Latest news with #aid blockade
Yahoo
03-08-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Growing number of Jewish American groups speak out over Gaza famine
As global outrage intensifies over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, a growing number of prominent Jewish American organizations, including some traditional defenders of Israel, are speaking out and imploring the country to ensure that humanitarian aid is allowed into Gaza. This week, a UN-backed food security group warned that a 'worst-case scenario of famine' is unfolding in Gaza and health authorities there report dozens of deaths from starvation. On Sunday, the American Jewish Committee, a prominent Jewish advocacy organization, released a statement affirming that it stands with Israel in what it described as 'its justified war to eliminate the threat posed by Hamas and secure the release of the remaining hostages'. At the same time, the group called for Israel to take steps to alleviate civilian suffering. 'We feel immense sorrow for the grave toll this war has taken on Palestinian civilians, and we are deeply concerned about worsening food insecurity in Gaza,' the statement read. 'We urge Israel, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the UN, and all responsible parties involved in aid distribution to increase cooperation and coordination in order to ensure that humanitarian aid reaches Palestinian civilians in Gaza.' The GHF is an Israel- and US-backed aid group that has attracted condemnation for the killings of hundreds of civilians seeking food at the hands of Israeli forces and private contractors. The AJC statement reflected a cautious critique of Israel's aid blockade echoed by other groups noteworthy for their typically staunch support of the country, even as their statements condemned Hamas for refusing to release the Israeli hostages it continues to hold. The Reform movement in North America, which represents the largest Jewish denomination in the US, also issued a lengthy statement: 'Neither escalating military pressure nor restricting humanitarian aid has brought Israel closer to securing a hostage deal or ending the war,' it read. 'Hamas has repeatedly demonstrated its willingness to sacrifice the Palestinian people in its pursuit of Israel's destruction, but Israel must not sacrifice its own moral standing in return. Starving Gazan civilians neither will bring Israel the 'total victory' over Hamas it seeks, nor can it be justified by Jewish values or humanitarian law.' The Rabbinical Assembly, a New York-based association of conservative rabbis, said last week that they were 'increasingly concerned about the worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza' and called for 'urgent action to alleviate civilian suffering and ensure aid delivery'. 'Even as we believe Hamas could end this suffering immediately through the release of the hostages and care for its civilian population, the Israeli government must do everything in its power to ensure humanitarian aid reaches those in need,' it added. 'The Jewish tradition calls upon us to ensure the provision of food, water, and medical supplies as a top priority.' Jewish groups associated with the left have been prominent fixtures at protests against Israel's offensive since it began. On Tuesday, 27 rabbis and Jewish clergy affiliated with the group Jews for Food Aid for People in Gaza were arrested at a protest in the Washington office of the Senate majority leader, John Thune. But it appears clear that discomfort has significantly broadened outside the Jewish left. On Monday, eight rabbis were arrested outside the Israeli consulate in New York while protesting against the humanitarian crisis in Gaza – including clergy who had not been so outspoken before. 'The protests we've typically seen at the Israeli consulate in places like that are from the further left of the community,' Phylisa Wisdom, executive director of New York Jewish Agenda, told Gothamist. 'This represents an escalation from rabbis in this political lane.' More than 1,200 rabbis have signed a public letter calling on Israel to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza. 'The Jewish people face a grave moral crisis, threatening the very basis of Judaism as the ethical voice that it has been since the age of Israel's prophets,' reads the letter. 'We cannot remain silent in confronting it.' The developments reflect shifting public support for Israel and the Israeli government within the US, which has accelerated as the war has gone on. A recent Gallup poll reported that support for Israel's military action in Gaza has precipitously declined among US adults, and is now at 32% – the lowest reading since Gallup first asked the question in November 2023. Support for Israel drops further among younger Americans – including US Jews. 'It's a tense time in the Jewish family group chats,' Ezra Klein wrote in a recent New York Times column. 'The consensus that held American Jewry together for generations is breaking down.' While emotional attachment to Israel is widespread among Jewish Americans, polling has consistently found that support for the state's current policies drops with age, a phenomenon perhaps best reflected in the community's support for the New York Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, whom opponents have sought to tar with accusations of antisemitism over his vocal support for Palestinian rights. Despite those accusations, however, a recent poll found him leading with 67% of the votes of American Jewish voters in New York under the age of 44. That figure dropped to 25% of voters over 45. 'Zohran Mamdani's triumph in New York City's Democratic primary for mayor has forced, among many Jews, a reckoning with how far they have drifted from one another,' Klein wrote. Organizers of an action planned for Monday in New York City hope that groups that have not turned out before will do so to protest under the banner 'Jews Say: No More'. 'Our tradition teaches us that if we can protest [against] our people's actions and we don't, we are responsible,' said IfNotNow's executive director, Morriah Kaplan, in a statement to the Guardian. The group is helping organize Monday's action. 'As Jews and as Americans, whose government is funding this atrocity, we all must choose whether we want to bear responsibility for a policy of forced mass starvation.' The shift is also playing out within institutions whose members want their leaders to take a tougher stance on a country many had long reflexively supported. More than 200 alumni from Young Judaea, a Zionist youth group, this week called on the organization in an open letter to depart from its pro-Israel line to speak out against starvation in Gaza and call for a permanent ceasefire, including a release of the hostages. 'We see our families and friends, colleagues and teachers, rabbis and Jewish institutions – in Israel and abroad – join a growing movement to stand courageously in opposition to these policies,' the letter reads. 'Young Judaea cannot remain silent in this moment and maintain any moral credibility.'
The Guardian
02-08-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Growing number of Jewish American groups speak out over Gaza famine
As global outrage intensifies over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, a growing number of prominent Jewish American organizations, including some traditional defenders of Israel, are speaking out and imploring the country to ensure that humanitarian aid is allowed into Gaza. This week, a UN-backed food security group warned that a 'worst-case scenario of famine' is unfolding in Gaza and health authorities there report dozens of deaths from starvation. On Sunday, the American Jewish Committee, a prominent Jewish advocacy organization, released a statement affirming that it stands with Israel in what it described as 'its justified war to eliminate the threat posed by Hamas and secure the release of the remaining hostages'. At the same time, the group called for Israel to take steps to alleviate civilian suffering. 'We feel immense sorrow for the grave toll this war has taken on Palestinian civilians, and we are deeply concerned about worsening food insecurity in Gaza,' the statement read. 'We urge Israel, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the UN, and all responsible parties involved in aid distribution to increase cooperation and coordination in order to ensure that humanitarian aid reaches Palestinian civilians in Gaza.' The GHF is an Israel- and US-backed aid group that has attracted condemnation for the killings of hundreds of civilians seeking food at the hands of Israeli forces and private contractors. The AJC statement reflected a cautious critique of Israel's aid blockade echoed by other groups noteworthy for their typically staunch support of the country, even as their statements condemned Hamas for refusing to release the Israeli hostages it continues to hold. The Reform movement in North America, which represents the largest Jewish denomination in the US, also issued a lengthy statement: 'Neither escalating military pressure nor restricting humanitarian aid has brought Israel closer to securing a hostage deal or ending the war,' it read. 'Hamas has repeatedly demonstrated its willingness to sacrifice the Palestinian people in its pursuit of Israel's destruction, but Israel must not sacrifice its own moral standing in return. Starving Gazan civilians neither will bring Israel the 'total victory' over Hamas it seeks, nor can it be justified by Jewish values or humanitarian law.' The Rabbinical Assembly, a New York-based association of conservative rabbis, said last week that they were 'increasingly concerned about the worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza' and called for 'urgent action to alleviate civilian suffering and ensure aid delivery'. 'Even as we believe Hamas could end this suffering immediately through the release of the hostages and care for its civilian population, the Israeli government must do everything in its power to ensure humanitarian aid reaches those in need,' it added. 'The Jewish tradition calls upon us to ensure the provision of food, water, and medical supplies as a top priority.' Jewish groups associated with the left have been prominent fixtures at protests against Israel's offensive since it began. On Tuesday, 27 rabbis and Jewish clergy affiliated with the group Jews for Food Aid for People in Gaza were arrested at a protest in the Washington office of the Senate majority leader, John Thune. But it appears clear that discomfort has significantly broadened outside the Jewish left. On Monday, eight rabbis were arrested outside the Israeli consulate in New York while protesting against the humanitarian crisis in Gaza – including clergy who had not been so outspoken before. 'The protests we've typically seen at the Israeli consulate in places like that are from the further left of the community,' Phylisa Wisdom, executive director of New York Jewish Agenda, told Gothamist. 'This represents an escalation from rabbis in this political lane.' More than 1,200 rabbis have signed a public letter calling on Israel to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza. 'The Jewish people face a grave moral crisis, threatening the very basis of Judaism as the ethical voice that it has been since the age of Israel's prophets,' reads the letter. 'We cannot remain silent in confronting it.' The developments reflect shifting public support for Israel and the Israeli government within the US, which has accelerated as the war has gone on. A recent Gallup poll reported that support for Israel's military action in Gaza has precipitously declined among US adults, and is now at 32% – the lowest reading since Gallup first asked the question in November 2023. Support for Israel drops further among younger Americans – including US Jews. 'It's a tense time in the Jewish family group chats,' Ezra Klein wrote in a recent New York Times column. 'The consensus that held American Jewry together for generations is breaking down.' While emotional attachment to Israel is widespread among Jewish Americans, polling has consistently found that support for the state's current policies drops with age, a phenomenon perhaps best reflected in the community's support for the New York Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, whom opponents have sought to tar with accusations of antisemitism over his vocal support for Palestinian rights. Despite those accusations, however, a recent poll found him leading with 67% of the votes of American Jewish voters in New York under the age of 44. That figure dropped to 25% of voters over 45. 'Zohran Mamdani's triumph in New York City's Democratic primary for mayor has forced, among many Jews, a reckoning with how far they have drifted from one another,' Klein wrote. Organizers of an action planned for Monday in New York City hope that groups that have not turned out before will do so to protest under the banner 'Jews Say: No More'. 'Our tradition teaches us that if we can protest [against] our people's actions and we don't, we are responsible,' said IfNotNow's executive director, Morriah Kaplan, in a statement to the Guardian. The group is helping organize Monday's action. 'As Jews and as Americans, whose government is funding this atrocity, we all must choose whether we want to bear responsibility for a policy of forced mass starvation.' The shift is also playing out within institutions whose members want their leaders to take a tougher stance on a country many had long reflexively supported. More than 200 alumni from Young Judaea, a Zionist youth group, this week called on the organization in an open letter to depart from its pro-Israel line to speak out against starvation in Gaza and call for a permanent ceasefire, including a release of the hostages. 'We see our families and friends, colleagues and teachers, rabbis and Jewish institutions – in Israel and abroad – join a growing movement to stand courageously in opposition to these policies,' the letter reads. 'Young Judaea cannot remain silent in this moment and maintain any moral credibility.'
The Guardian
02-08-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Growing number of Jewish American groups speak out over Gaza famine
As global outrage intensifies over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, a growing number of prominent Jewish American organizations, including some traditional defenders of Israel, are speaking out and imploring the country to ensure that humanitarian aid is allowed into Gaza. This week, a UN-backed food security group warned that a 'worst-case scenario of famine' is unfolding in Gaza and health authorities there report dozens of deaths from starvation. On Sunday, the American Jewish Committee, a prominent Jewish advocacy organization, released a statement affirming that it stands with Israel in what it described as 'its justified war to eliminate the threat posed by Hamas and secure the release of the remaining hostages'. At the same time, the group called for Israel to take steps to alleviate civilian suffering. 'We feel immense sorrow for the grave toll this war has taken on Palestinian civilians, and we are deeply concerned about worsening food insecurity in Gaza,' the statement read. 'We urge Israel, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the UN, and all responsible parties involved in aid distribution to increase cooperation and coordination in order to ensure that humanitarian aid reaches Palestinian civilians in Gaza.' The GHF is an Israel- and US-backed aid group that has attracted condemnation for the killings of hundreds of civilians seeking food at the hands of Israeli forces and private contractors. The AJC statement reflected a cautious critique of Israel's aid blockade echoed by other groups noteworthy for their typically staunch support of the country, even as their statements condemned Hamas for refusing to release the Israeli hostages it continues to hold. The Reform movement in North America, which represents the largest Jewish denomination in the US, also issued a lengthy statement: 'Neither escalating military pressure nor restricting humanitarian aid has brought Israel closer to securing a hostage deal or ending the war,' it read. 'Hamas has repeatedly demonstrated its willingness to sacrifice the Palestinian people in its pursuit of Israel's destruction, but Israel must not sacrifice its own moral standing in return. Starving Gazan civilians neither will bring Israel the 'total victory' over Hamas it seeks, nor can it be justified by Jewish values or humanitarian law.' The Rabbinical Assembly, a New York-based association of conservative rabbis, said last week that they were 'increasingly concerned about the worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza' and called for 'urgent action to alleviate civilian suffering and ensure aid delivery'. 'Even as we believe Hamas could end this suffering immediately through the release of the hostages and care for its civilian population, the Israeli government must do everything in its power to ensure humanitarian aid reaches those in need,' it added. 'The Jewish tradition calls upon us to ensure the provision of food, water, and medical supplies as a top priority.' Jewish groups associated with the left have been prominent fixtures at protests against Israel's offensive since it began. On Tuesday, 27 rabbis and Jewish clergy affiliated with the group Jews for Food Aid for People in Gaza were arrested at a protest in the Washington office of the Senate majority leader, John Thune. But it appears clear that discomfort has significantly broadened outside the Jewish left. On Monday, eight rabbis were arrested outside the Israeli consulate in New York while protesting against the humanitarian crisis in Gaza – including clergy who had not been so outspoken before. 'The protests we've typically seen at the Israeli consulate in places like that are from the further left of the community,' Phylisa Wisdom, executive director of New York Jewish Agenda, told Gothamist. 'This represents an escalation from rabbis in this political lane.' More than 1,200 rabbis have signed a public letter calling on Israel to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza. 'The Jewish people face a grave moral crisis, threatening the very basis of Judaism as the ethical voice that it has been since the age of Israel's prophets,' reads the letter. 'We cannot remain silent in confronting it.' The developments reflect shifting public support for Israel and the Israeli government within the US, which has accelerated as the war has gone on. A recent Gallup poll reported that support for Israel's military action in Gaza has precipitously declined among US adults, and is now at 32% – the lowest reading since Gallup first asked the question in November 2023. Support for Israel drops further among younger Americans – including US Jews. 'It's a tense time in the Jewish family group chats,' Ezra Klein wrote in a recent New York Times column. 'The consensus that held American Jewry together for generations is breaking down.' While emotional attachment to Israel is widespread among Jewish Americans, polling has consistently found that support for the state's current policies drops with age, a phenomenon perhaps best reflected in the community's support for the New York Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, whom opponents have sought to tar with accusations of antisemitism over his vocal support for Palestinian rights. Despite those accusations, however, a recent poll found him leading with 67% of the votes of American Jewish voters in New York under the age of 44. That figure dropped to 25% of voters over 45. 'Zohran Mamdani's triumph in New York City's Democratic primary for mayor has forced, among many Jews, a reckoning with how far they have drifted from one another,' Klein wrote. Organizers of an action planned for Monday in New York City hope that groups that have not turned out before will do so to protest under the banner 'Jews Say: No More'. 'Our tradition teaches us that if we can protest [against] our people's actions and we don't, we are responsible,' said IfNotNow's executive director, Morriah Kaplan, in a statement to the Guardian. The group is helping organize Monday's action. 'As Jews and as Americans, whose government is funding this atrocity, we all must choose whether we want to bear responsibility for a policy of forced mass starvation.' The shift is also playing out within institutions whose members want their leaders to take a tougher stance on a country many had long reflexively supported. More than 200 alumni from Young Judaea, a Zionist youth group, this week called on the organization in an open letter to depart from its pro-Israel line to speak out against starvation in Gaza and call for a permanent ceasefire, including a release of the hostages. 'We see our families and friends, colleagues and teachers, rabbis and Jewish institutions – in Israel and abroad – join a growing movement to stand courageously in opposition to these policies,' the letter reads. 'Young Judaea cannot remain silent in this moment and maintain any moral credibility.'
France 24
29-07-2025
- Politics
- France 24
Gaza famine warning as Israel resists ceasefire calls
The health ministry figure excludes deaths from hunger in the Palestinian territory gripped by dire humanitarian conditions made worse by Israel's total blockade of aid from March to May. This week, Israel launched a daily pause in fighting and opened secure routes to enable UN and non-governmental agencies to distribute food on Gaza's devastated streets. Hundreds of truckloads of aid have begun to arrive. But Israeli strikes continued overnight, killing 30 people in the Nuseirat refugee camp, according to Gaza's civil defence agency -- and experts warn a humanitarian catastrophe of historic proportions is imminent. "The worst-case scenario of famine is now unfolding in the Gaza Strip," said the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification Initiative (IPC), a coalition of monitors tasked by the UN to warn of impending crises. Urgent action now The World Food Programme's emergency director, Ross Smith, likened the situation to some of the worst famines of the past century. "This is unlike anything we have seen in this century. It reminds us of previous disasters in Ethiopia or Biafra," Smith said via video-link from Rome. "We need urgent action now." In a statement released ahead of the IPC report, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office accused Hamas of distorting casualty figures and accused the group of looting food aid destined for Palestinian civilians. "While the situation in Gaza is difficult and Israel has been working to ensure aid delivery, Hamas benefits from attempting to fuel the perception of a humanitarian crisis," the statement said. "We already allow significant amounts of humanitarian aid into Gaza every single day, including food, water and medicine. Unfortunately, Hamas... has been stealing aid from the Gaza population, many times by shooting Palestinians." As late as Sunday, Netanyahu had been insisting there was "no starvation in Gaza" but even his close international ally, US President Donald Trump, has now warned the situation appears to be "real starvation". Israel imposed a total blockade on Gaza on March 2 after ceasefire talks broke down. In late May, it began allowing a small trickle of aid to resume, amid warnings of a wave of starvation. Then on Sunday, faced with a mounting international chorus of alarm, Israel began a series of "tactical pauses" while allowed aid trucks to cross two border crossings into Gaza, and Jordanian and Emirati planes to airdrop aid. Shipments have ramped up, but for the IPC this effort will not prove enough unless aid agencies are granted "immediate, unimpeded" humanitarian access. "Failure to act now will result in widespread death in much of the Strip," it said, warning that 16 children under the age of five had died of hunger since July 17. "Mounting evidence shows that widespread starvation, malnutrition, and disease are driving a rise in hunger-related deaths," it said. According to Netanyahu's office, the pause in military operations covers "key populated areas" between 10:00 am (0700 GMT) and 8:00 pm every day. Designated aid convoy routes will be secure from 6:00 am to 11:00 pm. COGAT, an Israeli defence ministry body in charge of civil affairs in the Palestinian territories, said more than 200 truckloads of aid were distributed by the UN and aid agencies on Monday. Air strikes Another 260 trucks were permitted to cross into Gaza to deposit aid at collection points, four UN tankers brought in fuel and 20 pallets of aid were airdropped from Jordanian and Emirati planes, COGAT said. Overnight, however, strikes continued. Gaza's civil defence agency said Tuesday that Israeli air strikes killed at least 30 Palestinians, including women and children, in the central Nuseirat district. Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said the strikes were carried out overnight and into the morning and "targeted a number of citizens' homes" in the Nuseirat refugee camp. The local Al-Awda hospital said it had received "the bodies of 30 martyrs, including 14 women and 12 children". An Israeli military spokesman told AFP that he would need more information to enable him to look into the strikes. With aid experts pushing for a ceasefire to enable a large-scale humanitarian operation, Israel's foreign minister addressed reporters in Jerusalem to denounce what he called a "distorted campaign" of international pressure. Gideon Saar told reporters that if Israel was to halt the conflict while Hamas is still in power in Gaza and still holding hostages it would be a "tragedy for both Israelis and Palestinians".
The Independent
28-07-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Netanyahu claims there is ‘no starvation in Gaza' in extraordinary denial of growing hunger crisis
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that accusations that Israel is conducting a campaign of starvation in Gaza are a 'bold faced lie', in an extraordinary denial of the growing humanitarian crisis in the enclave. As the Israeli leader attended a Christian conference in Jerusalem, he said: 'There is no policy of starvation in Gaza and there is no starvation in Gaza. ' He added that Israel had 'enabled the amount (of aid) required by international law to come in" and claimed Hamas "steals this humanitarian aid and then accuses Israel of not supplying it'. Netanyahu was speaking at a conference on Sunday hosted by adviser to US President Donald Trump and prominent evangelical pastor Paula White, according to the Times of Israel. His latest claims fly in the face of warnings from humanitarian organisations, who say that starvation and malnutrition has reached a critical point in Gaza. The World Health Organisation declared on Tuesday that malnutrition is on a 'dangerous trajectory' in the Gaza Strip, with 63 deaths in July. Around one in five small children in Gaza City are now acutely malnourished, according to the UN's Palestinian refugee agency (Unrwa). The UN has said that the hunger crisis is 'entirely preventable' and accused Israel of the 'deliberate blocking and delay of large-scale food, health and humanitarian aid'. At the start of March, Israel implemented a total aid blockade in Gaza for 11 weeks, preventing humanitarian aid from entering the area. In May, the American-run Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) assumed control of aid distribution in Gaza, which was previously controlled by the UN. The new mechanism limits food distribution to a small number of hubs under guard of armed contractors. Since the change, hundreds of Palestinians have been shot dead while attempting to get aid. Hamas has denied stealing aid from collection sites and a recent USAID internal report said there was no evidence of systematic looting of supplies. Israel's military on Monday suspended its daily operations between 10am and 8pm in parts of central and northern Gaza, promising to open aid corridors to let food and medical supplies in after international pressure. However, within hours of this so-called 'humanitarian pause', Israeli forces resumed air raids which killed 63 people, according to Gaza health authorities. Save the Children 's director for the Middle East, Ahmad Alhendawi, said on Sunday that these temporary pauses in fighting were not sufficient to tackle the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. The regional director said in a statement: 'Any increase in the entry of aid via land crossings has the potential to help people survive, primarily children, thousands of whom are otherwise facing their final days after nearly five months of total siege on the entry of all assistance. 'But just how lifesaving these pauses will be depends on how long they continue and the extent to which Israeli authorities facilitate safe and logistically feasible conditions for the delivery of assistance to starving children and families. 'The stage of malnutrition and starvation many people across Gaza are facing means one or even a few days of food aid will not be enough to bring them back from the brink of death. Malnutrition can be prevented, malnutrition can be treated – and we know how to do it. Malnourished people, especially children, need sustained access to diverse food, nutrition supplements, and sometimes specialist medical care, to reverse the damage that can be undone.'
