Gaza still hungry as aid trickles in before Eid festival

Palestinians walk through the destruction in the wake of an Israeli air and ground offensive in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, amid the conflict between Hamas and Israel. (AP)
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Updated 09 April 2024
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Gaza still hungry as aid trickles in before Eid festival

  • Israel has killed more than 33,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry

GAZA: A boy staggered between tents in a Gaza displaced camp on Monday, his arms around a cardboard box of aid ahead of Islam’s Eid Al-Fitr festival, six months into an Israeli air and ground campaign that has devastated the Palestinian enclave.
Israel’s military assault in retaliation for Hamas’ deadly Oct. 7 attack has pushed Gaza to the brink of famine, aid agencies say, though some more aid is starting to flow in.
Palestinians in Gaza said the extra supplies were still nowhere near enough to ease harsh conditions, with nearly all the tiny, crowded territory’s inhabitants displaced from their homes.
Eid Al-Fitr is expected in Gaza on Wednesday, depending on a clear sighting of the moon, but there is little to cheer for Palestinians this year.
The boy struggling under the cardboard box had received it from a UN distribution center in the central town of Deir al-Balah, where long lines of people stood to present identity papers in return for boxes containing tinned food.
“There isn’t enough food. I hadn’t received a box in two months. Yesterday, we got a box that wasn’t enough for my kids or me, and the other 18 people were with us. If one person got a box every day, it wouldn’t be enough,” said Fayez Abdelhadi in the camp.
He said the aid delivery also lacked basic hygiene supplies such as soap and detergent, though the massive destruction has helped trigger a public health crisis with little clean water and rampant disease.
Umm Mohammed Hamad, a woman in the camp who had been displaced from her home in Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza, said she had been living at a UN shelter there for nearly two months. “We didn’t receive any boxes, no help. Only today have they started distributing boxes,” she said.
Some hospitals have reported children dying of malnutrition and starvation since last month and have warned of other preventable deaths because medical supplies are lacking.
At Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, media head Wissam Al-Sekni said a shipment that arrived on Sunday was not enough to meet the needs of patients, particularly antibiotics to treat injuries commonplace in the war zone. But he said the lack of varied, nutritious food was the biggest problem.
“Most of the children (in the hospital) come with malnutrition, especially premature babies, due to the malnutrition of the mother,” Al-Sekni said.
In a neonatal ward, four-month-old baby Assem Al-Najjar has put on no weight since birth, said his mother, and required surgery for a hole in the heart that is impossible to perform in Gaza now. Israel’s campaign in Gaza began when Hamas stormed across the border, killing around 1,200 people and dragging another 253 into captivity as hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
The offensive in the enclave has killed more than 33,000 Palestinians, according to health authorities in Hamas-run Gaza. International pressure on Israel to let more aid into Gaza increased last week after airstrikes targeted a relief convoy and killed seven aid workers.
In response to the pressure, Israel said it had approved the reopening of the Erez crossing into northern Gaza and the temporary use of Ashdod port in southern Israel to bring in supplies.

 


Red Cross chief declares Gaza ‘worse than hell on earth’

Updated 04 June 2025
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Red Cross chief declares Gaza ‘worse than hell on earth’

  • Palestinians are being stripped of their human dignity, Mirjana Spoljaric tells BBC
  • She calls on world leaders to take action to bring the conflict to an end

LONDON: The situation in Gaza has become “worse than hell on earth,” the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross has said.

“Humanity is failing in Gaza,” Mirjana Spoljaric told the BBC in an interview broadcast on Wednesday. “We cannot continue to watch what is happening.”

The ICRC, a global organization assisting people affected by conflict, has about 300 staff in Gaza.

It runs a field hospital in Rafah that was swamped with casualties in recent days after witnesses described Israeli troops opening fire on crowds trying to access food aid.

Spoljaric said that the situation in the territory was “surpassing any acceptable legal, moral and humane standard.”

“The fact that we are watching a people being entirely stripped of its human dignity should really shock our collective conscience.”

She called on world leaders to do more to bring the conflict to an end because the consequences would haunt them and “reach their doorsteps.”

Israel’s devastating military campaign in Gaza has killed more than 54,000 people since October 2023, mostly women and children.

The offensive was launched after a Hamas-led attack on Israel killed 1,200 people and seized dozens of hostages.

Spoljaric said that while every state had a right to defend itself, there could be “no excuse for depriving children from their access to food, health and security.”

She added: “There are rules in the conduct of hostilities that every party to every conflict has to respect.”

International condemnation of Israel has increased in recent weeks after its military pushed to take full control of Gaza after severing all food and aid supplies to the territory’s population.

Late last month, some aid deliveries resumed after Israel set up a new aid system that bypassed the UN and is now run by a newly formed US organization.

Operations at the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s three aid delivery sites were paused on Wednesday after dozens of Palestinians were killed by gunfire near one of the sites.


Israeli settlers establish illegal outpost near Palestinian Authority’s administrative city of Ramallah

Updated 04 June 2025
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Israeli settlers establish illegal outpost near Palestinian Authority’s administrative city of Ramallah

  • Settlers establish site on ruins of displaced Palestinian family’s home
  • Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission reported in May attempts by settlers to establish 15 new illegal outposts in West Bank

LONDON: Israeli settlers have established a new outpost on land belonging to Palestinians east of Ramallah, the administrative city of the Palestinian Authority.

The settlers have established the outpost on the ruins of a home belonging to a Palestinian family that was forcibly displaced nearly a year ago following a series of attacks in the village of Al-Taybeh, the Palestine News Agency reported.

Israeli settlements and outposts in the occupied West Bank are considered illegal under international law and have long been viewed as hindrances to the establishment of a viable Palestinian state and to achieving peace.

The PA’s affiliated Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission reported in May on attempts by Israeli settlers to establish 15 new illegal outposts in the West Bank, mainly on agricultural and pastoral land.

These outposts are distributed across several governorates, including six in Ramallah and Al-Bireh; two in Salfit, Tubas, and Bethlehem; and one each in Jericho and Nablus.


Israel defense ministry says arms exports hit all time high in 2024

Updated 04 June 2025
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Israel defense ministry says arms exports hit all time high in 2024

  • “Israel again reached an all-time peak in defense exports in 2024,” the ministry said

JERUSALEM: Israel’s defense ministry said Wednesday that its arms exports hit an all-time high of more than $14.7 billion in 2024, with a sharp rise in deals with Arab Gulf states, despite international criticism of Israel’s ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza.

“Israel again reached an all-time peak in defense exports in 2024, marking the fourth consecutive record-breaking year in the scope of defense agreements,” the ministry, which oversees and approves the exports of Israel’s defense industries, said in a statement.


Suspected crypto kidnappings mastermind arrested in Morocco

Updated 48 min 52 sec ago
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Suspected crypto kidnappings mastermind arrested in Morocco

  • France thanks Morocco for arresting 24-year-old after kidnappings targeting French crypto entrepreneurs

RABAT: Moroccan authorities have arrested a French-Moroccan man suspected of involvement in recent kidnappings in France targeting individuals with crypto wealth, a source with knowledge of the arrest said on Wednesday.
French Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin thanked Morocco for the arrest in a post on X, without giving further details of the charges or incidents.
The 24-year-old man, named by a separate Moroccan police source as Bajjou Badiss Mohamed AmiDe, was subject to an Interpol red notice and wanted by France on charges including participation in organized crime, kidnapping, and extortion.
The police source said that since Bajjou is a dual national, he will not be extradited and will be tried in Morocco on the charges he is facing in France.
French authorities had passed details of the charges to Moroccan counterparts so that the man can face justice in Morocco, the source added.
The Paris prosecutor’s office did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.
France has seen a wave of kidnappings targeting the crypto sector, including one in January of a co-founder of French crypto company Ledger, which left the victim missing a finger.
This month, a botched attempt to kidnap a crypto company CEO’s daughter on a busy Paris street left crypto entrepreneurs in France fearing for their safety and was seen by some as a symptom of France’s growing problem with organized crime.


Turkiye’s AJet to start flights to Syria’s Damascus

Updated 04 June 2025
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Turkiye’s AJet to start flights to Syria’s Damascus

  • AJet said flights from Sabiha Gokcen airport will begin from Jun. 16
  • Flights to Damascus from Ankara will start from Jun. 17

ISTANBUL: Turkish Airlines subsidiary AJet said it will start flights to Damascus International from Istanbul and Ankara airports in mid-June.

AJet said in a statement that flights from Istanbul’s Sabiha Gokcen airport will begin from Jun. 16. Flights will initially take place four times per week before operating daily from July, it added.

Flights to Damascus from the Turkish capital Ankara will start from Jun. 17, three-times per week, the carrier also said.

Turkish Airlines resumed flights to Damascus in January after a 13-year suspension.

Turkiye, a close ally of the new government in Damascus, has pledged to support the country’s reconstruction. Ankara has already helped with the improvement and maintenance of Syria’s airports, the Turkish transport minister has said.