GENEVA: The number of humanitarian aid convoys entering Gaza daily must at least double to meet some of the population’s most basic needs, the World Food Programme (WFP) said on Wednesday.
The United Nations has warned that widespread famine in the Gaza Strip is “almost inevitable” without action. Aid organizations have blamed military operations, insecurity and extensive restrictions to the delivery of essential supplies for the shortage of food in the enclave, which has been devastated by an Israeli offensive against Hamas.
The five-month war has already killed over 30,000 people in the Strip, according to health officials in Gaza.
“I would say that we need to double the level we have now. We are now at around 150 trucks. We need a minimum of 300 trucks a day coming in,” Carl Skau, Deputy Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer at the World Food Programme, told Reuters.
“But of course, that also in the longer run needs to be supplemented with commercial (supplies).”
Before the conflict began in October, Gaza relied on 500 trucks entering daily. Aid can currently be delivered into southern Gaza via the Rafah crossing from Egypt and Kerem Shalom crossing from Israel.
A breakdown of law and order inside Gaza has been a major impediment to aid delivery, as five months of war have destroyed many of the institutions that underpinned social order in the Palestinian enclave.
“The breakdown of civil order is an increasing challenge for us,” Skau said. “There are armed gangs that are roaming, filling that vacuum of security.”
Some convoys have been seized by people seeking food, and any convoys moving into northern Gaza require Israeli coordination for safe passage through checkpoints and areas with fighting.
On Tuesday, WFP’s first mission to northern Gaza since Feb. 20 — a 14-truck food convoy — was turned back by the Israeli Defense Force after a three-hour wait at the Wadi Gaza checkpoint, it said.
Skau said Israeli authorities did not provide a reason for the convoy being turned away.
The WFP said that after the trucks were turned away, they were rerouted and later stopped by a large crowd of desperate people who looted the food, taking around 200 tons.
Skau said he could not predict when the WFP would make a new attempt to deliver supplies to northern Gaza but said the organization was “determined to get there as soon as we can.”
“We have built up the commodities to be able to serve the entire population for three months, and this can be scaled up tomorrow, should the situation allow,” Skau said.
“We will go as soon as we feel that the conditions are acceptable.”
Aid trucks entering Gaza must double to meet basic needs, WFP says
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Aid trucks entering Gaza must double to meet basic needs, WFP says
- The five-month war has already killed over 30,000 people in the Strip, according to health officials in Gaza
HRW accuses Israel of ‘indiscriminate’ attacks on civilians during war in Lebanon
- “At least one of the attacks used an air-dropped bomb equipped with a US-produced Joint Direct Attack Munition guidance kit,” HRW said
- HRW’s Ramzi Kaiss said in the statement that “more and more evidence is emerging that Israeli forces repeatedly failed to protect civilians
BEIRUT: Human Rights Watch accused Israel on Wednesday of “indiscriminate” attacks on civilians during its recent war with Hezbollah, saying two deadly strikes in east Lebanon should be investigated as war crimes.
A November 27 ceasefire sought to end more than a year of hostilities between the two sides that began with Iran-backed Hezbollah’s cross-border fire at Israel in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas.
More than 4,000 people were killed in Lebanon, most of them during two months of all-out war that erupted in September, according to Lebanese authorities.
Among the dead were hundreds of Hezbollah fighters and a slew of senior commanders.
HRW said “two unlawful Israeli strikes” on the town of Yunin in the eastern Bekaa Valley that killed more than 30 people “were apparent indiscriminate attacks on civilians.”
“At least one of the attacks used an air-dropped bomb equipped with a United States-produced Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) guidance kit,” it said.
“The attacks should be investigated as war crimes.”
On September 25, a strike “killed a family of 23 people, all Syrians, including 13 children,” HRW said, while another on November 1 on a two-story house “killed 10 people, including two children, one of them a year old.”
HRW said it “did not find any evidence of military activity or targets at either site” and that the Israeli army did not issue evacuation warnings ahead of the strikes.
The rights watchdog said it had contacted the Israeli military about its findings but had “not received a response.”
AFP has also contacted the military for comment on the report.
HRW’s Ramzi Kaiss said in the statement that “more and more evidence is emerging that Israeli forces repeatedly failed to protect civilians or adequately distinguish civilians from military targets during its strikes across Lebanon.”
Washington’s supply of weapons to Israel “has made the US complicit in their unlawful use,” HRW added.
It urged the Lebanese government to give “the International Criminal Court jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute crimes” and provide “a path for justice for grieving families.”
Swathes of Lebanon’s south and east and parts of Beirut’s southern suburbs were heavily damaged by Israeli bombardment during the hostilities.
Last month, rights group Amnesty International said Israel’s attacks on ambulances, paramedics and health facilities in Lebanon during the conflict should also be investigated as war crimes.
French FM says Iraq should not be dragged into regional conflicts
- “It is essential for Iraq not to be drawn into conflicts it did not choose,” Barrot said
- He praised the Iraqi government’s efforts to “preserve the stability of the country“
BAGHDAD: France’s foreign minister said on Wednesday that Iraq should not be pulled into conflicts in a turbulent Middle East during his first visit to the country, which has suffered from decades of instability.
Jean-Noel Barrot will also visit Kuwait and Saudi Arabia as part of a regional tour to push for a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
Amid the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, Iraq, an ally to both Tehran and Washington, has been navigating a delicate balancing act not to be drawn into the fighting, after pro-Iran factions launched numerous attacks on US troops based in Iraq, as well as mostly failed attacks on Israel.
“It is essential for Iraq not to be drawn into conflicts it did not choose,” Barrot said in a joint conference with his counterpart Fuad Hussein.
He praised the Iraqi government’s efforts to “preserve the stability of the country.”
“We are convinced that a strong and independent Iraq is a source of stability for the entire region, which is threatened today by the conflict that started on October 7, and Iran’s destabilising activities,” Barrot said.
There have been no attacks by pro-Iran Iraqi factions for several months, while Iraq is now preparing to host an Arab League summit and the third edition of the Baghdad Conference on regional stability, which Paris has been co-organizing with Baghdad since 2021.
Since returning to the White House in January, US President Donald Trump has reinstated his “maximum pressure” policy with Iran while engaging in talks over its nuclear program.
Fuad Hussein urged for successful talks “to spare the region from the danger of war,” adding that “there are no alternatives to negotiations.”
Barrot met Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani in Baghdad, and he is expected later in the autonomous Kurdistan region in northern Iraq to meet with Kurdish leaders.
Sudani said he welcomed “an upcoming visit” of French President Emmanuel Macron to Iraq, which would be his third trip to the country.
Iraq and France have been strengthening their bilateral relations in several sectors, including energy and security.
France has deployed troops in Iraq as part of the US-led international coalition to fight the Daesh group, which was defeated in Iraq in 2017, although some of its militant cells remain active.
Baghdad is now seeking to end the coalition’s mission and replace it with bilateral military partnerships with the coalition’s members, saying its own forces can lead the fight against the weakened militants.
“We cannot allow ten years of success against terrorism to be undermined,” Barrot said, adding that France remains ready to contribute to the fighting.
Barrot’s regional tour will also help “prepare for the international conference for the implementation of the two-state solution” that Paris will co-organize in June with Riyadh, the French foreign ministry said.
Macron said earlier this month that France planned to recognize a Palestinian state, possibly as early as June.
He said he hoped it would “trigger a series of other recognitions,” including of Israel.
For decades, the formal recognition of a Palestinian state has been seen as the endgame of a peace process between Palestinians and Israel.
Holocaust survivor says reliving nightmare with grandson’s Gaza captivity
- “The government says the war must go on, that we have no choice — but that’s not true,” said Kuperstein
- Kuperstein himself narrowly escaped death in 1941, when his mother fled the Nazi advance in the Soviet Union and hid him in Tashkent
HOLON, Israel: For Holocaust survivor Michael Kuperstein, the harrowing wait for news of his grandson — held hostage by Hamas in Gaza — feels like he is reliving a nightmare.
“It’s a second Holocaust,” said the 84-year-old, describing an anguish that has reopened old wounds he thought had long since healed.
Despite his frail health, the octogenarian is determined to take part on Thursday in the annual March of the Living at the site of the former Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in southern Poland.
In his heart, he holds tightly to the hope of one day seeing his grandson, Bar Kuperstein, alive again.
“The government says the war must go on, that we have no choice — but that’s not true,” said Kuperstein, his anger clearly visible as talks for the release of hostages remain deadlocked.
During their attack on Israel, Hamas militants abducted 251 people and took them back to Gaza. Of those, 58 are still being held there, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
Kuperstein himself narrowly escaped death in 1941, when his mother fled the Nazi advance in the Soviet Union and hid him in Tashkent — then part of the USSR, now Uzbekistan — just months after his birth.
In 1972, he immigrated to Israel with his wife Faina and their two children.
But tragedy has continued to shadow the family.
Their son, Tal Kuperstein, a volunteer paramedic, suffered severe injuries in an accident years ago while rushing to save a four-year-old girl.
The incident left him disabled, unable to speak or move.
At 17, Tal’s eldest son, Bar, moved in with his grandparents to make space at home for Tal’s live-in caregiver.
Following in his father’s footsteps, Bar also became a paramedic and once even saved his grandfather’s life after a heart attack, performing emergency aid and swiftly calling an ambulance.
Just two months later, at the age of 21, he was abducted from the Nova music festival near the Gaza border during the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023.
The massacre at the festival left more than 370 people dead.
Bar was seen in a video taken shortly after his abduction — bound hand and foot, with a rope around his neck.
Since then the family received no updates until February, when freed hostages who had been held with Bar in Gaza tunnels confirmed he was still alive.
Witnesses at the festival told AFP that Bar had been treating the wounded when he was seized by militants.
Then on April 5, Hamas’s armed wing released a video showing Bar alongside another hostage — the first images of him alive.
“Bar looks extremely thin. He has his grandfather’s eyes. He’s the only one who inherited them,” said Faina Kuperstein, his grandmother.
“He looked so much like him when he was younger. But now, his eyes have lost their light. He looks terribly pale.
“I barely recognize his face anymore,” she said, choking back tears.
“He never left the house without kissing me goodbye. I miss him so much.”
All the hostages should have been released by now, said Michael Kuperstein.
“But we’re still waiting. Nothing changes except for more fallen soldiers. Why?” he added.
Bar turned 23 at the start of April.
Despite his speech disability, his father, Tal, longs to talk to him.
With immense effort, Tal recently managed to say a few words — a moment of pride that fills the family with hope he’ll one day be able to speak to his son again.
Faina visits Bar’s room every day. It remains neat and tidy.
At each meal, the family keeps a chair empty for him, with his photo placed on the table.
She yearns to tell him, “Your father is speaking now.”
“He’ll soon walk again. You dreamed of this moment — and look, it’s happening. You must stay strong so that you can return to us.”
UN appoints envoy to assess aid for Palestinians
- “We’re trying to see how in this very complex environment, UNRWA can best deliver for the Palestine refugees it serves,” Dujarric told reporters
- “We will see how UNRWA can better operate and better serve the communities that rely on“
UNITED NATIONS: The UN on Tuesday appointed an envoy to complete a “strategic assessment” of the agency charged with aiding Palestinians, a spokesman said.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres appointed Ian Martin of the United Kingdom to review the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, or UNRWA, to gauge the “political, financial, security” constraints the agency faces.
The organization, broadly considered to be the backbone of humanitarian aid delivery for embattled Palestinians, has withstood a barrage of criticism and accusations from Israel since Hamas’s deadly October 7, 2023 attack inside Israel and the devastating war in Gaza that followed.
Israel cut all contact with UNRWA at the end of January, and has accused 19 of its 13,000 employees in Gaza of being directly involved in the October 7 attacks.
“We’re trying to see how in this very complex environment, UNRWA can best deliver for the Palestine refugees it serves. For the communities it serves, they deserve to be assisted by an organization, by an UNRWA that can work in the best possible manner,” spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters.
The review is being carried out as part of the UN80 initiative launched last month to address chronic financial difficulties, which are being exacerbated by US budget cuts to international aid programs.
Not all agencies will undergo a strategic assessment, but UNRWA’s operations in Gaza are unique, Dujarric said.
“We will not question UNRWA’s mandate. We will see how UNRWA can better operate and better serve the communities that rely on” it, Dujarric added.
The agency was created by a UN General Assembly resolution in 1949, in the wake of the first Israeli-Arab conflict, shortly after the creation of Israel in 1948.
Throughout decades of sporadic but ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, UNRWA has provided essential humanitarian assistance to Palestinian refugees in Gaza, the occupied West Bank, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan.
Educated at Cambridge and Harvard universities, Martin has previously served the UN on missions in Somalia, Libya, Timor-Leste, Nepal, Eritrea, Rwanda and Haiti.
Syrian defense minister meets Jordanian army chief in Damascus
- The Syrian defense minister affirmed the depth of the historical ties between Syria and Jordan and reiterated his country’s commitment to close cooperation
DUBAI: Maj. Gen. Yousef Huneiti, chairman of Jordan's Joint Chiefs of Staff, met with Syrian Defense Minister Murhaf Abu Qasra on Wednesday in Damascus, news agency Petra reported.
During the meeting, the two men discussed bilateral relations and explored ways to further develop and strengthen them. They also addressed prospects for enhanced security and military cooperation between the two countries.
Both sides emphasized the importance of continued coordination and joint efforts to confront the various challenges facing the region.
They highlighted the need to use the capabilities and resources of the Jordanian Armed Forces in multiple sectors to support regional security and stability — particularly in light of the challenges in border areas, which directly affect the national security of the two countries.
The Syrian defense minister affirmed the depth of the historical ties between Syria and Jordan and reiterated his country’s commitment to close cooperation. He also commended the pivotal role of King Abdullah II in fostering regional security and stability.
