UN aid chief welcomes ‘humanitarian pauses' in Gaza
'Welcome announcement of humanitarian pauses in Gaza to allow our aid through,' UN emergency relief coordinator Tom Fletcher said on X.
'In contact with our teams on the ground who will do all we can to reach as many starving people as we can in this window.'
Fletcher's UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs ( OCHA) warned Friday that conditions on the ground in Gaza were 'already catastrophic and deteriorating fast'.
Israeli military announces daily pauses in Gaza areas to allow aid for hungry
'The starvation crisis is deepening,' it said, warning that hunger and malnutrition increase the risk of illnesses, and adding that the consequences can quickly 'turn deadly'.
It said that 'the trickle of supplies that are making it into the Strip are nowhere near adequate to address the immense needs'.
OCHA said UN teams were in place to ramp up deliveries into the Palestinian territory 'as soon as they are allowed to do so'.
'If Israel opens the crossings, lets fuel and equipment in, and allows humanitarian staff to operate safely, the UN will accelerate the delivery of food aid, health services, clean water and waste management, nutrition supplies, and shelter materials,' it said.
OCHA said constraints imposed by the Israeli authorities had hampered humanitarians' ability to respond.
It said that on Thursday, for example, out of 15 attempts to coordinate humanitarian movements inside Gaza, four were 'outright denied', with another three impeded.
One was postponed, and two others had to be cancelled, meaning only five missions went ahead.
On Friday OCHA issued an aid delivery plan in the event of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Business Recorder
29 minutes ago
- Business Recorder
US to refuse visas to Palestinian Authority officials
WASHINGTON: The United States said Thursday it would deny visas to Palestinian Authority officials, as US allies move to recognize Palestinian statehood. The sanctions come after several states, including France and Canada, announced they would recognize a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly in September, infuriating Israel and the United States. The US visa denials could complicate attendance at the meeting by Palestinian leaders. France and Saudi Arabia sponsored this week a UN conference designed to resurrect the decades-old idea of a two-state solution, with the argument that only Israeli and Palestinian states co-existing side by side can bring peace to the Middle East. Trump's envoy arrives in Israel as Gaza criticism mounts The United States, which rejects any unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state, called the conference an insult to people killed in the October 7, 2023 Hamas surprise attack that triggered the ongoing Israeli military operation throughout Gaza. The State Department did not specify who was being targeted in this new action, only saying it would deny visas to 'members' of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and 'officials' from the Palestinian Authority (PA). The organizations are 'taking actions to internationalize its conflict with Israel such as through the International Criminal Court (ICC) and International Court of Justice (ICJ),' the State Department said in a statement. It also accused the groups of 'continuing to support terrorism including incitement and glorification of violence,' and of 'providing payments and benefits in support of terrorism to Palestinian terrorists and their families.' The United States in June announced sanctions against four judges at the ICC, saying their indictment of Israeli leaders over the war in Gaza was politically oriented. Israel's Foreign Minister Gideon Saar welcomed the new US sanctions, saying the gesture displayed 'moral clarity.' Palestinian Authority leader Mahmud Abbas has been widely recognized for years as a key partner in efforts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The PA is a civilian ruling authority in areas of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where about three million Palestinians live – as well as around half a million Israelis occupying settlements considered illegal under international law. Hamas governs the Gaza Strip. The PLO is an umbrella grouping of Palestinian organizations but does not include Hamas, which took power in Gaza in 2007. Founded in 1964, it was led for decades by Yasser Arafat. Arab and Western countries want the currently weak Palestinian Authority to have some role in governing Gaza once the war ends. President Donald Trump is an unconditional supporter of Israel and has met at the White House three times with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu since returning to power in January, even as Trump seeks an elusive ceasefire in Gaza. The United States has criticized the Palestinian Authority as ineffective and corrupt. Saar echoed the State Department, accusing the Palestinian Authority of paying 'terrorists' and their families for attacks against Israeli targets and of inciting people against Israel in schools, textbooks, mosques, and Palestinian media. 'This important action by President Trump and his administration also exposes the moral distortion of certain countries that rushed to recognize a virtual Palestinian state while turning a blind eye to the PA's support for terrorism and incitement,' Saar wrote on X.
Business Recorder
29 minutes ago
- Business Recorder
President says Lebanon determined to disarm Hezbollah
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said Thursday that he was determined to disarm Hezbollah, a step it has come under heavy US pressure to take, despite the group's protests that doing so would serve Israeli goals. Hezbollah and Israel fought a two-month war last year that left the militant group badly weakened, though it retains part of its arsenal. Israel has kept up its air strikes on Hezbollah targets despite a November ceasefire, and has threatened to continue them until the group has been disarmed. In a speech on Thursday, Aoun said Beirut was demanding 'the extension of the Lebanese state's authority over all its territory, the removal of weapons from all armed groups including Hezbollah and their handover to the Lebanese army'. Lebanon president says disarming Hezbollah 'delicate' as two dead in strikes on south He added it was every politician's duty 'to seize this historic opportunity and push without hesitation towards affirming the army and security forces' monopoly on weapons over all Lebanese territory… in order to regain the world's confidence'. Under the November ceasefire, Hezbollah was to withdraw its fighters north of the Litani river, about 30 kilometres (20 miles) from the Israeli border. Israel was meant to withdraw all its troops from Lebanon, but has kept them in five areas it deems strategic. The truce was based on a two-decade-old UN Security Council resolution that said only the Lebanese military and UN peacekeepers should possess weapons in the country's south, and that all non-state groups should be disarmed. However, that resolution went unfulfilled for years, with Hezbollah's arsenal before the latest war seen as far superior to the army's, and the group wielding extensive political influence. Aoun took over the presidency in January ending a two-year vacancy – his election by lawmakers made possible in part by the shifting balance of power in the wake of the conflict. On Wednesday, Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem said that 'anyone calling today for the surrender of weapons, whether internally or externally, on the Arab or the international stage, is serving the Israeli project'. He accused US envoy Tom Barrack, who has visited Lebanon several times in recent months, of using 'intimidation and threats' in his talks with senior officials with the aim of 'aiding Israel'. Collapse or stability Israel has carried out near daily strikes in Lebanon in recent months, targeting what it says are Hezbollah militants and infrastructure, but the group has refrained from striking back. Israel launched several strikes on Hezbollah strongholds in the south and east on Thursday, targeting what it said were sites used by Hezbollah to manufacture and store missiles. Defence Minister Israel Katz said the targets included 'Hezbollah's biggest precision missile manufacturing site', and the military said it had hit 'infrastructure that was used for producing and storing strategic weapons' in south Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley. In his speech, Aoun said Lebanon was at 'a crucial stage that does not tolerate any sort of provocation from any side'. 'For the thousandth time, I assure you that my concern in having a (state) weapons monopoly comes from my concern to defend Lebanon's sovereignty and borders, to liberate the occupied Lebanese territories and build a state that welcomes all its citizens,' he said, addressing Hezbollah's supporters as an 'essential pillar' of society. Lebanon has proposed modifications to 'ideas' submitted by the United States on Hezbollah's disarmament, Aoun added, and a plan would be discussed at a cabinet meeting next week to 'establish a timetable for implementation'. Aoun also demanded the withdrawal of Israeli troops, the release of Lebanese prisoners and 'an immediate cessation of Israeli hostilities'. 'Today, we must choose between collapse and stability,' he said. Hezbollah is the only group that held on to its weapons after Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war, doing so in the name of 'resistance' against Israel, which occupied south Lebanon until 2000. Lebanon has also committed to disarming Palestinian militant groups that control the country's refugee camps.
Business Recorder
6 hours ago
- Business Recorder
Trump's envoy arrives in Israel as Gaza criticism mounts
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM: US President Donald Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff arrived in Israel on Thursday to discuss ways to end the crisis in Gaza, where nearly 22 months of grinding war and dire shortages of food have drawn mounting international criticism. Gaza's civil defence agency reported dozens of Palestinians killed late Wednesday when Israeli forces opened fire on a crowd attempting to block an aid convoy – the latest in a spate of near-daily incidents of desperate aid seekers being shot. The Israeli military confirmed having fired 'warning shots' as Gazans gathered around aid trucks, but said it had no knowledge of casualties in the incident. An AFP correspondent saw the bullet-riddled corpses of Palestinians in Gaza's al-Shifa hospital. Jameel Ashour, who lost a relative in the shooting, told AFP at the overflowing morgue that Israel troops had opened fire after a crowd surged towards the convoy. 'When people saw thieves stealing and dropping food, the hungry crowd rushed in hopes of getting some,' he said. With indirect ceasefire and hostage release negotiations between Hamas and Israel at an impasse, Witkoff will meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss humanitarian aid and the 'next steps' on Gaza. Trump envoy Witkoff to travel to Europe and discuss Gaza, US official says He may also visit a US-backed humanitarian group distributing food in Gaza, according to Israeli reports. Witkoff has been the top US representative in indirect ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas, but the discussions broke down last week when Israel and the United States recalled their delegations from Doha. Israel is under mounting international pressure to agree a ceasefire and allow the world to flood a hungry Gaza with food, with Canada the latest Western country to announce plans to recognise a Palestinian state. MAGA doubts Trump has been Israel's staunchest international defender at a time when concerns about the campaign in Gaza have left Netanyahu increasingly isolated on the world stage, but the two leaders have occasionally found themselves at odds of late. Earlier this week Trump promised to get more humanitarian aid into Gaza, warning that the territory faces 'real starvation' – directly contradicting Netanyahu's insistence that reports of hunger were exaggerated. Gaza death toll hits 60,000 as global monitor demands action to avert famine UN-backed experts, meanwhile, have reported 'famine is now unfolding' in Gaza, with news images of sick and emaciated children drawing outrage and powers like France, the UK and now Canada lining up to support Palestinian statehood. Trump is now reportedly concerned that his most fervent domestic US supporters, the so-called 'MAGA base', are turning against Israel. Israel is also under pressure to resolve the crisis from other traditional supporters. Germany's top diplomat Johann Wadephul was expected in Jerusalem on Thursday for talks with Netanyahu and Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar. 'Warning shots' In Canada, Prime Minister Mark Carney warned that the worsening suffering of civilians in Gaza left 'no room for delay in coordinated international action to support peace'. Israel blasted Canada's announcement as part of a 'distorted campaign of international pressure', while Trump warned that trade negotiations with Ottawa could be hurt by what Washington regards as a premature bid to back Palestine. Gaza civil defence says 30 killed by Israeli fire The fighting in Gaza has lasted for almost 22 months which left 1,219 people dead, according to a tally based on official figures. Of the 251 Israelis kidnapped that day, 49 are still held in Gaza, 27 of them declared dead by the Israeli military. The Israeli campaign has since killed 60,249 Palestinians, according to a tally from the Hamas government's health ministry, and this week UN aid agencies warned that deaths from starvation had begun. In the incident Wednesday night, Gaza's civil defence agency said gunfire killed at least 58 people in a crowd gathered around a humanitarian aid convoy in the north of the territory. According to an AFP correspondent and witnesses, the trucks had entered Gaza through the Israeli military checkpoint at Zikim, on their way to World Central Kitchen and the World Food Programme warehouses in Gaza City. Thousands of people rushed to stop the trucks before they continued to the warehouses, and shooting erupted. Separately, the Hamas-led Gaza government's health ministry issued a statement Thursday begging Palestinians not to loot a new aid convoy, warning that it contained no food but instead medical supplies for the territory's hard-pressed hospitals. Another 32 people were reported killed by the civil defence on Thursday in Israeli attacks across Gaza. Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties accessing many areas mean AFP cannot independently verify tolls and details provided by the civil defence and other parties.
