Paradigm shift needed to meet massive needs of people in Gaza, UN Security Council hears 

Paradigm shift needed to meet massive needs of people in Gaza, UN Security Council hears 
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File photo showing Sigrid Kaag, the UN's senior humanitarian and reconstruction coordinator for Gaza, speaking at a press conference at UN headquarters in New York City. (AFP)
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Updated 25 April 2024
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Paradigm shift needed to meet massive needs of people in Gaza, UN Security Council hears 

Paradigm shift needed to meet massive needs of people in Gaza, UN Security Council hears 
  • It requires scaling up of volumes of aid, ensuring safety of humanitarian workers, and making preparations now for the reconstruction and recovery process 
  • Sigrid Kaag warns disease threatens to sweep through the territory and children are deprived of nutrition, protection and education, their futures hanging in the balance 

NEW YORK CITY: The UN said on Wednesday that if it is to avert the threat of famine and meet the massive humanitarian needs of the civilian population in Gaza in a safe and secure manner, a paradigm shift is needed. 

This will require scaling up of volumes and distribution of aid, ensuring safety of workers delivering assistance inside the territory, and making a start now on preparations for the reconstruction and recovery process. 

Underscoring the fact that there is no substitute for the political will to sustain such work, Sigrid Kaag, the senior humanitarian and reconstruction coordinator for Gaza, echoed repeated calls by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for a ceasefire, the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages held by Hamas, and the unrestricted flow of humanitarian aid to the population of the ravaged enclave. 

She also expressed grave concern about a threatened Israeli incursion into the city of Rafah in southern Gaza, which has become the last refuge for more than 1.5 million Palestinians, most of them displaced by fighting in other parts of the territory. 

A ground attack “would compound an ongoing humanitarian catastrophe, with consequences for people already displaced and enduring severe hardships and suffering,” she said. 

Kaag was appointed by Guterres following the adoption of Security Council Resolution 2720 in December last year, which called on him to task a senior official with “facilitating, coordinating, monitoring and verifying” in Gaza, as appropriate, the humanitarian nature of all humanitarian relief consignments provided through states that are not parties to the conflict. 

As she shared her assessments with members of the Security Council on Wednesday, Kaag said Israel continues to reel under the “deep trauma” of the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas and the uncertainty about the fate of the remaining hostages. Meanwhile more than 34,000 people have been killed in Gaza, tens of thousands injured or maimed, and livelihoods, homes, schools and hospitals have been destroyed, she added. 

“The health infrastructure in Gaza has been decimated” and the few hospitals left standing are operating amid severe shortages of supplies and frequent power outages, Kaag said. 

“As summer draws near and temperatures rise, communicable diseases threaten to sweep through Gaza. Children, who in every crisis suffer the worst and the most, are deprived of nutrition, protection and education, their futures hanging in the balance. 

“The scarcity of food and other essential goods has also led to a breakdown in civil order and the gradual unraveling of the social fabric in Gaza.” 

Effective humanitarian operations cannot be reduced “to counting trucks,” Kaag said as she emphasized the important need for humanitarian agencies to be able to transport consignments of food, medicine and other supplies safely using all possible routes and crossings. In this context, she said, the work of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees is “pivotal.” 

She added: “UNRWA is irreplaceable and indispensable as a humanitarian lifeline and must be allowed to deliver on its mandate.” 

The agency has been facing a severe crisis since Israeli authorities alleged in January that a dozen of its workers participated in the Oct. 7 attacks. A report published this week following an independent review of UNRWA revealed that Israel has yet to provide any proof in support of the allegations, and noted that for the past 13 years, authorities in Tel Aviv failed to raise any concerns about individuals named on staffing lists the agency shared with them. 

This month, in response to international pressure, Israel made several commitments intended to improve the delivery of humanitarian supplies to Gaza, including scaling up of volumes of aid, the opening of additional border-crossing points and for longer hours, repairs to a damaged water pipeline, and permission for bakeries in northern and central Gaza to resume making bread. 

However, given the scope of the destruction and the extent of the human suffering in the territory, Kaag said “further definitive and urgent steps are needed.” These include repairs to roads, timely provision of authorization for aid convoys, arrangements for evacuations of hospital patients and casualties, and more-effective mechanisms for protecting humanitarian workers on the ground. 

She also spoke of efforts to streamline the delivery of aid shipments to Gaza from Jordan, Egypt and Cyprus, with the UN proposing an inspection, monitoring and verification unit be established on the Palestinian side of border with Egypt at Rafah. 

However, she said that although work to build a floating port and pier on the Gaza shore continues to advance, a maritime corridor from Cyprus “can never be a substitute for delivery by land. Land routes are the only way to bring in the bulk of supplies needed.” 

The extent of the destruction and the devastating effects of the war on the entire population call for an ambitious, comprehensive plan of support, with the level of investments this requires, Kaag said. The scale of the investment required is clearly revealed by the need to “rebuild and repair more than 84 percent of destroyed health facilities” and for “the return of an entire student population to school while educational facilities have been destroyed.” 

She added: “The Palestinian Authority has a critical role to play in Gaza. The international community must work toward enabling its return, strengthen its governance capacity, and prepare it to reassume its responsibilities in Gaza. 

“All efforts toward early recovery and reconstruction also need the participation of Palestinian civil society. Fostering a conducive environment to reestablish the commercial sector in Gaza and the engagement of the Palestinian business community and its investors are equally important.” 


Europe needs to ‘wake up’ following US policy shift, Greek PM says

Europe needs to ‘wake up’ following US policy shift, Greek PM says
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Europe needs to ‘wake up’ following US policy shift, Greek PM says

Europe needs to ‘wake up’ following US policy shift, Greek PM says
ATHENS: Europe should wake up and build its own defense policy following a dramatic shift by the United States over Ukraine and geopolitical developments in recent months, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said late on Wednesday.
US President Donald Trump upended US policy on the Ukraine war this week, denouncing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as a “dictator” and suggesting Kyiv started the three year war between Ukraine and Russia.
Trump warned that Zelensky had to move quickly to secure peace or risk losing his country, deepening a feud between the two leaders that has alarmed European officials.
The US and Russia held peace talks in Saudi Arabia this week without Ukraine, stunning Kyiv and its European allies.
Ukraine has said it will not accept a deal imposed on it without its consent, which European leaders have echoed, while Russia has ruled out conceding land it has won.
Addressing a business conference in the city of Thessaloniki late on Wednesday, Mitsotakis said that Europe needed to “wake up from the geopolitical and economic lethargy into which it has unfortunately fallen for some time.”
“Recent developments and this different view of things from the United States now oblige us not only to face the truth, but to move at a very high speed and implement decisions that we have been discussing for long,” he said.
Mitsotakis pointed to Europe setting up a defense policy which will allow it to develop its own deterrent power and reduce reliance on the United States.
His comments were made shortly after he joined virtually a second meeting that France convened with European leaders and Canada to discuss Ukraine.
Europe has relied heavily on US might within NATO for security and Trump has consistently demanded Europe spend more on defense. Trump has now demanded that Europe provide more military muscle for any future Ukraine peace(Reporting by Angeliki Koutantou; Editing by Michael Perry)

Ukraine’s underground schools helping children feel safe

Ukraine’s underground schools helping children feel safe
Updated 52 min 4 sec ago
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Ukraine’s underground schools helping children feel safe

Ukraine’s underground schools helping children feel safe

ZAPORIZHZHIA: Sofia had hesitated to go back to her school in south Ukraine, afraid that “something might happen because of the war.”
Like hundreds of thousands of other children in her country, she has been learning remotely for years, first due to the coronavirus pandemic and then the risk of aerial attacks since Russia’s invasion.
But after spending a few hours in her new classrooms, seven meters underground in a brightly-lit anti-radiation bunker, the 12-year-old felt reassured.
“There won’t be any shrapnel, any strikes. I am safe,” she told AFP.
The Ukrainian government has been working to bring children like Sofia back to the classroom amid concerns that distance learning is having an impact on their education, three years into the war.
There were at least 576 attacks on educational facilities in Ukraine in 2024, a 96 percent increase compared to the year before, according to the UN.
Underground schools, like Sofia’s in the southern city of Zaporizhzhia, allow students to return and socialize with their classmates while keeping them safe from attacks.
The children have adapted quickly, said Lidia Yeremenko, head of the Left Bank Education Department at Zaporizhzhia City Council.
“When they saw their peers, their eyes lit up. That was it, they forgot that there was a war going on,” she said.
Sofia also had a positive impression.
“I like the way it looks from the outside, because it seems that there is no school, everything is underground,” the shy pupil with big dark eyes told AFP.


The sky over Ukraine has become synonymous with danger since Russia invaded in February 2022, launching missiles, bombs and drones at Ukrainian cities on an almost daily basis.
Systemic attacks on the city of Zaporizhzhia have intensified since September, said Oleksandr Kovalenko, spokesman for the region’s military administration.
Moscow’s use of longer-range guided bombs has increased the threat to the city, around 35 kilometers (22 miles) from the frontline.
The region is building a dozen fully underground schools, and Zaporizhzhia’s remaining 138 are working below ground in repurposed shelters.
Going underground was a no-brainer for Tanya Lupar, a 47-year-old mother and teacher at the school.
“I feel safe working here and having my child nearby, and not at home exposed to these horrors,” she told AFP.
She believed in-person learning was vital to recover lost ground after years of online schooling through the coronavirus pandemic and the first years of Russia’s full-scale invasion.
A UNICEF statement based on preliminary surveys from Kyiv’s education ministry warned that pupils studying remotely had shown declining performance.
To try to bring students back to class, the ministry launched the “Offline School” initiative.
It has brought down the number of pupils fully studying online from 600,000 at the end of the 2023-2024 academic year, to 430,000 in February 2025 according to statistics shared with AFP.


Even Valeria Syvash, a top student chosen by the school director to speak to AFP, agreed studying had taken a backseat at home.
“You don’t feel the same way about lessons. They’re not important anymore. You can just log in and go to sleep,” the 12-year-old admitted.
She had enjoyed sleeping at times, but was relieved to be back at school with her teachers and friends.
When the bell rang, some children rushed to get a snack while others sat down to play chess.
Other pupils gathered in a corridor, where they followed a cartoon character on a big screen encouraging them to dance and jump around.
“They love to hug between breaks because they feel protected, we protect them with our emotions,” said Lupar, the teacher.
Children and teachers took turns in leading a group dance every day, she added, one way to keep busy in the absence of a regular playground where they would have safely played in peacetime.
But Sofia and Valeria missed the years when they could walk outside without any worries in the world.
Sofia reminisced about playing hide and seek in the streets.
“I liked it better when we went to school before the war, we could go out, we felt free,” Sofia said softly.


Macron says France and allies ‘united’ on Ukraine

Macron says France and allies ‘united’ on Ukraine
Updated 20 February 2025
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Macron says France and allies ‘united’ on Ukraine

Macron says France and allies ‘united’ on Ukraine
  • US President Donald Trump has stunned the European Union by saying he is ready to resume diplomacy with Vladimir Putin after three years of Russia’s war against Ukraine

PARIS: President Emmanuel Macron said Wednesday that France and its allies agreed Ukraine’s rights and European security concerns should be taken into account in any deal to end the war with Russia, before he heads to Washington next week.
“The position of France and its allies is clear and united. We wish for peace in Ukraine that is lasting,” Macron said on X after a meeting with the leaders of 19 mostly European countries, with most taking part by video link.
US President Donald Trump has stunned the European Union by saying he is ready to resume diplomacy with Vladimir Putin after three years of Russia’s war against Ukraine, over the heads of both European countries and Kyiv.
Macron held the meeting on Ukraine Wednesday afternoon in a bid to coordinate a European response to what he has called an “existential threat” from Russia after the shock US policy shift.
“We stand by Ukraine and will carry out all our responsibilities to ensure peace and security in Europe,” Macron said after the video conference.
But he said participants, which included the leaders of EU nations as well as Iceland, Norway and Canada, stressed Ukraine should be included and “its rights respected” in the process.
They said “robust and credible guarantees” were needed to ensure a lasting deal, and “European security concerns” must be taken into account.
“We are convinced of the need to increase our defense and security spending and capacities for Europe and each of our countries,” Macron added.
Macron is set to meet Trump in Washington as early as Monday, Trump told reporters aboard his plane on Wednesday.
A White House official previously told AFP the meeting would take place “early next week,” on condition of anonymity.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said he will meet US envoy Keith Kellogg on Thursday and that he hopes for “constructive” work with the United States, after Trump lashed out against him on social media.
Trump on Wednesday called Zelensky a “dictator,” after a day earlier accusing Kyiv of having “started” the war, sparking pushback from even some members of his own Republican party.
France has been one of Ukraine’s main Western backers since Russia began its full-scale invasion of its neighbor in February 2022.
Macron on Monday hosted key European leaders including from Germany, Britain, Italy, Poland and the Netherlands, as well as NATO and EU chiefs for emergency talks, but several smaller European countries including Romania and the Czech Republic were reportedly aghast at not having been invited.
Romania’s interim president Ilie Bolojan and Luxembourg’s Prime Minister Luc Frieden were present in person at the meeting on Wednesday afternoon, the French presidency said.
The leaders of Lithuania, Cyprus, Finland, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Estonia, Greece, Ireland, Latvia, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Slovenia and the Czech Republic meanwhile joined via video conference call.
Hungary and Slovakia, whose prime ministers are seen as close to Putin, as well as NATO member Turkiye, whose President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is eager to act as a mediator, were not on the list of participants.
“Russia poses an existential threat to Europeans,” Macron said in an interview with French regional newspapers published on Tuesday.
“Do not think that the unthinkable cannot happen, including the worst.”
Macron appeared open to the idea of sending forces to Ukraine but emphasized that this could take place only in the most limited fashion and away from the front lines.
France, along with Britain, was considering sending “experts or even troops in limited terms, outside any conflict zone,” he said.
Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said France may have to make some difficult choices.
“Russia has decided to make enemies of us, and we must open our eyes, realize the scale of the threat and protect ourselves,” he told broadcaster RTL.
“If we do nothing, if we remain blind to the threat, the front line will move ever closer to our borders.”
He said earlier that only the Europeans could provide the guarantees necessary to ensure long-lasting “peace” in Ukraine.
To keep up the pressure on Moscow, EU countries on Wednesday agreed a new round of sanctions on Russia, diplomats said.


German voters prepare to elect a new parliament. Here’s what to expect on and after election day

German voters prepare to elect a new parliament. Here’s what to expect on and after election day
Updated 20 February 2025
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German voters prepare to elect a new parliament. Here’s what to expect on and after election day

German voters prepare to elect a new parliament. Here’s what to expect on and after election day
  • Preelection polling shows a mainstream conservative bloc with about 30 percent support and the far-right Alternative for Germany with around 20 percent.
  • Germany is a leading member of NATO and the second-biggest weapons supplier to Ukraine

BERLIN: German voters go to the polls Sunday to elect a new parliament that will determine how the country is run for the next four years.
Europe’s biggest economy is the 27-nation European Union’s most populous nation and a leading member of NATO, as well as the second-biggest weapons supplier to Ukraine, after the United States, following Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022. Germany’s next government will be central to Europe’s response to an assertive new US administration.
Here’s a look at what to expect for Sunday and beyond.
What happens on election day?
Polls are due to open at 8 a.m. and close at 6 p.m.. Germans can also vote by postal ballot, but their ballot must arrive by the time polling stations close on election day to be counted.
Exit polls will come and vote-counting will begin immediately after voting ends, and the general picture of the outcome should be clear very quickly. A final official result is expected early Monday.
Who are the contenders?
Four candidates are running to be Germany’s next leader: incumbent Chancellor Olaf Scholz, of the center-left Social Democrats; Friedrich Merz, the candidate of the mainstream conservative Christian Democratic Union party; current Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck, of the environmentalist Greens; and Alice Weidel, of the far-right, anti-immigration Alternative for Germany, or AfD.
Preelection polls have put Merz’s Union bloc in the lead with support of about 30 percent, ahead of AfD, with around 20 percent. Scholz’s Social Democrats and Habeck’s Greens are further back.
Merz is favored to replace Scholz as chancellor, but it’s not yet clear what governing coalitions will be possible after the election. How easy it is to form a government may depend in part on how many parties are in the new parliament. Opinion polls show three parties hovering around the 5 percent of the vote needed to win seats.
All mainstream parties say they won’t work with AfD.
What’s up for grabs?
At least 59.2 million people in a country of 84 million are eligible to vote for the new Bundestag, or lower house of parliament. It is the 630-member Bundestag that will elect the next chancellor, Germany’s equivalent of a prime minister.
There are 29 parties on the ballot, but it’s likely that between five and eight of them will get enough votes to win seats in parliament. In most cases, parties must win at least 5 percent of the vote to get a share of the seats.
What happens after polls close?
Germany’s electoral system rarely gives any party an absolute majority and opinion polls suggest that no party is anywhere near one this time. The country has no tradition of minority governments at national level, which means that two or more parties will most likely form a coalition.
There is no formal referee for the process of forming a new government, and no set time limit. Parties hold exploratory talks to determine who they have most common ground with, and one combination of parties then moves on to formal coalition talks.
Those negotiations typically produce a detailed coalition agreement setting out the new government’s plans. That will typically need approval at least from conventions of the parties involved. Some parties may choose to put it to a ballot of their entire membership.
Once that process is complete, the Bundestag can elect the new chancellor.
What’s at stake?
A strong German government would be important to Europe’s response to the new US administration and to turmoil in Ukraine and elsewhere.
Germany and neighboring France have traditionally been the motor of the EU, but both heavyweights have been consumed by domestic political instability in recent months.
This election is being held seven months earlier than originally planned because Scholz’s three-party coalition collapsed in November as it argued about how to reinvigorate the economy, which has shrunk for the past two years. One of the new government’s most urgent tasks will be to find a coherent response to that problem.
Another challenge will be further reducing irregular migration, which has been a top issue in the campaign.
Merz has said he hopes to form a new government by mid-April if he wins. Scholz’s outgoing government will remain in office on a caretaker basis until the Bundestag elects the new chancellor.


Trump could pursue streamlined initial deal on Ukraine minerals, sources say

Trump could pursue streamlined initial deal on Ukraine minerals, sources say
Updated 20 February 2025
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Trump could pursue streamlined initial deal on Ukraine minerals, sources say

Trump could pursue streamlined initial deal on Ukraine minerals, sources say
  • Zelensky rejected detailed US proposal for minerals deal for lack of security guarantees for Kyiv
  • Trump’s Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg in Kyiv this week for talks with Zelensky

NEW YORK/WASHINGTON: The Trump administration may seek to strike a simplified minerals deal with Ukraine to get a pact in place quickly and later negotiate detailed terms, such as how much of Ukraine’s vast resources the US would own, two people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Wednesday.

This follows Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s rejection of a detailed US proposal last week that would have seen Washington receiving 50 percent of Ukraine’s critical minerals, which include graphite, uranium, titanium and lithium, the latter a key component in electric car batteries.

That episode made clear that reaching a full deal will take time, the sources said.

But US President Donald Trump wants a pact with Ukraine in place before potentially authorizing more US military support for Kyiv or moving ahead with a bid to broker formal peace talks between Ukraine and Russia to end the three-year-old war, which was triggered by Moscow’s invasion of its neighbor.

Trump’s Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg is in Kyiv this week to discuss the parameters of a revised pact and what Ukraine needs in return for signing.

Zelensky said he would meet with Kellogg on Thursday “and it is crucial for us that this meeting — and overall cooperation with America — be constructive.”

When asked if US officials would continue to pursue a deal, a Trump adviser, speaking on condition of anonymity, said about Zelensky: “Absolutely, we need to get this guy back to reality.”

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The push for a deal continues despite a widening rift between Trump and Zelensky. Trump denounced his Ukrainian counterpart as “a dictator without elections” on Wednesday after Zelensky said Trump was trapped in a Russian disinformation bubble, a response to the US president suggesting Ukraine started the war.

 

The United States has provided tens of billions of dollars in military aid to Ukraine in the past three years , and Trump has said US investment in Ukrainian minerals could ensure “that we’re going to in some form get this money back.” He is pushing for Kyiv to grant the US mineral concessions worth $500 billion in recognition of Washington’s aid.
The sources said it is important to Trump that he can signal publicly to the American people that the US is recouping the aid.

Less ‘rapacious’
It’s unclear the extent to which the original US proposal was framed as compensation for past weapons shipments or for future installments. But Zelensky said it focused too heavily on US interests and lacked security guarantees for Kyiv. “I can’t sell our country,” he told reporters Wednesday.

A third source familiar with the matter said Ukraine is willing to make a deal with the Trump administration. Another source also said Kyiv was ready to make a deal but that it must not look as “rapacious” as the arrangement the US first proposed.

Details of the US discussions about a potential mineral deal, including who inside the administration helped draft the original proposal, are unknown.

The revised approach is just one of several being discussed at the White House on how to clinch a deal with Kyiv in the coming weeks, an unusually quick timeline for a complex sector where deals usually involve private companies and state entities, not governments.

Trump on Wednesday repeated his frustration that most US aid was grants while Europe, he said, primarily made loans. “While the United States gets nothing back, so they get their money back,” he said.

He also criticized Zelensky’s rejection of the 50-50 split, characterizing it as breaching an accord without any evidence Kyiv had actually agreed to it. “And we had a deal based on rare earth and things, but they broke that deal… they broke it two days ago,” Trump said.

‘Tried, tested’ Chinese tool
A revised, simplified approach would help the United States sidestep numerous legal and logistical hurdles and give it time to negotiate the details of the development, including revenue sharing, at a later date.
“The US has not historically used natural resource-for-aid swaps, but it’s a tried and tested tool in China’s minerals playbook,” said Gracelin Baskaran, director of the critical minerals security program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Ukraine was keenly interested in building a deeper economic and security relationship with the United States and finding a way to recognize the significant US investment already made in Ukraine’s future, said Tyson Barker, former US deputy special envoy for Ukraine’s economic recovery.
“The Ukrainians are more than willing to give extra advantages to the United States, in the form of privileged concessional access to critical mineral resources, in recognition of the billions of dollars that American taxpayers have put into Ukraine,” he said. “This is something that the Ukrainians have been strategizing about for some time.”
Barker said some similar terms would need to be offered to other countries that contributed heavily to Ukraine during the war, including Canada, Britain, Japan and the EU. But Russia also covets Ukraine’s natural resources and its forces, which have already seized a fifth of Ukraine including reserves of rare earths, are now little more than 4 miles from a giant lithium deposit. Ukraine and the United States need to discuss the fate of mineral deposits in areas captured by Russia, Zelensky has said, questioning if minerals in those areas would be given to Russian President Vladimir Putin and his partners Iran, North Korea and China.