage in Gaza, Africa, Syria and Ukraine. In April 2024, ALIPH also supported the urgent rescue from the rubble of surviving artifacts from the Rafah Museum, which, before it was almost completely destroyed by Israeli bombing, housed hundreds of objects related to Palestinian heritage, including a unique collection of traditional thobes. ALIPH is currently supporting emergency protection and stabilization measures for the historic Qasr Al-Basha in Gaza, being undertaken by the Palestinian Center for Cultural Heritage Preservation. Once the seat of Mamluk and Ottoman power, the palace became a museum in 2010, housing collections of the Palestinian Antiquities Department, before it was almost completely destroyed in 2023. Equally devastated was Al-Omari Mosque in the heart of Gaza's old city, which was built in 1149 and has been repeatedly damaged, most recently in December 2023. Almost all that remains intact is the building's minaret. ALIPH is supporting the Ramallah-based Palestinian NGO Riwaq, the Center for Architectural Conservation, which is carrying out emergency stabilization and documenting the destruction to support any future work. In February this year, ALIPH funded a damage assessment and stabilizing built heritage workshop in Cairo. Run by the Egyptian Foundation for Heritage Rescue and the Center for Cultural Heritage Preservation of Bethlehem, it has prepared 20 Palestinian heritage professionals to form teams and intervene in Gaza as soon as the situation allows. More than 60 heritage professionals from Gaza, the West Bank and Cairo also attended an ALIPH-funded online course on risk management and undertaking emergency cultural heritage protection measures. 'We were really surprised that we had more than 60 participants,' said project manager Gala-Alexa Amagat. 'Something we see in every conflict we work in is that people attach such importance to preserving the heritage that they have. 'A lot of the people in Gaza who attended actually walked very far every morning to get to a place where they could get a connection and connect to that training, which was completely beyond what we expected.' ALIPH relies on the generosity of donors, including nine member countries, public donors such as the EU, and private individuals and philanthropic foundations. Its next donor conference will be held in Abu Dhabi at the end of next year. 'Of course, the funding landscape is under serious pressure,' said Selter. 'But on the other hand, after eight years, ALIPH is becoming better known, which makes funding a bit easier. People know us now, and those who were hesitant at the beginning can see that we have delivered. 'We hope that our donors will remain committed and that they're happy with the results that we've delivered.' Ultimately, those results stand as a testament to the dedication of thousands of individuals around the world, from South America in the west to Indonesia in the east, many of whom are working in dangerous circumstances. 'The past belongs to all of us, and it is vital to protect our heritage to build a shared future,' said Valery Freland, ALIPH's executive director. 'We are much more than just a funder. But the real heroes are our partners on the ground, who often face great challenges, but are committed to protecting the world's heritage.'
Al Arabiya
18 minutes ago
- Health
- Al Arabiya
Children dying of starvation in Gaza as Israeli assault continues
In this episode of W News Extra, presented by Jono Hayes, we cover a range of stories, including the war in Gaza, where the head of the Palestinian territory's largest hospital says 21 children have died from malnutrition and starvation over the past three days, as Israel continues its devastating assault. Guests: Freddy Gray – Deputy editor, The Spectator
