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Straits Times
27-05-2025
- General
- Straits Times
Palestinians wary as US-backed aid group begins operations in Gaza
Palestinians inspect the damage at a school sheltering displaced people, following an Israeli strike, in Gaza City, May 26, 2025. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas A Palestinian woman places a kettle over the fire outside her tent, where she took shelter after being displaced, in Gaza City May 26, 2025. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa Palestinians displaced by the Israeli military offensive take shelter in tents near Gaza's seaport, in Gaza City May 26, 2025. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa An Israeli tank stands on the Israel-Gaza border, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Israel, May 27, 2025 REUTERS/Amir Cohen Smoke rises from North Gaza after an explosion, near the Israel-Gaza border as seen from Israel, May 27, 2025 REUTERS/Amir Cohen Israeli military vehicles operate inside Gaza, near the Israel-Gaza border, as seen from Israel, May 27, 2025 REUTERS/Amir Cohen A general view shows destruction in North Gaza, as seen from Israel, May 27, 2025 REUTERS/Amir Cohen Military vehicles stands on the Israel-Gaza border, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Israel, May 27, 2025 REUTERS/Amir Cohen Trucks transport aid as Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said it has commenced operations to begin distribution of aid, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, May 26, 2025. Gaza Humanitarian Foundation/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo CAIRO - Palestinians voiced wariness on Tuesday toward a U.S.-backed foundation set to bring aid to Gaza amid signs of famine, with Hamas warnings about biometric screening procedures keeping many away from distribution points. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said it began operations on Monday, but there was little indication of Palestinians turning up at distribution centres in southern Gaza even after almost three months of Israel blockading the enclave. Palestinians said there was no known visits to new sites of distribution on Monday, but on Tuesday dozens headed to one of them established in Rafah to get some aid despite the warnings, at least three witnesses told Reuters. Others stayed away. "As much as I want to go because I am hungry and my children are hungry, I am afraid," said Abu Ahmed, 55, a father of seven. "I am so scared because they said the company belongs to Israel and is a mercenary, and also because the resistance (Hamas) said not to go," he said in a message on the chat app WhatsApp. Israel says the Switzerland-based GHF is a U.S.-backed initiative and that its forces will not be involved in the distribution points where food will be handed out. But its endorsement of the plan, which resembles Israeli schemes floated previously, and its closeness with the U.S. has led many to question the neutrality of the foundation, including its own former chief, who resigned unexpectedly on Sunday. The United Nations and other international aid groups have boycotted the foundation, which they say undermines the principle that humanitarian aid should be distributed independently of the parties to a conflict, based on need. "Humanitarian assistance must not be politicised or militarised," said Christian Cardon, chief spokesperson of the International Committee of the Red Cross. Israel, at war with Gaza's dominant Hamas militant group since October 2023, imposed the blockade in early March accusing Hamas of stealing supplies and using them to entrench its position. Hamas has denied such accusations. Israeli officials said one of the advantages of the new aid system is the opportunity to screen recipients to exclude anyone found to be connected with Hamas. Humanitarian groups briefed on the foundation's plans say anyone accessing aid will have to submit to facial recognition technology that many Palestinians fear will end up in Israeli hands to be used to track and potentially target them. Details of exactly how the system will operate have not been made public. Israel makes extensive use of facial recognition and other forms of biometric identification in the occupied West Bank and has been reported by Israeli and international media to be using such techniques in Gaza as well. BEGGING FOR BREAD Hamas, which has in recent months faced protests by many Palestinians who want the devastating war to end, has also warned residents against accessing GHF sites, saying Israel was using the company to collect intelligence information. "Do not go to Rafah ...Do not fall into the not risk your lives. Your homes are your fortress. Staying in your neighbourhoods is survival, and awareness is your protection," a statement published by the Hamas-linked Home Front said. "These schemes will be broken by the steadfastness of a people who do not know defeat," it added. The launch of the new system came days after Israel eased its blockade, allowing a trickle of aid trucks from international agencies into Gaza last week, including World Food Programme vehicles bringing flour to local bakeries. But the amount of aid that has entered the densely populated coastal enclave has been only a small fraction of the 500-600 trucks that U.N. agencies estimate are needed every day. "Before the war, my fridge used to be full of meat, chicken, dairy, soft drinks, everything, and now I am begging for a loaf of bread," Abu Ahmed told Reuters via a chat app. As a small aid flow has resumed, Israeli forces - now in control of large parts of Gaza - have kept up attacks on various targets around the enclave, killing 3,901 Palestinians since a two-month-old ceasefire collapsed in mid-March, according to the Gaza health ministry. In all, more than 54,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's air and ground war, launched following a cross-border Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023 that killed some 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage into Gaza. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Straits Times
24-05-2025
- General
- Straits Times
Diary of a Gazan family's descent toward starvation
Palestinian woman, Basma Al-Sheikh Khalil, eats with her grandchildren in front of the tent they took shelter after being displaced, in Deir Al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, May 21, 2025. REUTERS/Ramadan Abed Palestinian woman, Basma Al-Sheikh Khalil, holds a metal bowl of food as she stands in front of the tent they took shelter after being displaced, in Deir Al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, May 21, 2025. REUTERS/Ramadan Abed A Palestinian girl feeds her sister inside the tent that they took shelter after being displaced, in Gaza City, May 22, 2025. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa Palestinian woman, Mervat Hijazi, feeds her daughter inside the tent they took shelter after being displaced, in Gaza City, May 22, 2025. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa Palestinian woman, Mervat Hijazi, washes clothes inside the tent they took shelter after being displaced, in Gaza City, May 22, 2025. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa CAIRO/GAZA CITY - Mervat Hijazi and her nine children didn't eat at all on Thursday - save her underweight baby who had a sachet of peanut paste. "I'm so ashamed of myself for not being able to feed my children," Hijazi told Reuters from their tent pitched amid the rubble of Gaza City. "I cry at night when my baby cries and her stomach aches from hunger." Six-year-old Zaha can't sleep because of Israel's bombardment. "She wakes up terrified, shaking, and then remembers she didn't eat and is hungry. I put her back to sleep, promising her food in the morning. Of course I lie." Hijazi, 38, recounted a terrible week. Sunday, May 18: Her family was given about half a kilo of cooked lentils from a community kitchen run by a charity, half the amount she would normally use for a single meal. Monday: A local aid group was distributing some vegetables in the camp but there wasn't enough to go round and Hijazi's family didn't get any. Her 14-year-old daughter Menna went to the community kitchen and came back with a meagre amount of cooked potato. Everyone was hungry so they filled up by drinking water. Tuesday: The family received about half a kilo of cooked pasta from the kitchen. One daughter was also given some falafel by an uncle who lived nearby. Wednesday: A good day, relatively. They received a bowl of rice with lentils at the community kitchen. It wasn't nearly enough, but Menna went back and pleaded with them and they eventually gave her two other small dishes. "She is tough and keeps crying at them until they give her." Thursday: the kitchen was closed, the family couldn't find out why. They had nothing to eat except for the peanut sachet for 11-month-old Lama, received from a clinic as a nutritional supplement because baby milk formula has all but disappeared. "I don't have enough milk in my breasts to feed her because I hardly eat myself," said Hijazi, whose husband was killed early in the war as he cycled to get food from a charity kitchen. The Hijazis' plight is a snapshot of the misery plaguing the Palestinian enclave of Gaza. A global hunger monitor warned this month half a million people face starvation while famine looms. Israel has been bombarding and besieging Gaza since the territory's ruling group Hamas launched a surprise attack against Israeli border communities on October 7, 2023. The Hamas attack killed 1,200 people, according to Israel, while Gazan authorities say the ensuing Israeli offensive has killed more than 53,000 people. Israeli authorities have repeatedly said there is enough food in Gaza to feed the population and accuse Hamas of stealing aid in order to feed its fighters and to maintain control over the territory, an accusation the group denies. This week Israel started allowing some food to enter the territory for the first time since March 2, including flour and baby food but it says a new U.S.-sponsored system run by private contractors will begin operating soon. The plan will involve distribution centres in areas controlled by Israeli troops, a plan the U.N. and aid agencies have attacked, saying it will lead to further displacement of the population and that aid should flow through existing networks. Hijazi said her family had seen no sign yet of the new aid and she is consumed by worry for her baby, Lama, who was 5 kg when weighed last week. That's about half the average for a healthy one-year-old girl according to World Health Organization charts. This week the family have had, at most, a single meal a day to share, the mother added. U.N. aid chief Tom Fletcher said this week that the amount of aid Israel was proposing to allow into Gaza was "a drop in the ocean" of what was needed. WE HAVE NO SAY IN THIS WAR The tent shared by Hijazi and her children is large and rectangular with a portrait of their dead husband and father Mohammed hanging on one side above a thin mattress and some mostly empty jars and stacked plastic bowls. The family is from the Sabra district of Gaza City, in the north of the enclave, where Israel's first assault was concentrated. They decided to flee the district on the day Mohammed was killed - November 17, 2023. They went south to the central Gazan area of Deir al-Balah, first staying with family and then moving to an encampment for the displaced. They returned to Gaza City after a ceasefire was agreed in January, but their home had been damaged and they are now living in a camp for the displaced. Hunger makes them all listless, Hijazi said, and they often lack enough energy even to clean their tent. When Reuters visited, some of the children lay sprawled silent on the floor. But they still have jobs to do. Menna is often sent to queue at the food kitchen. She arrives more than an hour before it opens, knowing that otherwise she would stand no chance of getting food and often waits another hour before she is served, Hijazi said. On days when a tanker does not bring water to their part of the camp, Mustafa, 15, and Ali, 13, have to walk to a standpipe in another district and lug heavy plastic jerrycans back to the tent - a chore made harder by their hunger. Everyone remembers life before the war and they talk about the meals they used to enjoy. Mohammed Hijazi was a plumber and earned a good wage. "People used to envy us for the variety of food we had," his wife said, recalling breakfasts of eggs, beans, falafel, cheese, yoghurt and bread, and lunches and dinners of meat, rice, chicken and vegetables. Her 16-year-old daughter Malik talked about burgers, chocolate and Coca-Cola. "We are civilians. We have no say in this war. All we want is for the war to end," Hijazi said. "We want to go back to live in homes - real homes. We want to sleep with full stomachs and in peace, not scared of dying while we sleep." REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Straits Times
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Straits Times
Explainer-The new US-backed Gaza aid plan and why the UN does not like it
Palestinians displaced by the Israeli military offensive shelter in tents near Gaza's seaport, in Gaza City, May 22, 2025. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa Explainer-The new US-backed Gaza aid plan and why the UN does not like it UNITED NATIONS - A U.S.-backed organization aims to start work in the Gaza Strip by the end of May, overseeing a new model of aid distribution in the Palestinian enclave, but the United Nations says the plan is not impartial or neutral, and it will not be involved. WHAT IS THE GAZA HUMANITARIAN FOUNDATION? Aid deliveries in Gaza will be overseen by the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which was established in February in Switzerland, according to the Geneva commercial registry. The foundation intends to work with private U.S. security and logistics firms - UG Solutions and Safe Reach Solutions - according to a source familiar with the plan. A second source said the GHF has already received more than $100 million in commitments. It was not immediately clear where the money was coming from. Senior U.S. officials were working with Israel to enable the GHF to start work, acting U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Dorothy Shea told the Security Council this month, urging the U.N. and aid groups to cooperate. Israel said it will facilitate the GHF's work without being involved in aid deliveries. HOW WOULD THE NEW PLAN WORK? The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said initially there will be four secure distribution sites - three in the south and one in central Gaza - and that "within the next month, additional sites will be opened, including in northern Gaza." Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that construction of the first distribution zones would be complete in the coming days and that Israel intends "to have large safe zones in the south of Gaza." "The Palestinian population will move there for their own safety, while we conduct combat in other zones," Netanyahu said. The GHF said it would "never participate in or support any form of forced relocation of civilians" and that there was no limit on the number of sites it could open, or where. "The GHF will use security contractors to transport aid from border crossings to the secure distribution sites," it said in a statement. "Once the aid is at the sites, it will be distributed directly to the people of Gaza by civilian humanitarian teams." Israel's U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon has said a few aid groups have agreed to work with the GHF. The names of those groups are not yet known. The foundation said it is finalizing mechanisms to get aid to those who cannot access the distribution sites. GHF also said it would not share any personally identifiable information of aid recipients with Israel and that the Israeli military "will not have a presence within the immediate vicinity of the distribution sites." WHY WON'T THE U.N. WORK WITH THE NEW DISTRIBUTION MODEL? The United Nations says the U.S.-backed distribution plan does not meet its long-held principles of impartiality, neutrality and independence. U.N. aid chief Tom Fletcher has said time should not be wasted on the alternative proposal. In a briefing to the Security Council, he explained what was wrong with the Israel-initiated plan: "It forces further displacement. It exposes thousands of people to harm ... It restricts aid to only one part of Gaza, while leaving other dire needs unmet. It makes aid conditional on political and military aims. It makes starvation a bargaining chip." The U.N. Palestinian relief agency UNRWA has been described by the U.N. as the backbone of the aid operation in Gaza. However, Israel has accused the agency of anti-Israel incitement and its staff of being "involved in terrorist activities." The U.N. has vowed to investigate all accusations. The GHF says working with Israel to develop "a workable solution is not a violation of humanitarian principles." WHY HAS AN ALTERNATIVE AID DISTRIBUTION PLAN BEEN PROPOSED? Israel stopped all aid deliveries to Gaza on March 2 after accusing Hamas of stealing aid, which the Palestinian militants deny, and demanding the release of all remaining hostages taken during an October 2023 attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies. That assault triggered the war, which Gaza authorities say has killed 53,000 people in the enclave. In early April, Israel proposed what it described as "a structured monitoring and aid entry mechanism" for Gaza. It was swiftly rejected by U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who said it risked "further controlling and callously limiting aid down to the last calorie and grain of flour." Since then pressure had been growing on Israel to allow aid deliveries to resume. A global hunger monitor last week warned that half a million people face starvation - about a quarter of the population in the enclave - and U.S. President Donald Trump acknowledged that "a lot of people are starving in Gaza." Amid the stalemate over Israel's plan, Washington backed the newly-created GHF to oversee aid distribution. The GHF announced last week that it aims to start work in Gaza by the end of May. In the meantime, Israel has allowed limited aid deliveries to resume this week under the existing distribution model. WHAT WAS THE EXISTING AID DELIVERY PLAN? Throughout the conflict, the United Nations has described its humanitarian operation in Gaza as opportunistic - facing problems with Israel's military operation, access restrictions by Israel into and throughout Gaza, and looting by armed gangs. But the U.N. has said its aid distribution system works, and that was particularly proven during a two-month ceasefire, which was abandoned by Israel in mid-March. Israel first inspects and approves aid. It is then dropped off on the Gaza side of the border, where it was picked up by the U.N. and distributed. "We do not need to reinvent yet another wheel," U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said on Monday. "We don't need a newly minted humanitarian partner to tell us how to do our work in Gaza." Fletcher on Monday listed what the U.N. needs from Israel to scale up aid: at least two open crossings into Gaza - one in the north and one in the south; simplified, expedited procedures; no quotas; no access impediments in Gaza and no attacks when aid is being delivered; and being allowed to meet a range of needs, including food, water, hygiene, shelter, health, fuel and gas. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Ya Libnan
21-05-2025
- Politics
- Ya Libnan
Gaza still waiting for aid as pressure mounts on Israel
Palestinians wait to receive food cooked by a charity kitchen, in Gaza City, May 21, 2025. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa By Nidal Al-Mughrabi and James Mackenzie No aid has reached people in Gaza, a U.N. aid official said on Wednesday, two days after the Israeli government said it had lifted an 11-week-old blockade that has brought the Palestinian enclave to the brink of famine. The Israeli military said five aid trucks entered Gaza on Monday and 93 on Tuesday but supplies have not made it to Gaza's soup kitchens, bakeries, markets and hospitals, according to aid officials and local bakeries that were standing by to receive supplies of flour. 'None of this aid – that is a very limited number of trucks – has reached the Gaza population,' said Antoine Renard, country director of the World Food Programme (WFP), who said the trucks appeared to be stopped in Kerem Shalom, the sprawling logistics hub at the south-eastern corner of the Gaza Strip. The Israeli blockade has left Gazans in an increasingly desperate struggle for survival , despite growing international and domestic pressure on Israel's government, which one opposition figure said risked turning the country into a 'pariah state'. 'There is no flour, no food, no water,' said Sabah Warsh Agha, a 67-year-old woman from the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya sheltering in a cluster of tents near to the beach in Gaza City. 'We used to get water from the pump, now the pump has stopped working. There is no diesel or gas.' Abdel-Nasser Al-Ajramy, the head of the bakery owners' society, said at least 25 bakeries that were told they would receive flour from the WFP had seen nothing and there was no relief from the hunger for people waiting for food. 'I'm here since eight in the morning, just to get one plate for six people while it is not enough for one person,' said Mahmoud al-Haw, who waits in panicked crowds for up to six hours a day hoping for some lentil soup to keep his children alive. Israel imposed the blockade in March, saying Hamas was seizing supplies meant for civilians – a charge the militants deny – and a new U.S.-backed system, using private contractors, is due to begin aid distribution in the near future. As people waited, air strikes and tank fire killed at least 34 people across the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, Palestinian health authorities said. The Israeli military said air strikes hit 115 targets, which it said included rocket launchers, tunnels and unspecified military infrastructure. The resumption of the assault on Gaza since March, following a two-month ceasefire, has drawn condemnation from countries that have long been cautious about expressing open criticism of Israel. Even the United States, the country's most important ally, has shown signs of losing patience with Netanyahu. UK SUSPENDS TRADE TALKS WITH ISRAEL Britain has suspended talks with Israel on a free trade deal, and the European Union said it will review a pact on political and economic ties over the ' catastrophic situation' in Gaza. Britain, France and Canada have threatened 'concrete actions' if Israel continues its offensive. 'PARIAH STATE' Within Israel, left-wing opposition leader Yair Golan drew a furious response from the government and its supporters this week when he declared that 'A sane country doesn't kill babies as a hobby' and said Israel risked becoming a 'pariah state among the nations.' Golan, a former deputy commander of the Israeli military who went single-handedly to rescue victims of the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct 7, 2023, leads an Israeli party . But his words, and similar comments by former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in an interview with the BBC, underscored the deepening unease in Israel at the continuation of the war while 58 hostages remain in Gaza. Netanyahu dismissed the criticism. 'I heard Olmert and Yair Golan – and it's shocking,' he said in a videoed statement. 'While IDF soldiers are fighting Hamas, there are those who are strengthening the false propaganda against the State of Israel.' Opinion polls show widespread support for a ceasefire that would include the return of all the hostages, with a survey from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem this week showing 70% in favour of a deal. But hardliners in the cabinet, some of whom argue for the complete expulsion of all Palestinians from Gaza, have insisted on continuing the war until 'final victory', which would include disarming Hamas as well as the return of the hostages. As some trucks left the Israeli side of Kerem Shalom, a small group of Israeli protestors angry that any supplies were being let into Gaza while hostages were still held there tried to block them. Gaza children slowly dying Palestinians wait to receive food cooked by a charity kitchen, in Gaza City, May 21, 2025. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY Father of four Mahmoud al-Haw and other Palestinians crowd around a soup kitchen in war-ravaged Gaza , surging forward and frantically waving pots. Small children, squashed at the front, are in tears. One of them holds up a plastic basin hoping for some ladles of soup. Haw pushes forward in the scrum until he receives his share. Haw does this every day because he fears his children are starving. He sets out through the ruins of Jabalia in northern Gaza in search of food, waiting in panicked crowds for up to six hours to get barely enough to feed his family. Some days he gets lucky and can find lentil soup. Other days he returns empty-handed. 'I have a sick daughter. I can't provide her with anything. There is no bread, there is nothing,' said Haw, 39. 'I'm here since eight in the morning, just to get one plate for six people while it is not enough for one person.' Israel has blocked the entry of medical, food and fuel supplies into Gaza since the start of March, prompting international experts to warn of looming famine in the besieged enclave that is home to 2.3 million Palestinians. Some trucks were allowed to enter Gaza on Monday, after Israel agreed to allow limited humanitarian deliveries to resume following mounting international pressure. But by Tuesday night, the United Nations said no aid had been distributed. Netanyahu, trailing in the opinion polls and facing trial at home on corruption charges which he denies as well as an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court has so far sided with the hardliners. Israel launched its campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas attack on Oct 7, which killed some 1,139 people by Israeli tallies and saw 251 hostages abducted into Gaza. The campaign has killed more than 53,600 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities, and devastated the coastal strip, where aid groups say signs of severe malnutrition are widespread. Reuters
GMA Network
21-05-2025
- Politics
- GMA Network
Pope Leo appeals for Israel to allow humanitarian aid in Gaza
Palestinians wait to receive food cooked by a charity kitchen, in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip, May 19, 2025. REUTERS/ Mahmoud Issa VATICAN CITY — Pope Leo XIV on Wednesday appealed for Israel to allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza, calling the situation in the Palestinian enclave "yet more worrying and saddening." "I renew my fervent appeal to allow for the entry of fair humanitarian help and to bring to an end the hostilities, the devastating price of which is paid by children, the elderly and the sick," the pope said during his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square. Leo, the former Cardinal Robert Prevost, was elected the leader of the Catholic Church on May 8 to succeed the late Pope Francis. He has mentioned the situation in Gaza several times in the first weeks of his papacy. In his first Sunday message on May 11, the new pope called for an immediate ceasefire and for the release of all Israeli hostages held by militant group Hamas. Israel said on Monday that it would allow aid to enter Gaza after an 11-week blockade on the enclave, but the United Nations said no help had been distributed as of Tuesday. Leo's appeal comes a day after British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced his government had paused free trade talks with Israel and summoned the Israeli ambassador to the UK over the situation in Gaza. Israel says it plans to intensify military operations against Hamas and to control the whole of Gaza, which has been devastated by an Israeli air and ground war since Hamas' cross-border attack on Israeli communities in October 2023. Israel has said its blockade is aimed in part at preventing Palestinian militants from diverting and seizing aid supplies. Hamas has denied doing so. — Reuters
