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Middle East Eye
20 hours ago
- General
- Middle East Eye
Successful local efforts to get aid into north Gaza met with Israeli backlash
Successful local Palestinian efforts to organise the entry of aid to northern Gaza have prompted fresh restrictions by the Israeli military and violent looting by criminal gangs. Relief was brought into north Gaza for the first time in a month on Wednesday by local tribes, drawing anger from Israeli officials and members of the Israeli public. Northern Gaza has been under full siege since March, when Israel blocked all aid and goods from entering the territory and created a severe hunger crisis. In late May, the US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Fund (GHF), a recently launched and scandal-hit aid group, began distributing limited food parcels at four locations in south and central Gaza. The northern parts of the Palestinian enclave remain largely cut off from aid distributed through this mechanism. However, Israel has recently allowed a limited number of aid trucks carrying only wheat flour to enter some areas of the north. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters According to local reports, the recent Palestinian-led relief delivery, backed by local clans, saw several trucks enter safely and successfully, with their contents distributed on Thursday. Footage circulating online show dozens of trucks carrying aid from the United Nations World Food Programme entering the northern Gaza Strip. Others show tribesmen watching over the vehicles, some armed, attempting to shield it from looting by local gangs. However, another batch of essentials was looted on Thursday by gangs. Amjad al-Shawa, who oversees civil society groups in Gaza, said that 50 trucks scheduled to arrive into Gaza City were looted. Shawa said that the gangs, under the protection of the Israeli military, were working to "sow chaos" and divert aid. 'Israel seeks to perpetuate chaos and disorder in Gaza, and does not want the aid distribution process to adhere to humanitarian standards' - Amjad al-Shawa, civil society leader in Gaza "Israel seeks to perpetuate chaos and disorder in Gaza, and does not want the aid distribution process to adhere to humanitarian standards through distribution centers and databases," he said. "Israel seeks to sabotage the humanitarian system in Gaza by preventing the entry of aid through the United Nations and international institutions, replacing it with an American security company, thus creating internal violence among Gaza's citizens." Shawa urged the need to strengthen the role of UN humanitarian organisations and other groups that have "been working in Gaza for decades". Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has previously admitted to arming gangs in Gaza, which have been accused by aid groups of stealing lifesaving humanitarian aid, in a bid to counter Hamas. Netanyahu said earlier this month his government had "activated" powerful local clans in the enclave on the advice of "security officials", hours after former defence minister Avigdor Lieberman alleged a gang Israel was backing was affiliated with the Islamic State group. "We made use of clans in Gaza that are opposed to Hamas… What's wrong with that?' Netanyahu said in a video posted on X. Targeting security and police Meanwhile, Israel has been condemned for attacking Palestinian police and security personnel who were trying to counter looters and criminals in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza. "The Israeli occupation persists in its malicious plans and its efforts to spread chaos and destabilise the internal stability in the Gaza Strip by repeatedly targeting police and security personnel, with the aim of discouraging them from fulfilling their duty to protect the home front and confront the armed gangs operating under its command," the Ministry of Interior and National Security in Gaza said in a statement. "This ongoing Israeli targeting will not achieve its goals. "The police and security services will continue to pursue thieves and those collaborating with the occupation, striking them with an iron fist, and taking all necessary measures to strengthen the steadfastness of citizens and preserve civil peace in the Gaza Strip." Israel has also killed three local police in Asdaa, west of Khan Younis, according to local reports. "The police and security apparatus in the Gaza Strip continues to perform its duty towards our people, despite the systematic targeting it is subjected to by the Israeli occupation through daily bombing and killing. This will not weaken our resolve or break our will," the ministry said. Israeli backlash and police targeting As Palestinian efforts to bring aid into north Gaza succeeded on Wednesday, Netanyahu ordered new restrictions on the region after backlash from prominent political leaders, including Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. Smotrich threatened to leave Netanyahu's coalition following videos of aid trucks entering north Gaza. Netanyahu admits Israel armed Gaza gangs to drive lawlessness Read More » Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz claimed Hamas was taking over aid efforts. The Gaza government disputed the claim, saying Israel was attempting to "legitimise the continued blockade, starvation and the prevention of humanitarian aid from entering for the 118th consecutive day". "We would like to clarify to the public that it was Palestinian families and clans who secured the aid convoys in the northern Gaza Strip, without any interference from the Palestinian government or factions," it stressed. "These cheap lies reveal that the occupation continues to 'engineer chaos' and spread falsehoods to create flimsy justifications for continuing to close the crossings and prevent the entry of aid, in a full-fledged crime against more than 2.4 million starving Palestinians in the Gaza Strip." Israel has previously accused Hamas of stealing aid and said the Israeli blockade on the entry of food is partly aimed at preventing the group from diverting supplies. But Cindy McCain, the executive director of the World Food Programme and widow of late US senator John McCain, rubbished such allegations, saying much of the aid that is being looted is being seized by destitute Palestinians.
Express Tribune
a day ago
- Politics
- Express Tribune
Israel halts aid into Gaza
Displaced Palestinian woman Fatmeh Jundieh sits inside a tent, holding one of her two-month-old twins, as she struggles to find formula milk and diapers amid ongoing shortages, in Gaza. Photo: REUTERS Listen to article Israel has stopped aid from entering northern Gaza but is still allowing it to enter from the south, two officials said on Thursday after images circulated of masked men on aid trucks who clan leaders said were protecting aid, not Hamas stealing it. A video circulating on Wednesday showed dozens of masked men, some armed with rifles but most carrying sticks, riding on aid trucks. The US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which operates aid distribution sites in southern and central Gaza, said on X that it was the only humanitarian organization permitted on Thursday to distribute food in Gaza. A spokesperson said the foundation was exempt from a two-day suspension of humanitarian aid deliveries into the territory. The Israeli prime minister's office and the defense ministry did not respond to Reuters' requests for comment. The Higher Commission for Tribal Affairs, which represents influential clans in Gaza, said that trucks had been protected as part of an aid security process managed "solely through tribal efforts". The commission said that no Palestinian faction, a reference to Hamas, had taken part in the process. Hamas denied any involvement. Throughout the war, numerous clans, civil society groups and factions have stepped in to help provide security for the aid convoys. Clans made up of extended families connected through blood and marriage have long been a fundamental part of Gazan society. Amjad al-Shawa, director of an umbrella body for Palestinian non-governmental organisations, said the aid protected by clans on Wednesday was being distributed to vulnerable families. There is an acute shortage of food and other basic supplies after the nearly two-year military campaign by Israel that has displaced most of Gaza's two million inhabitants. "The clans came ... to form a stance to prevent the aggressors and the thieves from stealing the food that belongs to our people," Abu Salman Al Moghani, a representative of Gazan clans, said.
Saba Yemen
10-06-2025
- Health
- Saba Yemen
NGOs: Aid entering northern Gaza insufficient
Gaza – Saba: Amjad al-Shawa, director of the NGO Network in Gaza, confirmed on Tuesday that the aid entering northern Gaza is insufficient. He said in press statements: "What has entered northern Gaza so far is insufficient, and we are waiting for food supplies." He continued, "No one has received any of the flour that has entered except those who were present at the trucks." For his part, an official with the Medical Relief Society in Gaza confirmed on Tuesday that aid centers have turned into death traps, and people are dying daily. He explained that the food rations distributed at aid centers are very small, indicating that injuries occurring directly near aid centers are fatal. The Medical Relief Society official added, "76,000 children are registered as suffering from malnutrition, and this is not an exhaustive number." He continued, "People are falling into the streets from extreme hunger," noting that at least 41 percent of kidney failure patients have died due to lack of resources. The Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, said that another day of aid distribution in Gaza is another day of death traps. Lazzarini explained in a statement on Tuesday that day after day, deaths and dozens of injuries are reported at distribution points run by Israel and private security companies. Earlier on Tuesday, the Government Media Office in Gaza confirmed, in a statement received by the Yemeni News Agency (Saba), that the number of martyrs at the "Israeli-American aid distribution centers" since this morning has risen to 36, with more than 208 injured, bringing the total number of victims at the "Israeli-American aid distribution centers" to 163. And 1,495 were injured, all of them starving civilians seeking a living under siege and starvation. With American and European support, the Israeli enemy army has continued to commit crimes of genocide in the Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023, resulting in the martyrdom of 54,981 Palestinian citizens, the majority of whom are children and women, and the injury of 126,920 others. To date, this is a preliminary toll, with thousands of victims still buried under the rubble and on the streets, unable to be reached by ambulance and rescue crews. Whatsapp Telegram Email Print more of (International)
Egypt Independent
09-06-2025
- Politics
- Egypt Independent
Gaza NGO Network warns of aid centers ‘run by militants'
The Director of the Gaza NGO Network, Amjad al-Shawa warned on Sunday that certain aid distribution centers in the Gaza Strip are being run by armed soldiers, becoming ambush sites which put residents in danger. In press statements, Shawa confirmed that more than 126 people have been killed since the aid distribution centers began operating in the strip, emphasizing that Israel is misleading the world about the aid centers in order to cover up the famine. He explained that the new aid distribution system poses a direct threat to the lives of the people of Gaza, adding that 'armed soldiers are running the aid distribution centers in the Strip, and the people are forced to go to these centers due to their hunger,' calling for legal action against the humanitarian organization that caused the deaths. The Government Media Office stated that the Israeli army killed 120 citizens and wounded more than 550 others in special operations that included shelling and targeting hungry people as they tried to obtain food. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation announced the reopening of an aid distribution center after a two-day closure for security reasons. This came amid criticism to the organization, which some described as 'suspicious' for its involvement in the killing of Palestinians. Israeli forces also targeted aid distribution centers, killing one citizen and wounding others near the American Company Center on the Netzarim axis. Four people were killed and dozens wounded in a similar attack west of Rafah. Meanwhile, the Steadfastness Convoy, comprised of thousands of volunteers, departed from Tunisia toward the Rafah crossing to demand an end to Israel's genocide, the breaking of the blockade, and the entry of aid. And the Freedom Flotilla ship 'Madleen' continued its advance toward the shores of Gaza on Sunday. The International Committee for Breaking the Siege on Gaza confirmed that the ship approached the shores of the besieged Palestinian Gaza Strip on Sunday, reaching within a few miles, and that the mission is approaching a 'moment of truth.' Israeli forces are monitoring the ship and likely intend to obstruct its progress. The newspaper 'Israel Hayom' reported on Sunday that the occupation army has chosen to intercept the Madleen before it enters territorial waters, preventing it from reaching the shores of Gaza Strip.
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Chaos erupts on first day of US-backed aid distribution in Gaza after weeks of hunger
Thousands of Palestinians overran a newly established aid site in southern Gaza on Tuesday that is part of a controversial new Israeli- and US-approved aid distribution mechanism that began on Tuesday after months of blockade. Videos from the distribution site in Tel al-Sultan, run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), showed large crowds storming the facilities, tearing down some of the fencing and appearing to climb over barriers designed to control the flow of the crowd. A diplomatic official called the chaos at the site 'a surprise to no one.' An 11-week Israeli blockade on humanitarian aid has pushed the enclave's population of more than 2 million Palestinians towards famine and into a deepening humanitarian crisis, with the first resumption of humanitarian aid trickling into the besieged enclave last week. The GHF acknowledged the pandemonium, saying 'the GHF team fell back to allow a small number of Gazans to take aid safely and dissipate. This was done in accordance with GHF protocol to avoid casualties.' A security source said American security contractors on the ground did not fire any shots and that operations would resume at the site on Wednesday. 'It's a big failure that we warned against,' said Amjad al-Shawa, director of Palestinian Non-Governmental Organizations Network. 'If Israel believes that through this blockade and emboldening starvation, which violates humanitarian principles, that this distribution method would work, they are mistaken.' GHF said it has distributed about 8,000 food boxes totaling 462,000 meals in Gaza so far. They say the flow of meals will increase each day, with a goal of delivering food to 1.2 million – 60% of Gaza's population – by the end of the week. The GHF claimed it began operating on Monday, but photos from the organization showed only a handful of people carrying boxes of aid, with pallets of boxes sitting at an otherwise empty lot. GHF is readying three additional sites for the distribution of aid, two of which are in southern Gaza and one in central Gaza. All of the sites in the south are in an area that fell under a massive evacuation order one day earlier. There are no distribution sites in northern Gaza – a point of criticism from many aid experts. The UN has previously warned that the fact the initial sites were only in southern and central Gaza could be seen as encouraging Israel's publicly stated goal of forcing 'the entire Gazan population' out of northern Gaza, as Defense Minister Israel Katz put it earlier this month. 'This mechanism appears practically unfeasible, incompatible with humanitarian principles and will create serious insecurity risks, all while failing to meet Israel's obligations under international law,' the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs wrote earlier this month in a document obtained by CNN. The United Nations said on Tuesday that Israel continues to deny it authorization to deliver food directly to families in Gaza, but they have thousands of trucks ready to enter the strip. The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said it was ready, with other humanitarian organizations, 'to distribute meaningful quantities of aid the moment we are allowed to.' 'The amount of supplies that were permitted to enter the Gaza Strip has been so minimal that they have not even reached families outside of one small area,' UNRWA said in a statement. Israel and the US had declined to name the humanitarian organizations involved in the controversial new mechanism, but images from the GHF showed boxes labeled 'Rahma Worldwide,' a Michigan-based non-profit organization that says it provides 'aid and assistance to the most vulnerable communities in the world.' This is a developing story and will be updated.
