Latest news with #SigridKaag
Al Jazeera
4 days ago
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Sigrid Kaag on Gaza: Aid under siege & the collapse of humanitarian norms
Former UN Senior Humanitarian and Reconstruction Coordinator for Gaza Sigrid Kaag speaks to Talk to Al Jazeera about delivering aid under Israeli siege, amid what many world leaders call genocide. She discusses blocked aid, famine, the collapse of humanitarian norms, and the UN's credibility crisis. Kaag, also a former deputy prime minister, finance minister, and foreign minister of the Netherlands, offers her perspective on what future remains for a rules-based order when even humanitarian principles are no longer guaranteed.
Yahoo
05-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Four people killed after starving Palestinians burst into UN food warehouse in Gaza
Four people have died as thousands of Palestinians burst into a United Nations warehouse in Gaza, tearing away sections of the building's metal walls in a desperate attempt to find food. Two people were fatally crushed and two others died of gunshot wounds after the crowd forced its way into the World Food Programme warehouse in Deir al-Balah on Wednesday afternoon, health officials said. It was not immediately clear if Israeli forces, private contractors or others had opened fire. Footage showed throngs of people shouting and pushing into the building while others threw bags of flour and boxes into the crowd. 'Hordes of hungry people broke into WFP's al-Ghafari warehouse in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza, in search of food supplies that were pre-positioned for distribution,' WFP said in a statement, which warned of 'alarming and deteriorating conditions on the ground'. 'Humanitarian needs have spiralled out of control after 80 days of complete blockade of all food assistance and other aid into Gaza,' the statement said. 'Gaza needs an immediate scale-up of food assistance. This is the only way to reassure people that they will not starve.' A UN envoy compared the limited aid being allowed into Gaza to 'a lifeboat after the ship has sunk'. Sigrid Kaag, the acting UN special coordinator for the Middle East, told the UN security council that people facing famine in Gaza 'have lost hope'. The 11-week siege and a continuing tight Israel blockade mean most people in Gaza are desperately hungry. Medics and aid workers in the devastated Palestinian territory have said for months that malnutrition is spreading. Bakeries operated by the UN World Food Programme have closed owing to a lack of cooking gas, and prices are soaring for the limited food available in shops and markets. The chaotic scenes came as Gaza health officials said at least one civilian had been killed and 48 injured in a separate incident at a food distribution point in the south of the territory on the previous day. Israeli troops opened fire at the newly established site as a large crowd gathered there on Tuesday. Witnesses to that incident said Israeli forces started shooting after crowds of Palestinians broke through the fences around the centre managed by a US-backed group, chosen by Israel to ship food into Gaza, which lost control of its distribution site. An Israeli military helicopter was seen firing flares and bursts of gunfire were heard in the distance. In one video, a large crowd of panicked civilians, including women and children, can be seen running away, trampling the fencing. Footage showed hundreds of Palestinians queueing alongside barbed-wire fences shortly before the incident. As the food distribution began, thousands of starving Palestinians rushed into the site, causing at least two of the fences at the entrance queue to collapse quickly. Later footage shows all the entrance row fences collapsed in the panic that followed. Ajith Sunghay, the head of the UN human rights office for the Palestinian territories, said most of the injured people were hurt by gunfire. Gaza's health ministry said at least one person was killed. The Israeli military said it fired 'warning shots' near the compound to restore control, but denied firing towards people. In a statement released on Wednesday, Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which has been authorised by Israel to take over food distribution operations to bypass the UN aid mechanisms into the Palestinian territory, said: 'No shots were fired at Palestinian crowds and there were no casualties.' The accounts of the events of Tuesday came as the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said an airstrike earlier this month had killed Mohammed Sinwar, the Hamas chief in Gaza who took the position after the death of his elder brother Yahya last year. Both were planners of the 7 October 2023 attack on southern Israel. Tuesday also marked the 600th day in captivity for the remaining Israeli hostages seized that day. Satellite imagery of the Gaza food distribution centre, reviewed by the Guardian, suggests the incident took place inside an area marked by the IDF for evacuation as recently as Sunday. Images and videos shared by the Israel Defense Forces in preparation for food distribution showed a large clearing constructed with fortifications around it, amid the bombed-out ruins of southern Gaza. Two routes with fencing were erected for entrance and exit, with the ones for entrance having five narrow fenced rows that crowds squeezed themselves into. Recent imagery shows tables lined up end to end inside the clearing, where several armoured IDF vehicles and at least eight aid trucks were visible. Interior photos of the aid trucks showed stacks of brown boxes shabbily packed, with stickers bearing 'GHF'. Children and women were caught in the crowd, and a large dust cloud from the scrambling was visible. Some Palestinians managed to get their hands on boxes of food and run away, while others grabbed what food items they could and left. Two of the boxes opened appeared to contain oil, pasta, beans, noodles, biscuits, flour, tinned food, sugar and tahini. Some videos appeared to show people lugging away bits of wood on foot and on the back of donkey carts. Israel imposed a blockade on all supplies in March, saying Hamas was seizing deliveries for its fighters, which the group denies. Earlier this month, a global hunger monitor said half a million people in the strip faced starvation. The IPC estimated that nearly 71,000 children under the age of five were expected to be 'acutely malnourished', with 14,100 cases expected to be severe in the next 11 months. The UN and other humanitarian organisations have rejected the new system for food distribution, saying it would not be able to meet the needs of Gaza's 2.3 million people and allowed Israel to use food as a weapon to control the population. They have also said there was a risk of friction between Israeli troops and hungry people seeking supplies. The organisations added that the newly formed group had no experience and so would not be able to handle the logistics of feeding more than 2 million people in a devastated combat zone, a prediction the dangerous scenes on Tuesday appeared to confirm. The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa), Philippe Lazzarini, said on Wednesday that the new – US-backed – distribution model was a waste of resources and a distraction from 'atrocities'. 'We already have an aid distribution system that is fit for purpose,' Lazzarini said. 'The humanitarian community in Gaza, including Unrwa, is ready. We have the experience and expertise to reach people in need. Meanwhile, the clock is ticking towards famine, so humanitarian [work] must be allowed to do its life-saving work now.' GHF said on Wednesday there were 'many parties' that wished to see them fail. The US president, Donald Trump, said his administration was working on accelerating food deliveries to Gaza. A group of NGOs, including ActionAid, said this month: 'Aid that is used to mask ongoing violence is not aid, it is in fact humanitarian cover for a military strategy of control and dispossession.'
Qatar Tribune
30-05-2025
- Politics
- Qatar Tribune
Sheikha Alya, UN humanitarian coordinator discuss deteriorating situation in Gaza
NEW YORK: Permanent Representative of the State of Qatar to the United Nations HE Sheikha Alya Ahmed bin Saif Al Thani, has met with Sigrid Kaag, who serves as Under-Secretary-General, UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process ad interim, UN Senior Humanitarian and Reconstruction Coordinator for Gaza. The meeting took place at the Permanent Mission's headquarters in New York. The meeting discussed the latest developments in the deteriorating humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, and emphasised the need to ensure the unhindered delivery of humanitarian aid to alleviate the suffering of the brotherly Palestinian people.
Dubai Eye
29-05-2025
- Politics
- Dubai Eye
Deadly break in at UN warehouse as aid trickles into Gaza
A United Nations warehouse in Gaza was broken into on Wednesday as aid trickles into the Palestinian enclave on the brink of famine and the US readies new terms for a possible truce between Israel and Hamas. The World Food Programme said initial reports were that two people had died and several more were injured at the central Gaza warehouse. The UN agency appealed for an immediate scale-up of food aid "to reassure people that they will not starve". Eyewitness video independently verified by Reuters shows large crowds of people pushing into the warehouse and removing bags and boxes as gunfire can be heard. It was not immediately clear how the people may have been killed or injured in the incident. Under growing international pressure, Israel ended an 11-week long aid blockade on Gaza 10 days ago. It has allowed a limited amount of relief to be delivered via two avenues - the United Nations or the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. UN Middle East envoy Sigrid Kaag told the Security Council that the amount of aid Israel had so far allowed the UN to deliver was "comparable to a lifeboat after the ship has sunk" when everyone in Gaza was facing the risk of famine. The United States has been trying to broker a ceasefire. Israel - which resumed its military operation in Gaza in March after a brief truce - continued strikes on Wednesday, killing at least 30 people, Palestinian health officials said. "We are on the precipice of sending out a new term sheet that hopefully will be delivered later on today," US President Donald Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, said on Wednesday. "The president is going to review it." The war in Gaza was triggered on October 7, 2023, when Hamas killed 1,200 people in southern Israel and took some 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Since then, Israel's military campaign has killed more than 53,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities. UN VS GHF Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday that Israel's killing of Hamas Gaza chief Mohammad Sinwar marked a turn towards the "complete defeat of Hamas", adding that Israel was "taking control of food distribution" in Gaza. Israel has accused Hamas of diverting and seizing aid supplies. Hamas has denied stealing aid. Israel ultimately wants the UN to work through the GHF, which is using private US security and logistics companies to transport aid into Gaza for distribution by civilian teams at so-called secure distribution sites. The UN and other international aid groups have refused to work with the GHF because they say the plan is not neutral. "This new scheme is surveillance-based rationing that legitimises a policy of deprivation by design," senior UN aid official for the occupied Palestinian territories, Jonathan Whittall, told reporters in Jerusalem on Wednesday. WARNING SHOTS The Israeli military on Tuesday said it fired warning shots in the area outside a GHF distribution site, which was briefly rushed by people waiting for aid. Footage shared on social media showed fences broken down by crowds as private security contractors fell back before restoring order. The United Nations human rights office said on Wednesday that 47 people had been injured on Tuesday while seeking aid from the GHF, citing information from partners on the ground. It could not give a specific location of where people were injured. The GHF said no one was injured at the distribution site. The foundation said aid distribution continued on Wednesday without incident as it opened a second distribution hub. Across the two sites it has so far given out the equivalent of 840,262 meals. The GHF said it is working to open four sites and expand further in Gaza in the weeks ahead. The UN said that since aid deliveries resumed last week Israel had approved about 800 truckloads of relief. But UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said that fewer than 500 truckloads had made it to the Palestinian side of the Kerem Shalom crossing, "where we and our partners could collect just over 200 of them – limited by insecurity and restricted access". Israel is under pressure over Gaza's dire humanitarian situation. France, Britain, Canada and Germany have said they may take action if the military campaign is not halted. Italy on Wednesday said the offensive had become unacceptable.
Roya News
29-05-2025
- Politics
- Roya News
Two killed as thousands overrun World Food Program warehouse in Gaza
A dire food shortage in Gaza has led to an explosion of desperation, with thousands of hungry residents overrunning a World Food Program (WFP) warehouse in central Gaza's Deir al-Balah. According to a statement released by the WFP, the warehouse had been stocked with supplies for upcoming humanitarian distributions before the crowds broke in, highlighting the growing unrest in the enclave. Two people were reported dead and several others injured during the chaotic incident, with gunfire echoing in the area. The source of the gunshots remains unclear. Footage from the scene shows a flood of civilians grabbing bags of flour and boxes of food, underscoring just how critical the humanitarian situation has become. 'Hordes of hungry people' broke into the facility, the WFP confirmed, saying it was still verifying the full extent of the casualties and damage. The organization warned that humanitarian needs in Gaza have 'spiralled out of control,' following nearly three months of a crippling blockade by "Israel", only partially eased in recent days. 'Gaza needs an immediate scale-up of food assistance. This is the only way to reassure people that they will not starve,' the WFP said, stressing it had consistently warned of worsening conditions on the ground and the consequences of limiting aid. While Israel reported that 121 aid trucks entered Gaza on Wednesday — carrying flour and other essential supplies — international officials have said this is nowhere near sufficient. UN Middle East envoy Sigrid Kaag compared the current aid flow to "a lifeboat after the ship has sunk," stating that nearly the entire population of Gaza is at risk of famine. Further complicating the aid situation is the emergence of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a controversial American distribution mechanism backed by "Israel". The GHF operates independently of the UN and utilizes private contractors, a move the UN has criticized as 'unethical' and 'unworkable.' US and "Israeli" officials claim the system is necessary to prevent aid theft by Hamas, an allegation the group denies. On Tuesday, 47 people were injured in Rafah when a GHF food center was overrun by desperate crowds, according to the UN Human Rights Office — just one day after it began operating in the city.
