RAFAH: Italian parliamentarians protested on Sunday in front of Egypt’s Rafah border crossing with Gaza, calling for aid access and an end to the war in the devastated Palestinian territory.
“Europe is not doing enough, nothing to stop the massacre,” Cecilia Strada, an Italian member of the European parliament, told AFP.
The group — including 11 members of the Italian parliament, three MEPs and representatives of NGOs — held signs reading “Stop genocide now,” “End illegal occupation” and “Stop arming Israel.”
“There should be a complete embargo on weapons to and from Israel and a stop to trade with illegal settlements,” Strada said.
The protesters laid toys on the ground in solidarity with Gaza’s children, who the UN warns face “a growing risk of starvation, illness and death” more than two months into a total Israeli aid blockade.
At least 15,000 children have been killed in Gaza since the Israel-Hamas war began in October 2023, according to the United Nations.
Israel has faced mounting pressure to lift its aid blockade, as UN agencies warn of critical shortages of food, clean water, fuel and medicines.
It resumed its offensive on March 18, ending a two-month truce in its war against Hamas triggered by the Palestinian militant group’s October 2023 attack on Israel.
On Saturday Israel announced an expanded military campaign, killing dozens of people in new strikes.
“We hear the bombs right now,” Walter Massa, president of Italian non-profit organization Associazione Ricreativa Culturale Italiana, told AFP near the crossing.
“The Israeli army continues to do what it believes is right in the face of an international community that does not intervene, and in Gaza, beyond the Rafah crossing border, people continue to die,” he said.
UN chief Antonio Guterres said Saturday said he was “alarmed” at the escalation and called for “a permanent ceasefire, now.”
Italy’s government on Saturday reiterated its calls to Israel to stop attacking Gaza, with Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani saying: “Enough with the attacks.”
“We no longer want to see the Palestinian people suffer,” Tajani said.
Gaza’s health ministry said Sunday 3,193 people have been killed since Israel resumed its strikes on March 18, taking the war’s overall toll to 53,339.
Italian MPs protest at Egypt’s Gaza border against war
https://arab.news/bdbup
Italian MPs protest at Egypt’s Gaza border against war
- The group — including 11 members of the Italian parliament, three MEPs and representatives of NGOs — held signs reading “Stop genocide now”
Why BCG’s involvement in Gaza marks an all-time low for consulting firms
- FT investigation examined Boston Consulting Group’s role in Gaza aid planning, including plans for Palestinian relocation
- BCG has disavowed the work and fired two senior partners — but the scandal sheds light on the wider industry’s irresponsibility
LONDON: A Financial Times investigation, published on July 4, found that a consulting firm connected to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation secured a multimillion-dollar contract to help shape the initiative and a proposal for the possible “relocation” of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.
The Boston Consulting Group was found to have played a central role in designing and managing the US- and Israeli-backed project, which aimed to replace the UN as the primary coordinator of humanitarian aid in Gaza.
Amid growing criticism, BCG denied any ongoing involvement in the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. In a June 7 statement, the firm said it initially provided “pro bono support” in October 2024 to help launch “an aid organization intended to operate alongside other relief efforts.”
The firm said two senior US-based partners who led the initiative “failed to disclose the full nature of the work” and later engaged in “unauthorized” activities outside the firm’s oversight.
“Their actions reflected a serious failure of judgment and adherence to our standards,” the firm said. “We are shocked and outraged by the actions of these two partners. They have been exited from the firm.
“BCG disavows the work they undertook. It has been stopped, and BCG has not and will not be paid for any of their work.”
The company emphasized it is strengthening internal controls to prevent future breaches. “We deeply regret that in this situation we did not live up to our standards,” the statement said. “We are committed to accountability for our failures and humility in how we move forward.”
FAST FACTS:
• A Financial Times investigation examined BCG’s role in Gaza aid planning, including controversial proposals for Palestinian relocation.
• BCG disavowed the work and fired two senior partners, but documents suggest deeper involvement and lapses in internal oversight.
• The scandal underscores wider concerns about consulting firms’ ethics, with similar controversies involving PwC, KPMG, EY and McKinsey.
Following the FT story, BCG issued another statement on July 6 disputing aspects of the reporting. “Recent media reporting has misrepresented BCG’s role in post-war Gaza reconstruction,” the firm said.
BCG reiterated that the initiative was not an official company project and was carried out in secret. “Two former partners initiated this work, even though the lead partner was categorically told not to,” the statement read.
“This work was not a BCG project. It was orchestrated and run secretly outside any BCG scope or approvals. We fully disavow this work. BCG was not paid for any of this work.”
However, individuals familiar with “Aurora” told the FT that BCG’s involvement ran deeper. The report revealed that BCG created a financial model for Gaza’s postwar reconstruction that included scenarios for mass displacement.
This revelation intensified scrutiny of the consulting industry’s ethical boundaries.
“Consulting companies… are held to a higher standard of professionalism and ethics than other lines of work,” Dr. Abdel Aziz Aluwaisheg, the Gulf Cooperation Council assistant secretary-general for political affairs and negotiation, wrote in an April opinion piece for Arab News.
He warned that without corrective action, major firms risk alienating clients.
ndeed, in recent years, top consulting firms like McKinsey, PwC, KPMG, and EY have faced growing scrutiny for putting profit over ethics, with scandals revealing conduct lapses worldwide.
McKinsey, for instance, faced heavy backlash for its role in the US opioid crisis. The firm was accused of helping Purdue Pharma and other manufacturers to aggressively market addictive painkillers, including OxyContin, The New York Times reported.
Aluwaisheg noted in his op-ed that some of these ethical lapses “are quite common throughout the consulting business.”
However, he added, “big firms are more likely to commit them,” citing sprawling operations that limit senior management oversight.
The industry’s core business model may be the issue: consulting firms adopted law firms’ high-fee model for expert advice — without their legal liability.
Despite this, demand for consulting services remains high. Aluwaisheg believes governments and businesses will continue to need outside expertise.
Still, accountability concerns have prompted some governments to take action. In February, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund banned PwC from taking on new advisory and consulting contracts for one year.
Some media outlets reported that the decision was related to an ethical violation tied to an alleged recruitment of a senior-level employee from the client’s side. The suspension did not impact PwC’s auditing work.
These events highlight ongoing concerns over consulting firms’ roles in controversial actions. In April 2024, KPMG’s Dutch arm was fined $25 million after over 500 staff cheated on internal training exams, Reuters reported.
Yet the BCG case may represent a new low for the industry.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s model bypassed traditional organizations like the UN, restricted aid distribution to limited sites under Israeli oversight and relied on private security contractors. This move has had deadly consequences.
According to Gaza’s health authority, at least 740 Palestinians have been killed and almost 4,900 injured while attempting to reach aid centers, drawing condemnation from humanitarian organizations and UN officials.
UN aid chief Tom Fletcher called the initiative a “fig leaf for further violence and displacement” of Palestinians in the war-torn enclave.
In a July 10 letter to the FT editor, BCG’s CEO Christoph Schweizer pushed back against the allegations that his firm endorsed or profited from projects related to Gaza.
“None of that is true,” Schweizer wrote, adding that “a few people from BCG were involved in such work. They never should have been.”
Adding another layer to the controversy, FT reported on July 6 that staff from the Tony Blair Institute were also implicated in postwar planning that included scenarios for mass Palestinian displacement — despite being prominent advocates for peace in the Middle East.
The plan, seen by the FT, imagined Gaza as a regional economic hub, complete with a “Trump Riviera” and “Elon Musk Smart Manufacturing Zone,” based on financial models developed by BCG.
While the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change denied authoring “The Great Trust” blueprint, it acknowledged two staff joined Gaza planning calls and chats. It also denied backing population relocation.
Arab News approached the TBI for comment, but did not receive a response by the time of publication.
Nevertheless, its involvement has triggered additional concerns about the ethics of postwar reconstruction planning and the role of consulting firms in shaping policies with far-reaching humanitarian consequences.
Syrian, Israeli officials meet in Baku: Diplomatic source in Damascus
- Meeting marked major step for two countries which have been foes for decades
DAMASCUS: A Syrian and an Israeli official met face to face in Baku Saturday on the sidelines of a visit to Azerbaijan by President Ahmed Al-Sharaa, a diplomatic source in Damascus said.
The meeting marked a major step for the two countries which have been foes for decades, and comes after Israel initially cold-shouldered Al-Sharaa’s administration as jihadist because of his past links to Al-Qaeda.
“A meeting took place between a Syrian official and an Israeli official on the sidelines of Al-Sharaa’s visit to Baku,” the source said, requesting anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
Israel is a major arms supplier to Azerbaijan and has a significant diplomatic presence in the Caucasus nation which neighbors its arch foe Iran.
Al-Sharaa himself did not take part in the meeting, which focused on “the recent Israeli military presence in Syria,” the source added.
After the overthrow of longtime ruler Bashar Assad in December, Israel carried out hundreds of air strikes in Syria to prevent key military assets falling into the hands of the Islamist-led interim administration headed by Al-Sharaa.
It also sent troops into the UN-patrolled buffer zone that used to separate the opposing forces in the strategic Golan Heights, from which it has conducted forays deeper into southern Syria.
Al-Sharaa has said repeatedly that Syria does not seek conflict with its neighbors, and has instead asked the international community to put pressure on Israel to halt its attacks.
His government recently confirmed that it had held indirect contacts with Israel seeking a return to the 1974 disengagement agreement which created the buffer zone.
Late last month, Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said Israel was interested in striking a peace and normalization agreement with Syria.
A Syria government source quoted by state media responded that such talk was “premature.”
But during a visit to Lebanon this week, US special envoy to Syria Tom Barrack said: “The dialogue has started between Syria and Israel.”
After meeting Al-Sharaa in Riyadh in May, US President Donald Trump told reporters he had expressed hope that Syria would join other Arab states which normalized their relations with Israel.
“(Al-Sharaa) said yes. But they have a lot of work to do,” Trump said.
During his visit to Baku, Al-Sharaa held talks with his counterpart Ilham Aliyev, the two governments said.
Azerbaijan announced it would begin exporting gas to Syria via Turkiye, a key ally of both governments, a statement from the Azerbaijani presidency said.
5 children playing soccer killed in Yemen explosion
- Two local residents who were eyewitnesses, Ahmed Al-Sharee and Khaled Al-Areki, said that the children were playing soccer when the explosion happened
ADEN: Five children in southwestern Yemen died after an explosive device detonated in a residential area where they were playing soccer, rights groups and eyewitnesses said on Saturday.
The circumstances surrounding their deaths on Friday night in Al-Hashmah subdistrict of Taiz province remain unclear.
A spokesperson for the United Nations children’s agency UNICEF said that they are aware of reports about the incident but can’t verify the facts at the moment.
Two local residents who were eyewitnesses, Ahmed Al-Sharee and Khaled Al-Areki, said that the children were playing soccer when the explosion happened.
At least three people with minor to moderate injuries were also taken to the hospital.
Mahmoud Al-Mansi, another eyewitness, said the explosive was directed from an area where forces allied with the Islah party were present.
The Yemen Center for Human Rights condemned the incident in a report that included graphic photos of the children’s torn bodies. Citing health care sources at Al-Rafai Hospital, where the victims arrived unresponsive, the group said they died from shrapnel injuries.
Two of the children were 12 years old, while two others were 14 years old, according to the group. The age of the fifth child is unknown.
US envoy Tom Barrack clarifies Syria comments, denies they were threat to Lebanon
- Reports cited Barrack warning that Lebanon risked “going back to Bilad Al-Sham”
- Syrian government also moved to quash speculation that it was planning escalatory steps against Lebanon
LONDON: US Special Envoy Tom Barrack has sought to clarify remarks made during his recent visit to the region, saying that his comments praising Syria’s progress were not intended as a threat to neighboring Lebanon.
“My comments yesterday praised Syria’s impressive strides, not a threat to Lebanon,” Barrack posted on X on Saturday.
“I observed the reality that Syria is moving at light speed to seize the historic opportunity presented by @POTUS’ lifting of sanctions: Investment from Turkiye and the Gulf, diplomatic outreach to neighboring countries and a clear vision for the future. I can assure that Syria’s leaders only want coexistence and mutual prosperity with Lebanon, and the US is committed to supporting that relationship between two equal and sovereign neighbors enjoying peace and prosperity,” he added.
The clarification comes after reports in Lebanese media, including from MTV Lebanon, cited Barrack as warning that Lebanon risked “going back to Bilad Al-Sham” if it failed to act quickly on regional realignment.
The term Bilad Al-Sham, historically referring to Greater Syria, encompasses present-day Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Palestine under the Ottoman Empire; a sensitive concept in Lebanon given fears over sovereignty and outside interference.
Barrack’s comments were widely interpreted by some local outlets as a warning that Lebanon could fall under renewed Syrian influence if it failed to align with shifting regional dynamics.
Meanwhile on Saturday, the Syrian government also moved to quash speculation that it was planning escalatory steps against Lebanon over the issue of Syrian detainees held in Lebanese prisons.
A Syrian Ministry of Information official said that the detainee issue remains “a top priority” and that Damascus is committed to resolving it “swiftly through official channels between the two countries.”
Earlier reports had cited unnamed sources close to the Syrian government suggesting that diplomatic and economic retaliation was under consideration in response to what Damascus saw as Lebanon’s neglect of the detainees’ plight.
However, the Information Ministry source denied this, saying there were no such plans and reaffirming Syria’s commitment to bilateral resolution.
In an interview with Arab News on Friday, Barrack had made remarks reflecting growing US concern over Lebanon’s political inertia and the evolving role of Hezbollah.
“If Lebanon doesn’t hurry up and get in line, everyone around them will,” Barrack warned, pointing to a broader regional shift sparked by the lifting of US sanctions on Syria.
He framed the moment as pivotal for Lebanon, with pressure mounting for a new political order.
Addressing questions about Hezbollah’s future, Barrack said the group consists of “two parts,” an Iran-backed militant faction designated as a terrorist organization, and a political wing operating in Lebanon’s parliament.
He added that any disarmament process “must be led by the Lebanese government, with the full agreement of Hezbollah itself.”
Barrack said: “That process has to start with the Council of Ministers. They have to authorize the mandate. And Hezbollah, the political party, has to agree to that. But what Hezbollah is saying is, ‘OK, we understand one Lebanon has to happen.’ Why? Because one Syria is starting to happen.”
On Syria, Barrack described the lifting of sanctions on May 13 as a “strategic fresh start” for the war-ravaged nation and said that the US was not intending to pursue “nation-building or federalism.”
He called the Middle East a “difficult zip code at an amazingly historic time,” and told Arab News that the Trump administration’s new approach was designed to offer “a new slice of hope” to the Syrian people.
“President (Trump)’s message is peace and prosperity,” he said. “Sanctions gave the people hope. That’s really all that happened at that moment.”
Fuel shortages in Gaza at ‘critical levels,’ UN warns
- Seven UN agencies said in a joint statement that “fuel is the backbone of survival in Gaza”
GENEVA: The United Nations warned Saturday that dire fuel shortages in the Gaza Strip had reached “critical levels,” threatening to further increase the suffering in the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.
Seven UN agencies said in a joint statement that “fuel is the backbone of survival in Gaza.”
Fuel was needed to “power hospitals, water systems, sanitation networks, ambulances, and every aspect of humanitarian operations,” they said, highlighting that bakeries also needed fuel to operate.
The besieged Palestinian territory has been facing dire fuel shortages since the beginning of the devastating war that erupted after Hamas’s deadly attack inside Israel on October 7, 2023.
But now “fuel shortage in Gaza has reached critical levels,” warned the agencies, including the World Health Organization, the World Food Programme and the humanitarian agency OCHA.
“After almost two years of war, people in Gaza are facing extreme hardships, including widespread food insecurity,” they pointed out.
“When fuel runs out, it places an unbearable new burden on a population teetering on the edge of starvation.”
The UN said that without adequate fuel, the agencies that have been responding to the deep humanitarian crisis in a territory swathes of which have been flattened by Israeli bombing and facing famine warnings, “will likely be forced to stop their operations entirely.”
“This means no health services, no clean water, and no capacity to deliver aid,” the statement said.
“Without adequate fuel, Gaza faces a collapse of humanitarian efforts,” it warned.
“Without fuel, bakeries and community kitchens cannot operate. Water production and sanitation systems will shut down, leaving families without safe drinking water, while solid waste and sewage pile up in the streets,” it added.
“These conditions expose families to deadly disease outbreaks and push Gaza’s most vulnerable even closer to death.”
The warning comes days after the UN managed to bring fuel into Gaza for the first time in 130 days.
While a “welcome development,” the UN agencies said the 75,000 liters of fuel they were able to bring in was just “a small fraction of what is needed each day to keep daily life and critical aid operations running.”
“The United Nations agencies and humanitarian partners cannot overstate the urgency of this moment,” they said.
“Fuel must be allowed into Gaza in sufficient quantities and consistently to sustain life-saving operations.”
