JERUSALEM: Aid workers in the Palestinian territories told AFP they are concerned that rules recently floated by Israel could make already difficult humanitarian work “almost impossible.”
Since the war in Gaza broke out with Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, aid organizations have been contending with a “slippery slope” when it comes to Israeli authorities’ tolerance for their work, said one senior NGO staffer.
But after COGAT, the Israeli body responsible for overseeing Palestinian affairs, presented a plan last month for reorganizing aid distribution, that slope has gotten “much steeper,” with some NGOs deeming the proposed changes unacceptable, she added.
COGAT did not respond to AFP’s request for comment.
The staffer and others interviewed requested anonymity for fear of repercussions for their operations in the occupied West Bank and the besieged Gaza Strip, where responding to the acute humanitarian crisis brought on by the war had already been a Herculean undertaking.
“The ability to deliver aid and adhere to humanitarian principles in Gaza, the access restrictions we’re facing in the West Bank... All of these things, when you put them together, you just feel like you’re watching the apocalypse,” she said.
“We basically have a fire extinguisher trying to put out a nuclear bomb.”
According to NGOs, COGAT presented a plan at the end of February that aims to reinforce Israeli oversight of aid by establishing logistics centers linked to the army and by enforcing tighter control over the entire humanitarian supply chain.
“Logistically, it will be almost impossible,” said one member of a medical NGO, wondering whether such organizations would be forced to declare individual recipients of various medications.
COGAT’s stated objective, according to the NGOs, is to combat looting and the misappropriation of aid by militants.
But the NGOs say they believe looting is currently marginal, and that the best way of avoiding it is to step up deliveries.
Israel, meanwhile, cut off aid deliveries to Gaza entirely early this month over an impasse with Hamas on how to proceed with a fragile ceasefire.
“The thinking (of COGAT) was that Hamas would rebuild itself thanks to humanitarian aid,” said a representative of a European NGO, “but that’s false, and humanitarian aid won’t bring them rockets or missiles.”
Israel “just wants more control over this territory,” he added.
The NGOs said COGAT did not specify when the new rules would take effect.
A separate government directive that came into force in March established a new, stricter framework for registering NGOs working with Palestinians.
It requires organizations to share extensive information on their staff, and gives the government the right to reject employees it deems to be linked to the “delegitimization” of Israel.
NGOs operating in the Palestinian territories already face numerous difficulties, and even outright danger, particularly in Gaza.
At least 387 employees have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war, according to a recent UN estimate.
Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA, which was recently banned from operating in Israel, said the humanitarian community is wondering “how far can we go while remaining principled,” and at what point that would no longer be the case under the new rules.
Amjad Shawa, director of the Palestinian NGO network PNGO, said organizations “need to all work against” the new restrictions, adding that he believed the rules’ actual goal was to “prevent accountability and any kind of criticism on Israel toward what they committed” in Gaza and the West Bank.
“Lives are at stake,” he added.
The head of an international NGO agreed that a “red line has been crossed and I think we should oppose it.”
But one humanitarian in the medical sector said a principled stand would only draw flak from the Israelis, and “given the needs (of the Palestinians), principled positions don’t hold water.”
NGOs fear new rules will make helping Palestinians ‘almost impossible’
https://arab.news/53zk4
NGOs fear new rules will make helping Palestinians ‘almost impossible’
- Since the war in Gaza broke out, aid organizations have been contending with a ‘slippery slope’ when it comes to Israeli authorities’ tolerance for their work
- COGAT, the Israeli body responsible for overseeing Palestinian affairs, presented a plan last month for reorganizing aid distribution
Israeli hostage freed after 491 days asks: Where was the United Nations, the Red Cross, the world?
- He challenged the UN’s most powerful body: “If you stand for humanity prove it” by bringing home the 59 hostages still in Gaza
- Sharabi said the council talked about the need to get humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza, but he saw Hamas militants eating stolen food from boxes marked with UN emblems
UNITED NATIONS: Freed Israeli hostage Eli Sharabi, who was beaten, chained and starved while held for 491 days by Hamas, expressed his anger during an appearance at the UN Security Council on Thursday for having to suffer for so long and worry every day about being killed.
“Where was the United Nations? Where was the Red Cross? Where was the world?” Sharabi asked.
He challenged the UN’s most powerful body: “If you stand for humanity prove it” by bringing home the 59 hostages still in Gaza, many of whom are believed to be dead.
The fate of the remaining hostages became more uncertain after Israel on Tuesday ended a six-week break in the fighting that had allowed for the return of some hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.
Sharabi said the council talked about the need to get humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza, but he saw Hamas militants eating stolen food from dozens of boxes marked with UN emblems while the hostages starved. They were given maybe a piece of pita and a sip of tea a day, and an occasional dry date, he said.
When he was released on Feb. 8, Sharabi said he weighed 44 kilos (about 97 pounds) — less than the weight of his youngest daughter, who was killed along with his wife and older daughter in Hamas’ surprise attack in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, along with about 1,200 others. He was among 251 people taken hostage.
The United States in November vetoed a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza because it was not linked to an immediate release of the hostages.
The Palestinians and their supporters then went to the 193-member General Assembly, which adopted a resolution in December demanding a ceasefire and reiterating its demand for the release of the hostages. Unlike Security Council resolutions, though, those passed by the General Assembly are nonbinding.
The ceasefire that went into effect in January was shattered on Tuesday with surprise airstrikes on Gaza that killed more than 400 Palestinians, one of the highest death tolls in the nearly 18-month war. Gaza’s Health Ministry said most victims were women and children.
Sharabi’s appearance before the council, the second by a freed hostage, followed an Israeli request last week for a meeting on the plight of the hostages.
Britain’s deputy ambassador James Kariuki called Sharabi’s suffering “beyond the imagination” and said “Hamas must be held accountable for their despicable actions.”
But Kariuki also said the UK condemns Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz’s “warning of the total destruction of Gaza.” Britain calls for the rapid resurgence of aid to Gaza, an investigation into allegations of sexual and gender-based violence against Palestinian detainees by Israeli forces, and an urgent return to the ceasefire deal, he said.
France’s new UN ambassador, Jérôme Bonnafont, expressed his country’s deepest condolences to Sharabi but also condemned the resumption of Israel’s bombing, saying it will not ensure the release of hostages, and demanded an end to Israel’s humanitarian blockade of Gaza.
Russia’s deputy UN ambassador Dmitry Polyansky told the council, “Our hearts were filled with sorrow as we listened to the tragic story of Mr. Eli Sharabi,” adding “such brutality can have no justification.”
Polyansky criticized Israel’s leaders for not moving to phase 2 of the ceasefire deal, which calls for the release of all hostages and a permanent end to the fighting. He said it’s difficult to discuss the future when Israel’s military and political leaders appear to have made the choice in favor of war.
Algeria’s UN Ambassador Amar Bendjama, representing the Arab world on the council, called Sharabi a “representative of civil society,” and said “no civilian, irrespective of their background, should endure suffering.”
He then accused Israel of “cherry-picking” international law. He pointed to Israel’s ban on humanitarian aid, fuel and electricity entering Gaza since March 2, its killing of civilians, and the cutoff of the International Committee of the Red Cross’ access to over 9,500 Palestinians detained in Israeli prisons since Oct. 7.
After all council members spoke, Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian UN ambassador, sent “our condolences” to Sharabi over the killing of his loved ones and his prolonged captivity. He said Palestinians “understand this pain because we live it.”
Sharabi made no mention of Israeli actions, except to say that on the morning of Oct. 7, when he heard that militants were inside Kibbutz Be’eri where he lived, he reassured his wife not to worry: “The army will come, they always come.” That morning, they never came.
He told the council he came to speak for 24-year-old Alon Ohel, a fellow hostage whom he left behind in the tunnel, and all others, including his older brother, Yossi, who was killed but whose body remains in Gaza.
“Bring them all home. Now!” Sharabi said.
Tunisia quits African Union rights court
- The statement did not provide a reason for the government’s withdrawal from the Arusha-based court
- The Tunisian League for Human Rights (LTDH) denounced Tunisia’s withdrawal from the court as a decision “taken secretly“
TUNIS: Tunisia has said it is withdrawing from the human rights court of the African Union, as rights groups denounce another rollback on freedoms in the increasingly authoritarian North African nation.
Tunisia announced in a declaration circulated by activists since Thursday “the withdrawal of its recognition of the competence of the (African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights) to accept cases from individuals and non-governmental organizations.”
The statement did not provide a reason for the government’s withdrawal from the Arusha-based court, which is tasked with enforcing the AU’s human rights charter.
The Tunisian foreign ministry did not respond to AFP’s requests to comment.
Tunisia had granted its citizens and NGOs the right to petition the court in 2017 after it emerged as the only surviving democracy from the Arab Spring of 2011.
Kais Saied was elected president in 2019 but in 2021 he staged a sweeping power grab and human rights groups have since raised concerns over a rollback on freedoms.
A number of his leading critics are currently behind bars.
Some are being prosecuted in an ongoing mass trial on charges of plotting against the state. Human rights groups have denounced the case as politically motivated.
In May 2023, the relatives of four detained opposition figures, including Ennahdha party leader Rached Ghannouchi, filed a case with the African court demanding their release.
In August, the court ruled against Tunisia, urging authorities to stop preventing the detainees from accessing their lawyers and doctors.
The Tunisian League for Human Rights (LTDH) denounced Tunisia’s withdrawal from the court as a decision “taken secretly.”
It said the move was “a dangerous step backwards and an attempt to withdraw from independent judicial institutions capable of fighting impunity and guaranteeing justice.”
Tunisian human rights group, the CRLDHT, said the withdrawal “nullifies a historic commitment” to the court and was “a shameful renunciation” of Tunisian pledges to protect human rights.
“This decision now deprives Tunisian citizens and human rights organizations of the ability to bring cases directly before the African court to challenge state violations,” it said.
After protests, Erdogan says Turkiye ‘won’t surrender to street terror’
- “Turkiye will not surrender to street terror,” Erdogan said
ISTANBUL: President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday said Turkiye would not be cowed by “street terror” after days of widespread protests over the detention of Istanbul’s powerful opposition mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu.
“Turkiye will not surrender to street terror,” Erdogan said, as the main opposition CHP called for nationwide protests later on Friday.
Hamas studying US ‘bridge’ proposal on ceasefire as Israel escalates return to war
- A Palestinian official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters Egypt had also put forward a bridging proposal, but Hamas had yet to respond
- The official declined to provide details on the proposal, which he said was under consideration
CAIRO/DUBAI: Hamas said on Friday it was reviewing a US proposal to restore the Gaza ceasefire as Israel intensified military operations in the enclave to press the Palestinian militant group into freeing remaining Israeli hostages.
US special envoy Steve Witkoff’s “bridge” plan, presented last week, aims to extend the ceasefire into April, beyond Ramadan and Passover, to allow time for negotiations on a permanent cessation of hostilities.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said the military was ramping up air, land and sea strikes and would also evacuate civilians to the southern part of Gaza, speaking three days after Israel effectively abandoned the two-month-old truce.
Katz emphasized that Israel would continue its campaign until Hamas released further hostages and was totally defeated.
However, while Israel inflicted serious damage on Hamas with airstrikes this week that killed its Gaza government chief and other top officials, Palestinian and Israeli sources say Hamas has shown it can absorb major losses and still fight and govern.
Hamas said it was still debating Witkoff’s proposal and other ideas, with the goal of reaching a deal on prisoner releases, ending the war, and securing a complete Israeli military withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.
A Palestinian official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters Egypt had also put forward a bridging proposal, but Hamas had yet to respond. The official declined to provide details on the proposal, which he said was under consideration.
Two Egyptian security sources said Egypt suggested putting a timeline into place for releasing the rest of the hostages alongside a deadline for a full Israeli pullout from Gaza with US guarantees.
The sources said the US had signalled initial approval of the plan while Hamas and Israel’s responses were expected later on Friday.
A temporary, first phase of the truce ended at the start of this month, but Israel and Hamas could not overcome differences over terms for launching the second phase. Hamas held up further hostage releases and Israeli military action then resumed.
After two months of relative calm, Gazans were again fleeing for their lives after Israel launched a new, all-out air and ground campaign against Hamas on Tuesday, after again halting all aid deliveries into the narrow coastal enclave.
Katz warned that Hamas would lose more territory the longer it kept refusing to free remaining hostages. Of the more than 250 originally seized in Hamas’ October 2023 attack on Israel, 59 remain in Gaza, 24 of whom are thought to be alive.
HUMANITARIAN CRISIS WORSENING
Tuesday’s first day of renewed Israeli airstrikes killed more than 400 Palestinians, one of the deadliest days of the 17-month-old war.
On Friday, five people including three children were killed in an Israeli airstrike that hit a house in the Tuffah district of Gaza City in the enclave’s north, while two people — a woman and her daughter — were killed by tank fire in Abassan near Khan Younis in the south, according to Palestinian medics.
The United Nations’ Palestinian relief agency UNRWA, one of the largest providers of food aid in Gaza, warned on Friday it only had enough flour to distribute for the next six days.
“We can stretch that by giving people less, but we are talking days, not weeks,” UNRWA official Sam Rose told reporters in Geneva in an online briefing from central Gaza.
The humanitarian situation in Gaza was once again alarming due to massive reductions in distribution of aid, UNRWA said.
“Six of 25 bakeries that the World Food Programme were supporting had to close down. There are larger crowds on streets outside bakeries,” Rose added.
“This is the longest period since the start of conflict in October 2023 that no supplies whatsoever have entered Gaza. The progress we made as an aid system over the last six weeks of the ceasefire is being reversed,” Rose added.
Israel’s blockage has led to a hike in prices of essential foods as well as of fuel, forcing many to ration their meals.
The war began after Hamas militants attacked Israeli communities near the Gaza border on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies.
More than 49,000 Palestinians have been killed in the ensuing conflict, according to Gaza’s health authorities, with much of the densely populated territory reduced to rubble.
Israel intensifying Gaza strikes to press Hamas into freeing hostages, defense minister says
- US envoy Steve Witkoff last week a ‘bridge’ plan to extend the ceasefire in Gaza into April beyond Ramadan and Passover
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Friday the army was intensifying strikes from the air, land and sea in Gaza to pressure Hamas into freeing remaining hostages, and would also evacuate civilians to the south of the enclave.
After two months of relative calm, Gazans were again fleeing for their lives after Israel effectively abandoned a ceasefire, launching a new all-out air and ground campaign against Gaza’s dominant Palestinian militant group Hamas.
Hamas said on Friday it is still discussing US envoy Steve Witkoff’s proposal and various other ideas, with the aim of reaching a deal to release prisoners, end the war in Gaza, and achieve a withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Palestinian enclave.
Witkoff presented last week a “bridge” plan to extend the ceasefire in Gaza into April beyond Ramadan and Passover and allow time to negotiate a permanent cessation of hostilities.
Katz said the more Hamas continued to refuse to release the remaining Israeli hostages, the more territory it would lose to Israel.
He said the military would step up strikes from the air, sea and land and expand ground operations until the hostages are released and Hamas was finally defeated.
With talks having failed to bridge differences over terms to extend the ceasefire, the Israeli military resumed assaults on Gaza with a massive bombing campaign on Tuesday before sending in troops the day after.
Tuesday’s first day of resumed airstrikes killed more than 400 Palestinians, one of the deadliest days of the 17-month-old war, with scant let-up since then.
