Famine looms in Gaza — how will the world know it has arrived?

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Ten-year-old Palestinian boy, Yazan al-Kafarneh, displaced from Beit Hanun and suffering from a pre-existing condition, lies on a hospital bed at Al-Awda clinic in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on February 29, 2024, amid ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. (AFP)
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Palestinian boy Ahmed Qannan, who is suffering from malnutrition, receives treatment at a healthcare center, amid widespread hunger, as the conflict between Israel and Hamas continues, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip March 4, 2024. (REUTERS)
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Palestinians search for bodies and survivors in the rubble of a residential building destroyed in an Israeli airstrike in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Monday, March 4, 2024. (AP)
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Updated 06 March 2024
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Famine looms in Gaza — how will the world know it has arrived?

  • Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem in a 1967 war
  • The United Nations said in February that more than a quarter of Gaza’s 2.3 million people were “estimated to be facing catastrophic levels of deprivation and starvation”
  • Israel has killed more than 30,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, according to the Hamas government's Ministry of Health

UNITED NATIONS: The United Nations has warned that widespread famine in the Gaza Strip is “almost inevitable” without action. A formal conclusion that famine has arrived in the coastal enclave of 2.3 million people could come next week.

WHAT IS FAMIME AND WHO DECLARES ONE?
A famine is assessed by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC). It is an initiative made up of more than a dozen UN agencies, regional bodies and aid groups.
For famine to be declared, at least 20 percent of the population must be suffering extreme food shortages, with one in three children acutely malnourished and two people out of every 10,000 dying daily from starvation or from malnutrition and disease.
Famine has been declared twice in the past 13 years: in Somalia in 2011 and in parts of South Sudan in 2017.

WHAT IS THE CURRENT ASSESSMENT IN GAZA?
In late December, the IPC said the situation in Gaza had already been exceeded the 20 percent threshold.
It said the remaining two thresholds — the number of children acutely malnourished and the number of people dying daily from starvation or from malnutrition and disease — “may also be breached at some point” in the coming months.
“There is a risk of famine in the projection period through May 2024 if the current situation persists or worsens,” it said.
The United Nations said in February that more than a quarter of Gaza’s 2.3 million people were “estimated to be facing catastrophic levels of deprivation and starvation.” It said without action widespread famine could be “almost inevitable.”
The IPC is due to release a new analysis of the situation in Gaza by mid-March.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO DECLARE FAMINE?
While a declaration of famine does not trigger any formal response, it can help focus global attention on how to help. But as UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has said: “Once a famine is declared, it is too late for too many people.”

WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE WELFARE OF GAZA?
The United Nations views Israel as the occupying power in Gaza and says the Israeli military has a responsibility to facilitate humanitarian operations within the enclave.
Under the 1949 Geneva Conventions on the laws of war: “To the fullest extent of the means available to it, the occupying power has the duty of ensuring the food and medical supplies of the population.”

WHAT DOES ISRAEL SAY?
Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem in a 1967 war. These are areas of historic Palestine which the Palestinians want for a state. Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005 and Hamas won elections in 2006. But Israel, along with neighboring Egypt, still controls the borders of the enclave.
Israeli leaders have long argued that Gaza and the West Bank are not formally occupied on the basis that they were captured from Jordan and Egypt during the 1967 war rather than from a sovereign Palestine. Israel also stresses the Jewish people’s historical and Biblical ties to the land.

WHY IS THE HUMANITARIAN SITUATION IN GAZA SO DIRE?
The war in Gaza began when Hamas fighters attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing around 1,200 people and seizing 253 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Israel retaliated by initially imposing a “total siege” on Gaza and launching an air and ground assault has since killed around 30,000 Palestinians, health authorities in the Hamas-run enclave say.
Aid can currently be delivered into southern Gaza via the Rafah crossing from Egypt and Kerem Shalom crossing from Israel.
The UN Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA has said that during February an average of nearly 97 trucks were able to enter Gaza each day, compared with about 150 trucks a day in January — well below a target of 500 trucks a day.
The United Nations has described aid access as “unpredictable and insufficient,” blaming military operations, insecurity and extensive restrictions to delivery of essential supplies.
Specifically the UN cites: border crossing closures, serious movement restrictions, access denials, onerous vetting procedures, security risks, incidents by desperate civilians, a breakdown of law and order, and restrictions on communications and protective equipment.
Israel has said it is committed to improving the humanitarian situation in Gaza and there is no limit on the aid for civilians. It has blamed the United Nations for any delivery issues, saying limitations on the quantity and pace of aid are dependent on the capacity of the UN and other agencies.

 


Two Palestinian teens killed by Israeli gunfire in West Bank, Palestinian officials say

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Two Palestinian teens killed by Israeli gunfire in West Bank, Palestinian officials say

JERUSALEM: Two Palestinian teenagers were killed by Israeli gunfire in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said on Sunday.
The Israeli military did not confirm the deaths but said two suspects hurled explosives toward a local community, endangering civilians, and troops responded with live fire.
“Hits were identified,” the military said in a statement.
The Palestinian health ministry said a 16- and a 17-year-old were killed west of Aqabat Jaber refugee camp, near the West Bank city of Jericho.
Palestinian media said medicals teams were prevented from reaching one of the wounded and the other succumbed to his wounds on Sunday in a hospital in Jerusalem. One teen was shot in the head and the other in his chest, the Palestinian health ministry said.
The occupied West Bank, which Palestinians want as the core of a future independent state along with Gaza, has seen a surge in violence since the start of the war in Gaza last year, and a major crackdown by Israeli security forces which have made thousands of arrests.


UAE President Sheikh Mohamed welcomes Qatar’s Sheikh Tamim in Abu Dhabi

Updated 6 min 35 sec ago
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UAE President Sheikh Mohamed welcomes Qatar’s Sheikh Tamim in Abu Dhabi

DUBAI: UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan on Sunday welcomed Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, the Ruler of Qatar, who arrived in Abu Dhabi for a visit to the Emirates.

Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, Vice President, Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the Presidential Court, and Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Chairman of Abu Dhabi Executive Council were among the top UAE dignitaries at the Presidential Airport who accompanied the UAE ruler for Sheikh Tamim’s arrival, state news agency WAM reported.

Sheikh Tamim meanwhile was accompanied by Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al-Thani, the Personal Representative of the Emir; Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and a number of ministers and top officials.


Netanyahu aide: Biden’s Gaza plan ‘not a good deal’ but Israel accepts it

Updated 10 min 16 sec ago
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Netanyahu aide: Biden’s Gaza plan ‘not a good deal’ but Israel accepts it

JERUSALEM: An aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed on Sunday that Israel had accepted a framework deal for winding down the Gaza war now being advanced by US President Joe Biden, though he described it as flawed and in need of much more work.
In an interview with Britain’s Sunday Times, Ophir Falk, chief foreign policy adviser to Netanyahu, said Biden’s proposal was “a deal we agreed to — it’s not a good deal but we dearly want the hostages released, all of them.”
“There are a lot of details to be worked out,” he said, adding that Israeli conditions, including “the release of the hostages and the destruction of Hamas as a genocidal terrorist organization” have not changed.
Biden, whose initial lockstep support for Israel’s offensive has given way to open censure of the operation’s high civilian death toll, on Friday aired what he described as a three-phase plan submitted by the Netanyahu government to end the war.
The first phase entails a truce and the return of some hostages held by Hamas, after which the sides would negotiate on an open-ended cessation of hostilities for a second phase in which remaining live captives would go free, Biden said.
That sequencing appears to imply that Hamas would continue to play a role in incremental arrangements mediated by Egypt and Qatar — a potential clash with Israel’s determination to resume the campaign to eliminate the Iranian-backed Islamist group.
Biden has hailed several ceasefire proposals over the past several months, each with similar frameworks to the one he outlined on Friday, all of which collapsed. In February he said Israel had agreed to halt fighting by Ramadan, the Muslim holy month that began on March 10. No such truce materialized.
The primary sticking point has been Israel’s insistence that it would discuss only temporary pauses to fighting until Hamas is destroyed. Hamas, which shows no sign of stepping aside, says it will free hostages only under a path to a permanent end to the war.
In his speech, Biden said his latest proposal “creates a better ‘day after’ in Gaza without Hamas in power.” He did not elaborate on how this would be achieved, and acknowledged that “there are a number of details to negotiate to move from phase one to phase two.”
Falk reiterated Netanyahu’s position that “there will not be a permanent ceasefire until all our objectives are met.”
Netanyahu is under pressure to keep his coalition government intact. Two far-right partners have threatened to bolt in protest at any deal they deem to spare Hamas. A centrist partner, ex-general Benny Gantz, wants the deal considered.
Hamas has provisionally welcomed the Biden initiative.
“Biden’s speech included positive ideas, but we want this to materialize within the framework of a comprehensive agreement that meets our demands,” senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan told Al Jazeera on Saturday.
Hamas wants a guaranteed end to the Gaza offensive, withdrawal of all invading forces, free movement for Palestinians and reconstruction aid.
Israeli officials have rejected that as an effective return to the situation in place before Oct. 7, when Hamas, committed to Israel’s destruction, ruled Gaza.
In the ensuing Israeli assault that has laid waste to much of the impoverished and besieged coastal enclave, more than 36,000 Palestinians have been killed, Gaza medical officials say.


The Israeli army says it investigates itself. Where do those investigations stand?

Updated 42 min 26 sec ago
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The Israeli army says it investigates itself. Where do those investigations stand?

JERUSALEM: Throughout its grinding seven-month war against Hamas, Israel has pledged to investigate a series of deadly events in which its military forces are suspected of wrongdoing. The commitment comes in the face of mounting claims — from human rights groups and the International Criminal Court ‘s chief prosecutor — that the country’s leaders are committing war crimes in Hamas-ruled Gaza.
In one of the highest-profile cases, an attack on a World Central Kitchen convoy that killed five foreign aid workers, the Israeli army promptly published its findings, acknowledged misconduct by its forces and dismissed two soldiers. But other investigations remain open, and admissions of guilt are rare.
Israel’s Military Advocate General, Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, said this week that the military is investigating about 70 cases of alleged wrongdoing. She gave few details. The military refused to disclose the full list of investigations and told the AP it could only respond to queries about specific probes.
A look at some of the investigations that have been publicly announced:
A DEADLY STRIKE ON A TENT CAMP KILLS DISPLACED FAMILIES
On Tuesday, Israel revealed the preliminary results of an investigation into a deadly strike on a tent camp sheltering displaced families in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
Sunday’s strike killed at least 45 people and caused widespread destruction. Most of the victims were women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between the deaths of civilians and Hamas militants.
The military’s chief spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said a preliminary investigation found that the Israeli munitions used that day in efforts to eliminate two Hamas militants were too small to be the source of a fire that broke out.
Hagari said the destruction may have been caused by secondary explosions, possibly from Palestinian militants’ weapons in the area. Hamas did not respond to that explanation, but a member of the militants’ political bureau remarked Tuesday that Israel “believes that it is deceiving the world, with its false claim that it did not intend to kill and burn children and women, and its claim to investigate its crimes.”
The Israeli military said in a statement that the investigation had been turned over to a fact-finding group that operates independently outside the army’s chain of command. Those findings are then handed to the military advocate general, who decides if there should be disciplinary measures. It’s not clear how long the probe will last.
SCORES OF CIVILIANS ARE SHOT DEAD AROUND A FLOUR CONVOY
In March, witnesses said Israeli troops fired on a crowd of Palestinians waiting for aid in Gaza City. At least 104 people were killed and 760 were wounded, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which described it as a massacre.
Israel’s military swiftly released preliminary investigation results, saying huge crowds tried to grab supplies off of a pre-dawn convoy of 30 army trucks carrying flour toward hard-hit northern Gaza. The army said dozens of Palestinians were killed in a stampede, with some run over by the trucks as the drivers tried to get away. It said its troops only fired when they felt endangered by the crowd.
The military said the case is also being investigated by the fact-finding group.
AL-AHLI HOSPITAL EXPLOSION SETS OFF DEADLY INFERNO
An explosion in October in the courtyard of the Al-Ahli hospital, where thousands of Palestinians had sought shelter or medical treatment, set off an inferno that burned men, women and children alive.
There are still conflicting claims over what happened.
Officials in Gaza quickly said an Israeli airstrike had hit the hospital, killing at least 500 people. Images of the aftermath ignited protests across the region.
Within hours, Israeli officials said they had conducted an investigation and determined that they had not been involved. They released live video, audio and other evidence that it said showed the blast was caused by a rocket misfired by Islamic Jihad, another Palestinian militant group.
Islamic Jihad denied responsibility.
An AP investigation, along with US and French intelligence assessments, concluded a misfired rocket likely caused the explosion.
A PALESTINIAN MAN IS SHOT WHILE WALKING WITH OTHERS
In January, the Israeli government announced it was investigating the death of a Palestinian man who was fatally shot while walking with four others.
Video footage shows one of the men holding a white flag — the international symbol of surrender — and the others behind him holding their hands in the air. They then scramble backward as several shots ring out.
In a second clip, one of the men is lying on the ground. The shooter is not visible in the video but before the shots are fired, the camera pans, showing what looks to be an Israeli tank positioned nearby. Ahmed Hijazi, a citizen journalist who filmed the episode, told The Associated Press that an Israeli tank fired on the group.
The army said it conducted an in-depth investigation and found the tank did not fire at the men. It also said it was “not possible to determine with certainty” whether the man was killed by Israeli fire.
FOUR PALESTINIANS ARE SHOT ON A DIRT ROAD
On March 22, Israel’s military launched an investigation after footage emerged appearing to show the bombing of five Palestinians near the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis.
Aerial footage circulating on social media shows four men walking along a dirt road before a strike hits them, killing all four instantly. Another man farther along the road tries to run away before he is hit and killed. The origin of the footage remains unclear.
The military said the investigation had been turned over to the independent fact-finding group.
A GAZA SURGEON DIES IN AN ISRAELI PRISON
Famed Gaza surgeon Adnan Al-Bursh died in an Israeli prison after he was rounded up in an arrest raid on Al Awda hospital in mid-April, according to the United Nations.
Bursh led the orthopedic department at Al-Shifa Hospital. At the time of his arrest in December, he was reportedly in good health and operating on patients, the UN said.
But those who saw Bursh in detention reported that he looked depleted and bore signs of violence, according to Physicians for Human Rights-Israel. Israel’s military and police did not respond to requests for comment.
Palestinian detainees who have returned from Israeli detention have reported beatings, harsh interrogations and neglect while in Israeli custody. Israel has denied the reports. Bursh was transferred to Israel’s Ofer military prison in the West Bank, where he died.
Israeli police will conduct an autopsy of Bursh’s body with a doctor from Physicians for Human Rights-Israel present, the group said, noting it had filed a petition on behalf of Bursh’s family. It’s unclear when the autopsy will be conducted and authorities have released no information on the cause of death.


UAE aid ship sets sail to Gaza Strip from Cyprus port

Updated 49 min 47 sec ago
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UAE aid ship sets sail to Gaza Strip from Cyprus port

  • This latest aid shipment was a joint effort with Cyprus, the United Nations, and various international donors

DUBAI: A new shipment of aid from the UAE, in collaboration with the United States Agency for International Development, has set sail for the Gaza Strip.

The shipment, which departed from Larnaca in Cyprus, had 1,166 tons of essential food supplies on board, according to state news agency WAM.

Traveling via the Port of Ashdod, it entered the Gaza Strip via the Beit Hanoun crossing, facilitated by American Near East Refugee Aid.

The voyage was a joint effort between Cyprus, the UN and various international donors including the EU.