UNITED NATIONS: United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Friday that “scattered measures” for Gaza aid are not enough after Israel told the UN it will allow a “meaningful increase” in aid.
“It’s not enough to have scattered measures — we need a paradigm shift,” Guterres told reporters at the UN’s New York headquarters.
He had earlier said that in the aftermath of Israel’s killing of seven humanitarian workers from World Central Kitchen, the UN “was informed by the Israeli government of its intention to allow a meaningful increase in humanitarian aid distributed in Gaza.”
Israel announced on Friday that it would allow “temporary” aid deliveries into famine-threatened northern Gaza, hours after the United States warned of a potential shift in its policy over Israel’s war against Hamas militants.
Palestinians in northern Gaza have eaten an average of just 245 calories per day — less than a can of beans — since January, according to the charity Oxfam.
Charities have accused Israel of blocking aid, but Israel had defended its efforts and blamed shortages on groups’ inability to distribute aid once it gets in.
The bloodiest-ever Gaza war began with Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel that resulted in the deaths of 1,170 Israelis and foreigners, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Palestinian militants also took around 250 hostages, about 130 of whom remain in Gaza, including 34 whom the army says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 33,091 people, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, while the United Nations has warned of “catastrophic” hunger.
UN chief says ‘scattered measures’ for Gaza aid not enough
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UN chief says ‘scattered measures’ for Gaza aid not enough
- “It’s not enough to have scattered measures — we need a paradigm shift,” Guterres told reporters
- Palestinians in northern Gaza have eaten an average of just 245 calories per day — less than a can of beans — since January, according to the charity Oxfam
Turkiye detains 110 suspects in operation targeting Daesh after deadly clash
- In Tuesday’s operation, police carried out raids on 114 addresses in Istanbul and two other provinces, arresting 110 of the total 115 suspects that they sought
ISTANBUL: Turkish police detained 110 suspects in an operation against Daesh on Tuesday, a day after three police officers and six militants were killed in a gunfight in northwest Turkiye, the Istanbul chief prosecutor’s office said.
Police conducted an eight-hour siege at a house in the town of Yalova, on the Sea of Marmara coast south of Istanbul, a week after more than 100 suspected Daesh members were detained in connection with alleged plans to carry out Christmas and New Year attacks. Eight police officers and another security force member were wounded in the raid on the property, which was one of more than 100 addresses targeted by authorities on Monday.
In Tuesday’s operation, police carried out raids on 114 addresses in Istanbul and two other provinces, arresting 110 of the total 115 suspects that they sought, the prosecutor’s statement said. It said various digital materials and documents were seized.
Turkiye has stepped up operations against suspected Daesh militants this year, as the group returns to prominence globally. The US carried out a strike against the militants in northwest Nigeria last week, while two gunmen who attacked a Hanukkah event at Sydney’s Bondi Beach this month appeared to be inspired by Daesh, Australian police have said. On December 19, the US military launched strikes against dozens of Daesh targets in Syria in retaliation for an attack on American personnel.
Almost a decade ago, the jihadist group was blamed for a series of attacks on civilian targets in Turkiye, including gun attacks on an Istanbul nightclub and the city’s main airport, killing dozens of people. Turkiye was a key transit point for foreign fighters, including those of Daesh, entering and leaving Syria during the war there.
Police have carried out regular operations against the group in subsequent years and there have been few attacks since the wave of violence between 2015-2017.
