Latest news with #PalestineChildrensReliefFund
Arab News
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Arab News
YouTube educator says she is ready to risk career for Gaza's children
LONDON: American children's educator and YouTuber Rachel Griffin Accurso, known globally as Ms Rachel, has said she is willing to jeopardize her career to advocate for Palestinian children suffering under Israeli bombardment in Gaza. Ms Rachel said she had been targeted by online campaigns and faced calls for government investigation after voicing support for children affected by war in Gaza and elsewhere. Despite growing criticism from some pro-Israel groups and conservative media, she said she remained defiant in a recent interview with WBUR, a Boston-based public radio station. She said: 'I would risk everything — and I will risk my career over and over to stand up for children. It's all about the kids for me. I wouldn't be Ms Rachel if I didn't deeply care about all kids.' Her comments came as humanitarian agencies continue to sound the alarm over conditions in Gaza, where more than 54,000 Palestinians have been killed, and the UN has warned that the enclave faces imminent famine. The YouTube star said a recent meeting with Palestinian mothers, whose children remain trapped in Gaza, had had a profound effect on her. She said: 'When you sit with a mother who's FaceTiming her boys in Gaza who don't have food, and you see that anguish, you ask yourself: What more can I do?' Ms Rachel recently published about her encounter with Rahaf, 3, a double amputee from Gaza who was evacuated for medical treatment in the US by the Palestine Children's Relief Fund. Rahaf's story, including her wish to return to school and stand while praying, has been shared by Ms Rachel on her social media platforms, alongside the educator's advocacy for children in Gaza. Ms Rachel has faced accusations of bias, including a call by a pro-Israel organization urging the US attorney general to investigate her messaging. She acknowledged the pressure, but insisted her mission remains unchanged. She said: 'It's painful, but I know who I am, and I know how deeply and equally I care for all children.' A former teacher in New York, Ms Rachel said her work had always been rooted in the principle that all children, regardless of nationality or background, deserved dignity, safety, and access to basic needs. She added: 'That's the basis of everything for me — children are equal.'
The Independent
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Ms Rachel shares heartwarming moment with 3-year-old double amputee from Gaza
Ms Rachel shared a sweet moment with a 3-year-old double amputee from Gaza whom she invited onto her show. The YouTube star and children's educator, whose full name is Rachel Accurso, sang one of her trademark songs with Rahaf, who was evacuated from Gaza by the Palestine Children's Relief Fund. She said Rahaf's mother told her that they no longer eat while video chatting with her sons, who are still in Palestine. Accurso has been vocal about her support for children in Gaza as Israel intensifies its attacks. In a tearful video posted on her Instagram, Accurso shared an image of an emaciated Palestinian baby while rocking her own newborn Susannah on her arms.
Sky News
16-05-2025
- Health
- Sky News
'A shortage of everything except death': How Israel has escalated Gaza bombing campaign
A wave of deadly strikes in northern Gaza has marked a significant escalation in Israel's offensive. The Israeli military (IDF) says it has struck "over 150 terror targets" across the Gaza Strip in the past 24 hours - an average of one airstrike every ten minutes. At least 109 people have been killed in the strikes, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, bringing the total number killed this week to 284. That number may rise further. On Friday morning, the director of Gaza City's Al Shifa hospital told Al Jazeera that more than 250 people had been killed in the previous 36 hours alone. Nurse and his family killed in strike The impact of this new bombardment is cataclysmic, as this video of an Israeli airstrike in Jabalia, northern Gaza, verified by Sky News, shows. Other videos show huge smoke clouds rising from airstrikes on residential neighbourhoods surrounding the city's Indonesian Hospital. The hospital's director, Dr Marwan al Sultan, told Sky News: "There is a shortage of everything except death." Among those killed in Jabalia on Friday was 42-year old Yahya Shehab, a nurse for the Palestine Children's Relief Fund (PRCF). He was killed alongside his wife Tamara, 37, and their five children: Sarah, 18, Anas, 16, Maryam, 14, Aya, 12 and Abdul, 11. He is survived by his niece Huda, 27, a civil engineer, who lives nearby with her husband Ahmad Ngat, 31, and their two young sons, Mohammed, seven, and Yusuf, four. Ahmad remembers Yahya as kind and generous, and that he would use his skills as a nurse to treat Mohammed and Yusuf whenever they were sick. "His kids were great too," Ahmad says. "May God have mercy on them." Operation Gideon Chariot An Israeli official said Friday's strikes were preparatory actions in the lead-up to a larger operation. Earlier this month, Israel's security cabinet approved "Operation Gideon Chariot" - a plan to "capture" all of Gaza and force its entire population to move to a small enclave in the southern Gaza Strip. At the time, a defence official said the operation would go ahead if no hostage deal was reached by the end of US President Donald Trump's visit to the Middle East. That visit ended on Friday, 16 May. 👉 Follow Trump100 on your podcast app 👈 Hamas had proposed releasing all hostages in exchange for a permanent end to the war. Last month, Hamas turned down Israel's offer of a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the militant group laying down its weapons and releasing half the living hostages. Finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, who sits in the security cabinet, said of Operation Gideon Chariot that Gaza would be "entirely destroyed", and that its population will "leave in great numbers to third countries". 2:12 Ahmad says he is ready to leave Gaza with his family at the earliest opportunity. "We want to live our lives," he says. His wife Huda grieving the loss of her uncle Yahya, is seven months pregnant. The family are constantly struggling to find enough food for her and the children, he says. "Unfortunately, she suffers greatly," Ahmad says. "She developed gestational diabetes during this pregnancy." Israel has prevented the entry of all food, fuel and water since 2 March. On Monday, a UN-backed report warned that one in five people in Gaza were facing starvation. Satellite imagery may show new aid hubs Under new proposals backed by the US, Israel now intends to control the distribution of aid via private military contractors. The proposals, set to start operating by the end of May, would see aid distributed from militarised compounds in four locations around the Gaza Strip. Satellite imagery from recent weeks shows Israel has constructed four compounds which could be used for aid distribution. Construction began in April and was completed by early May. Three of these are clustered together in the southwest corner of the Gaza Strip, with one in the central Netzarim corridor. None are located in northern Gaza, where Ahmad and Huda's family live. The UN has called this a "deliberate attempt to weaponise" aid distribution and has refused to participate. The planned aid distribution system is being coordinated by a new non-profit, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which was set up in February in Switzerland. Its board includes a former head of World Central Kitchen, as well as people with close ties to the US military and private military contractors. Proposals drawn up by the GHF say the four planned aid distribution sites could feed around 1.2 million people, approximately 60% of Gaza's population. The GHF later requested that Israel establish additional distribution points. Speaking to the UN Security Council on Tuesday, UN Relief chief Tom Fletcher said the plan "makes starvation a bargaining chip". "It is cynical sideshow. A deliberate distraction. A fig leaf for further violence and displacement," he said. Large areas of Gaza have already been razed in recent weeks, including vast tracts of the southern city of Rafah, where many had fled during the war's early stages. Sky News analysis of satellite imagery shows approximately two-thirds of Rafah's built-up area (66%) has been reduced entirely to rubble, with buildings across much of the rest of the city showing signs of severe damage. On Thursday, Human Rights Watch executive director Federico Borello said the UK and US have a duty, under the Genocide Convention, to "stop Israeli authorities from starving civilians in Gaza". He said: "Hearing Israeli officials flaunt plans to squeeze Gaza's two million people into an even tinier area while making the rest of the land uninhabitable should be treated like a five-alarm fire in London, Brussels, Paris, and Washington." Israeli government spokesman David Mencer said on Friday that Israel's new offensive is intended to secure the release of its hostages. "Our objective is to get them home and get Hamas to relinquish power," he said.
Sky News
16-05-2025
- Sky News
'A shortage of everything except death': Maps show Israel's escalation of Gaza bombing campaign
A wave of deadly strikes in northern Gaza has marked a significant escalation in Israel's offensive. The Israeli military (IDF) says it has struck "over 150 terror targets" across the Gaza Strip in the past 24 hours. At least 109 people have been killed in the strikes, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, bringing the total number killed this week to 284. That number may rise further. On Friday morning, the director of Gaza City's Al Shifa hospital told Al Jazeera that more than 250 people had been killed in the previous 36 hours alone. Nurse and his family killed in strike The impact of this new bombardment is cataclysmic, as this video of an Israeli airstrike in Jabalia, northern Gaza, verified by Sky News, shows. Other videos show huge smoke clouds rising from airstrikes on residential neighbourhoods surrounding the city's Indonesian Hospital. The hospital's director, Dr Marwan al Sultan, told Sky News: "There is a shortage of everything except death." Among those killed in Jabalia on Friday was 42-year old Yahya Shehab, a nurse for the Palestine Children's Relief Fund (PRCF). He was killed alongside his wife Tamara, 37, and their five children: Sarah, 18, Anas, 16, Maryam, 14, Aya, 12 and Abdul, 11. He is survived by his niece Huda, 27, a civil engineer, who lives nearby with her husband Ahmad Ngat, 31, and their two young sons, Mohammed, seven, and Yusuf, four. Ahmad remembers Yahya as kind and generous, and that he would use his skills as a nurse to treat Mohammed and Yusuf whenever they were sick. "His kids were great too," Ahmad says. "May God have mercy on them." Operation Gideon Chariot An Israeli official said Friday's strikes were preparatory actions in the lead-up to a larger operation. Earlier this month, Israel's security cabinet approved "Operation Gideon Chariot" - a plan to "capture" all of Gaza and force its entire population to move to a small enclave in the southern Gaza Strip. At the time, a defence official said the operation would go ahead if no hostage deal was reached by the end of US President Donald Trump's visit to the Middle East. That visit ended on Friday, 16 May. Hamas had proposed releasing all hostages in exchange for a permanent end to the war. Last month, Hamas turned down Israel's offer of a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the militant group laying down its weapons and releasing half the living hostages. Finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, who sits in the security cabinet, said of Operation Gideon Chariot that Gaza would be "entirely destroyed", and that its population will "leave in great numbers to third countries". 2:12 Ahmad says he is ready to leave Gaza with his family at the earliest opportunity. "We want to live our lives," he says. His wife Huda grieving the loss of her uncle Yahya, is seven months pregnant. The family are constantly struggling to find enough food for her and the children, he says. "Unfortunately, she suffers greatly," Ahmad says. "She developed gestational diabetes during this pregnancy." Israel has prevented the entry of all food, fuel and water since 2 March. On Monday, a UN-backed report warned that one in five people in Gaza were facing starvation. Satellite imagery may show new aid hubs Under new proposals backed by the US, Israel now intends to control the distribution of aid via private military contractors. The proposals, set to start operating by the end of May, would see aid distributed from militarised compounds in four locations around the Gaza Strip. Satellite imagery from recent weeks shows Israel has constructed four compounds which could be used for aid distribution. Construction began in April and was completed by early May. Three of these are clustered together in the southwest corner of the Gaza Strip, with one in the central Netzarim corridor. None are located in northern Gaza, where Ahmad and Huda's family live. The UN has called this a "deliberate attempt to weaponise" aid distribution and has refused to participate. The planned aid distribution system is being coordinated by a new non-profit, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which was set up in February in Switzerland. Its board includes a former head of World Central Kitchen, as well as people with close ties to the US military and private military contractors. Proposals drawn up by the GHF say the four planned aid distribution sites could feed around 1.2 million people, approximately 60% of Gaza's population. The GHF later requested that Israel establish additional distribution points. Speaking to the UN Security Council on Tuesday, UN Relief chief Tom Fletcher said the plan "makes starvation a bargaining chip". "It is cynical sideshow. A deliberate distraction. A fig leaf for further violence and displacement," he said. Large areas of Gaza have already been razed in recent weeks, including vast tracts of the southern city of Rafah, where many had fled during the war's early stages. Sky News analysis of satellite imagery shows approximately two-thirds of Rafah's built-up area (66%) has been reduced entirely to rubble, with buildings across much of the rest of the city showing signs of severe damage. On Thursday, Human Rights Watch executive director Federico Borello said the UK and US have a duty, under the Genocide Convention, to "stop Israeli authorities from starving civilians in Gaza". He said: "Hearing Israeli officials flaunt plans to squeeze Gaza's two million people into an even tinier area while making the rest of the land uninhabitable should be treated like a five-alarm fire in London, Brussels, Paris, and Washington." Israeli government spokesman David Mencer said on Friday that Israel's new offensive is intended to secure the release of its hostages. "Our objective is to get them home and get Hamas to relinquish power," he said.
