Latest news with #UNagencies
BBC News
16 hours ago
- Health
- BBC News
Israel bombards Gaza City as UK and allies urge action against 'famine unfolding'
Gaza City has come under intense air attack, the territory's Hamas-run civil defence agency has said, as Israeli forces prepare to occupy the Bassal, a spokesman, said the residential areas of Zeitoun and Sabra had for three days been hit by bombs and drone strikes that "cause massive destruction to civilian homes", with residents unable to recover the dead and the UK, EU, Australia, Canada and Japan issued a statement saying "famine is unfolding in front of our eyes" and urged action to "reverse starvation".They demanded "immediate, permanent and concrete steps" to facilitate the entry of aid to Gaza. Israel denies there is starvation in Gaza. It has accused UN agencies of not picking up aid at the borders and delivering joint statement also demanded an end to the use of lethal force near aid distribution sites and lorry convoys, where the UN says more than 1,300 Palestinians have been killed, mostly by the Israeli the World Health Organisation on Tuesday appealed to Israel to let it stock medical supplies to deal with a "catastrophic" health situation before it seizes control of Gaza City."We all hear about 'more humanitarian supplies are allowed in' - well it's not happening yet, or it's happening at a way too low a pace," said Rik Peeperkorn, the agency's representative in the Palestinian territories."We want to as quickly stock up hospitals," he added. "We currently cannot do that. We need to be able to get all essential medicines and medical supplies in."Israel's war cabinet voted on Monday to occupy Gaza City, a move condemned at an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council later that day. On Tuesday the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it was "at the beginning of a new state of combat".The Israeli government has not provided an exact timetable on when its forces would enter the area. On Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel's forces had been instructed to dismantle the "two remaining Hamas strongholds" in Gaza City and a central area around also outlined a three-step plan to increase aid in Gaza, including designating safe corridors for aid distribution, as well as more air drops by Israeli forces and other the ground, however, residents of Gaza City said they had come under unrelenting attack from the air. Majed al-Hosary, a resident in Zeitoun in Gaza City, told AFP that the attacks had been "extremely intense for two days". "With every strike, the ground shakes. There are martyrs under the rubble that no one can reach because the shelling hasn't stopped," he Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said that 100 dead had been brought to hospitals across Gaza over the past 24 hours, including 31 people who were killed at aid sites. Five more people had also died of malnutrition, it has faced mounting criticism over the 22-month-long war with Hamas, with UN-backed experts warning of widespread famine unfolding in the besieged Tuesday members of an international group of former leaders known as "The Elders" for the first time called the war in Gaza an "unfolding genocide" and blamed Israel for causing famine among its population. Following a visit to the Gaza border, Helen Clark and Mary Robinson, a former prime minister of New Zealand and a former president of Ireland, said in a joint statement: "What we saw and heard underlines our personal conviction that there is not only an unfolding, human-caused famine in Gaza. There is an unfolding genocide." The statement mirrors those of leading Israeli rights groups, including B'Tselem, which said it had reached an "unequivocal conclusion" that Israel was attempting to "destroy Palestinian society in the Gaza Strip".Israel strongly rejects the accusations, saying its forces target terrorists and never civilians, and that Hamas was responsible for the suffering in Sunday, the IDF killed five Al Jazeera journalists in a targeted attack on a media tent in Gaza City, sparking widespread international condemnation. It said it had killed well known reporter Anas al-Sharif, whom it alleged "served as the head of a terrorist cell in Hamas", and made no mention of the others. Media freedom groups said it had provided little evidence for its claims. Al Jazeera's managing editor said Israel wanted to "silence the coverage of any channel of reporting from inside Gaza".Hamas killed more than 1,200 people and took 251 hostage in its attack on Israel on 7 October 2023. Israel's response in Gaza has killed at least 61,599 Palestinians, according to the health ministry, whose toll the UN considers reliable.
Al Bawaba
5 days ago
- Politics
- Al Bawaba
Germany cuts off arms to Israel following Gaza invasion approval
ALBAWABA - In a big change in policy, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Friday that Germany will stop sending military equipment to Israel that could be used in its current war in Gaza. He said this because of worries about Israel's new plan to take Gaza City. Also Read "Walking into a trap": Israeli army chief opposes Netanyahu's plan Merz said that the halt would last "until further notice" because he was very worried about how the humanitarian situation in Gaza was getting worse. He made it clear that freeing Israeli prisoners and making progress toward a peace deal are still Germany's top objectives. In a formal statement, Merz said, "It is getting harder to see how the Israeli military's current plan helps them reach their legitimate goals." As a result of its planned military action in the city, the Chancellor said, the Israeli government is now more responsible than ever for keeping people safe in Gaza. He said again that Germany wants UN agencies and relief groups to be able to send food across the Gaza Strip without any problems. Merz also told Israel that it shouldn't take any more steps toward annexing the West Bank, because that could make things even worse. Germany has been one of Israel's best friends in Europe for a long time, so this move is a big change from their usual position. In June, the German government said that Berlin had given the go-ahead for €485 million (about $564 million) worth of weapons sales to Israel from October 7, 2023, to May 13, 2025. The move shows that Europe is becoming more worried about Israel's military actions in Gaza and how the humanitarian situation there is getting worse. Israel's Security Cabinet officially accepted a plan to take control of Gaza City, which would add to the country's already large military operation in the Gaza Strip, which has been going on for almost two years. The choice was made because of growing complaints at home and abroad over the amount of damage and the high number of civilian deaths.
France 24
03-08-2025
- Politics
- France 24
Palestinians across West Bank protest Gaza war
One of the largest marches took place in Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian Authority located just north of Jerusalem, with hundreds gathering at the main square, waving Palestinian flags. Many protesters carried photos of Palestinians killed or imprisoned by Israel, as well as photos depicting the hunger crisis unfolding in the Gaza Strip, where UN-backed experts have warned that a "famine is unfolding". "My son is in (Israel's) Megido prison and he suffers from many things, such as the lack of medicine the lack of food," Rula Ghanem, a Palestinian academic and writer who took part in the march, told AFP. She told AFP that her son had lost 10 kilograms and suffered from scabies in jail. The number of Palestinians jailed by Israel skyrocketed after the start of the war in Gaza, some for violent acts, but some also for posting political statements on social media, the Palestinian Commission of Detainees' and Ex-Detainees' Affairs says. The commission's spokesman Thaer Shriteh told AFP: "The international community is a partner in all this suffering, as long as it does not intervene quickly to save the Palestinian people and save the prisoners inside the prisons and detention centre." A group of protesters dressed as skeletons and carried dolls around to symbolise the Gaza war's dire effect on children, who are most at risk of malnutrition. Israel has heavily restricted the entry of aid into Gaza, which was already under blockade for 15 years before the war began. UN agencies, humanitarian groups and analysts say that much of the trickle of food aid that Israel allows in is looted or diverted in chaotic circumstances. "We hope that our stand today will have an impact in supporting our people in Gaza and the hungry children in Gaza," said 39-year-old Tagreed Ziada, one of the protesters at the Ramallah march. Protests were held Sunday in other major Palestinian cities such as Nablus in the north and Hebron in the south, with many government employees receiving a day off to attend the demonstrations. While there have been somewhat regular demonstrations against the war in Gaza, they are rarely coordinated across various cities in the West Bank.
France 24
13-07-2025
- Politics
- France 24
Gaza civil defence says Israeli strikes kill over 30 as truce talks deadlocked
Delegations from Israel and the Palestinian militant group have now spent a week trying to agree on a temporary truce to halt 21 months of bitter fighting in the Gaza Strip. But on Saturday, each side accused the other of blocking attempts to secure an agreement at the indirect talks in the Qatari capital, Doha. There has meanwhile been no let-up in Israeli strikes on Gaza, where most of the population of more than two million have been displaced at least once during the war. Seven UN agencies on Saturday warned that a fuel shortage had reached "critical levels", threatening aid operations, hospital care and already chronic food insecurity. The civil defence agency said at least 31 people were killed in Israeli strikes overnight and into the morning. Eight people were killed in strikes on houses in Gaza City, in the north, agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said. In the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, 10 people were killed in a strike on a house, while 10 others including eight children were killed at a water distribution point, Bassal said. "We woke up to the sound of two large explosions," Khaled Rayyan told AFP after a house was flattened in Nuseirat. "Our neighbour and his children were under the rubble." Another resident, Mahmud al-Shami, called on the negotiators to secure an end to the war. "What happened to us has never happened in the entire history of humanity," he said. "Enough." In southern Gaza, three people were killed when Israeli jets hit a tent sheltering displaced Palestinians in the coastal Al-Mawasi area, according to the civil defence spokesman. Forced displacement fears There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which has recently intensified its operations across Gaza. On Saturday, the military said fighter jets had hit more than 35 "Hamas terror targets" around Beit Hanun in northern Gaza. Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify tolls and details provided by the civil defence agency and other parties. The war was sparked by Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that led to 1,219 deaths, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures. Out of 251 people taken hostage that day, 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27 that the Israeli military says are dead. Hamas-run Gaza's health ministry says that at least 57,882 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed in Israel's military reprisals. The UN considers the figures reliable. Talks to agree a 60-day ceasefire in the fighting and hostage release were in the balance on Saturday after Israel and Hamas accused each other of trying to block a deal. Hamas wants the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, but a Palestinian source with knowledge of the talks said Israel had presented plans to maintain troops in more than 40 percent of the territory. The source said Israel wanted to force hundreds of thousands of Palestinians into the south of Gaza "in preparation for forcibly displacing them to Egypt or other countries". A senior Israeli official said Israel had demonstrated "a willingness to flexibility in the negotiations, while Hamas remains intransigent, clinging to positions that prevent the mediators from advancing an agreement". Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he is prepared to enter talks for a more lasting end to hostilities once a temporary truce is agreed, but only if Hamas disarms. Thousands of people gathered in Israel's coastal hub of Tel Aviv on Saturday calling for the release of the hostages.
