Israel committing genocide in Gaza, says EU's former top diplomat
Borrell, a former Spanish foreign minister who served as the EU's top diplomat from 2019 to 2024, and president of the European parliament from 2004 to 2007, also criticised the bloc's failure to use all the means at its disposal to influence Israel, saying expressions of regret were simply not enough.
As he collected the Charles V European award in front of dignitaries including King Felipe in south-west Spain on Friday, Borrell said the horrors Israel had suffered in the Hamas attacks on 7 October 2023 could not justify the horrors it had subsequently inflicted on Gaza.
'We're facing the largest ethnic cleansing operation since the end of the second world war in order to create a splendid holiday destination once all the millions of tonnes of rubble have been cleared from Gaza and the Palestinians have died or gone away,' he said in a characteristically direct speech.
The former diplomat accused Israel of violating all the rules of conflict and of using the starvation of Gaza's civilian population as a 'weapon of war'.
'Three times more explosive power has been dropped on Gaza than was used in the Hiroshima bomb,' he said. 'And for months now, nothing has been getting into Gaza. Nothing: no water, no food, no electricity, no fuel, no medical services. That's what [Benjamin] Netanyau's ministers have said and it's what they've done.'
He added: 'We all know what's going on there, and we've all heard the objectives stated by Netanyau's ministers, which are clear declarations of genocidal intent. Seldom have I heard the leader of a state so clearly outline a plan that fits the legal definition of genocide.'
Borrell went on to take Europe to task for shirking its moral and humanitarian responsibilities over Gaza.
'Europe has the capacity and the means not only to protest against what is going on but also to influence [Israel's] conduct,' he said. 'But it is not doing so. We supply half the bombs that are falling on Gaza. If we really believe that too many people are dying, then the natural response would be to supply fewer weapons and to use the lever of the association agreement to demand that international humanitarian law is respected, instead of just lamenting that that isn't happening.'
The veteran socialist politician also used his speech to reflect on current geopolitical realities, which he described as unprecedented. The post-1945 world order, he said, was being demolished by Vladimir Putin, 'a tyrant whose military failure in Ukraine has made him more dangerous', and by Donald Trump who he described as 'the master of chaos, who has gone from being an ally to an adversary'.
The question facing Europe, he added, was how well it would cope without the protections long afforded by its old ally across the Atlantic.
'In order to deal with this situation, we need to move from structural pacifism to strong rearmament, but we need to do that on a European scale if we want to avoid the waste that stirs the old national demons,' said Borrell. 'We need to shift away from a comfortable and atavistic Atlanticism, which has seen us delegate our security to the US, to building full European sovereignty, which will also mean giving Europe a fiscal and security dimension.'
Related: How Trump's walkaway diplomacy enabled Israel's worst impulses
He said that Europe was no longer the great driver, or chronicler, of world history.
'Today, history has become a product that's imported,' Borrell added. 'History has been written by the Russian soldiers who marched towards Kyiv in the early hours of a February morning, and by the Ukrainians who resisted. History is being written by the US voters who put Mr Trump back in the White House.'
History, he went on, was now the story of the technological competition between the US and China. In what appeared to be a swipe at Trump, Borrell added: 'The faces of history today are those of Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping. None of them is European. I know them – well, I know them a bit – and I can assure you that of those three, two are more intelligent than the third. The thing is the third one doesn't know it.'
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Chicago Tribune
2 hours ago
- Chicago Tribune
Israel says hundreds of truckloads of aid are waiting to enter Gaza. Why can't the UN bring them in?
TEL AVIV, Israel — The United Nations and experts say that Palestinians in Gaza are at risk of famine, with reports of increasing numbers of people dying from causes related to malnutrition. Yet Israel says hundreds of truckloads of aid are waiting at the border for the U.N. to distribute in Gaza. On Thursday, Israel's military took journalists to the Gaza side of the Kerem Shalom crossing where hundreds of boxes of aid were on pallets filling a huge lot. Israel says it has allowed in around 4,500 aid trucks since it lifted a total blockade in May —around 70 truckloads a day, one of the lowest rates of the war and far less than the several hundred the U.N. says are needed each day. Israel says it lets in enough aid and faults U.N. agencies for not doing enough to retrieve and get it to those in need. The U.N. says it is hampered by Israeli military restrictions on its movements and incidents of criminal looting. Here's a look at why the aid can't be delivered. To retrieve the aid at the border — or move around most of the Gaza Strip — U.N. trucks must enter zones controlled by the military after obtaining its permission. Once the aid is loaded, the trucks must get safely to the population. The whole trip can take 20 hours, the U.N. says. Large crowds of desperate people, as well as criminal gangs, overwhelm trucks as they enter and strip off the supplies. Witnesses say Israeli troops regularly open fire on the crowds, causing deaths and injuries. 'Taken together, these factors have put people and humanitarian staff at grave risk and forced aid agencies on many occasions to pause the collection of cargo from crossings controlled by the Israeli authorities,' said Olga Cherevko, a spokesperson for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA. At least 79 Palestinians were killed while trying to get aid entering Gaza this week, according to Gaza's health ministry. A U.N. official who was not authorized to discuss the issue publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, said Israeli forces opened fire toward crowds who tried to take food from an entering truck convoy. Israel's military said soldiers shot at a gathering of thousands of Palestinians in northern Gaza who posed a threat, and it was aware of some casualties. On its website, OCHA said there is a breakdown of law and order, which is partly due to the collapse of Gaza's Hamas-run civilian police force, leading to insecurity at the crossings and for convoys moving within Gaza. It said this is further compounded by the increase of armed gangs. The military frequently assigns routes for trucks to use that are 'unsuitable, either impassable for long truck convoys, passing through crowded markets, or controlled by dangerous gangs,' OCHA said. When the U.N. objects to a route, the military provides few alternatives, it said. The U.N. also struggles with facilitation from the military. It says more than half its movement requests, 506 out of 894, were either denied or impeded by the military in May, June and July. There are also regular delays by Israel's forces in coordination. The delays result in lost time, difficulty planning and wasted resources as convoys spend hours waiting for the 'green light to move only to be denied,' OCHA said. Israel says it doesn't limit the truckloads of aid coming into Gaza and that assessments of roads in Gaza are conducted weekly where it looks for the best ways to provide access for the international community. Col. Abdullah Halaby, a top official in COGAT, the Israeli military agency in charge of transferring aid to the territory, said there are several crossings open. 'We encourage our friends and our colleagues from the international community to do the collection, and to distribute the humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza,' he said. An Israeli security official who was not allowed to be named in line with military procedures told reporters this week that the U.N. wanted to use roads that were not approved. He said the army offered to escort the aid groups but they refused. For much of the war, U.N. agencies were able to safely deliver aid to those who need it, despite Israeli restrictions and occasional attacks and looting. The Hamas-run police provided public security. But as Israeli airstrikes targeted the police force, it has been unable to operate. The U.N. says being escorted by Israel's army could bring harm to civilians, citing shootings and killings by Israeli troops surrounding aid operations. The U.N. and aid groups also say that looting of trucks lessens or stops entirely when enough aid is allowed into Gaza. 'The best protection for us is community buy-in,' said U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric. 'And to get that community buy-in, communities have to understand that trucks will come every day, that food will come every day.' 'That's what we're asking for,' he said.
NBC News
2 hours ago
- NBC News
U.S. government analysis found no evidence of massive Hamas theft of Gaza aid
WASHINGTON — An internal U.S. government analysis found no evidence of systematic theft by the Palestinian militant group Hamas of U.S.-funded humanitarian supplies, challenging the main rationale that Israel and the U.S. give for backing a new armed private aid operation. The analysis, which has not been previously reported, was conducted by a bureau within the U.S. Agency for International Development and completed in late June. It examined 156 incidents of theft or loss of U.S.-funded supplies reported by U.S. aid partner organizations between October 2023 and this May. It found 'no reports alleging Hamas' benefited from U.S.-funded supplies, according to a slide presentation of the findings seen by Reuters. A State Department spokesperson disputed the findings, saying there is video evidence of Hamas looting aid, but provided no such videos. The spokesperson also accused traditional humanitarian groups of covering up 'aid corruption.' A White House spokesperson, Anna Kelly, questioned the existence of the analysis, saying no State Department official had seen it and that it 'was likely produced by a deep state operative' seeking to discredit President Donald Trump's 'humanitarian agenda.' The findings were shared with the USAID's inspector general's office and State Department officials involved in Middle East policy, said two sources familiar with the matter, and come as dire food shortages deepen in the devastated enclave. Israel says it is committed to allowing in aid but must control it to prevent it from being stolen by Hamas, which it blames for the crisis. The U.N. World Food Program says nearly a quarter of Gaza's 2.1 million Palestinians face famine-like conditions, thousands are suffering acute malnutrition, and the World Health Organization and doctors in the enclave report starvation deaths of children and others. The U.N. also estimates that Israeli forces have killed more than 1,000 people seeking food supplies, the majority near the militarized distribution sites of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), the new private aid group that uses a for-profit U.S. logistics firm run by a former CIA officer and armed U.S. military veterans. The study was conducted by the Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance (BHA) of USAID, which was the largest funder of assistance to Gaza before the Trump administration froze all U.S. foreign aid in January, terminating thousands of programs. It has also begun dismantling USAID, whose functions have been folded into the State Department. The analysis found that at least 44 of the 156 incidents where aid supplies were reported stolen or lost were 'either directly or indirectly' due to Israeli military actions, according to the briefing slides. Israel's military did not respond to questions about those findings. The study noted a limitation: because Palestinians who receive aid cannot be vetted, it was possible that U.S.-funded supplies went to administrative officials of Hamas, the Islamist rulers of Gaza. One source familiar with the study also cautioned that the absence of reports of widespread aid diversion by Hamas 'does not mean that diversion has not occurred.' The war in Gaza began after Hamas attacked Israel in October 2023, killing 1,200 people and capturing 251 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Nearly 60,000 Palestinians have been killed since the Israeli assault began, according to Palestinian health officials. Israel says Hamas diverts aid Israel, which controls access to Gaza, has said that Hamas steals food supplies from U.N. and other organizations to use to control the civilian population and boost its finances, including by jacking up the prices of the goods and reselling them to civilians. Asked about the USAID report, the Israeli military told Reuters that its allegations are based on intelligence reports that Hamas militants seized cargoes by 'both covertly and overtly' embedding themselves on aid trucks. Those reports also show that Hamas has diverted up to 25% of aid supplies to its fighters or sold them to civilians, the Israeli military said, adding that GHF has ended the militants' control of aid by distributing it directly to civilians. Hamas denies the allegations. A Hamas security official said that Israel has killed more than 800 Hamas-affiliated police and security guards trying to protect aid vehicles and convoy routes. Their missions were coordinated with the U.N. Reuters could not independently verify the claims by Hamas and Israel, which has not made public proof that the militants have systematically stolen aid. GHF also accuses Hamas of massive aid theft in defending its distribution model. The U.N. and other groups have rejected calls by GHF, Israel and the U.S. to cooperate with the foundation, saying it violates international humanitarian principles of neutrality. In response to a request for comment, GHF referred Reuters to a July 2 Washington Post article that quoted an unidentified Gazan and anonymous Israeli officials as saying Hamas profited from the sales and taxing of pilfered humanitarian aid. Aid groups required to report losses The 156 reports of theft or losses of supplies reviewed by BHA were filed by U.N. agencies and other humanitarian groups working in Gaza as a condition of receiving U.S. aid funds. The second source familiar with the matter said that after receiving reports of U.S.-funded aid thefts or losses, USAID staff followed up with partner organizations to try to determine if there was Hamas involvement. Those organizations also would 'redirect or pause' aid distributions if they learned that Hamas was in the vicinity, the source said. Aid organizations working in Gaza also are required to vet their personnel, sub-contractors and suppliers for ties to extremist groups before receiving U.S. funds, a condition that the State Department waived in approving $30 million for GHF last month. The slide presentation noted that USAID partners tended to over-report aid diversion and theft by groups sanctioned or designated by the U.S. as foreign terrorist organizations — such as Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad — because they want to avoid losing U.S. funding. Of the 156 incidents of loss or theft reported, 63 were attributed to unknown perpetrators, 35 to armed actors, 25 to unarmed people, 11 directly to Israeli military action, 11 to corrupt subcontractors, five to aid group personnel 'engaging in corrupt activities,' and six to 'others,' a category that accounted for 'commodities stolen in unknown circumstances,' according to the slide presentation. The armed actors 'included gangs and other miscellaneous individuals who may have had weapons,' said a slide. Another slide said 'a review of all 156 incidents found no affiliations with' U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organizations, of which Hamas is one. 'The majority of incidents could not be definitively attributed to a specific actor,' said another slide. 'Partners often largely discovered the commodities had been stolen in transit without identifying the perpetrator.' It is possible there were classified intelligence reports on Hamas aid thefts, but BHA staff lost access to classified systems in the dismantlement of USAID, said a slide. However, a source familiar with U.S. intelligence assessments told Reuters that they knew of no U.S. intelligence reports detailing Hamas aid diversions and that Washington was relying on Israeli reports. The BHA analysis found that the Israeli military 'directly or indirectly caused' a total of 44 incidents in which U.S.-funded aid was lost or stolen. Those included the 11 attributed to direct Israeli military actions, such as airstrikes or orders to Palestinians to evacuate areas of the war-torn enclave. Losses indirectly attributed to Israeli military included cases where they compelled aid groups to use delivery routes with high risks of theft or looting, ignoring requests for alternative routes, the analysis said.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Gazan sources claim Yahya Sinwar's wife escaped to Turkey, remarried after husband's death
Her escape from the strip was done as an operation to smuggle all of the families of several key Hamas leaders during the first months of the war. Yahya Sinwar's widow fled to Turkey and remarried there after her husband's death, according to Gaza sources cited in a report by Ynet. Her escape from the strip was done as an operation to smuggle all of the families of several key Hamas leaders during the first months of the war. The report claimed that Sinwar's widow, Samar Abu Zamar, was smuggled out of Gaza with a fake passport. "She's not here anymore; she's in Turkey with the children," a Gazan source told the Israeli news site. "She crossed the Rafah crossing with a fake passport of another woman from Gaza. This required logistical assistance, high-level coordination, and a lot of money that an average Gazan doesn't have," the source added. The report also noted that Abu Zamar remarried in Turkey a couple of months after her husband's death, with the main intermediary between the couple being Fathi Hamad, a prominent senior member of Hamas's political bureau. Families of Hamas leadership flee There is another key figure missing in Gaza, according to the report: The widow of Yahya Sinwar's brother, Mohammed Sinwar, Najwa Sinwar. Although there are no clear indications that she also left the Strip, there is a clear absence of pictures or reports that indicate that she is still in Gaza. With this in mind, Israeli security sources confirmed that both Abu Zamar and Najwa Sinwar left Gaza through the Rafah crossing. On the other hand, the only key figure who has provided any evidence that she's still in Gaza is Umm Khaled, the wife of Muhammad Deif. A video published online shows her in a simple house with her three children, stating that she's 'not running away, I'm here with my people." She then added, "In our house, we have four mattresses and a mat. That's how it was – before the war and after." A Palestinian source claimed, according to the report, that Hama's leadership had a whole covert operation for this escape, including fake passports, fictitious medical documents, logistical support, and assistance from embassies of supportive countries.
