Israel ‘has pledged to improve safety for humanitarian workers in Gaza’
The UN says that since May, the amount of aid reaching Gaza to distribute has fallen to some of the lowest levels of the war
Updated 12 July 2024
AP
ASHDOD: The head of the US agency overseeing American humanitarian assistance worldwide said she has received Israeli pledges to allow aid workers to move more quickly and safely throughout the war-battered Gaza Strip.
In an interview, Samantha Power, administrator of the US Agency for International Development, said that Israel has also taken new steps to increase the flow of aid through its port of Ashdod, just north of Gaza.
The move could give donors a new option for delivering aid as the US shutters its troubled maritime pier off Gaza’s coast.
Nine months into the war in Gaza, the announcement marked a small victory for international efforts to increase aid deliveries to the territory’s desperate civilians.
The Israeli offensive launched in response to Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack has plunged Gaza into a humanitarian crisis. Over 80 percent of the territory’s 2.3 million people have been displaced, with most now living in squalid tent camps.
International experts say hundreds of thousands are on the brink of famine.
“We have not seen the kind of humanitarian system to this point that has allowed humanitarians to move efficiently and safely to the degree that we need,” Power said.
“This week and through this visit, we have secured an agreement.”
“My whole career has been working in and around conflict areas,” said Power, a former war correspondent and US ambassador to the UN.
“I have never seen a more difficult conflict environment for humanitarians to work in.”
The UN says that since May, the amount of aid reaching Gaza to distribute has fallen to some of the lowest levels of the war. Israel says it places no limits on the entry of aid into Gaza.
But tons of supplies have piled up on the Gaza side of Israeli-controlled border crossings because the UN says it is unable to collect them for distribution.
Israel blames the bottleneck on UN logistical failures.
But UN and other aid officials deny that, saying that permit requirements from the military limit access to the site and that Israeli military operations against Hamas make it too dangerous to move around. Also, criminal gangs inside Gaza have looted aid trucks, adding another challenge for aid workers.
Power said her talks with the Israelis focused heavily on improving the system by which humanitarian groups and the military coordinate safe passage.
Throughout the war, humanitarian groups complained that the system was not working.
In one instance early this year, the Israeli military struck an aid convoy of World Central Kitchen, killing seven workers from the international charity.
Israel called the incident a tragedy and punished five officers.
Power said that for deliveries by the pier, a system was set up where the Israeli and US militaries and the UN could communicate more closely and immediately over the location of humanitarian workers.
She said the Israeli government had now agreed to extend that system across Gaza.
“Having a system lined up where those aid workers can convey their coordinates, their movements to the (Israeli army), and know that they are going to be safe in making those deliveries, that has not been an assurance that they have had throughout this conflict,” she said.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military or COGAT, the military body in charge of coordinating aid into Gaza. Power said it would take time to implement the changes, but the US is pushing for improvements “not a month from now, but a week from now.”
Power spoke after touring the Ashdod port, about 30 km from Gaza.
She said Israel is increasing its scanning capacity at the port to inspect goods bound for Gaza, which can then be delivered by truck through nearby Israeli crossings.
As the US prepares to shut down the temporary maritime pier, she said she expected Ashdod to play a bigger role in aid deliveries.
“I think there will be a maritime part of the humanitarian solution over time that will get bigger and bigger,” she said. “It will probably flow through this port.”
During the visit, Power also announced that the US pledged $100 million in new assistance to the Palestinians. USAID said the money would assist the UN’s World Food Program and help deliver “lifesaving humanitarian aid across Gaza.” Altogether, the US has donated $774 million to the Palestinians since the war began last October.
Power said the only way to improve conditions in Gaza dramatically would be through a cease-fire.
She blamed Hamas for holding up a deal and urged the militant group to accept the latest proposals being floated by international mediators.
“Hamas must accept the terms of the cease-fire, and then we will be in a position to flood the zone with humanitarian support on a scale that is just not possible when you have fighting,” she said.
Israel’s offensive on Iran is a threat to everyone says Jordan’s King to EU parliament
Updated 35 sec ago
Arab News
AMMAN: Israel’s expanded offensive on Iran is a threat to everyone, said Jordan’s King Abduallah II to the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Tuesday.
“There is no telling where the boundaries of this battleground will end… the attacks on Iran threaten a dangerous escalation in our region and beyond,” he said.
“If our global community fails to act decisively we become complicit in rewriting what it means to be human. If Israeli bulldozers continue to illegally demolish Palestinian homes, olive trees and infrastructure, so too will they flatten the rails that defy moral grounds,” he added.
He reiterated the need for the establishment of a sovereign Palestinian state and the importance of granting Palestinians the right to freedom and statehood.
“Global security won’t be assured until the global community acts to end the three-year war in Ukraine and the world’s longest and most destructive flashpoint, the eight-decade-long Palestinian Israeli conflict,” said AlHussein.
The King cited the failure of international law and intervention in Gaza and said what was considered an atrocity 20 months ago has now become routine.
“Weaponizing famine against children, targeting of health workers, journalists and children have all become normalized after the failure of the international community,” he said.
Europe’s leadership will be vital in choosing the right course of history, said the King and assured Jordans position in its support to the EU.
“This conflict must end and the solution is rooted in international law. The path to peace has been walked before, and it can be walked again if we have the courage to choose it and the will to walk it together,” he concluded.
UAE coast guard evacuates 24 people from oil tanker following crash east of Strait of Hormuz
Emirati coastguard deployed search and rescue boats to the site, 24 nautical miles off the country's coast
The crew was evacuated to the port of Khor Fakkan
Updated 17 June 2025
Arab News
DUBAI: The UAE Coastguard has evacuated 24 crew members from an oil tanker Tuesday after a collision between two ships near the Strait of Hormuz.
“The Coastguard of the National Guard carried out today, Tuesday, an evacuation mission involving 24 crew members of the oil tanker ADALYNN, following a collision between two ships in the Sea of Oman,” read a statement on WAM News Agency.
The statement said the Emirati coastguard deployed search and rescue boats to the site, 24 nautical miles off the country's coast, and that the crew was evacuated to the port of Khor Fakkan.
British maritime security firm Ambrey had earlier said that the incident was not security-related, as the days-long conflict between Israel and Iran, which is just across the Strait of Hormuz from neighboring Oman, continued to unfold.
The strait is the strategic maritime entryway to the Arabian Gulf and sees about a fifth of the world’s oil pass through it, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Israeli tank shelling kills 45 people awaiting aid trucks in Gaza, ministry says
Medics said residents said Israeli tanks fired shells against crowds of desperate Palestinians awaiting aid trucks
Updated 17 June 2025
Reuters
CAIRO: Israeli tank shellfire killed at least 45 Palestinians as they awaited aid trucks in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, the territory’s health ministry said, adding that dozens of others were wounded.
Medics said residents said Israeli tanks fired shells against crowds of desperate Palestinians awaiting aid trucks along the main eastern road in Khan Younis, expecting the number of fatalities to rise as many of the wounded were in critical condition.
A ministry statement added that the Nasser Hospital, where the casualties were rushed to, had been overwhelmed by the number of deaths and injuries.
There was no immediate comment by the Israeli military on the incident.
World Health Organization officials said that it had received reports of a mass casualty incident on Tuesday near a food distribution site in Gaza
“This is again the result of another food distribution initiative,” said Thanos Gargavanis, WHO trauma surgeon and emergency officer, without giving further details.
“There's a constant correlation with the positions of the four announced food distribution sites and the mass casualty incidents,” he added, saying the trauma injuries in recent days were mostly from gunshot wounds.
Israel orders 300,000 people in Tehran to evacuate while Trump issues ominous warning
Trump leaves G7 summit early to deal with Mideast crisis
White House proposes ceasefire, nuclear talks this week between US’ Witkoff and Iran FM Araghchi
Updated 3 min 55 sec ago
Agencies
TEL AVIV, Israel: Israel warned hundreds of thousands of people to evacuate the middle of Iran’s capital as Israel’s air campaign on Tehran appeared to broaden on the fifth day of an intensifying conflict.
An Iranian television anchor fled her studio during a live broadcast as bombs fell on the headquarters of the country’s state-run TV station.
US President Donald Trump posted an ominous message on his social media site later Monday calling for the immediate evacuation of Tehran.
“IRAN CAN NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON,” Trump wrote, adding that “Everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran!”
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The warning affected up to 330,000 people in a part of central Tehran that includes the country’s state TV and police headquarters. The military has issued similar evacuation warnings for civilians in parts of Gaza and Lebanon ahead of strikes.
Israel says killed top Iran commander and aide to supreme leader
The Israeli military said Tuesday it killed Iran’s top military commander, Ali Shadmani, in an overnight strike, calling him the closest figure to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Ali Shadmani was apparently killed over Monday night. (Internet)
In a statement, the military said following “a sudden opportunity overnight, the (Israeli air force) struck a staffed command center in the heart of Tehran and eliminated Ali Shadmani, the war-time Chief of Staff, the most senior military commander, and the closest figure to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.”
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The Israeli military said Shadmani had commanded both the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Iranian armed forces.
Trump team proposes Iran talks this week on nuclear deal, ceasefire
The US is discussing with Iran the possibility of a meeting this week between US envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi to discuss a nuclear deal and an end to the war between Israel and Iran, Axios reported on Monday citing four sources briefed on the issue.
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President Donald Trump is abruptly leaving the Group of Seven summit, departing a day early Monday as the conflict between Israel and Iran intensifies and the US leader has declared that Tehran should be evacuated “immediately.”
World leaders had gathered in Canada with the specific goal of helping to defuse a series of global pressure points, only to be disrupted by a showdown over Iran’s nuclear program that could escalate in dangerous and uncontrollable ways. Israel launched an aerial bombardment campaign against Iran four days ago.
At the summit, Trump warned that Tehran needs to curb its nuclear program before it’s “too late.” He said Iranian leaders would “like to talk” but they had already had 60 days to reach an agreement on their nuclear ambitions and failed to do so before the Israeli aerial assault began. “They have to make a deal,” he said.
Asked what it would take for the US to get involved in the conflict militarily, Trump said Monday morning, “I don’t want to talk about that.”
White House says US forces remain in ‘defensive posture’ in Middle East
US forces in the Middle East remain in a “defensive posture, and that has not changed,” the White House said Monday as Israel and Iran traded heavy strikes for a fourth day.
“We will defend American interests,” White House spokesperson Alex Pfeiffer added in a post on social media.
China tells citizens in Israel to leave ‘as soon as possible’
China’s embassy in Israel on Tuesday urged its citizens to leave the country “as soon as possible,” after Israel and Iran traded heavy strikes.
“The Chinese mission in Israel reminds Chinese nationals to leave the country as soon as possible via land border crossings, on the precondition that they can guarantee their personal safety,” the embassy said in a statement on WeChat.
“It is recommended to depart in the direction of Jordan,” it added.
Israel has closed its main international Ben Gurion Airport “until further notice,” leaving more than 50,000 Israeli travelers stranded abroad. The jets of the country’s three airlines have been moved to Larnaca.
In Israel, Mahala Finkleman was stuck in a Tel Aviv hotel after her Air Canada flight was canceled, trying to reassure her worried family back home while she shelters in the hotel’s underground bunker during waves of overnight Iranian attacks.
“We hear the booms. Sometimes there’s shaking,” she said. “The truth, I think it’s even scarier … to see from TV what happened above our heads while we were underneath in a bomb shelter.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office warned Israelis not to flee the country through any of the three crossings with Jordan and Egypt that are open to the Israeli public. Despite having diplomatic ties with Israel, the statement said those countries are considered a “high risk of threat” to Israeli travelers.
Iran on Friday suspended flights to and from the country’s main Khomeini International Airport on the outskirts of Tehran. Israel said Saturday that it bombed Mehrabad Airport in an early attack, a facility in Tehran for Iran’s air force and domestic commercial flights.
Israel says strikes have set back nuclear program
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the Israeli strikes have set Iran’s nuclear program back a “very, very long time,” and told reporters he is in daily touch with Trump.
“The regime is very weak,” he added.
Israel says its sweeping assault on Iran’s top military leaders, uranium enrichment sites and nuclear scientists, is necessary to prevent its longtime adversary from getting any closer to building an atomic weapon. The strikes have killed at least 224 people since Friday.
Iran maintains that its nuclear program is peaceful, and the US and others have assessed that Tehran has not had an organized effort to pursue a nuclear weapon since 2003. The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency has repeatedly warned that the country has enough enriched uranium to make several nuclear bombs should it choose to do so.
Iran has retaliated by launching more than 370 missiles and hundreds of drones at Israel. So far, 24 people have been killed in Israel and more than 500 injured.
The back-and-forth has raised concerns about all-out war between the countries and propelled the region, already on edge, into even greater upheaval. Israel’s military issues evacuation warning affecting up to 330,000 people
Earlier Monday, Israel’s military issued an evacuation warning to 330,000 people in a part of central Tehran that houses the country’s state TV and police headquarters, as well as three large hospitals, including one owned by Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard. The city, one of the region’s largest, is home to around 9.5 million people.
Israel’s military has issued similar evacuation warnings for civilians in parts of Gaza and Lebanon ahead of strikes.
State-run television abruptly stopped a live broadcast after the station was hit, according to Iran’s state-run news agency. While on the air, an Iranian state television reporter said the studio was filling with dust after “the sound of aggression against the homeland.” Suddenly, an explosion occurred, cutting the screen behind her as she hurried off camera.
Heavy traffic on the Karaj-Chalus road as vehicles move westwards in a direction leading out of Tehran, Iran. (Reuters)
The broadcast quickly switched to prerecorded programs. The station later said its building was hit by four bombs.
An anchor said on air that a few colleagues had been hurt, but their families should not be worried. The network said its live programs were transferred to another studio.
Israel claims ‘full aerial superiority’ over Tehran
Israeli military spokesperson Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin said Monday that his country’s forces had “achieved full aerial superiority over Tehran’s skies.”
The military said it destroyed more than 120 surface-to-surface missile launchers in central Iran, a third of Iran’s total, as well as two F-14 planes that Iran used to target Israeli aircraft and multiple launchers just before they launched ballistic missiles toward Israel.
Israeli military officials also said fighter jets had struck 10 command centers in Tehran belonging to Iran’s Quds Force, an elite arm of its Revolutionary Guard that conducts military and intelligence operations outside Iran.
Smoke and fire rise at an impacted facility site following missile attack from Iran on Israel, at Haifa, Israel. (Reuters)
The Israeli strikes “amount to a deep and comprehensive blow to the Iranian threat,” Defrin said.
One missile fell near the American consulate in Tel Aviv, with its blast waves causing minor damage, US Ambassador Mike Huckabee said on X. He added that no American personnel were injured.
Explosions rock Tel Aviv, Petah Tikva and Haifa oil refinery
Powerful explosions rocked Tel Aviv shortly before dawn Monday, sending plumes of black smoke into the sky over the coastal city.
Authorities in the central Israeli city of Petah Tikva said Iranian missiles hit a residential building there, charring concrete walls, shattering windows and ripping the walls off multiple apartments.
Iranian missiles also hit an oil refinery in the northern city of Haifa for the second night in a row. The early morning strike killed three workers, ignited a significant fire and damaged a building, Israel’s fire and rescue services said. The workers were sheltering in the building’s safe room when the impact caused a stairwell to collapse, trapping them inside.
Firefighters rushed to extinguish the fire and rescue them, but the three died before rescuers could reach them. No sign of conflict letting up
Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, appeared to make a veiled outreach Monday for the US to step in and negotiate an end to hostilities between Israel and Iran.
In a post on X, Araghchi wrote that if Trump is “genuine about diplomacy and interested in stopping this war, next steps are consequential.”
“It takes one phone call from Washington to muzzle someone like Netanyahu,” Iran’s top diplomat wrote. “That may pave the way for a return to diplomacy.”
The message to Washington was sent as the latest talks between the US and Iran were canceled over the weekend after Israel targeted key military and political officials in Tehran.
On Sunday, Araghchi said that Iran will stop its strikes if Israel does the same.
The conflict has also forced most countries in the Middle East to close their airspace. Dozens of airports have stopped all flights or severely reduced operations, leaving tens of thousands of passengers stranded and others unable to flee the conflict or travel home.
Health authorities reported that 1,277 people were wounded in Iran. Iranians also reported fuel rationing.
Rights groups such as the Washington-based Iranian advocacy group Human Rights Activists have suggested that the Iranian government’s death toll is a significant undercount. The group says it has documented more than 400 people killed, among them 197 civilians.
Ahead of Israel’s initial attack, its Mossad spy agency positioned explosive drones and precision weapons inside Iran. Since then, Iran has reportedly detained several people and hanged one on suspicion of espionage.
