NZ among 24 countries condemning Israel of 'drip feeding' aid to Gaza
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NZ Herald
an hour ago
- NZ Herald
Nicotine lobbyists said Winston Peters was ‘very powerful' and ‘very industry friendly'
Last year, NZ First Associate Health Minister Casey Costello halved the excise tax on HTPs at a potential cost of $200 million, a move the Treasury said would mainly benefit Philip Morris as the sole importer. Costello halved the excise tax on HTPs despite health officials telling her there was no strong evidence they worked as a smoking cessation tool or that they were significantly safer than cigarettes. Yesterday, NZ First leader Winston Peters described questions from RNZ about the documents as a 'tissue of baseless accusations,' which the party would respond to on its own social media pages. 'Very industry friendly … Positively disposed' The claim that Philip Morris International (PMI) handed draft regulations to NZ First is made in a JUUL government affairs strategy document written in February 2019 by lobbying firm Bower Group Asia (BGA). 'PMI has given (a) draft piece of regulation to the Government's coalition partner New Zealand First. New Zealand First has undertaken to put that draft into the policy mix. This is supposed to be secret,' the BGA report to JUUL says. 'The one thing that could drastically change timing and content would be New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters intervening. JUUL should not worry about that. Any regulation he champions is likely to be very industry friendly and highly geared towards commercial interests in the sector.' The BGA memo warns JUUL to 'keep tabs' on competitor activities. 'In particular with respect to PMI and their widely leaked efforts to pitch draft legislation to New Zealand First. By all accounts that regulation is broadly consistent with JUUL objectives.' In March 2019 BGA provided JUUL with a 'stakeholder map' including brief pen portraits of politicians. The entry for Peters describes him as: 'Very powerful. Has a relationship with PMI. Positively disposed. Spoken out against tobacco taxes. Lifetime smoker, now on HEETs.' Heets are the sticks of tobacco inserted into the Philip Morris IQOS device – the tobacco that was subject to a 50% reduction in excise tax by Costello in 2024. Clayton Mitchell, a New Zealand First MP who left Parliament in 2020, is described as having a 'relationship with PMI' and as a 'gatekeeper for Winston Peters'. Shane Jones is described as a New Zealand First MP who 'supports companies that support him. Known to respond to relationship building on the part of companies'. The BGA report claims the corporate affairs team at Philip Morris has 'reached out to NZ First to try and secure regulation to advantage IQOS'. As RNZ has previously reported, two senior corporate communication positions at Philip Morris are held by people who previously held top roles in NZ First. David Broome, chief of staff for NZ First between 2014 and 2017, is external relations manager at Philip Morris. Apirana Dawson – who was director of operations and research in the office of Winston Peters between 2013 and 2017 and led the election campaigns for the party in 2014 and 2017 – is Philip Morris director of external affairs. RNZ put detailed questions to NZ First but none were answered. Instead, Peters said it was better to respond via its social media pages because RNZ's radio ratings were declining. 'We get more views than that on just a single post on our Facebook page – not to mention the fact you likely wouldn't report our reply at all,' Peters said. 'We are not going to entertain the same deceitful attempt from you, using taxpayers' money, to attack our party.' In a statement to RNZ, Philip Morris said that none of the reports referred to were prepared on behalf of Philip Morris. 'We were not involved in their preparation and had no knowledge of their content,' a company spokesman said. Philip Morris would continue to interact with key players in the industry. 'We have every right, and indeed an obligation, to engage transparently with stakeholders,' the company said. 'Philip Morris International is committed to delivering a smokefree future. As part of our commitment, we will continue to advocate for policies which recognise the potential of smokefree products as a better alternative to cigarette smoking.' Casey Costello halved the excise tax on HTPs, benefiting Philip Morris despite health officials' concerns. Photo / RNZ Aotearoa targeted as a 'lighthouse market' The JUUL papers are part of the Truth Tobacco Industry Documents archive, created in 2002 by the University of California San Francisco Library. The archive, which is still being updated, contains nearly 19 million documents, including 3.8 million relating to JUUL. The JUUL papers were released as a result of legal action against the company from a range of plaintiffs, including state governments. JUUL helped bring modern vaping to the world, with a sleek, discrete device and attractive flavours with high levels of nicotine. But plaintiffs, including individuals and schools as well as state governments, claimed JUUL's marketing tactics contributed to a rise in youth vaping. RNZ went through more than 10,000 documents in the Truth Tobacco archive, searching emails, memos, briefing papers, Slack messages, spreadsheets, lobbying plans and clinical trials relating to New Zealand. The documents show JUUL was planning to launch in New Zealand in late 2019 and saw the country as a 'lighthouse market' – one which could promote pro-vaping regulation in other countries. A July 2018 document, signed by executives from JUUL and BGA, describes JUUL as 'a leading alternative nicotine delivery platform' exploring entry into the New Zealand market. 'JUUL's popularity has skyrocketed capturing 60 percent market share in the United States. JUUL aims to capitalize on this momentum and move quickly to explore product launches in wealthier urban areas across the Asia Pacific with a deep dive, priority focus on New Zealand.' A market entry strategy document, written in January 2019 and marked 'highly confidential,' says New Zealand is a small market offering outsized influence. It says that 'success and positive reputation in New Zealand may enable easier access to Australia' and that New Zealand could serve as 'a lighthouse market building JUUL's reputation'. In July 2019, a JUUL's director of public policy and communications emailed colleagues saying New Zealand could 'play an outsized role in influencing positive … regulations around the world and we should keep this in mind when resourcing'. The executive adds that the then-Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is 'respected and highly visible on the global stage' and New Zealand 'uniquely positioned' to influence Commonwealth countries and the WHO. '(It) will be hugely helpful for JUUL to have another friendly government, especially as Canada slowly gets pulled into the US swirl.' The 'US swirl' – including intense scrutiny from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and alarm at the extent of youth vaping – enveloped JUUL and the company cancelled its plans to launch in New Zealand. But the documents show that as of mid-2019 plans for a New Zealand launch were well advanced, with JUUL scoping office space for 30 staff in Auckland and setting up a BNZ bank account. Winston Peters dismissed the allegations as "baseless," stating the party would respond via social media. Photo / RNZ JUUL's local lobbyist Much of the BGA analysis on the New Zealand market and political scene is written by Penny Tucker, a former New Zealand diplomat and ex-director of a large Washington lobbying and consultancy firm. Tucker, now on the Auckland council's Ōrākei Local Board, is also a former executive director of the NZUS Council. Tucker said while there were elements she couldn't discuss – 'like all consultants I have enduring NDAs' – she appeared to stand by her reports and believed NZ First had taken the right approach. 'NZ First would have been a natural conduit and my understanding is that they were happy to talk it through,' she said, adding that it was 'mature of them to do so'. NZ First had believed 'there needed to be better ways than tax' to stop people smoking and were open to new ideas. 'Hence, they were likely to be more positively disposed to business and NGO outreach,' Tucker said. She did not think that NZ First had become 'too cosy' with the nicotine industry and said that if others had looked closely at vaping policy then youth vaping may have been more successfully contained. As for former NZ First staffers Broome and Dawson going to work for PMI she said, 'I think you'd struggle to find a sector where that does not happen a lot'. The company Tucker worked for, BGA, led Juul's Government affairs strategy to 'pave the way for its entry into the e-cigarette market,' according to a January 2019 document outlining the relationship. BGA says its 80 experts across the Asia Pacific have 'relationships with public health decision makers as well as those driving tax policies in ministries of finance and other regulatory and legislative bodies'. The documents show Juul agreed to pay BGA US$25,000 a month for the lobbying effort in an initial phase and US$15,000 a month in phase two. BGA said it would 'develop a New Zealand narrative that embraces Juul's roots as a tech/innovation company and highlights its separate identity and history from traditional tobacco, where the nascent market presents a blank slate for Juul to build its brand and reputation'. The papers detail an intense lobbying effort to pave the way for Juul, including a high level of interest in Māori. 'Integrate iwi [Māori] and poverty activists perspectives and build bridges in those areas,' JUUL is advised by BGA. A New Zealand market update from April 2019 says JUUL met with Rebecca Ruwhiu-Collins from smoking cessation programme vape2save and with the Māori health provider Hāpai te Hauora. It says JUUL managed to address some of their concerns and 'we walked away from the meeting knowing that Rebecca and Hapai will be 'friends of JUUL' which is precisely what we wanted to achieve'. A BGA report from August 2018, marked 'highly confidential,' advises JUUL to enlist Māori at the top. 'A truly smart company in this space would find a young, engaging and well-connected Maori to manage the brand.' The documents show Juul tried to team up with the New Zealand Defence Force, mirroring a US strategy which attempted to convince millions of veterans and serving military personnel to switch from smoking to vaping. Jason Forrester, who served as US Deputy Assistant Defense Secretary for Reserve Affairs, Manpower and Personnel, wrote to NZDF in February 2019 saying he was a senior adviser to Juul. 'JUUL is very interested in discussing the possibility of partnering with the NZDF to field a pilot study (focused on switching from smoking to vaping) with an element of your force – for instance a ship or unit that is soon to deploy.' Despite his efforts – Forrester told the NZDF he was travelling to New Zealand and would discuss the idea in person – NZDF turned Juul down, saying it couldn't endorse products because of ethical considerations. Multiple documents refer to the use of influencers to spruik the product. A March 2017 email lists a San Francisco drummer ('pay with product'), a Los Angeles DJ ('maybe pay a little not much') and 'Sophie Hardley New Zealand socialite / fashionista - might be too young'. The documents show Juul engaged top law firm Russell McVeagh to help them shape regulations in New Zealand. In a June 2018 email Ken Bishop, Juul's Vice President of International Growth for Asia Pacific, tells the law firm he'd like to retain its services. He says the goal is to 'shape the regulations in New Zealand in order to create a favourable environment for a future launch and then use the New Zealand regulations as a template and proof point for future regulations in Australia and wider Southeast Asia'. Juul's government affairs strategy for New Zealand, written in August 2019, lists the risks to be mitigated for a successful launch. 'Avoid regulations that would restrict JUUL's full market access,' it says. 'Blunt the perception that JUUL's entry will cause a youth vaping epidemic.' -RNZ
NZ Herald
2 hours ago
- NZ Herald
According to UN data, hundreds of Palestinians in Gaza have been shot dead while seeking food
In recent weeks, it has emerged as a final sticking point in negotiations over a ceasefire, placing the Israeli- and United States-backed GHF squarely in the crosshairs of the latest talks. Hamas is demanding a return to the United Nations-co-ordinated system of aid delivery that operated in Gaza for decades. Israel charges that Hamas has corrupted that system. It wants to maintain strict controls on assistance to Gazans, using the newly created GHF as the primary mechanism for food distribution. Critics, including the UN and most of the international humanitarian aid community, say the GHF is designed to further Israeli war aims by selectively and inadequately providing assistance, and by forcing Gazans to put their lives in danger for a box of provisions. In a statement released yesterday, 21 European countries and others including New Zealand, Canada, and Australia issued a joint statement saying that 'the suffering of civilians in Gaza has reached new depths'. It condemned 'the drip feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians, including children, seeking to meet their most basic needs of water and food'. 'The Israeli Government's aid delivery model,' it said, 'is dangerous, fuels instability and deprives Gazans of human dignity.' Like much of what happens inside Gaza, where Israel has banned international reporters except on brief tours led by the Israel Defence Forces, the origins and operations of the GHF remain obscure. Even more opaque is its funding. The foundation says it received about US$100 million in start-up money from a government it has declined to identify. In late June, the Trump Administration said it would supply US$30m to GHF operations. A major donation initially expected from the United Arab Emirates, according to internal planning documents seen by the Washington Post, has not materialised. The Government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which has been deeply involved in the aid programme, has publicly denied paying for it. But behind the foundation, which is a registered non-profit, is a web of interconnected US and Israeli individuals, and private US companies - including some that hope to eventually make money on the relief effort, according to public and private documents reviewed by the Washington Post and interviews with more than a dozen US and Israeli government officials, business representatives and others involved, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Among those positioned to profit from GHF-linked contracts are a Chicago-based private equity firm, McNally Capital, whose subsidiary Orbis Operations helped set up the foundation; and Safe Reach Solutions, the primary contractor overseeing GHF operations inside Gaza, which was created late last year for that purpose. SRS is owned by a Wyoming-based trust whose beneficiary is McNally Capital. Boston Consulting Group was also engaged in the effort to stand up the GHF, on what it has said was a pro bono basis. In March, it signed a two-month contract for more than US$1m with McNally to continue assisting SRS, with later extensions in May, an arrangement first reported by the Financial Times. BCG later withdrew from the project amid controversy, and a BCG spokeswoman, Nidhi Sinha, said no payment was accepted. The GHF has continued to deliver food to hungry Gazans: since late May, according to the foundation's count, more than 80 million meals in boxes that are calibrated to feed 5.5 people for 3.5 days. Dwindling resources have limited the number of trucks available to bring food into the enclave to about 70 to 80 per day, compared with early plans for more than 300, according to people familiar with GHF operations. Construction of additional distribution sites has also been indefinitely put off because of a lack of financing, ongoing Israeli military operations, and the need to remove unexploded ordnance throughout Gaza. Money problems, and the unknown outcome of ceasefire negotiations, have also put on hold GHF plans for a more holistic - and controversial - proposal to relocate Gazans, summarised in a 19-page slide deck distributed at the US Embassy in Tel Aviv in January, several people said. In addition to the food distribution, the slides included plans for GHF construction of large-scale residential compounds inside and potentially outside Gaza where 'the population' could reside while the enclave was 'demilitarised and rebuilt'. The slide deck suggested that approach would allow the GHF to gain trust with Gazans - a currency that could be leveraged to 'facilitate President Trump's vision' for the battle-scarred enclave. Bodies of Palestinians killed in an Israeli strike on civilians waiting for aid in the western part of Rafah on July 19. Photo / Getty Images Aid 'in a non-UN way' The GHF concept was born as part of a larger effort by a group of Israeli military officials, Israeli businesspeople and foreign partners to support Israel's war effort and plan for Gaza's future. They began meeting shortly after the conflict began with Hamas' October 7, 2023, surprise attack in southern Israel, which killed about 1200 people and saw at least 250 hostages taken back to Gaza. As Israel responded to the attack, pounding Gaza with airstrikes and ground troops, it cut off the daily assistance that the 365sqkm enclave had depended on for decades. Netanyahu's Government - long distrustful of the UN, which co-ordinated deliveries of food, fuel and medical supplies - justified the blockade by claiming that Hamas controlled and profited from the aid distribution. Under pressure from the Biden Administration and humanitarian organisations that said depriving non-combatants of food was a potential war crime, Israel eventually allowed limited relief to resume. But the Israelis kept a tight hold on the spigot of assistance, generating friction between Netanyahu and the US Government, Israel's main source of weaponry and diplomatic backing. 'There was a need to get humanitarian aid into Gaza,' an Israeli familiar with the group's efforts said, but it needed to be done 'in a non-UN way'. In January 2024, the fledgling Gaza aid working group sought advice from Michael Vickers, a former Green Beret, CIA veteran and undersecretary of defence for intelligence during the Obama Administration. Vickers was on the board of Orbis Operations, a consulting company based in McLean, Virginia, that was founded by former national security, military, and intelligence specialists and which McNally purchased in 2021. Vickers told the planners, 'I'm not the guy, but I know the guy who can talk to you', according to a person familiar with the approach. The man they wanted, Vickers said, was then-Orbis vice-president Philip Reilly, a former senior CIA operations officer with extensive experience in private security operations. Reilly quickly gained the trust of the IDF and the Gaza planning group, and spent much of 2024 immersing himself in the details of the Gaza conflict. Neither Vickers nor Reilly responded to queries about their involvement in the Gaza initiative. The Biden Administration was well aware that the Israeli Government and private-sector Israelis and Americans were working with the Government on a plan to impose a new aid delivery system. While some in the Administration were supportive, most were sceptical. But they did not directly interfere in the project. 'They were all talking - they being the Israeli Government, the prime minister's office, the IDF - sort of throwing spaghetti against the wall to find some magic formula to take the responsibility off their shoulders' to care for Gaza's civilians, a former Biden official involved in Israel policy said. Ambitions and incorporations By the northern autumn, the outline of a plan was laid out in a lengthy feasibility study compiled by Silat Technologies, an Orbis subsidiary, envisioning the creation of a non-profit entity, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, 'to safely deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza'. Planning documents distributed over the next several months said that the foundation's leadership should include respected humanitarian figures such as David Beasley, former head of the World Food Programme, and Tony Blair, the former British Prime Minister who now runs an institute to advise change-making political leaders. Although the UN and major non-governmental aid organisations already operating in Gaza were described as an integral part, their proposed role was unclear. An elaborate social media presence and public relations programme would include outreach to select journalists to promote a positive image of the GHF. The foundation would hire a 'prime' contractor to organise and supervise construction of the sites and the aid operation inside Gaza. That firm would then subcontract a private security company - ideally US-based - to be the boots and guns on the ground, guarding the aid as it was transported to distribution sites and protecting the sites themselves. The private companies lined up to service the planned foundation also included BCG, where both Reilly and Vickers were senior advisers. BCG, which later said its initial services were offered pro bono, projected US$2b in initial operating costs for the GHF. On November 21, a new limited liability company, Safe Reach Solutions, was registered in Jackson, Wyoming, and placed in a trust administered by a local company, Two Ocean Trust. While no information in the registration documents indicated what the new company did, who ran it or whom it employed, the beneficiary of the trust and any money it made, according to three people familiar with the arrangement, was McNally Capital, the private equity firm that owns Orbis. SRS, with Reilly as its chief executive, would later become the primary GHF contractor. Spokespeople for Two Ocean Trust and SRS declined to comment. In a statement to the Washington Post, McNally Capital said it 'did not invest in SRS or actively manage the company', but said it has an 'economic interest' in the firm. 'Given our long-established relationship with Phil Reilly … our strong belief in the importance of humanitarian aid, and the US Government's appeal for innovative solutions,' the statement said, McNally was 'pleased to have supported the establishment of SRS as an important step toward meeting the full scope of humanitarian need in Gaza'. Founded in 2008 by Ward McNally, of the Rand McNally publishing family, the firm specialises in the acquisition of aerospace, defence, and technology companies. 'Obviously, McNally is a business. They're in the business of making money,' a person familiar with the financial aspects of the project said. But 'I think it's very ambiguous whether this ends up being profitable'. A checkpoint test run As the new year approached, progress toward the food aid programme planning was interrupted by the prospect of a Gaza ceasefire and partial hostage release. Israel had agreed to move its troops out of portions of Gaza at least temporarily - allowing citizens to return to what remained of their homes in the largely destroyed northern portion of the enclave. But Israeli officials insisted on a vehicle checkpoint - run by non-IDF security - on the Netzarim Corridor, a dividing line between northern and southern Gaza, to ensure weapons were not carried back to areas the IDF said it had earlier cleared of Hamas militants. With nine days' notice, US and Arab mediators turned to the newly created SRS to organise the checkpoint. Reilly subcontracted UG Solutions, a small security firm based in North Carolina, to staff the ground operation. Headed by former Green Beret Jameson Govoni, UG had previously worked in Ukraine and Haiti, among other hot spots, and could move quickly because it had few of the classified contracts with the US or other governments that proved to be complications for bigger security companies. The ceasefire mediators - the US and Qatar - administered payments to SRS, the prime contractor, according to people familiar with the operation. The ceasefire began on January 19, the day before Donald Trump's second-term inauguration. Although the truce lasted only until mid-March, when Israel launched another ground invasion of northern Gaza, the checkpoint was deemed a success, with no major incidents reported. The Netzarim operation came to be considered a test run for the food distribution operation, and SRS and UG were well positioned to take it over for GHF. On February 2, the foundation was registered as a humanitarian non-profit in Switzerland and Delaware. The Netanyahu Government had every reason to believe that Trump would support the initiative. He vowed to quickly end the war and proposed that the US 'take over' and 'own' Gaza, developing it as a high-end Mediterranean resort. Food distribution by the GHF, planning documents indicated, was just the first step in a larger redevelopment plan. Palestinians line up to receive a hot meal at a distribution point in the Al-Rimal neighbourhood in Gaza City on May 21. Photo / AFP A rocky launch When the ceasefire collapsed on March 18 and the IDF resumed ground operations and airstrikes, Israel again stopped all humanitarian aid from entering Gaza. As the days and weeks ticked on, thousands of tonnes of food and goods piled up in warehouses outside its borders; WFP and other humanitarian actors began to tally reports of starvation inside. By early May, Israel was under mounting international pressure to end its aid blockade, and Trump was looking for progress on his promise to end the war as he prepared for a trip to the Gulf. At a May 9 news conference in Tel Aviv, US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee claimed the GHF as a Trump 'initiative'. US representatives, including Aryeh Lightstone, an official who now works with Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff and formerly served as an aide to David Friedman when he was US ambassador to Israel, courted UN and humanitarian partners to sign on to the plan. But opposition to the plan had grown. The UN and most aid partners refused, publicly denouncing the proposal as immoral and designed to further Israel's war plans against Hamas by 'militarising' assistance to more than a million civilians corralled into ever-shrinking 'safe zones' demarcated by the IDF in southern Gaza. Neither Beasley nor Blair agreed to sign on. On May 22, newly named GHF executive director Jake Wood, a US Marine veteran and co-founding board chair of Team Rubicon, a humanitarian organisation that operated in disaster zones, released a letter he had sent to COGAT, the Israeli Government co-ordinator for Gaza and the occupied West Bank. Its purpose, he wrote, was to confirm 'our understandings of agreements' - including an understanding that aid agencies would also be permitted to distribute food and medical assistance under 'existing' humanitarian mechanisms, outside the GHF programme. 'GHF acknowledges that we do not possess the technical capacity or field infrastructure to manage such distributions independently,' he wrote, suggesting that the new aid mechanism should complement, but not replace, Gaza's existing aid sector. The night before the scheduled May 26 launch, Wood unsuccessfully sought to persuade the IDF to delay the start date by at least a week amid unanswered questions about funding, the participation of other agencies and the nearby positioning of Israeli troops. Wood resigned, and the next day, UG contractors accompanied the first convoys of GHF food into Gaza. Some of the plans, he said in a statement, were not consistent with 'humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independence'. David Burke, a fellow Marine veteran and former Team Rubicon colleague who had been named GHF chief operating officer, also resigned. Burke and Wood did not respond to inquiries from the Washington Post. The GHF promoted John Acree, a former official with the US Agency for International Development originally named head of the GHF operations inside Gaza, to interim executive director of the foundation. The opening of the sites brought new problems, with tens of thousands of despairing Gazans surging towards promised food. In the first week of GHF's operations, witnesses said that Israeli troops shot in the direction of Palestinians queuing outside the fenced distribution sites at least three times. UG contractors voiced concerns about the rules of engagement of nearby IDF troops and the safety of the Palestinians, according to several people familiar with the site operations. Paid Palestinian volunteers working at the GHF sites were receiving death threats from Hamas for participating in the Israeli-backed plan. Volunteers were afraid to travel back to their families at night, but the financial planners had not budgeted to provide them with housing, running water or other supplies to stay on-site, one person said. 'There were number crunchers at every stage, asking why do we have to do this stuff,' said another person familiar with the conversations between BCG financial consultants and SRS planners. Contractors purchased some provisions for the workers out of their own pockets, the person said. The limited number of trucks that passed through the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza each day to the sites after Israeli inspection meant that supplies ran out too early, leaving thousands empty-handed, angry, and disbelieving there was no more food to be had. On May 30, BCG abruptly withdrew from the project. Amid what several people familiar with the situation said was internal criticism of perceived anti-Palestinian initiatives, the company said that members of its team had undertaken 'unauthorised' efforts on post-war planning. Two senior partners, it said in a statement, had been 'exited ... from the firm' and BCG 'has not and will not be paid for any of their work.' The end game Despite ongoing problems and frequent reports of gunfire nearby, the GHF food programme achieved a rhythm of sorts after a few weeks. News releases provided a daily accounting of tens of thousands of boxes of pasta, lentils, cooking oil and other commodities it distributed. But the killing of civilians in the vicinity of GHF sites has continued. Last month, eight Palestinian volunteers were shot and killed, allegedly by Hamas, aboard a bus returning them to GHF sites after visiting their families. Early this month, this IDF said 'terrorists' had tossed grenades into a distribution site, injuring two American contractors. Then came the deaths in last Wednesday's stampede. 'We came to Gaza to help feed people, not to fight a narrative war,' GHF spokesman Chapin Fay told reporters hours after the stampede deaths, publicly accusing Hamas of causing the carnage by showing up at the site with guns. Aid organisations said it was the predicted result of Israeli militarisation of what should be a neutral endeavour. On Sunday local time, at least 79 Palestinians were killed when food-seeking crowds mobbed a UN aid convoy in the northern part of the enclave and were fired on by Israeli troops, according to Gaza health authorities and witnesses. The IDF said it was 'aware of the claim' and that details of the event were 'being examined'. Acree, the GHF interim executive director, repeated appeals to the UN and other aid organisations to co-operate with the foundation. 'The demand for food is relentless, and so is our commitment,' he said in a statement. 'We're adjusting our operations in real time to keep people safe and informed, and we stand ready to partner with other organisations to scale up and deliver more meals to the people of Gaza.' GHF contracts expire at the end of August, unless a ceasefire comes first. If and when the fighting stops, it remains unclear how much aid will be allowed into Gaza and who will distribute it. Since late June, Trump has said repeatedly that negotiations were going well and that a truce was imminent.
RNZ News
16 hours ago
- RNZ News
Peters on Gaza: 'The only way forward is an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire'
Foreign Minister Winston Peters says the world continues to be "confronted by horrifying scenes playing out in Gaza". Photo: RNZ / Mark Papalii The foreign minister has called for a ceasefire in Gaza in a statement delivered in Parliament, but the opposition says more action is needed. Winston Peters stopped short of promising further aid funding for Gaza, or promising to join efforts to prevents weapons being sold to Israel, or to recognise Palestine as an independent country until there is a representative to negotiate it with. But he did promise a "considered answer" on whether New Zealand would support South Africa's case at the International Court of Justice, which claims Israel has committed genocide. He concluded the debate in Parliament by noting "just how difficult it is to achieve an outcome, the control of which is not in our hands". Peters' speech followed New Zealand supporting a joint statement with 27 other countries calling for a ceasefire, and condemning the "drip-feeding of aid, and the inhumane killing of civilians, including children". He told the House the international community was united in its revulsion to the events in Gaza , saying too many lives had been lost. He said the overwhelming majority of Israelis and Palestinians also wanted an immediate ceasefire. "We continue to be confronted by horrifying scenes playing out in Gaza. We have the horror of innocent Israeli families, robbed of their loved ones in October 2023 by Hamas' heinous and immoral hostage taking, still yearning and demanding for them to be freed. "And we have the horror of more and more innocent Palestinian civilians starving, being deprived of their basic needs and being killed every day because Israel's military response to the events of October 7, 2023, long ago ceased to be proportionate, reasonable or moral; and because Hamas continues to act with complete disregard for civilian life." Peters pointed to the actions the government has taken so far, including designating the political wing of Hamas as a terrorist entity, and placing travel bans on two Israeli ministers. "The only way forward is an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire. Human suffering is indiscriminate. In this conflict it has been inflicted in vast quantities on Israelis and Palestinians; Jews, Muslims and Christians. Further bloodshed serves absolutely no purpose. It must stop." He pointed to the joint statement, saying "hopefully, in time, that level of pressure will prevail". The opposition parties took the opportunity to give their own statements on the matter, all broadly saying they supported the statement, but action needed to follow the words. Labour's Peeni Henare said the party supported the call for a ceasefire and denounced the actions of Hamas but Israel's ongoing military campaign and blockade had "created one of the worst humanitarian crises in recent memory" with more than 58,000 Palestinians killed in 19 months. "Ninety percent of Gaza's population has been displaced, infrastructure, homes, hospitals and schools have been decimated. Nearly half a million people are facing catastrophic hunger, approximately 71,000 children under 5 are expected to be acutely malnourished, pregnant and breastfeeding women are starving." However, he said there was "more that New Zealand can do and must do", urging more aid and for New Zealand to support South Africa's ICJ case. The Green Party's Teanau Tuiono shared the story of a family he was helping to get their grandmother to New Zealand from Palestine. "They had come from Gaza and she was here for one week before the bombs dropped on her apartment, destroying the apartment that she lived in ... I want members around the house to remember that, that when they look overseas and see their grandmothers, their daughters, their grandfathers, their brothers and sisters dying, that this is something that the house should take account." He called for further sanctions against Israel, and for New Zealand to join the efforts of South Africa and 12 other countries on preventing the provision of weapons to Israel and urgently review public contracts to prevent public funds supporting Israel. Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi said millions of children were being deliberately starved with no access to food and water. "It's not a food crisis. If food is waiting at the border, it's deliberately starving of children and wiping out of people ... we do not accept this government pathetic lip service calling for a ceasefire, it's your fifth time in two years. We must end this human crisis. Sanction Israel. Sanction everyone supporting them." He also called for the Israeli ambassador to be expelled. Under questioning from his opposition colleagues, Peters said the ICJ case against Israel had not yet been decided, and it would be wrong to prejudge the court's decisions. Asked why New Zealand had not also frozen assets when it imposed travel bans on the Israeli ministers, Peters said the justification for that had not yet been established. He said to recognise Palestinian statehood would be "lowering the standards of statehood" because "we need to establish who it is we're going to negotiate with before we recognise" but Palestinian statehood was a question of when, not if. National and ACT did not speak in the debate. 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