JERUSALEM: There is a “narrow window” to prevent famine from spreading further in Gaza, a top UN official said on Sunday, calling on Israel to allow unimpeded aid delivery in the territory, where it is fighting Palestinian militant group Hamas.
According to a global hunger monitor, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are already experiencing or at risk of famine in areas including Gaza City, the enclave’s largest urban center, where Israel has launched a new offensive against Hamas.
Israel, which stopped all aid for 11 weeks from March until mid-May, says it is doing more to let aid enter and be distributed in the enclave to prevent food shortages, though international agencies say far more is needed.
“There is a narrow window – until the end of September – to prevent famine from spreading to Deir al Balah (in central Gaza) and Khan Younis (southern Gaza). That window is now closing fast,” said United Nations aid chief Tom Fletcher.
COGAT, the Israeli defense agency that deals with humanitarian issues, said on Sunday that over the past week aid from more than 1,900 trucks, most supplying food, was distributed in Gaza.
“We will continue facilitating humanitarian aid into Gaza for the civilian population — not Hamas,” COGAT said in a statement.
Israel last month launched an assault on the outskirts of Gaza City and its forces are now just a few kilometers from the city center, where it issued warnings over the weekend to civilians to evacuate high rise buildings it says are being used by Hamas, before bombing them.
Israel did not provide evidence to show Hamas was using the buildings, an accusation the militant group denied.
Overnight, strikes killed 14 people across the city, local health officials said, including a strike on a school in southern Gaza City sheltering displaced Palestinians.
The Israeli military said it had struck a Hamas militant and that civilians had been warned before the strike was carried out.
The military on Saturday also warned Gaza City’s civilians to leave for the south, including Khan Younis, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are already sheltering in cramped tent encampments along the coast.
“Enough is enough”
With hundreds of thousands of people remaining in Gaza City, pressure is growing to end the war.
“We say to Hamas, we want a ceasefire, end this war before Gaza City is turned into ruins like Rafah,” said Gaza City resident Emad, referring to a southern Gaza City that Israel destroyed earlier in the war.
“We want an end to this war. How long is this going to go on? How many lives are going to be wasted? Enough is enough,” he said by phone, asking for his surname not to be published.
The war has grown increasingly unpopular among Israelis too. On Saturday night, tens of thousands of protesters joined families of hostages at rallies, calling for an end to the war and demanding the release of the hostages.
Twenty of the 48 hostages still in Gaza are believed to still be alive.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said that the war could end immediately if Hamas released the hostages and laid down its weapons.
“We will be more than happy to reach this objective with political means,” he told a press conference in Jerusalem.
In response, senior Hamas official Basem Naim said the group would not disarm but would release all hostages if Israel ended the war and withdrew all its forces from Gaza, reiterating Hamas’ long-standing position.
More than 64,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel’s military assault, launched after Hamas-led militants carried out the surprise October 7, 2023 attack that killed 1,200 people and saw another 251 abducted and taken into Gaza.
Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen, speaking to reporters in Jerusalem alongside his Israeli counterpart, called on Israel to “change course” and stop its military campaign.
“We are extremely concerned about the humanitarian (situation),” he said, also calling for the hostages to be freed.
UN says time is short to stop famine spreading as Israel bombards Gaza City
https://arab.news/9g34t
UN says time is short to stop famine spreading as Israel bombards Gaza City
- According to a global hunger monitor, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are already experiencing or at risk of famine in areas including Gaza City
Gazans struggle to retrieve bodies as storms lash war-damaged buildings
- Gaza Civil Defense spokesman Mahmoud Basal called on the international community to provide mobile homes and caravans for displaced Palestinians rather than tents
- UN and Palestinian officials said at least 300,000 new tents are urgently needed for the roughly 1.5 million people still displaced. Most existing shelters are worn out or made of thin plastic and cloth sheeting
GAZA: Authorities in Gaza warned on Monday that more war-damaged buildings may collapse because of heavy rain in the devastated Palestinian enclave.
They said the weather was making it hard to recover bodies still under the rubble.
Two buildings collapsed in Gaza on Friday, killing at least 12 people according to local health authorities, amid a storm that has also washed away and flooded tents, and led to deaths from exposure.
Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire in October after two years of intense bombardment and military operations.
However, humanitarian agencies say there is still very little aid getting into Gaza, where nearly the entire population is homeless.
Gaza Civil Defense spokesman Mahmoud Basal called on the international community to provide mobile homes and caravans for displaced Palestinians rather than tents.
“If people are not protected today, we will witness more victims, more killing of people, children, women, entire families inside these buildings,” he said.
Mohammed Nassar and his family were living in a six-story building that was severely damaged by Israeli strikes earlier in the war, and then collapsed on Friday.
His family had struggled to find alternative accommodation and had been flooded out while living in a tent during a previous severe weather event. Nassar went out to buy some necessities on Friday and returned to a scene of carnage with rescue workers struggling to pull bodies from the rubble.
“I saw my son’s hand sticking out from under the ground. The scene affected me the most. My son is under the ground, and we are unable to get him out,” Nassar said. His son, 15, died, as did a daughter, aged 18.
Later on Monday, the head of the UN Palestinian refugee agency said more aid must be allowed into Gaza without delays to prevent putting more displaced families at serious risk.
“With heavy rain and cold brought in by Storm Byron, people in the Gaza Strip are freezing to death,” UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini posted on X.
“The waterlogged ruins where they are sheltering are collapsing, causing even more exposure to cold,” he added.
Lazzarini said they have supplies that have been waiting for months to enter Gaza and would cover the needs of hundreds of thousands of the population of over 2 million.
UN and Palestinian officials said at least 300,000 new tents are urgently needed for the roughly 1.5 million people still displaced. Most existing shelters are worn out or made of thin plastic and cloth sheeting.
Gaza authorities are meanwhile still digging to recover around 9,000 bodies they estimate remain buried in rubble from Israeli bombing during the war, but they lack the machinery needed to expedite the work, spokesman Ismail
Al-Thawabta said.
On Monday, rescue workers retrieved the remains of around 20 people from a multi-story building bombed in December 2023, where around 60 people, including 30 children, were believed to be sheltering.
Gaza authorities say Israel is not allowing in as much aid as promised under the truce.
Aid agencies say Israel is blocking essential items.
Israel says it is meeting its obligations and accuses agencies of inefficiency and failing to prevent theft by Hamas, which the group denies.
