GENEVA: The UN on Tuesday accused Israel of trying to “weaponize” the flow of aid into Gaza, leaving the population desperate for food and water while delivering them “bombs” instead.
The United Nations’ humanitarian agency OCHA decried the worsening situation in the war-ravaged Palestinian territory after nearly nine weeks of a total Israeli blockade on Gaza.
“The bottom line is that there’s no aid to distribute anymore because the aid operation has been strangled... There’s no more to give,” OCHA spokesman Jens Laerke told reporters in Geneva.
In Gaza, “there’s a desperate need for food getting in; they’re getting bombs,” he said.
“They need water; they’re getting bombs. They need health care; they’re getting bombs.”
He voiced outrage at Israel’s recent verbal update to representatives of a grouping of around 15 UN agencies and 200 NGOs indicating plans to “shut down the existing aid distribution system” that the organizations run in Gaza.
“The Israelis have asked them to instead deliver supplies through Israeli hubs under conditions set by the Israeli military,” Laerke said.
The UN had flatly rejected that proposal, he said, stressing that such a plan would “not live up to the core fundamental humanitarian principles of impartiality, neutrality and independent delivery of aid.”
Aid, he insisted, must be given “based on needs and nothing else.”
“It appears to be a deliberate attempt to weaponize the aid,” he said, adding that the proposed system seemed “designed to further control and restrict supplies, which is the opposite of what is needed.”
Instead, what was required to alleviate the suffering was for Israel to allow border crossings to reopen and for life-saving aid to go through, said Laerke.
“We have aid pre-positioned outside of Gaza, ready to go in,” he added.
Colleagues on the ground were describing people “rummaging through garbage trying to find something edible,” he said, slamming the “harsh, brutal, inhuman reality” in the territory.
He said that despite the towering challenges in Gaza since the war erupted 18 months ago, the UN and its partners have largely managed to deliver aid, provide health care, and roll out vaccination campaigns.
“The great frustration of all this is that it is possible, and it can be done,” he said.
Laerke’s comments came a day after Israel’s military said expanded operations in Gaza would include displacing “most” of its residents, after the country’s security cabinet approved a plan that an Israeli official said would entail “the conquest of the Gaza Strip and the holding of the territories.”
Nearly all of Gaza’s inhabitants have already been displaced, often multiple times, since the start of the war sparked by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
“Forced relocations of people: they’re not helpful, obviously,” Laerke said.
“You need to know where people are in order to be able to provide aid to them... it’s another blow.”
Gazans desperately need food, water — ‘they’re getting bombs’: UN
https://arab.news/538kw
Gazans desperately need food, water — ‘they’re getting bombs’: UN
First responders enter devastated Aleppo neighborhood after days of deadly fighting
- The US-backed SDF, which have played a key role in combating the Daesh group in large swaths of eastern Syria, are the largest force yet to be absorbed into Syria’s national army
ALEPPO, Syria: First responders on Sunday entered a contested neighborhood in Syria’ s northern city of Aleppo after days of deadly clashes between government forces and Kurdish-led forces. Syrian state media said the military was deployed in large numbers.
The clashes broke out Tuesday in the predominantly Kurdish neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud, Achrafieh and Bani Zaid after the government and the Syrian Democratic Forces, the main Kurdish-led force in the country, failed to make progress on how to merge the SDF into the national army. Security forces captured Achrafieh and Bani Zaid.
The fighting between the two sides was the most intense since the fall of then-President Bashar Assad to insurgents in December 2024. At least 23 people were killed in five days of clashes and more than 140,000 were displaced amid shelling and drone strikes.
The US-backed SDF, which have played a key role in combating the Daesh group in large swaths of eastern Syria, are the largest force yet to be absorbed into Syria’s national army. Some of the factions that make up the army, however, were previously Turkish-backed insurgent groups that have a long history of clashing with Kurdish forces.
The Kurdish fighters have now evacuated from the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood to northeastern Syria, which is under the control of the SDF. However, they said in a statement they will continue to fight now that the wounded and civilians have been evacuated, in what they called a “partial ceasefire.”
The neighborhood appeared calm Sunday. The United Nations said it was trying to dispatch more convoys to the neighborhoods with food, fuel, blankets and other urgent supplies.
Government security forces brought journalists to tour the devastated area, showing them the damaged Khalid Al-Fajer Hospital and a military position belonging to the SDF’s security forces that government forces had targeted.
The SDF statement accused the government of targeting the hospital “dozens of times” before patients were evacuated. Damascus accused the Kurdish-led group of using the hospital and other civilian facilities as military positions.
On one street, Syrian Red Crescent first responders spoke to a resident surrounded by charred cars and badly damaged residential buildings.
Some residents told The Associated Press that SDF forces did not allow their cars through checkpoints to leave.
“We lived a night of horror. I still cannot believe that I am right here standing on my own two feet,” said Ahmad Shaikho. “So far the situation has been calm. There hasn’t been any gunfire.”
Syrian Civil Defense first responders have been disarming improvised mines that they say were left by the Kurdish forces as booby traps.
Residents who fled are not being allowed back into the neighborhood until all the mines are cleared. Some were reminded of the displacement during Syria’s long civil war.
“I want to go back to my home, I beg you,” said Hoda Alnasiri.
