Latest news with #UNOPS
New York Post
6 days ago
- Politics
- New York Post
90% of UN aid trucks in Gaza were looted by armed militants or hungry Palestinians before reaching their destination: report
Nearly 90% of aid trucks collected by the United Nations along Gaza's border didn't make it to their intended destination since mid-May due to looting from starving Palestinians or 'forcefully armed actors,' officials said. The UN Office for Project Services (UNOPS) found that of the 2,604 aid trucks that entered the war-torn enclave from May 19 to Aug. 5, only 295 vehicles, or 12%, were spared from theft or mass looting, according to the agency's Monitor & Tracking Dashboard. Israel has repeatedly blamed Hamas for looting aid trucks, however, the UNOPS report did not name the groups that were taking the food. Advertisement The looming famine in Gaza has caused more and more desperate people to raid the incoming food trucks, with UNOPS finding that in July alone, 94% of the 1,161 vehicles that crossed the border were looted. 5 Nearly all the UN aid trucks that enter Gaza have been raided by starving Palestinians before making it to their final destination since mid-May. REUTERS 5 Security guards brandish weapons on top of a aid truck bound for a Gaza refugee camp, with the vehicles regularly coming under attack by armed men. Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto/Shutterstock Ever since humanitarian aid was allowed to trickle back into Gaza, images of hungry Palestinians surrounding the few UN vehicles cleared to cross the border have become commonplace. Advertisement While Israel has blamed Hamas for the systematic looting of aid, the New York Times cited Israeli sources last month as saying that the Israeli military never found direct proof of looting by the terror group. Seeking aid through the Israeli-backed aid effort has also proved perilous to the enclave's nearly 2 million refugees, according to the UN's human rights office — with more than 1,000 people reportedly killed in shootings at Gaza Humanitarian Foundation aid cites in recent weeks. 5 Palestinians climb on top of a supply truck arriving in Khan Younis on Monday. REUTERS Advertisement 5 A woman carries a bag of flour over her head after getting aid from one of the few distribution centers open inside Gaza City. Israel has repeatedly denied that its forces have fired on aid-seeking Palestinians, with the military claiming to have only fired warning shots after groups were spotted trying to approach the food sites before they opened. The dire situation in Gaza has left food security experts to warn of a 'worst-case scenario famine' as scores of people die from malnutrition-related cases. 5 The UN has blamed Israel for the lack of aid available to Gazans, with Israel faulting the UN for the bottleneck. REUTERS Advertisement As it faces global backlash over the ongoing war, Israel has maintained that the death and suffering falls on Hamas, which has rejected cease-fire deals calling for the terror group to disarm and exit the Gaza Strip. Hamas said it would only agree to a deal that establishes a permanent end to the war, with the terror group demanding Monday that all humanitarian corridors be open in exchange for allowing the Red Cross to administer aid to the remaining hostages. The future of aid distribution to the hostages and refugees remains unclear after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved a plan for the full military occupation of Gaza.
Yahoo
04-08-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
As Israel faces blame for the hunger crisis in Gaza, UN's own data shows most of its aid is looted
New data published last week by the U.n. agency UNOPS shows that most of its aid entering the war-torn Gaza Strip has been looted inside the Palestinian territory. UNOPS provides management services for the world body's own humanitarian operations. Despite this, condemnation of Israel over the hunger crisis in Gaza has been ramping up, prompting an increasing number of Western governments to declare intentions to recognize a Palestinian state as punishment, and leading some media outlets to totally tune out the role both international humanitarian organizations and Hamas, whose October 2023 mass terror attack in Israel started the nearly two-year-old war, have played in this catastrophe. "Nobody is able to have nuance in this conflict or hold multiple truths and that's part of why everybody from journalists to NGOs to U.N. officials, the pro-Palestine people, activists and advocates, parrot the same talking points that there's no aid theft and that everything is Israel's fault," Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, told Fox News Digital. Us Report Urges Un Agency's Shutdown Over Hamas Ties, Oct 7 Terror Links Alkhatib, a Gaza-born American, said that while the U.N. and other NGOs were "playing politics" by ignoring their own failures so as not to jeopardize funding and because they are terrified of Hamas, Israeli leaders were also "exaggerating" claims about Hamas being the only ones to loot the aid. A close observer of events in Gaza, he described a chain of thievery and extreme price hikes perpetrated by civilians and merchants that have all contributed to the misery there. He added that statements by some Israeli government ministers about cutting off aid to force Gazans out of the territory have not helped either. Read On The Fox News App "Their statements have become the story under which nothing else will fit… no amount of evidence, no amount of clarification, no amount of nuance is going to come anywhere near to grabbing that much attention," Alkhatib said. Farhan Aziz Haq, a spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, confirmed to Fox News Digital that some aid had been stolen but said it was because so few supplies had entered Gaza in recent months that "people facing hunger have resorted to offloading supplies directly from our convoys," he said. "We understand the frustration, but let's be clear: this isn't our system. It's what happens when aid is squeezed through too few routes after months of deprivation," he claimed, adding "only a steady, reliable flow of aid and commercial supplies can restore people's belief that aid will arrive and allow for safe, orderly distributions," he claimed. Information posted on the website of UNOPS, the U.N. Office for Project Services, shows that around 87%, or 1,753 of the 2,013 aid trucks that entered Gaza since May 19 did not reach their final destinations, with the aid being stolen either "peacefully by hungry people or forcefully by armed actors." Israel Announces Immediate Resumption Of Gaza Aid Airdrops Amid Growing Hunger Crsis The data, which showed that a record 90 trucks carrying some 1,695 tons of aid were looted on May 31 alone, comes as shocking photos of emaciated Palestinian children – some of which were later proven to be children with pre-existing health conditions used as propaganda by Hamas – have gone viral. The revelations about the U.N.'s faulty aid system also come amid worldwide condemnation of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a new U.S. and Israel-backed aid distribution mechanism, devised, in part, to prevent aid from falling into Hamas' hands. The U.N. has refused to cooperate with the GHF. The aid group announced on Sunday that it had delivered nearly 105 million meals to Gazans since it started operations in May. It also comes in sharp contrast to reports by some media outlets who chose to ignore evidence of Hamas stealing and reselling aid in order to fund its ongoing war – seemingly as a way to suggest that Israel is using starvation as a tactic of war or committing "genocide." Israel has emphatically denied both claims. A recent article in the New York Times even went as far as reporting that there was "no proof" that Hamas had stolen U.N. aid, despite countless documented accounts, including from freed Israeli hostages who reported seeing stockpiles of U.N.-branded products inside Hamas tunnels. Kobi Michael, a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, said that not only did human rights organizations and many media outlets base their faulty reports on information published by Gaza's Ministry of Health, which is run by Hamas, they also did not "take the nature of Hamas seriously." "Hamas is not the most reliable source in the world," he said, adding that "the international media and other sources do not consider the interests of Hamas, or its strategy, and they do not seem to acknowledge that Hamas wants a chaotic situation in the Gaza Strip. Hamas wants there to be many casualties among Palestinian civilians, because it serves their interests." Gaza Humanitarian Foundation: What To Know About The Us-backed Aid Group "Just to listen to what Hamas leaders have been saying since October 7," Michael continued. "They have promised to repeat October 7 again and again, they have called on the Arab world to join the armed resistance against Israel and on the Arab public to pressure their regimes. "They have also said publicly, and loudly, that they have no problem sacrificing another 100,000 Palestinian civilians for the sake of the victory," he said. Yet the GHF has faced scrutiny and blame for the humanitarian disaster unfolding in Gaza amid daily reports by Hamas-backed bodies of civilian deaths at or near their aid distribution points and following chaotic images of people fighting over the food packages or sheltering from gunfire. The new agency has hit back, saying that Hamas, the U.N. and other international aid agencies, are just hoping the initiative fails so they can control all aid operations in Gaza. On Friday, U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, together with U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, visited southern Gaza to inspect one of GHF's aid distribution sites. "Went into Gaza today & observed humanitarian food program by U.S. launched GHF. Hamas hates GHF b/c it gets food to ppl w/o it being looted by Hamas. Over 100 MILLION meals served in 2 months," Huckabee wrote in a post on X. David Makovsky, director of the Koret Project on Arab-Israel Relations at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said blame for the crisis should not be placed on one party but that "by bringing the U.N.'s own records to bear we can level-set the conversation. "There is a whole debate about GHF, which will not be settled today," he noted. "Yet, in a humanitarian emergency crisis, feeding people should take absolute top priority and I think it is incumbent for the U.N. and GHF to work together to feed people. "I hope that by bringing in lots of food into Gaza you can help innocent suffering people and also dramatically bring down black market rates exploited by Hamas which they use to control their people," said article source: As Israel faces blame for the hunger crisis in Gaza, UN's own data shows most of its aid is looted Solve the daily Crossword
Fox News
04-08-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
As Israel faces blame for the hunger crisis in Gaza, UN's own data shows most of its aid is looted
New data published last week by the U.N. agency UNOPS shows that most of its aid entering the war-torn Gaza Strip has been looted inside the Palestinian territory. UNOPS provides management services for the world body's own humanitarian operations. Despite this, condemnation of Israel over the hunger crisis in Gaza has been ramping up, prompting an increasing number of Western governments to declare intentions to recognize a Palestinian state as punishment, and leading some media outlets to totally tune out the role both international humanitarian organizations and Hamas, whose October 2023 mass terror attack in Israel started the nearly two-year-old war, have played in this catastrophe. "Nobody is able to have nuance in this conflict or hold multiple truths and that's part of why everybody from journalists to NGOs to U.N. officials, the pro-Palestine people, activists and advocates, parrot the same talking points that there's no aid theft and that everything is Israel's fault," Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, told Fox News Digital. Alkhatib, a Gaza-born American, said that while the U.N. and other NGOs were "playing politics" by ignoring their own failures so as not to jeopardize funding and because they are terrified of Hamas, Israeli leaders were also "exaggerating" claims about Hamas being the only ones to loot the aid. A close observer of events in Gaza, he described a chain of thievery and extreme price hikes perpetrated by civilians and merchants that have all contributed to the misery there. He added that statements by some Israeli government ministers about cutting off aid to force Gazans out of the territory have not helped either. "Their statements have become the story under which nothing else will fit… no amount of evidence, no amount of clarification, no amount of nuance is going to come anywhere near to grabbing that much attention," Alkhatib said. Farhan Aziz Haq, a spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, confirmed to Fox News Digital that some aid had been stolen but said it was because so few supplies had entered Gaza in recent months that "people facing hunger have resorted to offloading supplies directly from our convoys," he said. "We understand the frustration, but let's be clear: this isn't our system. It's what happens when aid is squeezed through too few routes after months of deprivation," he claimed, adding "only a steady, reliable flow of aid and commercial supplies can restore people's belief that aid will arrive and allow for safe, orderly distributions," he claimed. Information posted on the website of UNOPS, the U.N. Office for Project Services, shows that around 87%, or 1,753 of the 2,013 aid trucks that entered Gaza since May 19 did not reach their final destinations, with the aid being stolen either "peacefully by hungry people or forcefully by armed actors." The data, which showed that a record 90 trucks carrying some 1,695 tons of aid were looted on May 31 alone, comes as shocking photos of emaciated Palestinian children – some of which were later proven to be children with pre-existing health conditions used as propaganda by Hamas – have gone viral. The revelations about the U.N.'s faulty aid system also come amid worldwide condemnation of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a new U.S. and Israel-backed aid distribution mechanism, devised, in part, to prevent aid from falling into Hamas' hands. The U.N. has refused to cooperate with the GHF. The aid group announced on Sunday that it had delivered nearly 105 million meals to Gazans since it started operations in May. It also comes in sharp contrast to reports by some media outlets who chose to ignore evidence of Hamas stealing and reselling aid in order to fund its ongoing war – seemingly as a way to suggest that Israel is using starvation as a tactic of war or committing "genocide." Israel has emphatically denied both claims. A recent article in the New York Times even went as far as reporting that there was "no proof" that Hamas had stolen U.N. aid, despite countless documented accounts, including from freed Israeli hostages who reported seeing stockpiles of U.N.-branded products inside Hamas tunnels. Kobi Michael, a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, said that not only did human rights organizations and many media outlets base their faulty reports on information published by Gaza's Ministry of Health, which is run by Hamas, they also did not "take the nature of Hamas seriously." "Hamas is not the most reliable source in the world," he said, adding that "the international media and other sources do not consider the interests of Hamas, or its strategy, and they do not seem to acknowledge that Hamas wants a chaotic situation in the Gaza Strip. Hamas wants there to be many casualties among Palestinian civilians, because it serves their interests." "Just to listen to what Hamas leaders have been saying since October 7," Michael continued. "They have promised to repeat October 7 again and again, they have called on the Arab world to join the armed resistance against Israel and on the Arab public to pressure their regimes. "They have also said publicly, and loudly, that they have no problem sacrificing another 100,000 Palestinian civilians for the sake of the victory," he said. Yet the GHF has faced scrutiny and blame for the humanitarian disaster unfolding in Gaza amid daily reports by Hamas-backed bodies of civilian deaths at or near their aid distribution points and following chaotic images of people fighting over the food packages or sheltering from gunfire. The new agency has hit back, saying that Hamas, the U.N. and other international aid agencies, are just hoping the initiative fails so they can control all aid operations in Gaza. On Friday, U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, together with U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, visited southern Gaza to inspect one of GHF's aid distribution sites. "Went into Gaza today & observed humanitarian food program by U.S. launched GHF. Hamas hates GHF b/c it gets food to ppl w/o it being looted by Hamas. Over 100 MILLION meals served in 2 months," Huckabee wrote in a post on X. David Makovsky, director of the Koret Project on Arab-Israel Relations at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said blame for the crisis should not be placed on one party but that "by bringing the U.N.'s own records to bear we can level-set the conversation. "There is a whole debate about GHF, which will not be settled today," he noted. "Yet, in a humanitarian emergency crisis, feeding people should take absolute top priority and I think it is incumbent for the U.N. and GHF to work together to feed people. "I hope that by bringing in lots of food into Gaza you can help innocent suffering people and also dramatically bring down black market rates exploited by Hamas which they use to control their people," said Makovsky.
Malaysia Sun
23-07-2025
- Health
- Malaysia Sun
UN humanitarians warn last lifelines collapsing in Gaza
Amid the continuing hostilities, UN aid depots were destroyed, relief workers' residences and the hungry seeking food were fired on, and some starving people were reportedly collapsing in the streets. UNITED NATIONS, July 22 (Xinhua) -- UN humanitarians on Tuesday warned about the situation in Gaza, describing it as "the collapse of the last lifelines keeping people alive." They reported that amid the continuing hostilities, UN aid depots were destroyed, relief workers' residences and the hungry seeking food were fired on, and some starving people were reportedly collapsing in the streets. Local health authorities reported that in just the past 24 hours, more than a dozen children and adults died from hunger. Hospitals have received people with severe exhaustion caused by a lack of food, said the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). "This is on top of continued reports of people being shot, killed or injured while simply trying to find food -- food that is only being allowed into Gaza in quantities that are far too small," OCHA said. The office said local authorities report that hospitals are overwhelmed, and some facilities reported a shortage of intravenous fluids. Due to a lack of fuel, the Nasser Medical Complex and the oxygen unit supplying hospitals in southern Gaza are at risk of shutting down. UN facilities in Deir al-Balah were struck even though their locations were shared with relevant parties to the conflict, said the humanitarians. The World Health Organization (WHO) said the agency's operations were compromised by the destruction of a warehouse, located within the evacuation zone, and an attack on a facility sheltering staff and their families. The attack fits a broader pattern of systematic destruction of health facilities, said the WHO, and in a statement, the agency strongly condemned the attack and demanded continuous protection of its staff and the immediate release of the detained staff member. Jorge Moreira da Silva, executive director of the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), reported that the UNOPS premises in Deir al-Balah were also hit, causing structural damage, cutting off power from both their generator and solar panels, and leaving the site with no running water. He said it is the same location that was hit by tank fire in March, which killed a UNOPS staffer. OCHA said the teams tracking population movements were affected and unable to report on the families displaced from Deir al-Balah. Some have been newly displaced, while others came under heavy bombardment and faced communication blackouts due to cable damage. According to the office, 88 percent of Gaza is either subject to displacement orders or located within Israeli militarized zones. The remaining 12 percent is already overcrowded and underserved. The UN hub for humanitarian operations remains in Deir al-Balah, with staff spread across dozens of premises, all of which have shared coordinates with relevant parties to the conflict, said OCHA.
LBCI
16-07-2025
- LBCI
Unexploded civil war shell found during rehabilitation work in Horsh Beirut
While UNOPS was carrying out rehabilitation work inside the Horsh Beirut, an unexploded shell dating back to the civil war was discovered during excavation. In response, the commander of the Beirut Guard Regiment, Brigadier General Abbas Al-Husseini, ordered the area to be sealed off and deployed guardsmen to prevent civilians from entering the site. The Army Command's Operations Room was notified, and the Engineering Regiment was immediately dispatched to inspect and remove the shell. Work is still ongoing.
