Activist featured in Oscar-winning film shot dead by Israeli settler
The Palestinian Authority's education ministry said Odeh Hadalin "was shot dead by settlers... during their attack on the village of Umm al-Khair" near Hebron, in the south of the occupied territory.
Hadalin was an activist from Masafer Yatta, a string of hamlets located on the hills south of Hebron, which have been declared a military zone by Israel. His and other activists' efforts to prevent Israeli forces and settlers from destroying their homes was the subject of "No Other Land", which won Best Documentary at the Oscars in March.
Its Israeli co-director, Yuval Abraham, posted a video on X showing a man with a gun in his hand arguing with a group of people, while shouts can be heard in Hebrew and Arabic.
"An Israeli settler just shot Odeh Hadalin in the lungs," he wrote in the caption. "Residents identified Yinon Levi, sanctioned by the EU and US, as the shooter," he added.
Israeli media outlets also identified the shooter as Yinon Levi, an extremist settler who the US, under the Biden administration, had placed sanctions on. The measures were then lifted by US President Donald Trump.
'My dear friend Awdah was slaughtered this evening,' Palestinian journalist Basel Adra wrote on social media.
'He was standing in front of the community centre in his village when a settler fired a bullet that pierced his chest and took his life,' he said.
'This is how Israel erases us — one life at a time.'
Mr Abraham and Mr Adra shared director credits, along with Hamdan Ballal, for the award-winning film.
The Israeli police earlier said it was investigating an "incident near Carmel," a settlement neighbouring Umm Al Khair. "An Israeli citizen was detained at the scene and then arrested by police for questioning," a police statement said.
Israeli soldiers also arrested four Palestinians 'in connection with the incident, along with two foreign tourists who were at the scene', the police said. 'Following the incident, the death of a Palestinian was confirmed; his exact involvement in the incident is being verified,' the police added.
Palestinian Wafa news agency also reported that a second Palestinian was injured in the attack after being beaten by a settler.
About three million Palestinians live in the occupied West Bank alongside nearly half a million Israelis living in settlements, which are considered illegal under international law.
Hadalin's death comes as prominent Israeli human rights groups released a report on Monday accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza. The two groups, B'tselem and Physicians for Human Rights – Israel (PHRI), also condemned Israeli actions in the occupied West Bank.
Israeli soldiers and settlers have killed more than 1,000 Palestinians in the occupied territory since the start of Israel's war in Gaza in October 2023, according to Wafa. At least 36 Israelis, including civilians and soldiers, have been killed there in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military operations, according to official Israeli data.
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Middle East Eye
3 hours ago
- Middle East Eye
Trump, Starmer, Macron: A theatre of inhumanity
The images are finally breaking through the propaganda fog. Starving children - ribs sharp beneath thinning skin - have made the front pages, from The Daily Express to The New York Times. Aid agencies are now echoing what Palestinians have been shouting for months: this is not a humanitarian crisis. It is a man-made famine. It is genocide, and it is being broadcast in real time. According to Doctors Without Borders, cases of severe malnutrition among children under five in Gaza have tripled in just two weeks. A quarter of the children and pregnant women examined were malnourished. Since May, famine deaths have surged - over 50 in the past week alone. The World Food Programme confirms Gaza receives just 12 percent of the food it needs. A third of the population is going days without eating. Babies are starving, mothers faint and aid convoys are shot at or turned away. Now, the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) has issued an urgent alert: the "worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out in the Gaza Strip". New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters Famine thresholds for food consumption and acute malnutrition have already been breached. Starvation and disease are accelerating. Without immediate intervention, the outcome is clear: mass death. So how did the self-proclaimed leaders of the free world respond? With cruelty in three dialects. Social engineering at gunpoint US President Donald Trump delivered the blunt-force version: snarling, smirking and fundamentally uninterested in anything that cannot be monetised or golfed on. As skeletal children flickered across screens, Trump lied without blinking and denied there was a famine in Gaza. His team sabotaged ceasefire talks in Doha, blamed Hamas for selfishness and walked away - back to the clubhouse. Trump's indifference is total, playing golf while Gaza withers, he reveals the full rot of his worldview: entitlement, cruelty and a billionaire's disdain for those beneath him Hamas had proposed exactly what the international community demanded: UN-led food distribution, withdrawal of Israeli troops from civilian areas and a permanent ceasefire in exchange for hostages. But that was far too humane for Washington and Tel Aviv. They preferred their aid weaponised, their food politicised and their victims punished for surviving their tons of bombs. The so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a failed Israeli-American "humanitarian" scheme, was put in charge of feeding Gaza. Instead, it helped map out killing zones. Leaked documents detail $2bn "transit camps" to "re-educate" Palestinians - colonisation rebranded in PowerPoint - not relief, rather social engineering at gunpoint. Even Israel's military admits there was no evidence Hamas stole aid. Still, Gaza starves - not by accident, but by design. This is policy, and if anyone was still unsure, Netanyahu clarified: "In any path we choose, we will be forced to allow the entry of minimal humanitarian aid." Not enough. Not urgent. Minimal. Starvation, then, is not collateral; it is a strategy. Relief, drip-fed, outrage managed. This is rationed agony. Suffering, meted out with precision. Trump indifference Meanwhile, in Scotland, teeing off as Gaza collapsed, Trump was not only dodging genocide; he was running from Jeffrey Epstein's shadow. Palestinians - like the trailer park teens in Epstein's Rolodex - do not exist in Trump's gated universe. He sees only property values and dinner reservations. Everything else is expendable. Gaza famine: We hold British institutions accountable for enabling this horror Read More » Trump's indifference is total. Playing golf while Gaza withers, he reveals the full rot of his worldview: entitlement, cruelty and a billionaire's disdain for those beneath him. But he was not finished. Between rounds, Trump moaned: "We sent $60m… nobody acknowledged it… makes you feel a little bad." Apparently, Palestinians should send thank-you cards for the starvation, for the tents torched in the night and the children torn apart by US-made bombs. This is Trump's empathy: crumbs followed by tantrums - the logic of a mob boss. You clap or you get nothing. Trump does not just deny famine, he mocks it and downgrades it to "probably malnutrition". He lies again about Hamas stealing aid, even as Israeli officials admit otherwise. He wants praise for food that never arrived and impunity for the policies that blocked it. Then there is British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, the master of the soft veto. Where Trump bellows, Starmer tiptoes. While tens of thousands chanted for a ceasefire, he released a polished video offering to treat a few injured Palestinian children in Britain. A gesture? Or a stage prop? Behind the sober tone lies staggering complicity. Starmer has done nothing to stop arms exports to Israel, including F-35 jet components. He talks about airdrops as if tossing food from 3,000m is more than a photo op. These drops kill as often as they feed. Starmer plays the reasonable man - all poise, no pressure - as if a well-worded statement could hush the cries from Rafah When asked why Britain will not act, officials shrug: we must follow America. And yet, when Trump abandoned Ukraine, Britain led alone. The difference is not capability; it is will, or rather, its absence. What could Starmer do? Plenty: suspend arms exports, freeze Israeli assets, sanction GHF-linked firms, join South Africa's genocide case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and even recall the ambassador. He could say the word: genocide. But instead, he plays the reasonable man - all poise, no pressure - as if a well-worded statement could hush the cries from Rafah. He performs concern while the bodies accumulate just behind the curtain. Macron's illusion Then comes French President Emmanuel Macron, cloaked in silk and the language of peace while selling his illusion. He announced France would recognise a Palestinian state. Dramatic? Until you read the fine print: no borders, no capital, no end to occupation, no teeth. It is the same vision floated by Canada's prime minister: a "Zionist Palestinian state" - defanged, demilitarised and designed to grease normalisation deals with Arab states. It is not a state, but a hologram, a soundbite, a mirage. Gaza genocide: The West finds new language - but does nothing to stop Israel Read More » While the Israeli army storms the occupied West Bank, while the Israeli parliament pushes annexation, Macron offers paper recognition. His "support" is sleight of hand, a magician's flourish to distract while the real work of ethnic cleansing proceeds unimpeded. If Macron were serious, he would sanction Israel, freeze reserves in French banks, support the ICJ case and stop arresting French citizens protesting genocide. But seriousness was never the point; performance was. And now, Starmer is following suit, offering to recognise a Palestinian state - not as an unconditional right to the whole of occupied Palestinian land, but as a bargaining chip, dangled only if there is no ceasefire, to politely urge Israel to reconsider its course. Where Macron offered a mirage, Starmer offered a shadow of one - not solidarity, not strategy, just PR in slow motion. Trump sneers, Starmer stage-manages and Macron suavely deceives. As Gaza starves and aid workers plead for a ceasefire, these men deliver rehearsed lines, not rescue. They offer theatre in place of leadership, gestures in place of justice, and euphemisms in place of courage. While Israeli ministers call openly for Gaza's erasure, these men retreat behind velvet curtains, pose for cameras and nod gravely. They are not statesmen. They are performers. Their suits are tailored. Their cowardice, too. Trump is only different in style, not in substance. Where Macron and Starmer lacquer their complicity in diplomacy and euphemism, Trump bellows his out like a wrecking ball - no disguise, just arrogance live-streamed. But the core is the same: a shared, deliberate disregard for Palestinian life, a common indifference to suffering and a unity of inhumanity. The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.
Middle East Eye
3 hours ago
- Middle East Eye
Why Trump has little interest in delivering a ceasefire in Gaza
Since returning to the White House, US President Donald Trump has struck an increasingly blasé tone toward Israel's war on Gaza. As the enclave descends into famine and some of his closest US political allies declare that a genocide is taking place, the limits of his apathy are being tested. 'Where are Trump's red lines? How much human misery and death and destruction is he willing to accept in Gaza until he says enough?' Khaled Elgindy, a visiting scholar at Georgetown University's Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, told Middle East Eye. Trump said this week that 'real starvation' was occurring in Gaza, in an apparent jab at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has denied the charge. Trump said anyone who viewed the images of emaciated children in Gaza would say it was terrible 'unless they're pretty cold-hearted or, worse than that, nuts'. Trump, who gutted USAID, sidelined the United Nations in Gaza and ran on the pledge of distancing the US from foreign entanglements, is now forced to answer questions about a famine in a distant Middle Eastern enclave because he hasn't given enough attention to a ceasefire, experts say. 'What we are watching play out [in Gaza] is Israel free from any American focus, interests or pressure,' Aaron David Miller, a former State Department official and Middle East negotiator, told MEE. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters Miller said there is a 'pattern' to Trump's approach to Gaza and other foreign hotspots. '[He] wants to end the fighting in Ukraine but not the war. Similarly, he wants to bring the hostages home and create a better humanitarian situation, but is not interested in spending the time on the underlying issues to end the war," he said. 'Only Palestinians' Last week, the US surprised many when it decided to halt its efforts to negotiate a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. Experts say that while Trump will take a ceasefire in Gaza if he can get one, there has been no sign he is willing to extend time and serious political capital to get it. Shortly after taking office in January, he was asked about a now-defunct truce that his incoming administration helped broker. 'That's not our war, it's their war. But I'm not confident [in the ceasefire holding],' Trump said. Trump's interest in a ceasefire has only waned since touting it as a major diplomatic victory - and a sign of things to come for the self-proclaimed "peacemaker president" - before even taking office. In fact, the most airtime Trump has since spent on Gaza was in February, when he skipped over the hard task of ensuring ceasefire talks between Hamas and Israel continued, as part of their collapsed three-phase deal. Instead, he said he wanted to take over Gaza and turn it into a 'Middle East Riviera' after forcibly displacing the Palestinians. That 'Trump plan' has become one of Netanyahu's stated war objectives, but Trump was never married to the idea, experts and diplomats say. 'The US is never going to ensure a permanent end to the war in Gaza. Hamas knows that' - Rose Kelanic, Defense Priorities He stopped talking about it after he was dissuaded by King Abdullah of Jordan and other Arab allies, MEE reported. However, Trump's instincts for a flashy deal underscore how he views Gaza, Elgindy said. 'The ceasefire for Trump, like most American politicians, has always been about the hostages. If Palestinian lives are saved as a result, that's a good thing. If the war ends, that's fine. But it's not the goal. After all, they are only Palestinians. There is no payoff for Trump.' Of course, the US's Arab allies are worried about a ceasefire because their populations are boiling with anger at Israel. Therefore, they have tried to entice Trump and Israel into a deal. The oil-rich Gulf monarchs who can splash out on AI chips and American weaponry have the best access to Trump, diplomats say. The US president says he wants a normalisation agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia. A Palestinian boy who was injured while seeking humanitarian aid at the Rafah corridor, in the southern Gaza Strip, on 30 July 2025 (AFP) Riyadh has made a Gaza ceasefire a precondition for any expansion of the 2020 Abraham Accords. Saudi Arabia also says Israel needs to take irreversible steps towards the creation of a Palestinian state. So far, none of that has been enough to convince Trump to confront Netanyahu over ending the war on Gaza. Instead, Trump lashed out at Hamas on Friday, saying they were to blame for the US decision to pull out of the talks. "I think they want to die, and it's very bad. It got to a point where you're going to have to finish the job,' Trump said. The US has publicly blamed Hamas for the collapses in ceasefire talks since the Biden administration started negotiations in 2024. But analysts and diplomats almost overwhelmingly agree that Israel unilaterally broke the last ceasefire in March when it resumed attacking Gaza despite Hamas handing over the captives as required by the deal. 'The president's preference would be to let Israel continue to pursue its military operations. If the pictures weren't so catastrophic, he'd probably allow the Israelis to keep going,' Miller told MEE. More than 60,000 Palestinians have now been killed by Israel's offensive, which started in response to the Hamas-led 7 October 2023 attack on southern Israel. 'We are watching Israel free from any American focus, interests, or pressure' - Aaron David Miller, former Middle East negotiator Hamas is a US-designated terrorist organisation, but the Trump administration broke with decades of precedent to boycott the group when it negotiated the release of a dual US-Israeli captive in May. The deal went through smoothly. Trump's special envoy for hostages even sat down for a plate of knafeh - a Palestinian pastry - with senior Hamas officials in one round of talks. Hamas insists that any agreement it reaches with Israel to release the remaining 20 living captives - all military-aged men - will lead to a permanent end to the war. The group says it will relinquish governing Gaza, but has made no commitment to disarm and has resisted going into exile. This week, Qatar, Egypt and Saudi Arabia joined the European Union in calling for Hamas to disarm and saying they would support peacekeepers in Gaza. The statement also called for a two-state solution on the pre-1967 war borders that would reserve all of Gaza, the occupied West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem for a Palestinian state. Israel rejects this plan. Arab officials say they are not optimistic their overtures will sway Israel to give up attacking Gaza. In his own way, Trump has acknowledged Hamas's claim that they can't trust a ceasefire in Gaza to hold. The ceasefire that was under negotiation was structured with three phases, similar to the deal Israel broke earlier this year. The first phase calls on Hamas to release captives in exchange for an Israeli withdrawal from parts of Gaza, more aid entering the enclave, and Palestinian prisoners being freed. The second phase includes crucial talks to permanently end the war and Israel's full withdrawal from Gaza. The third phase deals with future governance and reconstruction. 'They (Hamas) know what happens after you get the final hostages," Trump said last week. "Basically because of that, they really didn't want to make a deal... They lose their shield. They lose their cover.' Netanyahu says he wants to fully destroy Hamas and maintain total security control over the Gaza Strip, even after the captives are released. Netanyahu's finance minister and national security minister also support the reconstruction of Israeli settlements in Gaza. 'The US is never going to ensure a permanent end to the war in Gaza. Hamas knows that and it's correct in not trusting the US. The US has given them no reason to. Trump has been transparent about it,' Rose Kelanic, director of the Middle East programme at Defense Priorities, a Washington think-tank that argues for restraint in US foreign policy, told MEE. Arab and American officials say privately that achieving a ceasefire in Gaza would require Trump to go up directly against Netanyahu. Trump has shown he is only willing to do so on a select few issues. 'Inject this in my veins' In Yemen, where missiles are still being fired at Israel, Trump reached an independent ceasefire with the Houthis. He has lifted sanctions on Syria and is signalling recognition of a Turkish zone of influence there, irritating Israel. Trump launched unprecedented strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities, but as the smoke cleared from Israel and Iran's so-called 12-day war, the US attack's impact looks less certain, and Trump quickly moved to defuse tensions with Iran, rejecting the wider offensive Netanyahu had hoped for. Displaced Palestinians gather to receive aid from a GHF distribution point in Netzarim corridor in the central Gaza Strip, on 30 July 2025 (Eyad Baba/AFP) Inside the US, Trump counts pro-Israel donors among his base. The most prominent deep-pocketed one is the billionaire Miriam Adelson. His family members have also toyed with the annexation of Gaza. Trump's 'Riviera' plan echoed one discussed by his son-in-law and former advisor, Jared Kushner. But American conservatives - especially young ones who backed Trump in 2024 and are tuned into podcasters like Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens - are increasingly critical of Israel. According to one Pew poll, 50 percent of them hold an unfavourable view of Israel. They are especially mobilised by attacks on Palestinian Churches and US aid going to Israel's military. During the Israel-Iran conflict, Trump said he ordered Israeli warplanes not to bomb Iran to preserve a ceasefire he negotiated. 'They don't know what the fuck they're doing,' Trump told reporters when asked about Israel and Iran. He blamed both countries when his deal appeared shaky, but let it be known he was more upset with Israel. "I've got to get Israel to calm down now,' he said. 'If the war ends, that's fine. But it's not the goal. After all, they are only Palestinians. There is no payoff for Trump' - Khaled Elgindy, Georgetown University His base lapped it up. 'I loved it when he dropped the F bomb talking to the press…He was like, both of them have gone crazy… I was like, inject this in my veins right now,' Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene told Carlson on a podcast in June. This week, Greene, a staunch Trump defender, became the first Republican member of Congress to declare Israel's war on the enclave a genocide. If Trump were looking to energise part of his base, particularly as his promise to end the war in Ukraine looks to be flagging, he could take a harder line on Israel and even threaten to withhold offensive arms provided by US taxpayers, analysts say. 'Trump has more political freedom to stand up to Netanyahu than any other US president,' Kelanic, at Defense Priorities, said. 'Netanyahu is a Trump frenemy. A lot of his base doesn't support him. But somewhere along the line, Trump came to the conclusion that the ceasefire collapse is all Hamas's fault, so he has given Israel backing to pursue maximalist policies." 'For strategic reasons' To be sure, Trump has given unparalleled support to Israel closer to its borders. The Trump administration has made it clear that it won't oppose Israeli strikes against Hezbollah in Lebanon. Israel received a rare censure from the US when it bombed a Catholic church in Gaza and settlers attacked a Palestinian Christian town in the occupied West Bank, but nothing that would disrupt the flow of billions of dollars in US aid. The Trump administration also let the killing of a 20-year-old US citizen in the occupied West Bank pass by with nothing more than a statement urging an investigation. Israeli pro-settler activists gather near the separation fence of Gaza during a rally to mark 20 years since Israel's withdrawal from Gaza, on 30 July 2025 (Menahem Kahana/AFP) With ceasefire negotiations going nowhere, the famine in Gaza is deepening, and Israel is doubling down. This week, Haaretz reported that Netanyahu's government could begin officially annexing the occupied West Bank in the coming days. The report said annexation would be tied to a lack of progress on a Gaza ceasefire. While Netanyahu is losing support in the US, polling from inside Israel suggests the very topics Trump would need to confront him on to achieve a permanent end to the war in Gaza are widely popular inside Israel. For example, the Israeli polling firm, Geocartography Knowledge Group, found 82 percent of Israeli Jews support the forcible displacement of Palestinians from Gaza. Experts say that if Trump continues to disregard the need for an end to the war on Gaza - extending beyond the release of Israeli captives - he will have more challenges to deal with in the Middle East. People in both Jordan and Egypt, two US partners, are seething with anger over the images of starving Palestinians corralled into cages as they try to get food. Egypt and Jordan believe Israel sees the starvation crisis as an opportunity to move ahead with plans to forcibly displace Palestinians, Arab officials tell MEE. This week, a police station in southern Cairo was stormed by men who said Egypt was complicit in the genocide of Palestinians. With his government under pressure, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi made a rare video address to Trump, calling on him to end the war in Gaza. 'There is no perspective from 'America First' where Israeli operations benefit US national interests. Ending the genocide, frankly, needs to happen for moral reasons, but also strategic reasons,' Kelanic said.
Middle East Eye
5 hours ago
- Middle East Eye
‘Utter disaster': Critics slam Starmer's use of Palestinian statehood as bargaining tool
The British government's conditional recognition of a Palestinian state has been condemned by critics who say the move is an 'empty gesture' that will do nothing to address the unfolding humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced on Tuesday that the government would recognise a Palestinian state by September unless Israel 'takes substantive steps' to end the genocide unfolding in Gaza and agrees to a ceasefire. The statement has drawn fire from political commentators and aid groups who denounced the conditioning of recognition on Israel ending its siege on Gaza and agreeing to a ceasefire. 'Recognition should be because you as Britain recognise the rights of Palestinians to nationhood, to self-determination,' Chris Doyle, the director of Council for Arab-British Understanding (CAABU), told Middle East Eye. Doyle pointed out that the conditions outlined in the statement - that Israel should take 'substantive steps' and 'end the appalling situation Gaza' - are unclear and more vaguely worded than previous government statements. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters 'So actually, amazingly, in some areas, it's weaker than previous government statements, where they have called for the UN to have unimpeded access. So it's an utter disaster. 'Nothing that the government announced yesterday, nothing will stop or slow down the genocide in Gaza,' Doyle emphasised. 'We are going to see additional horrors in Gaza'. Emily Thornberry: Starmer has 'a golden opportunity' to sway Trump on Gaza Read More » Ahead of the announcement, Starmer was facing mounting public outcry and pressure from MPs over Israel's war on Gaza, which he initially supported. More than 60,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since 7 October 2023, and increasing numbers have been dying of Israeli-imposed starvation in recent weeks. A week before Starmer's announcement, French President Emmanuel Macron said his country would officially recognise a Palestinian state in September - becoming the first of the G7 group of the world's richest countries to do so, and intensifying pressure on Starmer to follow suit. Doyle argued that Starmer could have announced a joint recognition with France, without conditionalities attached. 'There's enough in there to allow him to wiggle out of a recognition in September," said Doyle. "There's also just about enough, if Israel behaves even worse, that he can go forward. So he keeps his options open." 'A very weak card' British-Israeli analyst and former Israeli government adviser Daniel Levy noted that, as pressure is mounting on states to act, state recognition has become 'the go-to place', allowing political leaders to look as if they are doing something significant to address the situation. 'It is something that doesn't require an actual reconfiguration in important elements in the bilateral relationship with Israel,' Levy told MEE. 'Arms and trade sanctions, or joining the South African case at the ICJ [International Criminal Court] on genocide, or looking at Israeli assets that are being held within your banking jurisdiction that you could freeze - those would be meaningful steps. This is something that's eminently dismissible, especially by Israel,' he said. 'We're also talking about surveillance fights over Gaza from RAF bases in Cyprus' - Sara Husseini, British Palestinian Committee Levy also questioned what the recognition would entail given Palestine is under permanent and illegal Israeli occupation. 'What actions are you going to take against the country that is occupying the state that you recognise to face a consequence for doing so. And the answer is: nothing at all.' Many have also pointed to the incoherence of the UK government's position on Israel, given it continues to supply it with arms. 'We're talking not just arms sales and the selling of crucial F-35 parts to maintain Israel's fighter jets. We're also talking about surveillance fights over Gaza from RAF bases in Cyprus. We're talking extensive allyship and support for a state that is in the dock for genocide,' Sara Husseini, director of the British Palestinian Committee, told MEE. 'Starmer is now playing this very weak card which he thinks will relieve his government from actually doing what needs to be done,' she added. 'Dangerous and inefficient' Earlier on Tuesday, a UN-backed global food security body said famine was unfolding across Gaza, with one in three children in Gaza City acutely malnourished. "Latest data indicates that famine thresholds have been reached for food consumption in most of the Gaza Strip and for acute malnutrition in Gaza City,' the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) said in a new report. "Amid relentless conflict, mass displacement, severely restricted humanitarian access, and the collapse of essential services, including healthcare, the crisis has reached an alarming and deadly turning point." The warning comes as nearly 150 Palestinian children and adults in Gaza have died from starvation since Israel's onslaught on Gaza in October 2023. UK to recognise Palestinian state by September if no Gaza ceasefire reached Read More » Sangeetha Navaratnam-Blair, Senior Humanitarian Advocacy Manager at ActionAid UK, said the UK's move would do very little to alleviate the spiralling humanitarian crisis in Gaza. 'It's clear at this point that words or condemnation from the UK haven't compelled the Israeli government to change course, and this threat does not appear to be something that would also encourage them to change their actions and to enable any legal supplies and humanitarian support to get into Gaza,' Navaratnam-Blair told MEE. Since Israel announced last Friday it would allow countries to airdrop aid into Gaza, the UK signalled it was considering the idea, despite warnings from aid groups that the move will do little to alleviate the dire humanitarian situation in the enclave. Navaratnam-Blair said the airdropping of humanitarian supplies 'is not going to come close to addressing the sheer volume of food, medicine and other supplies that is required by the people of Gaza'. 'It actually can be really dangerous and inefficient when it comes to people who have been starving for such a long period of time. They may experience refeeding syndrome and other negative impacts, if not supported by professional medical support,' she said. Since 2 March, Israel has prevented all food and aid from reaching starving Palestinians. Last week, more than 100 international human rights and humanitarian organisations called for an end to the siege, citing widespread starvation affecting their staff. Unrwa communications director Juliette Touma also told MEE last week that several of the organisation's staff fainted on duty due to malnutrition.
