GENEVA: The use of the US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation to distribute food in the Palestinian territory is “outrageous,” the head of a UN inquiry said Wednesday.
Navi Pillay, who chairs the UN’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Israel and the Palestinian territories, joined a growing chorus of criticism of the GHF’s operations, and cited its US links.
“In every war, the siege and starvation surely leads to death,” the former UN rights chief told journalists.
“But this initiative of what’s called a foundation, a private foundation, to supply food, is what I see as outrageous, because it involves the United States itself, the government, and it turns out, as we watch daily, that people who go to those centers are being killed as they seek food.”
An officially private effort with opaque funding, GHF began operations on May 26 after Israel completely cut off supplies into Gaza for more than two months, sparking warnings of mass famine.
The United Nations and major aid groups have refused to cooperate with the foundation over concerns it was designed to cater to Israeli military objectives.
Dozens of Palestinians have been killed while trying to reach GHF distribution points.
Pillay said the commission would “have to look into... the policy purpose and how it’s being effected.
“We have to spell out what is the motive of, right now, the killing of people who are coming for humanitarian aid from this so-called foundation — and that lives are being lost just in trying to secure food for their children.”
Unprecedented in its open-ended scope, the three-person Commission of Inquiry was established by the UN Human Rights Council in May 2021 to investigate alleged violations of international humanitarian and human rights law in Israel and the Palestinian territories.
South African former High Court judge Pillay, 83, served as a judge on the International Criminal Court and presided over the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.
On Tuesday she presented the commission’s latest report to the Human Rights Council.
It said Israel had attacked Gaza’s schools, religious and cultural sites as part of a “widespread and systematic” assault on the civilian population, in which Israeli forces have committed “war crimes” and “the crime against humanity of extermination.”
Israel does not cooperate with the investigation and has long accused it of “systematic anti-Israel discrimination.”
Gaza Humanitarian Foundation initiative ‘outrageous’: UN probe chief
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Gaza Humanitarian Foundation initiative ‘outrageous’: UN probe chief
- GHF began operations on May 26 after Israel completely cut off supplies into Gaza for more than two months, sparking warnings of mass famine
- UN and major aid groups have refused to cooperate with the foundation over concerns it was designed to cater to Israeli military objectives
Paramilitary shelling on camp kills 8 in Sudan’s Darfur: rescuers
Thursday’s offensive comes just days after a series of attacks by the RSF targeted another battleground region of Sudan
PORT SUDAN: Paramilitary forces shelled a displacement camp in Sudan’s Darfur region on Thursday, killing eight civilians and injuring others, a local rescue group said.
The bombardment hit Abu Shouk camp, which hosts tens of thousands of displaced people on the outskirts of El Fasher, the besieged capital of North Darfur.
El-Fasher remains the last major stronghold in Sudan’s western Darfur region not under the control of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), who have been at war with the regular army since April 2023.
“The Abu Shouk camp witnessed heavy artillery bombardment by the RSF... killing eight people,” the camp’s Emergency Response Room said in a statement.
In recent weeks, El-Fasher, which has been under paramilitary siege since last year, has been locked in intense fighting between warring sides in a region also gripped by famine.
Thursday’s offensive comes just days after a series of attacks by the RSF targeted another battleground region of Sudan.
More than 450 people, including 35 children, were killed in several villages of North Kordofan, southwest of the capital Khartoum, according to a statement released this week by the UN’s children agency.
“No child should ever experience such horrors,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell. “Violence against children is unconscionable and must end now.”
On Sunday, the RSF claimed to have killed more than 470 army personnel near the town of El-Obeid, also in North Kordofan, in a statement posted to its Telegram channel.
Independent verification of casualties in Sudan remains difficult due to restricted access to its conflict zones.
Now in its third year, the conflict has killed tens of thousands and forced millions to flee, creating what the United Nations describes as the world’s largest displacement crisis.
In December last year, famine was officially declared in three displacement camps near El-Fasher, namely Zamzam, Abu Shouk and Al-Salam, according to the UN.
Since the Sudanese army regained control of the capital Khartoum in March, the RSF has shifted its operations westward, focusing on Darfur and Kordofan in a bid to consolidate territorial gains.
In April, RSF fighters seized the Zamzam displacement camp, located near Abu Shouk.
The assault forced nearly 400,000 people to flee, according to UN figures, effectively emptying one of the country’s largest camps for the displaced.
Sudanese analyst Mohaned el-Nour told AFP the RSF aims to redefine its role in the conflict.
“Their goal is no longer to be seen as a militia, but as an alternative government in western Sudan, undermining the legitimacy of the authorities in Port Sudan.”
He added that the recent surge in violence in North Kordofan was likely intended to divert the army’s attention from El Fasher, where the military is trying “at all costs” to maintain.
Europe’s largest missile maker supplying parts to Israel for bombs used in Gaza
- GBU-39 bombs identified as having killed civilians, including children
- UN special rapporteur: ‘Genocide continues because it is lucrative for many’
LONDON: Parts made by Europe’s largest missile maker are being used in bombs launched by Israel in airstrikes on Gaza, an investigation has found.
A joint report by The Guardian, Disclose and Follow the Money discovered that components produced by MBDA are used to construct the GBU-39 bomb.
Wing-like parts, called Diamond-Blacks and manufactured at MBDA’s plant in Alabama, are fitted to the 250 lb GBU-39, which is made by Boeing, allowing the bomb to manoeuver mid-air toward targets.
The GBU-39 is sent to Israel as part of the US military aid program, bought directly from Boeing and transferred from American military stocks.
Deployed aerially from fighter jets over combat zones, an estimated 4,800 have been sent to Israel since the Gaza war began in October 2023.
Open-source analysis found that the weapon has been deployed at least 24 times in Gaza in incidents where civilians, including children, were killed.
The attacks often came at night, targeting shelters including school buildings, camps and a mosque. At least 500 people have been killed in the identified cases, including more than 100 children.
The UN and Amnesty International have both raised concerns that a number of incidents involving GBU-39s amount to war crimes.
Donatella Rovera, a senior investigator at Amnesty, told The Guardian: “Those launching attacks have a legal duty to take precautions so as to avoid harming civilians — even in cases where there may be a military target at the location — including by not striking locations full of civilians.”
Last year, Foreign Secretary David Lammy suspended a number of arms export licenses to Israel over fears that UK-made equipment could be used to commit “serious violations” of international law in Gaza.
But campaigners told The Guardian that the use of Diamond-Black wings, manufactured in the US, shows the limits of the UK government’s measures, which cannot ban the export of items made overseas by sister companies of British firms.
Francesca Albanese, UN special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, said in a report last month that numerous private sector firms continue to arm Israel despite warnings of human rights violations, war crimes and genocide in Gaza.
“The present report shows why the genocide carried out by Israel continues: because it is lucrative for many,” she added.
Sam Perlo-Freeman, research coordinator at Campaign Against the Arms Trade, told The Guardian: “We would support the UK government taking all actions that are within their powers to stop the genocide.
“Beyond an arms embargo, this includes sanctions on companies arming Israel, banning UK investments in such companies.”
MBDA’s code of ethics states that it is “committed to taking the utmost care in identifying and preventing negative direct and indirect impacts our activities may have on human rights, fundamental freedoms and people health and safety.”
Israeli strikes on south Lebanon kill two
- Two people were killed Thursday in separate Israeli strikes on south Lebanon, the Lebanese health ministry said
BEIRUT: Two people were killed Thursday in separate Israeli strikes on south Lebanon, the Lebanese health ministry said, in the latest attacks despite a ceasefire between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah.
The ministry said that “an Israeli drone strike targeted a car” in the Nabatiyeh district, killing one person and wounding two others.
Another strike “targeted a truck in the town of Naqura” in southern Lebanon “resulting in one martyr,” it said in a statement.
The Israeli army did not immediately comment on the incidents.
Israel has repeatedly bombed Lebanon despite a November ceasefire seeking to end over a year of hostilities with Lebanese armed group Hezbollah.
Under the agreement, Hezbollah was to pull its fighters back north of the Litani river, about 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the Israeli border, leaving the Lebanese army and United Nations peacekeepers as the only armed parties in the region.
Israel was required to fully withdraw its troops from the country but has kept them in five places it deems strategic.
Belgian court orders regional government to stop military exports to Israel
- Belgian court orders regional government to stop military exports to Israel, Belga reports
BRUSSELS: A court in Brussels on Thursday ordered the regional Flemish government to stop all transit of military equipment to Israel, Belgian news agency Belga reported.
The region is home to the Antwerp-Bruges port — one of the largest in Europe.
Israel to boost defense spending by $12.5 billion amid regional conflicts on multiple fronts
- The budget is expected to enable the Defense Ministry to advance urgent deals critical to national security, a statement said
JERUSALEM: Israel will increase defense spending by 42 billion shekels ($12.5 billion) this year and in 2026, the finance and defense ministries announced on Thursday, citing mounting security challenges.
The budget agreement will enable the Defense Ministry to "advance urgent and essential procurement deals critical to national security," the ministries said in a joint statement.
The funding boost comes as Israel remains engaged on multiple regional fronts, including its ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza, marked by heavy casualties and widespread destruction. As well as cross-border hostilities with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, and recent strikes with Iran last month in an unprecedented escalation between the two countries.
Israel has also intensified its airstrikes in Syria, targeting sites near the presidential palace and the defense ministry in central Damascus. Meanwhile, it has carried out a series of aerial attacks on Houthi positions in Yemen in response to Houthi attacks.
