Latest news with #Tom Fletcher
BBC News
2 days ago
- Health
- BBC News
UN says 'vast amounts' more aid needed to stop Gaza starvation
The UN's humanitarian chief, Tom Fletcher, has welcomed Israel's measures to allow more aid into Gaza, but said "vast amounts" of food are needed to stave off said 120 lorry loads were collected from crossings on Sunday during the first daily 10-hour "tactical pause" in military operations, and that Jordan and the United Arab Emirates airdropped 28 packages of Fletcher told the BBC that it was just "a drop in the ocean" of what was required and that the coming days would be "make or break".Hours after he spoke, the territory's Hamas-run health ministry said another 14 people had died as a result of malnutrition over the past 24 hours. That brought the total number of malnutrition-related deaths since the war begin in October 2023 to 147, including 88 children, according to the which controls the entry of all supplies to Gaza, has denied there is starvation in Gaza and rejected accusations of being responsible for food updates from GazaMalnutrition in Gaza at alarming levels, WHO warns as aid airdrops resumeBowen: Israel's aid measures a gesture to allies horrified by Gaza starvation'We need a real solution': Gazans welcome aid plan but fear it will not end crisis On Sunday, the Israeli military began actions that it said were aimed at "improving the humanitarian response" in Gaza and "refut[ing] the false claim of deliberate starvation".It announced that there would be a "local tactical pause" in military activity for humanitarian purposes in the al-Mawasi, Deir al-Balah and Gaza City areas from 10:00 to 20:00 local time (07:00-17:00 GMT) every day until further notice, as well as "designated secure routes" to enable the safe passage of aid convoys from 06:00 to 23: military also allowed aid airdrops over Gaza to resume, despite aid agencies warning that the method was ineffective and military body Cogat, which co-ordinates the entry of aid into Gaza, said more than 120 lorry loads of aid were collected from crossings by the UN and other international organisations on Sunday, and that hundreds more lorry loads were awaiting an interview with the BBC's Today programme on Monday morning, Tom Fletcher said the UN had collected fewer than 100 lorry loads, which he described as "a start" for the 2.1 million Palestinians living in the noted that 600 to 700 lorry loads had entered Gaza daily on average during the two-month ceasefire between Israel and Hamas at the start of this year."So, it's the beginning, but the next few days are really make or break. We need to deliver at a much, much greater scale. We need vast amounts of aid going in, much faster."Asked to respond to Israel's criticism of UN agencies for not collecting aid from crossings, he said: "We're not going to leave on pallets if we can. But to get to it our drivers face bureaucratic constraints, they face massive security constraints."He also said that most of the UN's food lorries were looted after entering Gaza on Sunday."Most of those lorries... were hit by desperate individual civilians, starving. The flour was taken off those lorries and its very, very dangerous for our drivers."Fletcher also warned that UN teams on the ground believed the Israeli military's pauses would only last a week or so, which he said would be "clearly insufficient when before our eyes we're seeing this 21st Century atrocity on the ground"."We need a sustained period of delivery - weeks, months - to build up, to stop that starvation and build up the supplies again. Ultimately, we need a ceasefire. Pauses are a good step in the right direction, but stopping the conflict is the key." On Sunday, the World Health Organization warned that malnutrition was "on a dangerous trajectory in the Gaza Strip, marked by a spike in deaths in July".Of the 74 malnutrition-related deaths in Gaza in 2025, 63 had occurred this month, including 24 children under five and one child over five, the UN agency said."Most of these people were declared dead on arrival at health facilities or died shortly after, their bodies showing clear signs of severe wasting," it WHO said the crisis was "entirely preventable" and condemned what it called the "deliberate blocking and delay of large-scale food, health, and humanitarian aid".In a speech in Jerusalem on Sunday, Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, hit back at claims that it was deliberately starving civilians in Gaza, which would amount to a war crime."What a bold-faced lie. There is no policy of starvation in Gaza, and there is no starvation in Gaza." he said."We enable humanitarian aid throughout the duration of the war to enter Gaza. Otherwise, there would be no Gazans. And what has interdicted the supply of humanitarian aid is one force, Hamas. Again, the reversal of truth," he has denied stealing aid, and on Sunday the New York Times cited senior Israeli military officials as saying that the military had never found proof that the armed group had systematically stolen aid from the UN. Reuters news agency also reported last week that US government analysis found no evidence of systematic theft by Hamas of US-funded said the Israeli military's humanitarian pauses and corridors meant the UN had "no excuses left" not to collect and distribute all the aid from the crossings."Stop lying. Stop finding excuses. Do what you have to do."On Monday, local hospital sources said Israeli attacks across Gaza had killed more than 30 people, including aid Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken least 59,821 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.
Arab News
3 days ago
- General
- Arab News
UN aid chief welcomes ‘humanitarian pauses' in Gaza
GENEVA: The United Nations' aid chief welcomed Israel's announcement Sunday of secure land routes into Gaza for humanitarian convoys, and said the UN would try to reach as many starving people as possible. 'Welcome announcement of humanitarian pauses in Gaza to allow our aid through,' UN emergency relief coordinator Tom Fletcher said on X. 'In contact with our teams on the ground who will do all we can to reach as many starving people as we can in this window.' Fletcher's UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned Friday that conditions on the ground in Gaza were 'already catastrophic and deteriorating fast.' 'The starvation crisis is deepening,' it said, warning that hunger and malnutrition increase the risk of illnesses, and adding that the consequences can quickly 'turn deadly.' It said that 'the trickle of supplies that are making it into the Strip are nowhere near adequate to address the immense needs.' OCHA said UN teams were in place to ramp up deliveries into the Palestinian territory 'as soon as they are allowed to do so.' 'If Israel opens the crossings, lets fuel and equipment in, and allows humanitarian staff to operate safely, the UN will accelerate the delivery of food aid, health services, clean water and waste management, nutrition supplies, and shelter materials,' it said. OCHA said constraints imposed by the Israeli authorities had hampered humanitarians' ability to respond. It said that on Thursday, for example, out of 15 attempts to coordinate humanitarian movements inside Gaza, four were 'outright denied,' with another three impeded. One was postponed, and two others had to be canceled, meaning only five missions went ahead. On Friday OCHA issued an aid delivery plan in the event of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Asharq Al-Awsat
3 days ago
- General
- Asharq Al-Awsat
UN Says It Will 'Do All We Can' to Reach Starving People in Gaza during Israeli Pauses
United Nations teams will step up efforts to feed Palestinians in Gaza during pauses in designated areas announced on Sunday by Israel, UN aid chief Tom Fletcher said. "In contact with our teams on the ground who will do all we can to reach as many starving people as we can in this window," he said in a post on X reported Reuters. The Israeli military on Sunday began a limited pause in fighting in three populated areas of Gaza for 10 hours a day, part of a series of steps launched as concerns over surging hunger in the territory mount and as Israel faces a wave of international criticism over its conduct in the 21-month war. The military said it would begin a 'tactical pause' in Gaza City, Deir al-Balah and Muwasi, three areas of the territory with large populations, to 'increase the scale of humanitarian aid' entering the territory. The pause begins every day at 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. local time until further notice, beginning Sunday. The military also said that it would put in place secure routes for aid delivery and that it carried out aid airdrops into Gaza, which included packages of aid with flour, sugar and canned food, reported The Associated Press.
Asharq Al-Awsat
17-07-2025
- Health
- Asharq Al-Awsat
UN Humanitarian Chief Says Conditions in Gaza are ‘Beyond Vocabulary'
Food supplies are running out and civilians are being shot while seeking something to eat, Undersecretary-General Tom Fletcher said Wednesday. "Civilians are exposed to death and injury, forcible displacement, stripped of dignity,' Fletcher told the UN Security Council, emphasizing Israel's obligation under the Geneva Conventions to provide food and medical aid as the occupying power in Gaza. He also challenged the council to consider whether Israel's rules of engagement incorporate all the precautions to avoid and minimize civilian casualties. Twenty Palestinians were killed at a food distribution center run by an Israeli-backed American organization in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, mostly from being trampled, the group said. They were the first deaths reported at one of the Gaza Humanitarian Fund sites, although hundreds have been killed by Israeli forces on the roads leading to them, according to witnesses and health officials. Israeli strikes across Gaza killed at least 54 others, including 14 children, according to hospital officials.
