BRUSSELS: All of Gaza’s 2.3 million inhabitants lack sufficient food and face malnutrition a month into Israel’s devastating siege of the Palestinian enclave, a World Food Programme official said on Thursday.
Humanitarian aid has only trickled into Gaza since Israel began bombarding the densely populated enclave in response to Hamas’ raid on southern Israel that killed some 1,400 people on Oct. 7. United Nations officials say the supplies coming into Gaza are nowhere near enough to meet the population’s needs.
“Before October 7th, 33 percent of the population were food insecure,” said Kyung-nan Park, director of emergencies for the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP). “We can safely say that 100 percent are food insecure at this moment.”
She said WFP needed $112 million to be able to reach 1.1 million people in Gaza in the next 90 days. “They are facing the risk of malnutrition,” she said.
In addition to funding, WFP also needs regular entry into Gaza and safe access once inside to be able to reach the people in need, she added.
Since re-opening of the Rafah crossing on the Gaza border with Egypt for humanitarian cargo on Oct. 21, the daily average number of trucks that have crossed into Gaza has been less than 19 percent of what it had been before the conflict, according to the UN humanitarian office.
“Right now we’re entering 40 to 50 trucks,” Kyung-nan said of WFP. “For just WFP food assistance, we would need 100 trucks a day to be able to provide any meaningful humanitarian food to the people in Gaza.”
Kyung-nan said WFP staff members in Gaza themselves did not have enough to eat. WFP used to work with more than 23 bakeries in the densely populated enclave but only one is still functioning due to the lack of fuel and supplies, she said.
“There are stories of people going there, being in line for ten days and leaving empty handed,” she said. “It’s quite serious.”
Gaza population lacks food, faces malnutrition, UN food program official says
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Gaza population lacks food, faces malnutrition, UN food program official says
- Kyung-nan Park, director of emergencies for WFP said: “We can safely say that 100 percent are food insecure at this moment"
- WFP needed $112 million to be able to reach 1.1 million people in Gaza in the next 90 days
UAE president presents Indonesia’s defense minister with Order of Zayed
- Subianto receives UAE’s highest civil honor in recognition of his contribution to improved bilateral cooperation
DUBAI: UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan on Monday presented Indonesia’s defense minister, Prabowo Subianto, with the Order of Zayed, the UAE’s highest civil honor, in recognition of his contribution to the enhancement of cooperation between the countries.
During the meeting in Abu Dhabi, Subianto conveyed greetings from Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo and expressed his desire for the continued advancement and prosperity of the UAE, the Emirates News Agency reported. Sheikh Mohammed responded with similar wishes for Indonesia.
The president and defense minister also discussed the relationship between their countries, particularly as it relates to defense and military affairs, and ways in which it might be enhanced in the interests of both countries, and reviewed regional and international issues of mutual interest.
Sheikh Mohammed said he was keen to leverage the strong strategic ties between the UAE and Indonesia to deepen cooperation so that both nations benefit from shared opportunities for development and prosperity.
Kuwaiti emir, Omani sultan meet for official talks
- Leaders discussed the longstanding relationship between their countries
KUWAIT: Kuwait’s Emir Sheikh Meshal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah hosted Oman’s Sultan Haitham bin Tareq at Bayan Palace in Kuwait City on Monday for official talks.
The leaders discussed the longstanding relationship between their countries and explored avenues for enhancing cooperation in various sectors, the Kuwait News Agency reported.
They also addressed strategies for the advancement of the Gulf Cooperation Council, matters of shared interest and various regional and international affairs.
The meeting came during the sultan’s two-day state visit to Kuwait and was followed by a banquet held in his honor.
Kuwait’s Prime Minister Sheikh Ahmad Al-Abdullah Al-Sabah and other officials from the two countries also attended the meeting.
US doesn’t believe ‘genocide’ occurring in Gaza: White House
- White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan insisted that the responsibility for peace lay with Hamas
- Biden has come under fire from Republicans for halting some weapons shipments
WASHINGTON DC: The United States does not believe that genocide is occurring in Gaza but Israel must do more to protect Palestinian civilians, President Joe Biden’s top national security official said Monday.
As ceasefire talks stall and Israel continued striking the southern city of Rafah, White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan insisted that the responsibility for peace lay with militant group Hamas.
“We believe Israel can and must do more to ensure the protection and wellbeing of innocent civilians. We do not believe what is happening in Gaza is a genocide,” Sullivan told a briefing.
The US was “using the internationally accepted term for genocide, which includes a focus on intent” to reach this assessment, Sullivan added.
Biden wanted to see Hamas defeated but realized that Palestinian civilians were in “hell,” Sullivan said.
Sullivan said he was coming to the White House podium to “take a step back” and set out the Biden administration’s position on the conflict, amid criticism from both ends of the US political spectrum.
Biden has come under fire from Republicans for halting some weapons shipments to press his demands that Israel hold off a Rafah offensive, while there have been protests at US universities against his support for Israel.
The US president believed any Rafah operation “has got to be connected to a strategic endgame that also answered the question, ‘what comes next?’” Sullivan added.
This would avoid Israel “getting mired in a counterinsurgency campaign that never ends, and ultimately saps Israel’s strength and vitality.”
First international UN staff member killed in Gaza attack
- Guterres “was deeply saddened to learn of the death of a UN DSS staff member and injury to another DSS staffer when their UN vehicle was struck,” spokesperson said
- “The Secretary-General condemns all attacks on UN personnel and calls for a full investigation,” Haq said
UNITED NATIONS: A UN security services member was killed in an attack on a vehicle in Gaza on Monday, a spokesperson said, adding the death was the first international UN employee killed in the Palestinian territory since the war began.
UN chief Antonio Guterres “was deeply saddened to learn of the death of a United Nations Department of Safety and Security (DSS) staff member and injury to another DSS staffer when their UN vehicle was struck as they traveled to the European Hospital in Rafah,” said his deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq.
It was “the first international casualty” for the UN since the start of the Israeli offensive in Gaza in retaliation for the Hamas attack of October 7, Haq said, recalling that some 190 Palestinian UN employees have been killed, mainly staff of the UN Palestinian Refugee Agency (UNRWA).
“The Secretary-General condemns all attacks on UN personnel and calls for a full investigation,” Haq said.
The spokesman did not immediately release the nationality of the person killed.
“I don’t have the full details of whether this was part of a large convoy or not, I believe it was in a convoy that was moving, and this was the DSS vehicle that was hit,” he said.
The DSS oversees the security of UN agencies and programs in more than 130 countries around the world.
Hezbollah chief urges Beirut to allow Syrian migrant boats to leave for Europe
- Hassan Nasrallah called for ‘a national decision that says: we have opened the sea... whoever wants to leave for Europe, for Cyprus, the sea is in front of you. Take a boat and board it’
- Cyprus, the EU’s easternmost member, is less than 200 kilometers (125 miles) from Lebanon and Syria, and wants to curb migrant boat departures from Lebanon toward its shores
BEIRUT: Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah on Monday urged Lebanese authorities to open the seas for migrant boats to reach Europe, amid soaring anti-Syrian sentiment and accusations the West is seeking to keep refugees in Lebanon.
His remarks came in an apparent bid to pressure the European Union after it announced earlier this month $1 billion in aid to Lebanon to help tackle irregular migration.
Many in crisis-hit Lebanon have criticized the aid package as focused on preventing refugees from leaving the country, amid mounting calls for them to return home.
In a televised address, Nasrallah called for “a national decision that says: we have opened the sea... whoever wants to leave for Europe, for Cyprus, the sea is in front of you. Take a boat and board it.”
But “we do not propose forcing displaced Syrians to board boats and leave for Cyprus and Europe,” he added in the speech, broadcast on the group’s Al-Manar television channel.
Cyprus, the EU’s easternmost member, is less than 200 kilometers (125 miles) from Lebanon and Syria, and wants to curb migrant boat departures from Lebanon toward its shores.
Currently refugees “are prohibited (from leaving), and so they turn to smuggling and to rubber boats, and there are drownings in the sea, because the Lebanese army is implementing a political decision to stop them from migrating,” Nasrallah added.
Lebanon says it currently hosts around two million people from neighboring Syria — the world’s highest number of refugees per capita — with almost 785,000 registered with the United Nations.
Lebanon needs to tell the West that “we all have to coordinate with the Syrian government to return the displaced to Syria and to present them with aid there,” Nasrallah said.
He also urged Lebanon’s parliament to press the EU and Washington to lift sanctions on Syria that Damascus says are blocking aid and reconstruction efforts, adding: “If sanctions on Syria aren’t lifted, there will be no return” of refugees.
Nasrallah’s remarks came a day before Lebanon is expected to resume “voluntary returns” of Syrians, with dozens of families set to pass through two land border crossings in the country’s east, a year and a half after such returns were paused.
Lebanon’s economy collapsed in late 2019, turning it into a launchpad for migrants, with Lebanese joining Syrians and Palestinian refugees making perilous Europe-bound voyages.
Some Lebanese politicians have blamed Syrians for their country’s worsening troubles, and pressure often mounts ahead of an annual conference on Syria in Brussels, with ministers meeting this year on May 27.
Rights groups including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have warned that Syria is not safe for returns.
