Latest news with #UNOfficefortheCoordinationofHumanitarianAffairs
Middle East Eye
15 hours ago
- Health
- Middle East Eye
UN warns Gaza families face 'catastrophic hunger'
The UN's humanitarian affairs office has warned that families in Gaza are enduring 'catastrophic hunger,' with children 'wasting away' and some dying before help can reach them. In a statement posted on X, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said people scouring for food are being shot at, calling the situation 'unconscionable.' It reiterated that safe, unhindered access for aid is a legal and moral necessity. The warning came as Israeli forces shot and killed at least 92 people waiting for food aid today. More than 900 have been killed in similar incidents since May, according to Gaza health authorities.
Middle East Eye
16 hours ago
- Politics
- Middle East Eye
Israel blocks UN official's visa over Gaza testimony and 'bias' claims
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar has confirmed that he blocked a visa extension for Jonathan Whittall, the head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Gaza and the occupied West Bank. Writing in Hebrew on X, Saar said the decision followed what he called 'biased and hostile conduct against Israel, which distorted reality, presented false reports, slandered Israel, and even violated the UN's own rules on neutrality'. 'Whoever spreads lies about Israel – Israel will not work with them,' he declared. Whittall recently testified on the dire humanitarian conditions in Gaza and accused Israel of using hunger as a weapon. He also criticised the so-called GHF aid distribution sites, describing them as 'created to kill'.
The Hindu
2 days ago
- Politics
- The Hindu
Israel will not renew visa of top UN humanitarian official
Israel has declined to renew the visa for Jonathan Whittall, the senior UN aid official for the occupied Palestinian territories, a UN spokesperson said on Friday (July 18, 2025), adding there were intensifying threats of reduced access to suffering civilians. Eri Kaneko, spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said visas for UN staff were recently renewed for shorter periods than usual and access requests to Gaza were denied for multiple agencies. Ms. Kaneko said permits for Palestinian staff to enter East Jerusalem were also withheld. Gaza is in the midst of a devastating Israeli military assault following a deadly October 2023 attack by Palestinian Hamas militants. Israel has come under mounting criticism from the UN during its war in the Palestinian enclave, which has internally displaced Gaza's entire population and caused a hunger crisis. "Last week, it was indicated to us that our current Head of Office, Jonathan Whittall, won't have his visa extended by Israeli authorities beyond August. This came immediately after remarks he made at a press briefing about starving people being killed while trying to reach food," Ms. Kaneko said. Israel's mission to the UN did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Israel has previously dismissed UN criticism as being biased. Context The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered in October 2023 when Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 and taking about 250 hostages, Israeli tallies show. Gaza's Health Ministry says Israel's subsequent military assault has killed over 58,000 Palestinians. It has also prompted accusations of genocide at the International Court of Justice and of war crimes at the International Criminal Court. Israel denies the accusations. The UN rights office says it recorded nearly 900 killings within the past six weeks near aid distribution sites and aid convoys in Gaza.
AsiaOne
2 days ago
- Politics
- AsiaOne
Israel will not renew visa of top UN humanitarian official, World News
WASHINGTON - Israel has declined to renew the visa for Jonathan Whittall, the senior UN aid official for the occupied Palestinian territories, a UN spokesperson said on Friday (July 18), adding there were intensifying threats of reduced access to suffering civilians. Eri Kaneko, spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said visas for UN staff were recently renewed for shorter periods than usual and access requests to Gaza were denied for multiple agencies. Kaneko said permits for Palestinian staff to enter East Jerusalem were also withheld. Why it's important Gaza is in the midst of a devastating Israeli military assault following a deadly October 2023 attack by Palestinian Hamas militants. Israel has come under mounting criticism from the UN during its war in the Palestinian enclave, which has internally displaced Gaza's entire population and caused a hunger crisis. Key quotes "Last week, it was indicated to us that our current Head of Office, Jonathan Whittall, won't have his visa extended by Israeli authorities beyond August. This came immediately after remarks he made at a press briefing about starving people being killed while trying to reach food," Kaneko said. Israel's mission to the UN did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Israel has previously dismissed UN criticism as being biased. Context [[nid:720336]] The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered in October 2023 when Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 and taking about 250 hostages, Israeli tallies show. Gaza's health ministry says Israel's subsequent military assault has killed over 58,000 Palestinians. It has also prompted accusations of genocide at the International Court of Justice and of war crimes at the International Criminal Court. Israel denies the accusations. The UN rights office says it recorded nearly 900 killings within the past six weeks near aid distribution sites and aid convoys in Gaza.
The Star
3 days ago
- Business
- The Star
Feature: Delayed rains, costly diesel squeeze Yemen's farmers amid conflict
by Mohamed Al-Azaki and Mohammed Mohammed SANAA, July 18 (Xinhua) -- The rainy season that arrived three months late has left farmers in Luluwah, west of the Houthi-held Yemeni capital Sanaa, desperately tending to their crops with expensive diesel and unreliable solar pumps, underscoring how climate shocks are compounding wartime hardship in one of the world's most food insecure countries. This year the rain simply didn't come, said farmer Mohammed Saleh al-Jamal, who has abandoned his diesel tractor and returned to a donkey-drawn plow to prepare his fields. "Without rain, we lose money in purchasing expensive diesel to operate water pumps for irrigation. And when there's cloud and fog, our solar-powered pumps don't work for long hours to cover large swathes of our farms." Fuel shortages and price spikes are pushing growers to revive labor-intensive methods. Younger men are back on family plots, al-Jamal said, forming what he called "a new generation of resilient farmers shaped by war." Getting crops to market is another battle. Fragmented supply chains, fuel costs, insecurity on roads, and weak cold storage wipe out profits. "Authorities should help distribute our products to markets in Sanaa and other provinces, based on supply and demand," al-Jamal said. He urged private investors to build small processing lines, such as tomato paste, beans, packaged potatoes, and cold stores that would let farmers sell gradually instead of dumping crops at harvest lows. Cooperation between the authorities, private companies, and farmers is essential to help stabilize Yemen's food supply, Mabrouk Hamoud, another farmer, told Xinhua. Samir al-Hanani, undersecretary for production at the Houthi-run Agriculture Ministry, said a national marketing plan is under way on two tracks. The first involves building specialized markets capable of managing the marketing process for farmers, which should be developed with private partners. The second is marketing through a contract between growers and specialized marketing companies to guarantee purchase and reduce waste, the official told Xinhua. "Cold storage is the most important process for serving the crop's marketing," he added. Al-Hanani also outlined a two-phase agro-processing program: The first will prioritize plants for cotton, sesame, dairy, tomatoes, juices, and multi-crop dryers; the second will expand to additional commodities as investment and capacity grow. "This is part of the program to localize local processing industries in partnership with the private sector," he said. Meanwhile, farmers and officials alike said climate variability now collides with war-damaged infrastructure, volatile fuel supply, water scarcity, and the recurrent threat of disease outbreaks such as cholera. According to a June report from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Yemen remains locked in a prolonged political and humanitarian crisis, with millions in both the north and south suffering from acute food insecurity. More than a decade of war between government forces and the Houthis has devastated infrastructure, and left much of the population dependent on aid. Despite the headwinds, farmers in Luluwah have not completely lost hope for the future. "The government and private companies need to take climate change seriously," Hamoud said. "A national strategy for local marketing would help stabilize our economy, reduce imports, and move us towards food self-sufficiency." "We're waiting for things to improve. We still have hope," he added.
