Can Gaza humanitarian pause be starting point for end to Israel-Hamas war?

After six weeks of relentless bombardment, a four-day pause will allow Palestinian refugees in Gaza to receive aid. (AFP)
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Updated 25 November 2023
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Can Gaza humanitarian pause be starting point for end to Israel-Hamas war?

  • Truce that began on Friday will facilitate the flow of aid and allow the exchange of hostages and prisoners
  • Aid agencies warn the four-day pause will not be sufficient to meet the immense needs of Palestinian civilians

LONDON: Humanitarian aid organizations want the four-day truce between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas that came into effect on Friday in Gaza after weeks of fighting to become a permanent ceasefire.

The truce is intended to facilitate the flow of aid into Gaza and will see Israel swap 150 Palestinians held in its jails with 50 of the hostages taken by Hamas during the Oct. 7 attack that triggered this latest wave of violence.

Reports citing Israeli officials claim the pause in fighting may extend beyond the initial four days if Hamas agrees to release at least 10 further hostages per day.

According to the BBC, the incentive given by the Israeli government to Hamas was important for the families of hostages whose release has not yet been negotiated, with many insisting a partial deal with Hamas was not acceptable.

There were no details, however, on whether any such agreement would see the reciprocal release of any of the 7,300 Palestinians believed to be held in Israeli prisons. According to Reuters, both sides have said the fighting would resume once the truce ends.




Palestinians flee to the southern Gaza Strip. (AP)

Although it is considered a “welcome step,” humanitarian aid organizations have branded the truce “insufficient,” emphasizing the urgent need for an immediate and total ceasefire.

Action Against Hunger, Handicap International, Medecins du Monde, the Nobel Women’s Initiative, the Norwegian Refugee Council, Oxfam, Refugees International, and Save the Children have described the truce as something like a band-aid on a gaping wound.

“The humanitarian pause is a welcome step in the right direction but cannot replace a ceasefire,” Jason Lee, country director of Save the Children Palestine, said in a statement on Wednesday. 

Highlighting the violence taking place in both the north and south of the embattled enclave, Lee said there “is really no safe space in Gaza.”

Catherine Russell, UNICEF’s executive director, told the UN Security Council this week that Gaza had become “the most dangerous place in the world to be a child,” adding that “the true cost of this war will be measured in children’s lives,” with more than 5,300 having been killed.

News of the temporary truce has renewed focus on the Rafah crossing on the Gaza-Egypt border, which was closed for the first three weeks of fighting despite being the Palestinian enclave’s sole means of access to the outside world since Israel imposed a blockade in 2007.

INNUMBERS

• 1,400 Truckloads of humanitarian supplies permitted to enter Gaza via Egypt during the month ending Nov. 21.

• 10,000 Truckloads of commercial and humanitarian commodities permitted to enter per month prior to the war.

(Source: UN OCHA)

Since its reopening, some 1,400 trucks carrying aid have entered Gaza through Rafah, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

However, aid groups have said this is only a fraction of what Gazans need, with Chiara Saccardi, head of operations for the Middle East at Action Against Hunger, describing the present state of access through Rafah as “limited.”

Saccardi told a media briefing on Wednesday: “There is a logistical limitation on what can enter through.

“Whatever can enter right now through Rafah is not enough,” she added, calling for the opening of more entry points.

Joel Weiler, executive director of Medecins du Monde, agreed that the Rafah crossing was not sufficient to deliver humanitarian aid into Gaza, calling for the opening of Kerem Shalom on the triple Gaza Strip-Israel-Egypt border.

Weiler called Friday’s truce at best a “band-aid” and at worst “a joke” for medical organizations seeking to assist Gaza. “It is humanitarian-washing,” he added.

The UN has also been calling on Israel to open Kerem Shalom to allow the entry of humanitarian aid and commercial goods into Gaza.




A woman holding a child flees following an Israeli strike in Rafah. (AFP)

Before Israel’s 2007 embargo, the crossing was responsible for the delivery of more than 60 percent of cargo entering Gaza, according to Martin Griffiths, the UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator.

Focus, though, remains on stopping the bombardment.

Paul O’Brien, executive director of Amnesty International USA, said that given the level of destruction and the lack of supplies, the urgent needs in the besieged enclave were too deep and catastrophic to be met in a few short days.

“Meeting urgent needs in Gaza is not going to happen in a pause for a few days and is not going to happen with a few hundred aid trucks, as essential and crucial as they are,” he told a media briefing on Wednesday.

Those needs are apparent when assessing the scale of damage. Almost half of Gaza’s housing units have either been flattened or severely damaged, and more than 51 percent of education facilities destroyed.

Meanwhile, shortages of fuel have resulted in electricity blackouts, depriving water treatment plants of power and causing waterborne diseases to spread.

Danila Zizi, Handicap International’s country manager for Palestine, said the Israeli bombardment was not only killing civilians but also “causing a range of devastating injuries.”




A relative carries the body of a child during the funeral in Khan Yunis. (AFP)

These include severe spinal injuries and wounds requiring amputations, which doctors are forced to perform without anesthetics, pain relief, or proper aftercare and rehabilitation due to the blockade of aid.

“Before the current austerities, we were looking at 21 percent of persons with disabilities in Gaza. Now, we have zero visibility. We cannot even attempt to estimate how many,” she said.

Echoing O’Brien, Zizi said access to healthcare, food, and water, as well as protecting human dignity, were all continuous needs that could not be met in a few hours or days, calling the current truce insufficient “to deliver aid to 2 million people.”

She said: “We do not know what will happen with a temporary ceasefire. We are not safe to move. We need a ceasefire. We do need safe passage to assess the people in need.”

Joining the call for an immediate and sustained ceasefire across Gaza, O’Brien called on those with influence over Israel, “particularly President Biden and Congress,” to “stand for human rights, work for that sustained ceasefire.”

He urged the US to “suspend arms transfers and support for any measures that violate international humanitarian law,” calling for any breaches to be investigated as war crimes.




Smoke rising above buildings during Israeli strikes on the northern part of Gaza. (AFP)

“The IDF and the US argue that because Hamas is the target, and they live in Gaza, the IDF is adhering to humanitarian law when they bomb churches, schools, hospitals. They are wrong. And these acts must be investigated as war crimes,” O’Brien said.

Hope for a sustained ceasefire appears limited, however. Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, has reiterated that his government’s aim remains the complete destruction of Hamas.

For Zizi of Handicap International, however, there can be no alternative, with the four-day truce little better than the four-hour daily pause Israel agreed to implement on Nov. 9 with a view to allowing civilians in the north of Gaza to flee to safety in the south.

However, reports indicate that despite the claims of a safe haven in the south, the Israeli military has continued to target the area, as well as its own prescribed routes to safety.

As a result, humanitarian aid organizations, including UN agencies, have rejected Israel’s unilateral proposals to establish “safe zones.”

In a joint statement, these organizations said the establishment of such areas under the present conditions “risk creating harm for civilians, including large-scale loss of life.”


Palestinian detainee says he was tortured in Israeli detention center

Tarek Rabie Safi, a freed Palestinian prisoner, is carried as he is greeted after being released by Israel.
Updated 52 min 22 sec ago
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Palestinian detainee says he was tortured in Israeli detention center

  • “(There was) no (decent) food, or drinks, or (medical) treatment. My arm was broken, and they did not treat me, and they did not get me checked by a doctor”: Safi

KHAN YOUNIS: Palestinian medic and ambulance worker Tarek Rabie Safi, freed from an Israeli jail as part of a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, said he was underfed and abused during almost a year in captivity.
Safi, a 39-year-old father of two, was released along with 368 other Palestinian detainees on Saturday, after Hamas freed three Israeli hostages from Gaza.
Palestinian prisoners and Israeli hostages have both complained of harsh treatment in the hands of their captors.
“I was held by the Israeli army in the Gaza ‘envelop’, which is Sde Teiman where I stayed for four months (and I was subjected to) torture of our bodies (physical torture) and hunger,” a gaunt-looking Safi said.
“(There was) no (decent) food, or drinks, or (medical) treatment. My arm was broken, and they did not treat me, and they did not get me checked by a doctor.”
The Israeli military rejected the claims in an emailed response to Reuters’ queries, saying detainees are given food and drink regularly and have access to medical care, and that if necessary, they are transferred to a medical facility with advanced capabilities.
Safi, who was detained in March last year near Khan Younis in southern Gaza, said a detainee who was in the same room with him had died as a result of his treatment.
“A young man who was with me was martyred, Mussab Haniyeh, may God have mercy on him, in the same room. This young man was strong, but due to the lack of food, lack of drinks and frequent torture, he was martyred in front of our eyes,” Safi said.
After four months in the detention center, Safi was moved to other Israeli jails until his release in Khan Younis, where he was reunited with his family in emotional scenes.
The Israeli military said it is aware of incidents of detainee deaths, but cannot comment since investigations are pending.
The Palestinian Prisoner Association, which documents Israeli detentions of Palestinians, said that Israel is carrying out “systematic crimes and revenge attacks” against prisoners, most recently in the Israeli-occupied West Bank’s Ofer prison.
Abdullah Al-Zaghari, head of the association, said that the group had documented horrific testimonies, including severe beatings and shackling prisoners for days and weeks without food or water.
Reuters is unable to independently confirm the reports.
Human rights group Amnesty International said last year that 27 released detainees it had interviewed consistently described being subjected to torture on at least one occasion during their arrest.


Israel will leave troops in 5 locations in Lebanon after Tuesday deadline, military spokesperson says

Israeli army forces patrol in the village of Kfarshuba in southern Lebanon on February 17, 2025. (AFP)
Updated 17 February 2025
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Israel will leave troops in 5 locations in Lebanon after Tuesday deadline, military spokesperson says

  • “We need to remain at those points at the moment to defend Israeli citizens, to make sure this process is complete,” military spokesperson said
  • Lebanon’s President Aoun said Monday he was “afraid that the complete withdrawal will not be achieved tomorrow”

BEIRUT/JERUSALEM: Israel will keep troops in several posts in southern Lebanon past a February 18 deadline for them to withdraw, a military spokesperson said on Monday, as Israeli leaders sought to reassure northern residents that they can return home safely.
Under a truce deal brokered by Washington in November, Israeli troops were granted 60 days to withdraw from southern Lebanon where they had waged a ground offensive against fighters from Lebanon’s armed group Hezbollah since early October.
That deadline was extended to February 18, but Israeli and Lebanese officials as well as foreign diplomats had anticipated that the military would retain some troops on parts of the Lebanese side of the border.
“We need to remain at those points at the moment to defend Israeli citizens, to make sure this process is complete and eventually hand it over to the Lebanese armed forces,” military spokesperson Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani told a briefing with reporters, adding that the move was in accordance with the mechanism of the ceasefire agreement.
He said the locations were close to Israeli communities or occupying strategic vantage points overlooking Israeli towns like Metula, at the northernmost point of Israel.
“Basically the security situation is very, very complex,” he said.
A Lebanese official and two foreign diplomats said Israeli troops would likely leave villages in south Lebanon but stay in overlook points to reassure residents of northern Israel who are set to return home on March 1.
Tens of thousands of people were displaced from northern Israel by Hezbollah rocket fire and more than a million people in Lebanon fled Israeli air strikes in the year-long war conflict playing out in parallel with the Gaza war.
The fighting ended in late November with a truce ordering Israeli troops to withdraw from south Lebanon, Hezbollah fighters and arms to leave and Lebanese troops to deploy.
The ceasefire deal stipulates that only “official military and security forces” in Lebanon can carry arms and that the Lebanese government must prevent any transfers of arms or related material to non-state armed groups.
Its language — sharper than previous United Nations Security Council Resolutions — appears to spells out ways that the Lebanese state will be expected to constrain Hezbollah, diplomats and analysts said.
The deal’s implementation is being overseen by a committee chaired by the US and France.
Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun, who has said Israeli troops should leave by the February 18 deadline, said on Monday he was “afraid that the complete (Israeli) withdrawal will not be achieved tomorrow.”
The two diplomats said talks were still underway on alternatives to Israeli troops staying, including possibly deploying more UN peacekeepers to the border.
France has proposed that UN forces including French troops replace Israeli forces at key border points.
Hezbollah said on Sunday that Israeli forces still in Lebanon after Tuesday would be considered an occupying force.
Israel occupied southern Lebanon for 22 years, withdrawing in 2000 after continued attacks on its positions in occupied Lebanese territory by Hezbollah, founded in 1982 to counter Israel’s invasions.
In the latest war, Israel and Hezbollah exchanged fire for nearly a year, mostly around the border. Israel significantly escalated in September, eliminating much of Hezbollah’s top leadership in air strikes and sending ground troops into south Lebanon.


UN appeals for $6 billion for Sudan crisis aid in 2025

Updated 17 February 2025
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UN appeals for $6 billion for Sudan crisis aid in 2025

  • The aim is to provide assistance to nearly 26 million people this year, UN bodies say
  • Civil war has displaced 12 million people, of whom around 3.5 million have fled the country

GENEVA: The UN appealed Monday for $6 billion to provide desperately-needed aid to people in war-ravaged Sudan and millions of refugees fleeing “appalling” conditions.
The aim is to provide assistance to nearly 26 million people this year, the United Nations’ humanitarian agency OCHA and refugee agency UNHCR said in a joint appeal.
Since April 2023, Sudan has been locked in a brutal conflict between army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan and his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, who leads the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.
The UN agencies said the civil war has displaced 12 million people, of whom around 3.5 million have fled the country.
They stressed that at the same time, nearly two-thirds of Sudan’s population needs emergency aid, as swathes of the country face famine conditions.
“Sudan is a humanitarian emergency of shocking proportions,” UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said in a statement.
“Famine is taking hold. An epidemic of sexual violence rages. Children are being killed and injured. The suffering is appalling.”
Famine conditions have already been reported in at least five locations in Sudan, including in displacement camps in Darfur and in the western Nuba Mountains, the UN statement said.
And “catastrophic hunger is expected to worsen by May when the lean season begins,” it warned.
The UN said it was appealing for $4.2 billion to reach nearly 21 million people inside Sudan with life-saving aid and protection.
Fletcher said the UN plan would provide “a lifeline to millions.”
The United Nations said it would also need $1.8 billion to support 4.8 million people – both Sudanese refugees and their host communities – in the Central African Republic, Chad, Egypt, Ethiopia, Libya, South Sudan and Uganda.
“Today, one-third of Sudan’s entire population is displaced,” UNHCR chief Filippo Grandi said in the statement, highlighting that “the consequences of this horrific and senseless conflict spread far beyond Sudan’s borders.”
The UN cautioned that without immediate funding, two-thirds of refugee children would be denied access to primary education, “threatening an entire generation.”
And “up to 4.8 million refugees and host community members will continue to face severe food insecurity, with at least 1.8 million going without food assistance,” it said, warning that “already strained health systems may collapse.”
Last year, humanitarian organizations received $1.8 billion for Sudan – 66 percent of the $2.7 billion requested – and managed to reach more than 15.6 million people across the country.
They also provided life-saving food assistance to over a million people in neighboring countries, as well as medical support to half a million and protection services to over 800,000, the statement said.


Israel kills Hamas official in southern Lebanon

Civil defence workers and Lebanese soldiers gather next to remains of burned car that was hit by an Israeli drone strike.
Updated 17 February 2025
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Israel kills Hamas official in southern Lebanon

  • Israeli military said Muhammad Shaheen was the head of the operations department of Hamas in Lebanon
  • A Hamas official confirmed Shaheen’s killing to Reuters

BEIRUT: Israel killed on Monday a Hamas leader in southern Lebanon’s Sidon area, the Israeli military and a Hamas official said.
The military said Muhammad Shaheen was the head of the operations department of Hamas in Lebanon and that he had recently been involved in promoting “terrorist plots” with Iranian direction and funding from Lebanese territory against Israeli citizens.
A Hamas official confirmed Shaheen’s killing to Reuters.
An Israeli strike on a car in Lebanon’s southern port city of Sidon targeted an official in the Palestinian militant group, two Lebanese security sources told Reuters earlier.
Lebanon’s state news agency said rescuers had removed one body from the car but did not identify the victim.
The Israeli military has been carrying out strikes against members of Hamas, allied Lebanese armed group Hezbollah and other factions in Lebanon, in parallel with the war in Gaza.
Those armed groups have launched rockets, drones and artillery attacks across the border into northern Israel.
Under a truce brokered by Washington in November, Israeli troops were granted 60 days to withdraw from southern Lebanon where they had waged a ground offensive against fighters from Iran-backed Hezbollah since early October.
That deadline was later extended to February 18, but Israel’s military requested that it keep troops in five posts in southern Lebanon, sources told Reuters last week.


Cairo building collapse kills 10: state media

Updated 17 February 2025
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Cairo building collapse kills 10: state media

  • Eyewitnesses told the state-owned outlet that “a gas cylinder explosion” caused the collapse

CAIRO: A building collapse in the Egyptian capital killed 10 people and injured eight more on Monday, with several others believed to be missing under the rubble, state media reported.
Ambulances were dispatched to the scene in the working class neighborhood of Kerdasa, where civil defense teams searched for people thought to be missing under the rubble, according to the Al-Akhbar Al-Youm newspaper.
Eyewitnesses told the state-owned outlet that “a gas cylinder explosion” caused the collapse, and a police investigation was under way.
Building regulations are unevenly enforced in the sprawling metropolis of Cairo, home to over 26 million people.
The city has seen a number of deadly building collapses in recent years, both due to the dilapidated state of some and, at times, failure to comply with building regulations.