UK slams Israel for 'inhumane' aid delivery system in Gaza
Britain on Monday condemned Israel's new aid delivery system in Gaza as 'inhumane,' referencing reports of hundreds of Palestinians killed while attempting to access food and humanitarian supplies.
'The suffering in Gaza is appalling and cannot continue. Israel's aid delivery measures are inhumane,' said Fergus Eckersley, the UK's political co-ordinator to the United Nations. 'The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation's operations, which are supposed to be saving lives, are themselves leading to mass casualties. Starving people who are desperate to feed their families are told food awaits them, but over 500 have reportedly been killed trying to access it.'
Many Gazans said they have to walk for hours to reach the four appointed sites by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), meaning they must start travelling well before dawn if they are to stand any chance of receiving food.
The Israeli military acknowledged on Monday that Palestinian civilians were harmed at aid distribution centres in Gaza, saying that instructions had been issued to forces following 'lessons learnt'. Previously, the military has said it fires warning shots at people who move suspiciously or get too close to troops, including while they are collecting aid.
Since June 17, at least 580 Palestinians have been killed either trying to reach GHF distribution points or waiting for other aid convoys, Khaled Khiari, assistant secretary general for the Middle East, told Council members. Mr Khiari also said that the level of suffering and brutality in Gaza is 'unbearable', and the continued collective punishment of the Palestinian people is 'unjustifiable'.
'Civilians are being killed while simply trying to receive aid amid life-threatening famine. They are forced to flee time and again although no place in Gaza, as we know, is safe for civilians,' said Slovenia's UN envoy Samuel Zbogar. The World Food Programme reported that one in five people IN Gaza faces catastrophic levels of hunger, and more than 90,000 women and children urgently require treatment.
The Palestinian deputy envoy to the UN, Majed Bamya, said to Council members: 'What if these people that you saw on your TVs every night and every day were Israelis starving, trying to get aid? Gaza was the most densely populated area on earth, with over two million people living in the Gaza Strip. They now are squeezed on 16 per cent of that area to render them more desperate, to force them to leave their land.'
Israel has pushed for the GHF to replace the current UN-co-ordinated aid system, accusing Hamas of diverting assistance to sustain its rule. The US has backed these claims, but the world body says there has been no systematic aid theft.
Israel's ambassador Danny Danon said the GHF has offered the United Nations full data-sharing, joint logistics and transparent monitoring. 'What has the response been from the Secretary General [Antonio Guterres] and other officials?' Mr Danon asked. 'We heard it today: indifference, defamation and obstruction.'
In a letter sent last week to Mr Guterres, the head of the GHF Johnnie Moore urged the world body to engage 'immediately and directly' with the organisation, says it had a proven ability to distribute aid effectively. When asked by The National whether the UN had responded, spokesman Stephane Dujarric said: 'We're in the process of responding, but our public message and our private message is the same.'
Mr Dujarric confirmed that senior UN officials had met GHF representatives in Israel, adding: 'We were invited in Israel to hear from the GHF and we went, because we don't refuse these kinds of meetings.'
However, he reiterated concerns over safety: 'Our concerns continue. I think we've all seen what is happening again. We're not saying that GHF should not operate. What we're saying is that whether it's GHF or others, they need to operate in ways that are safe. And I think everyone can see that currently it's not safe. There's no need to reinvent the wheel.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The National
29 minutes ago
- The National
UAE honours Sheikh Zayed and Sheikh Rashid with new coins
The Central Bank has issued commemorate gold and silver coins to honour UAE Founding Father, the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, and Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum. The two men were key figures in the formation of the UAE. Sheikh Zayed, then Ruler of Abu Dhabi, held a meeting in March 1971 with Sheikh Rashid, then Ruler of Dubai, among the key attendees. It was on a farm in the Al Khawaneej area of Dubai where the fabric of the new nation was put together. The UAE was formed in December of the same year, with Sheikh Zayed as the country's first president and Sheikh Rashid the first vice president. Their roles in the founding of the union has now been honoured with a gold coin, weighing 40g with a 40mm diameter, featuring the two men while the reverse includes the national emblem surrounded by the words 'Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates' in both Arabic and English. A second, silver, coin weighs 50g with a diameter of 50mm. It shows the two leaders while its reverse also includes the national emblem surrounded by the words 'Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates' in both Arabic and English as well as 'Commemorative Coin' in Arabic. The gold coin will only be available for purchase via the Central Bank's headquarters in Abu Dhabi, while the silver coin can be bought on the bank's website. A proud history 'We proudly announce the issuance of these commemorative coins, which embody the meanings of loyalty and belonging to the national legacy left by the founding leaders, the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan and Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum, may their souls rest in peace,' Khaled Mohamed Balama, the bank's governor, said. 'This issuance marks the Zayed and Rashid campaign, aiming to solidify the values of unity and development upon which our nation was founded, and to highlight inspiring milestones in their journeys. We reaffirm our commitment to immortalising our national history and fostering it in the hearts of future generations.' In March, the bank launched a new Dh100 banknote featuring the Umm Al Quwain National Fort on the front, with a design depicting Etihad Rail alongside the Port of Fujairah on the back.
The National
an hour ago
- The National
Outrage in Turkey over magazine's alleged depiction of Prophet Mohammed in a cartoon
Clashes erupted in Istanbul on Monday night after angry demonstrators protested against a satirical magazine accused of depicting the Prophet Mohammed in a cartoon. The drawing published in the weekly LeMan magazine shows a man introducing himself as Mohammed to another figure described as Musa - Moses in Arabic and Turkish - as they float above a scene of missiles landing on buildings surrounded by flames. Turkish television channels showed a crowd shouting 'Long live hell for those savages' as they confronted riot police near the magazine's offices off the busy Istiklal Avenue in central Istanbul, Turkey 's largest city. Riot police fired rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse the crowd, AFP reported. Istanbul's chief public prosecutor opened an investigation over "publicly insulting religious values" and four staff from LeMan, including the cartoonist responsible for the illustration, were arrested, police said. Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya published footage of the arrests, which appeared to show LeMan 's editor-in-chief, cartoonist, graphic designer and manager being handcuffed in police raids on their homes. "The caricature or any form of visual representation of our Prophet not only harms our religious values but also damages societal peace," Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc wrote on X. Authorities ordered copies of the LeMan issue containing the image to be confiscated and took steps to block access to the magazine's social media accounts, state news agency Anadolu reported. LeMan 's website was not accessible from Turkey on Tuesday morning. Muslims widely consider any depiction of God and the Prophet Mohammed to be offensive and therefore forbidden. LeMan, founded in 1991, said the cartoon was not a depiction of the Prophet and was intended to portray Israeli attacks on Muslim-majority populations. "In the work, the name of a Muslim who was killed in the bombardments of Israel was fictionalised as Muhammed," the magazine said in a statement published on X. "More than 200 million people in the Islamic world are named Muhammad. There is no reference to the Prophet Muhammad in the work." It apologised to readers who had been offended and asked 'well-meaning brothers and sisters who are protesting to understand us correctly.' Istanbul Governor Davut Gul said 'the rule of law' was working against 'this mentality that is trying to provoke society by attacking our sacred values'. He also called on protesters to disperse and said some were engaged in 'provocative actions.' 'No one has the right or freedom to commit a crime, regardless of the reason,' Mr Gul said in a statement published on his social media accounts. There have been calls for more protests on Tuesday.
The National
an hour ago
- The National
Lawsuit seeks prosecution of French-Israeli 'Ghost Unit' snipers in Gaza
Human rights activists on Tuesday filed a lawsuit at a Paris court alleging that two French-Israeli snipers committed war crimes in Gaza between November 2023 and March last year. The two men, identified as Sasha A. and Gabriel P., are known to be members of a 20-strong sniper group in the Israeli army's paratroopers brigade known as the Ghost Unit, half of which is composed of dual nationals. It stands accused of shooting at unarmed civilians in Gaza, which would constitute war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide, activists said. The complaint, lodged at the war crimes unit of the Paris tribunal, is based on an investigation by Palestinian journalist Younis Tirawi that he published on X in October last year. It includes an interview with a US-born sergeant who led the Ghost Unit. 'The fact that they are members of this elite unit under the orders of this sergeant indicates that they are authors, or co-authors, or at least accomplices of crimes under international law,' vice-president of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), Alexis Deswaef, told The National. 'They can be prosecuted and judged even if they are physically absent,' Mr Deswaef said. 'It's important that the judiciary does its work because impunity breeds further impunity.' In Mr Tirawi's investigation, the sergeant, speaking Hebrew, identifies killings executed by members of his team in a video shown to him by an unnamed interviewer. The context of the interview, in which the sergeant openly discusses his unit's operations, remains unclear. The sergeant claims all of the snipers' victims were 'terrorists'. According to translated captions, he says: 'They want to exploit our humaneness. They think, 'oh I don't think they'll shoot us because we're in civilian clothes, because we don't lift up our weapons' and all that, but they were wrong and that's what snipers are for.' The FIDH filed the lawsuit along with its Palestinian and French member organisations – Al-Haq, Al Mezan, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, and France's Human Rights League (LDH) – as well as the Association France Palestine Solidarite (AFPS). It includes testimonies compiled by Al Mezan of Gazans who describe being shot by snipers as they attempted to retrieve the bodies of their relatives. One witness, who lost his 17-year old daughter, said that she was shot in the head as she was fetching water. Another described the death of his three sons at the hands of Israeli snipers. 'The convergence of witness accounts and the visual documentation presented by Tirawi strongly points to the involvement of the same snipers in a co-ordinated campaign of extrajudicial killings across various locations in Gaza,' said Issam Younes, general director of Al Mezan. ' France must ensure that these crimes do not go unpunished and guarantee the prosecution of those responsible, especially when they are its own nationals,' said Emmanuel Daoud, lawyer for LDH and AFPS. The Israeli army is believed to include 4,000 French citizens. The lawsuit comes six months after the FIDH and other NGOs filed a lawsuit at the crimes against humanity division of the Paris judicial court against another French-Israeli soldier, Yoel O., who published a video in which he appears to insult Palestinian detainees presenting signs of torture. A first lawsuit filed by the same human rights groups in April last year was dismissed by the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor's Office, which mentioned an 'insufficiently characterised offence'. Investigations were also launched last year into members of the 'Ghost Unit' in Belgium and South Africa. Its members include three US nationals, two French, one Belgian, one South African, one Italian and other Israelis with unknown dual nationality, according to Mr Tirawi.
