Latest news with #humanitarianpauses
Al Jazeera
a day ago
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Israel continues to kill Palestinians as aid trickles into Gaza
Israel continues to kill Palestinians as aid trickles into Gaza NewsFeed Hours after declaring 'humanitarian pauses,' Israeli forces killed 43 Palestinians 9 of them were waiting for aid. UN aid chief Tom Fletcher says access has slightly improved but warns famine is worsening, with just 73 aid trucks entering Gaza, far below what's needed. Video Duration 00 minutes 52 seconds 00:52 Video Duration 03 minutes 59 seconds 03:59 Video Duration 02 minutes 07 seconds 02:07 Video Duration 00 minutes 25 seconds 00:25 Video Duration 01 minutes 14 seconds 01:14 Video Duration 02 minutes 42 seconds 02:42 Video Duration 00 minutes 35 seconds 00:35
Reuters
2 days ago
- General
- Reuters
WFP urges quick approvals by Israel for trucks to move into Gaza
UNITED NATIONS, July 27 (Reuters) - The United Nations food aid agency needs quick approvals by Israel for its trucks to move into Gaza if it is to take advantage of Israel's planned humanitarian pauses in fighting, a senior World Food Programme official said on Sunday. Facing growing global condemnation as the World Health Organization said mass starvation had taken hold in Gaza, Israel said on Sunday it would halt military operations for 10 hours a day in parts of the enclave and allow new aid corridors. "We need not just words, but we need action there. We need to have really fast clearances and approvals," Ross Smith, WFP director of emergencies, told Reuters on Sunday. "If the waiting times are going to continue to be 10 hours, then we won't be able to take advantage of these pauses." COGAT, the Israeli military aid coordination agency, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Since Israel lifted an 11-week blockade on Gaza on May 19 and allowed the U.N.-led humanitarian operation to resume limited deliveries, a key U.N. complaint has been lengthy delays by Israel in allowing convoys to leave the crossing points to transport aid to warehouses and distribution points inside Gaza. U.N. data shows that only less than 8% of 1,718 WFP trucks made it to their destination within Gaza in the nearly ten weeks since Israel lifted its blockade. The rest were looted by "either peacefully by hungry people or forcefully by armed actors during transit," according to the U.N. data. Israel requires the U.N. and other groups to offload their aid at the crossing point and then send trucks from within Gaza to collect it and transport it within the war-torn enclave, where some 2.1 million people remain. "Everybody can see them driving in, and so they know that food is about to be loaded on them, and they start to wait and crowd," said Smith, adding that some convoys can wait up to 20 hours before Israel gives them the green light to enter Gaza. "If they are sitting there for 10 hours, loading and waiting, then at that point you have 10,000 people crowding outside," he said. Israel controls all access to Gaza and says it allows enough food aid into the enclave, where it has been at war with Palestinian militants Hamas for nearly 22-months. It accuses Hamas of stealing aid, which the militants deny. The U.N. says it has not seen evidence of mass aid diversion in Gaza by Hamas. Jordan and the United Arab Emirates parachuted 25 tons of aid into the Gaza Strip on Sunday in their first airdrop in months, a Jordanian official source said, adding that the air drops were not a substitute for delivery by land. Smith said air dropping aid was "purely symbolic at the very best." The war in Gaza was triggered on October 7, 2023, when Palestinian militants Hamas killed 1,200 people in southern Israel and took some 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Since then, Israel's military campaign has killed nearly 60,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities.
The National
2 days ago
- Politics
- The National
After months of deadly blockade, Israeli voices demanding that aid enters Gaza grow louder
Israel's decision to implement daily 'humanitarian pauses' in Gaza has triggered a familiar and unsettling cycle in Israeli public discourse. Each time the military allows even a modest respite for the besieged strip, fierce domestic backlash follows. National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir described the decision as a 'spit in the face of our soldiers' and a 'surrender to Hamas's deceitful campaign'. Eylon Levy, a social media personality and former spokesman in the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, wrote on X: 'Let's be clear what just happened here. International pressure on Israel encouraged Hamas to reject a ceasefire and get a 'humanitarian pause' instead – without giving up a single hostage.' Regardless, the plan appears to be in place and Israel's military said on Sunday that the pauses will be in effect daily in Al Mawasi, Deir Al Balah, and Gaza city, from 10am (0700 GMT) to 8pm (1700 GMT) until further notice. UN agencies, including UNRWA, are expected to monitor food distribution. In the lead-up to the announcement, many in Israel deflected blame for the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, pointing fingers at the UN or Hamas. This persistent refusal to acknowledge the depth of suffering in Gaza has drawn criticism, even from former supporters of Israel abroad. Meanwhile, some critics within the country have begun labelling the siege itself as a military failure. For the first time, however, a mainstream Israeli news channel broke rank. After many months of not showing the suffering of Gazan civilians, Channel 12 this week aired a report that showed crowds of desperate people scrambling for food at aid distribution sites. A Hebrew-speaking contributor spoke about calling Gazans who told him of 'nothing going into their mouths for entire days'. Israeli commentator Shaiel Ben-Ephraim said he could not 'even begin to explain how big' the report was. 'For years, Channel 12 and mainstream Israeli news would cover Palestinian suffering occasionally. Then after October 7, they just stopped. No one wanted to see it. That played a massive role in the dehumanisation of Palestinians and facilitation of genocide,' he wrote in a post on X. In the days since, a growing number of Israelis, many of them staunch defenders and not from its activist left wing, made similar arguments. Commentator Haviv Rettig Gur, who had rejected international warnings of catastrophic hunger in Gaza, acknowledged on a recent podcast: 'We are very close to real, actual, desperate hunger in Gaza … It's hard to convince Israelis of that because literally everything said to them for 22 months on this topic has been a fiction … We need to wake them up.' Fears about Gaza's humanitarian situation entering mainstream Israeli discourse is a major development for a country in which 64.5 per cent of the public has so far been 'not concerned' about it, according to a poll by a major think tank in May. In the same month, another poll found that 82 per cent of respondents supported the expulsion of Palestinians from the strip. It remains to be seen whether this willingness to acknowledge Palestinian civilian suffering will last. Polling shows that Israelis have been against the war for some time, but the vast majority of the opposition is based on concern for hostages in the strip, the safety of soldiers and anger that Mr Netanyahu is continuing the campaign for his political survival. How Israeli society and politics react to the daily 'pauses' ahead will give important signs.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Israel announces 'humanitarian pauses' in Gaza Strip
The Israeli Foreign Ministry has said it would implement "humanitarian pauses" to allow the distribution of aid in the Gaza Strip on Sunday morning. The pause would apply to "civilian centers and in humanitarian corridors" in Gaza, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement posted on X late on Saturday. Despite fierce international criticism, Israel has been allowing very little aid into the coastal strip. The ministry went on say that, while "Israel has continued to facilitate the entry of aid trucks into the Gaza strip," the United Nations "failed so far to collect and distribute the large amount of aid trucks that are stored in designated areas inside of the Gaza strip." The Israeli ministry said that the UN now would "collect and distribute the large quantities of aid, without any further delay or excuses." "Israel rejects the false accusations of 'starvation' propaganda initiated by Hamas which manipulates pictures of children suffering from terminal diseases. It is shameful," the ministry said. The UN has been contradicting the Israeli claim that the organization was refusing to distribute food. "We are not trying to prevent all these people, including our own people, from getting food. They're being held up by different obstacles, including those placed by the Israeli authorities," UN spokesman Farhan Haq said on Thursday. Haq added that the multi-stage approval process by the Israeli military was very cumbersome, with significant delays, often resulting in nightfall before the reloaded goods could set off. Earlier on Saturday evening, the Israeli military said that it wanted to resume airdrops of aid supplies over the Gaza Strip and also wants to enable the delivery of food and medicine by the UN via humanitarian corridors. The Israeli military also said that a drinking water treatment plant in the Gaza Strip has also been reconnected to the Israeli power grid. At the same time, Israeli authorities said that fighting would continue in order to free all hostages and defeat Palestinian militant organization Hamas. The first airdrop of relief supplies was due to take place on Saturday night, but it only involved seven pallets of relief supplies, including flour, sugar and tinned food, according to COGAT, the Israeli military authority responsible for approving and coordinating aid transports. The operation is to be carried out in coordination with international aid organizations. But volunteers point out that delivery by air is considered the most expensive and ineffective form of humanitarian aid delivery - also because it usually involves relatively small quantities. Before the military's announcement that Israel would resume airdrops, United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan said his country would resume air drops "immediately." "The humanitarian situation in Gaza has reached a critical and unprecedented level," the minister said in a post on X. "We will ensure essential aid reaches those most in need, whether through land, air or sea. Air drops are resuming once more, immediately. Our commitment to alleviating suffering and providing support is resolute and unwavering." Around 2 million Palestinians live in the Gaza Strip, most of whom are in urgent need of aid. On Wednesday, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned of a deadly hunger crisis in the Gaza Strip. Numerous other aid organizations are also warning of this. Solve the daily Crossword
