ROME: Daily life has become “apocalyptic” in parts of southern Gaza since Israel moved into the city of Rafah, though the situation in the north is improving, the UN’s food agency said Friday.
“The exodus that we’ve seen in the past 20 days or so out of Rafah has been an awesome and horrific experience for many, many people,” Matthew Hollingworth, the World Food Programme (WFP) director for the Palestinian territories.
They have fled the fighting to areas where there was not enough water, health care or fuel, where food was limited, telecommunications had stopped and there was not enough space to dig pit latrines, Hollingworth told an online briefing.
The public health situation was “beyond crisis levels,” he said, adding: “The sounds and smells of everyday life are horrific and apocalyptic.”
People “sleep to the sounds of war... and they wake to the same sounds,” he said.
The WFP was able to provide “ever decreasing amounts of assistance,” with all of its bakeries in Rafah closed due to a lack of fuel and supplies, he said.
From May 7 — when Israeli tanks and troops entered Rafah’s east — to May 20, “not a single WFP truck crossed from the southern corridors from Egypt,” Hollingworth said.
The WFP also lost access to its main warehouse in the south of the Gaza Strip because it was in an evacuation zone, with 2,700 tons of food either looted or destroyed in fighting.
Hollingworth said the WFP was serving around 27,000 people with hot meals in Rafah — “but that’s not enough.”
In central areas of the Gaza Strip, where many people fled, the WFP is providing around 400,000 hot meals a day, and has kept six bakeries functioning.
Commercial food is also getting in, he said, but many people have no money, with some even resorting to trading their identity cards — which they need if they want to register for aid.
Hollingworth said aid trucks from Egypt had begun entering the Gaza Strip through the Israeli-controlled Kerem Shalom crossing.
“Since May 20, we have started to get a trickle of assistance in,” he said, though he warned the security situation was still slowing down the deliveries.
“That has to turn into a flood of assistance if we’re going to ensure we don’t start seeing the most acute forms of hunger becoming more common,” he said.
In the north of the Palestinian territory, by contrast, where UN agencies warned of imminent famine in March, Hollingworth said the situation was improving.
With the opening of crossings, around 12,000 tons of inter-agency assistance, mostly food, had been delivered since May 1.
“There has been a step change in terms of availability of food,” he said, though problems of health care, clean water supply and sewage remained.
The United States has built a temporary pier into Gaza, but it was damaged in poor weather, suspending deliveries.
During the two weeks it was open, about 1,000 tons of inter-agency aid moved through the pier, Hollingworth said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said his government is doing everything to avoid famine in Gaza, and noted a study saying that calorie consumption in the territory was 3,200 a day — more than enough.
“I have not seen anybody, aid workers alike who live off protein bars, eat 3,000 calories or more in Gaza,” Hollingworth said.
The Gaza war was sparked by Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,189 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Militants also took 252 hostages, 121 of whom remain in Gaza, including 37 the army says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 36,284 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.
WFP warns of ‘apocalyptic’ scenes in southern Gaza
https://arab.news/5fcsy
WFP warns of ‘apocalyptic’ scenes in southern Gaza
- The public health situation was “beyond crisis levels” Matthew Hollingworth, WFP director for the Palestinian territories said
- From May 7 — when Israeli tanks and troops entered Rafah’s east — to May 20, “not a single WFP truck crossed from the southern corridors from Egypt,” Hollingworth said
Aleppo Citadel is a witness to the city’s great history and legacy
- Parts of military fortress date back nearly 2 millennia
- Historian Abdullah Hajjar provides an extensive study
DAMASCUS: Towering above the old city, the Aleppo Citadel has stood for centuries as both a military stronghold and symbol of the location’s layered history.
After years of closure, neglect, and damage during the war, the Aleppo Citadel reopened to visitors on Sept. 27 following months of restoration.
The site has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage landmark since 1986.
Rising around 38 meters above its surroundings, the fortress has played a central role in Aleppo’s political, military, and urban development.
Surrounded by a deep defensive moat, the citadel reflects advanced military engineering.
According to historian Abdullah Hajjar in his book “Archaeological Landmarks of Aleppo,” first published in 2010, the moat was excavated and reinforced during the reign of Ayyubid ruler Al-Zahir Ghazi.
At times it was 22 meters deep and about 30 meters wide, and filled with water to strengthen defenses.
Parts of the citadel date back nearly two millennia.
The lower section of its main entrance originates from the third century A.D., while the upper additions were made in the 15th century. Most of the towers and walls were built or expanded between the 13th and 16th centuries.
The citadel has repeatedly been damaged and rebuilt over the centuries. It was destroyed by the Sassanids in 540 A.D., but later restored.
Inside its walls, the citadel contains mosques, military structures, and residential buildings, offering a rare glimpse into daily life within a medieval fortress.
Among its landmarks are the Ibrahim Al-Khalil Mosque, the Great Mosque, defensive towers, barracks, and several historic houses.
Archaeological excavations have uncovered remains from multiple eras. This includes a ninth-century B.C. temple, Roman and Byzantine sarcophagi, and water cisterns dating to the reign of Byzantine Emperor Justinian, who rebuilt Aleppo’s fortifications in the sixth century against Persian invaders.
The citadel flourished during the Mamluk period, when it was restored by Sultan Baybars after the 1260 Battle of Ain Jalut.
Later inscriptions document victories by Mamluk rulers over Crusader and Mongol forces.
Under Ottoman rule, following the Battle of Marj Dabiq in 1516, the fortress gradually lost its military role and became an administrative and residential site.
The book outlines the various stages of restoration of the Aleppo Citadel over the centuries.
It highlights that Al-Zahir Ghazi, son of Saladdine Ayyubi, excavated the moat, reinforced the entrance with three wrought-iron gates, and built a large mosque within the fortress.
Later, Al-Zahir Baybars restored the citadel after the Mongol invasion, and in 1417, Sultan Al-Mu’ayyad Shaykh repaired its walls following their destruction by Timur in 1401.
The Aleppo Citadel has also survived powerful earthquakes, including a devastating quake in 1138 and another in 1822, each followed by major restoration efforts led by regional rulers of the time.
Beyond the citadel itself, Hajjar’s research documents Aleppo’s wider architectural heritage, including historic bathhouses and caravanserais that once supported the city’s role as a major trade center.
