SPECIAL REPORTS PALESTINE

FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA - FREE PALESTINE
with special thanks to citizen-reporter 'Biba' (Algeria)
June wk4 P3 -- June wk4 P2 --  June wk4 -- June wk3 P2 -- Click here for an overview by week in 2024

 

June 26 - 20, 2024 Editorial note: As usual I could easily and simply mark-up the most important headlines and end with... and more news but most with a 'give way or go away' yell! ...but I'll give you keywords instead: - Genocide; - Starvation; - De-hydration and more, much more. But instead I say "Just read if you can and dare."

June 24 - 22, 2024 <<Israeli soldiers strapped injured Palestinian to jeep after West Bank arrest raid... Inhumanity does have a face... i.e. Tyrants and killers are of all times. And always thinking the highest of themselves. But in the the end they always fall. Mahatma Ghandi and more news but most with a 'give way or go away' yell! Next update Thursday June 27, 20.00 hours GMT June 22 - 20, 2024 Food for thought on the below headlines: "Hamas |or the Palestinians| cannot be eliminated |nor genocided| Click here to go throughout June and earler, 2024

June 14, 2024 Palestinian-Jordanian journalist Hiba Abu Taha sentenced to one year in prison

Related news: June 25 - 23, 2024: Press' vests do not protect them and related stories June 15, 2024 "Palestinian photographer Motaz Azaiza, on the front lines of Gaza's destruction..."   Click here for earlier stories/news

May 23, 2024 In commemoration of Roshdi Sarraj and tribute to Shrouq Al Aila

 
When one hurts or kills a women
one hurts or kills hummanity and is an antrocitie.
Gino d'Artali
and: My mother (1931-1997) always said to me <Mi figlio, non esistono notizie <vecchie> perche puoi imparare qualcosa da qualsiasi notizia.> Translated: <My son, there is no such thing as so called 'old' news because you can learn something from any news.>
Gianna d'Artali.



200 aid workers killed
Jinha - Womens News Agency - June 26, 2024
<<More than 200 aid workers killed in Gaza since Oct.7
More than 200 aid workers have been killed in the Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023, Yasmina Guerda, Humanitarian Affairs Officer at the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said in a press briefing on Tuesday.
News Center- Since October 7,2023, Israel has been attacking the Gaza Strip, killing at least 37,658 Palestinians and injuring 86,237 others, according to the statement released by the Gaza's health ministry on Tuesday. At the weekly UN Geneva press briefing on Tuesday, Yasmina Guerda, Humanitarian Affairs Officer at the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), who had just returned from a three-month deployment to Gaza, talked about what she had witnessed during her 3-month deployment in Gaza.
'There was no safe corner in Gaza'
<For those who survived the bombing of their neighborhood by running away on time, it was only the beginning of the nightmare. In most humanitarian responses, displaced people could eventually find some sort of safety, but the past nine months had confirmed there was no safe corner in Gaza,> said Yasmina Guerda. <The ongoing fighting had killed over 200 aid workers in nine months.> >>
Source:
https://jinhaagency.com/en/actual/more-than-200-aid-workers-killed-in-gaza-since-oct-7-35273

France 25 - June 26, 2024
<<Live: Norwegian pension fund blacklists Caterpillar over Gaza fears
Norway's largest pension fund said Wednesday it had divested from US industrial group Caterpillar because of the risk its equipment was being used by the Israeli army in Gaza.Follow our liveblog for all the latest developments.
Summary:
Norway's largest pension fund said Wednesday it had divested from US industrial group Caterpillar because of the risk its equipment was being used by the Israeli army in Gaza.
Senior UN officials have told Israel they will suspend aid operations across Gaza unless urgent steps are taken to better protect humanitarian workers from Israeli strikes and to curb growing lawlessness hindering aid efforts.
Israelis who were taken hostage or lost loved ones during Hamas's October 7 attack are suing the United Nations agency that aids Palestinians, claiming it has helped finance the militants by paying agency staffers in US dollars and thereby funnelling them to money-changers in Gaza who allegedly give a cut to Hamas.
Gaza remains at high risk of famine as war between Israel and Hamas continues and access to aid is restricted, though delivery of supplies had limited the projected spread of extreme hunger in northern areas, a global monitor said on Tuesday. More than 6,800 metric tons, or 15 million pounds, of food and aid has flowed through the US military-built pier in Gaza. However, the US says very little of it has left the storage area and is stacking up on the beach due to security concerns among the aid agencies who deliver it throughout Gaza.>>
Read more here:
https://www.france24.com/en/middle-east/20240626-%F0%9F%94%B4-live-norwegian-fund-blacklists-caterpillar-over-gaza-fears

BBC - June 25, 2024 - By David Gritten
<<'High risk' of famine in Gaza persists, new UN-backed report says
The World Food Programme said the report <paints a stark picture of ongoing hunger> in Gaza
A UN-backed assessment says almost half a million Palestinians across Gaza are still facing <catastrophic levels> of hunger and that a <high risk> of famine persists as long as the Israel-Hamas war continues and humanitarian access is restricted. However, the report by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) says the available evidence does not indicate a famine is currently occurring in the north of the Palestinian territory. The previous assessment in March had projected that one was imminent in the area. The amount of food and other aid allowed into the north has increased since then, and nutrition, water, sanitation and health services have been stepped up, the report says. But it warns that food availability in the south and central Gaza has been significantly reduced due to the closure of the Rafah border crossing and the displacement of more than one million people from the city of Rafah since early May, when Israel launched a ground operation there. The UN World Food Programme (WFP) said the report <paints a stark picture of ongoing hunger> and showed the critical importance of sustained humanitarian access. UN officials have blamed the situation on Israeli military restrictions on aid deliveries, the ongoing hostilities and the breakdown of law and order. Israel insists there are no limits to the amount of aid that can be delivered into and across Gaza and blames UN agencies for failing to distribute supplies. It also accuses Hamas of stealing aid, which the group denies. The Israeli military launched a campaign to destroy Hamas in response to an unprecedented attack on southern Israel on 7 October, during which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage. More than 37,650 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry. The IPC - a global initiative by UN agencies, aid groups and governments - is the primary mechanism the international community uses to conclude whether a famine is happening. Households are classified as IPC Phase 5 (Catastrophe) if they experience an extreme lack of food, starvation and exhaustion of coping strategies. For a famine to be officially declared in a specific area, there must be evidence that at least 20% of households are in Phase 5, 30% of children are suffering from acute malnutrition, and there are two deaths for every 10,000 inhabitants, or four child deaths out of 10,000 children per day, <due to outright starvation or to the interaction of malnutrition and disease>. In March, the IPC classified 677,000 Gazans - or 30% of the 2.2 million population - as being in Phase 5, including 165,000 people trapped in northern Gaza. It also projected that a famine was <imminent> in the north by the end of May because of conflict and the near-complete lack of humanitarian access. Israel rejected that analysis, questioning the IPC’s transparency, methodology and sources of information. The IPC assessment published on Tuesday says more than 495,000 Gazans, including 60,000 in the north, are still facing catastrophic hunger. <In contrast with the assumptions made for the projection period (March - July 2024), the amount of food and non-food commodities allowed into the northern governorates increased,> it says. <Additionally, the response in the nutrition, water sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and health sectors was scaled up. In this context, the available evidence does not indicate that famine is currently occurring.>
Although an estimated 20% of households in the north are in Phase 5, the thresholds of acute malnutrition and mortality have not been passed, it explains. The World Health Organization said earlier this month that 32 deaths attributed to malnutrition, including 28 among children under five years old, had been reported by local health officials. The IPC report warns that there continues to be <a high and sustained risk of famine across the whole Gaza Strip>, and that the improvement in April and May <should not allow room for complacency>. The WFP said the <slight improvement> seen in the IPC report showed the difference that greater access could make, but stressed that the situation was <still desperate>.
<To truly turn the corner and prevent famine, adequate and sustained levels of humanitarian assistance must be provided,> it added. Meanwhile, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) told reporters in Geneva that at least 10 children a day on average were losing one or both of their legs because of the war. Philippe Lazzarini said that figure did not include children who had lost hands or arms, and that the amputations usually took place in what he described as <quite horrible conditions> and sometimes without anaesthetic. In Gaza, at least 24 people - including the sister of Hamas's Qatar-based political chief Ismail Haniyeh - were reportedly killed in three Israeli air strikes in northern Gaza early on Tuesday.
Health officials told Reuters news agency that 14 people were killed in strikes on two schools used as shelters by displaced people in the central Daraj area of Gaza City and the urban Shati refugee camp, to the north. The Israeli military said in a statement that aircraft had struck <two structures that were being used by Hamas terrorists> in Shati and Daraj. <The terrorists operated inside school compounds that were used by Hamas as a shield for its terrorist activities,> it added, accusing some of them of being involved in holding hostages and taking part in the 7 October attack.
Hamas has previously denied using schools for military purposes. The other 10 people were said to have been killed in a pre-dawn strike on a house in Shati. A neighbour and Palestinian media identified those killed as Ismail Haniyeh's sister Zahr and nine members of her family. Mr Haniyeh - who also lost three of his sons and several grandchildren in a strike in April - said the killing of his relatives would not make Hamas change its stance and reaffirmed the group's demands for a ceasefire and hostage release deal. The Israeli military has so far not commented on the reports. Medecins Sans Frontieres meanwhile expressed outrage at the <horrific and cynical> killing of one of its staff members in an attack in Gaza City on Tuesday morning. Physiotherapist Fadi al-Wadiya was killed along with five other people, including three children, as he cycled to the MSF clinic where he worked, the charity said, without blaming any party. The Israeli military later announced that it had killed Fadi al-Wadiya in an air strike, accusing him of being a <significant [Palestinian] Islamic Jihad terrorist> who had developed the group's rockets array.>>
Source:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cv22g81djdyo

Le Monde - June 25, 2024
<<Journalist Abdallah Al-Hajj's first-hand account of the Israeli assault on Al-Shifa hospital
As part of the Gaza Project investigation with Forbidden Stories, Le Monde met with the Palestinian videojournalist in Doha, where he recounted the violence of the hospital's occupation in February. Abdallah Al-Hajj's hospital room in Doha was large and bright. The white and blue sheet covering his lower body left little doubt: The 33-year-old Palestinian was a double-leg amputee. Before being wounded in Gaza in February, the photojournalist and videographer who worked for the Palestinian daily Al-Quds among other media, had been documenting, with a drone, the living conditions and the destruction of the coastal strip since the start of the war launched by Israel after Hamas' bloody attack on October 7, 2023.
His photos and videos were picked up by numerous Palestinian and international media. <My colleagues told me that this work was dangerous and that I risked being targeted by the Israeli army, like other journalists. But I told them that my personal decision was to show the reality of the situation, which was more important than my safety,> Al-Hajj explained calmly when he met with Le Monde in the Qatari capital at the end of May.
And so, almost every day, the man from the Zeitoun district in the south of Gaza City had walked the destroyed streets and avenues. In February, the starving locals he came across had started eating animal feed. <Every time they saw me with my drone and camera, they asked me to show the world what was happening in Gaza,> said Al-Hajj. One of his videos, showing the destruction in the Al-Shati refugee camp and which was picked up by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), attracted a lot of attention. <There are no words,> said the caption introducing the film, posted on the UN agency's Instagram account on February 17. To get the footage, Al-Hajj walked some 20 kilometers. <Afterward, I heard that the Israelis were trying to find the creator of this clip,> he said.
'Saved by a good doctor'
A few days later, on February 24, he returned to the same area to continue filming. After shooting a few images, he put his cameras away and landed his drone. <The second I put my drone away, I was hit by what I thought was an Israeli reconnaissance plane,> he recalled. Alongside him, his 18-year-old nephew Mustafa and two fishermen were also wounded. Asked by Le Monde about the case, the Israeli army replied that it had <eliminated by an IAF aircraft> a <terrorist cell using a drone, posing an imminent threat to forces in the Shati area.> <Hamas employs drones for various military purposes, including locating our forces,> it added. With serious injuries to both legs, Al-Hajj lost consciousness. When the ambulance arrived, rescuers judged that he had very little chance of survival. As there was no room in the vehicle, they put him on the roof of the ambulance on its way to Al-Shifa Hospital. Then, as he was being picked up for transport to the morgue, someone noticed a faint heartbeat. Al-Hajj was quickly transferred to the operating room. His nephew and one of the fishermen died of their injuries. With both legs amputated above the knees, Al-Hajj survived. <I was saved by a good doctor who kept giving me hope. His name was Ahmed Al-Maqdameh.> Al-Hajj's home, which housed the archives of 16 years of his photographic work, was destroyed two days after he was wounded.>>
Read more here:
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2024/06/26/journalist-abdallah-al-hajj-s-first-hand-account-of-the-israeli-assault-on-al-shifa-hospital_6675763_4.html

Le Monde - June 25, 2024
<<UNRWA reports 10 children lose legs every day in Gaza
The aid agency for Palestinian refugees also said on Tuesday that its funding would run out at the end of August.
Ten children per day are losing one or both of their legs in the war in Gaza, the head of the UN agency supporting Palestinian refugees said on Tuesday, June 25. <Basically we have every day 10 children who are losing one leg or two legs on average,> UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini told reporters in Geneva. Citing figures from the UN children's agency UNICEF, he said that figure <does not even include the arms and the hands, and we have many more> of these. <Ten per day, that means around 2,000 children after the more than 260 days of this brutal war,> Lazzarini said. He said amputation often takes place <in quite horrible conditions,> sometimes without anesthesia. Save the Children said on Monday that up to 21,000 children are estimated to be missing in the chaos of the war.
The Gaza Health Ministry says at least 37,658 people have been killed in Israel's retaliatory offensive following Hamas's October 7 attack on southern Israel. That attack resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an Agence France-Presse tally based on Israeli official figures. Palestinian militants also took 251 people hostage in the attack, 116 of whom remain captive in the Gaza Strip, according to Israel. The army says 42 of those are dead. UNRWA coordinates nearly all aid to Gaza, but Lazzarini warned the agency was facing relentless attack and a deep funding crisis since January, when many countries suspended funding after Israel accused a dozen of its 13,000 Gaza employees of involvement in the October 7 attack by Hamas. <We have cash until end of August,> he said Tuesday, adding that the agency still had <a shortfall of about $140 million... to bridge the end of the year.>
Le Monde with AFP>>
Source incl. video:
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2024/06/25/unrwa-reports-10-children-lose-legs-every-day-in-gaza_6675697_4.html


37,658 Palestinians killed
Jinha - Womens News Agency - June 25, 2024
<<37,658 Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since Oct.7
37,658 Palestinians have been killed, 86,237 others injured in Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023, the Gaza's health ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.
News Center- At least 37,658 Palestinians have been killed, 86,237 others injured in Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023, the Gaza's health ministry said in a statement on Tuesday. 32 Palestinians were killed, 139 others injured in Israeli attacks on Gaza in the last 24 hours, the ministry added, stressing that there are many dead bodies under rubble and the civil defense crews cannot reach them due to ongoing Israeli attacks.>>
Source:
https://jinhaagency.com/en/actual/37-658-palestinians-killed-in-israeli-attacks-on-gaza-since-oct-7-35270?page=1

Le Monde - June 25, 2024
<<Israel's top court rules army must draft young ultra-Orthodox Jewish men
Israel's High Court of Justice ruled that 'the state must act to enforce the law' on conscription, ending long-standing exemptions for ultra-Orthodox Jewish men studying in religious seminaries, an issue which could topple the country's coalition government. Israel's top court unanimously ruled on Tuesday, June 25, that the state must draft ultra-Orthodox Jewish men to military service, a decision that could upend Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's ruling coalition. The High Court of Justice's decision on the politically volatile issue came amid growing calls that ultra-Orthodox men, who have historically been granted sweeping exemptions from mandatory service, join the ranks as Israel wages an ongoing war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip and prepares for potential fighting in Lebanon. Jewish Israeli men are generally required to perform military service, which is widely considered a cornerstone of civic duty. Religious women are exempt by law. The ultra-Orthodox community, whose political representatives are part of Netanyahu's government, has long received exemptions, allowing men to study in religious seminaries, known as yeshivas, which they regard as critical to preserving the nation's Jewish identity. <The executive branch has no authority to order not to enforce the Security Service Law for yeshiva students in the absence of an appropriate legislative framework,> the court said. Without a law granting exemptions to students at Jewish seminaries, <the state must act to enforce the law,> the justices said in the ruling. They also ordered state to cease funding for yeshivas whose students dodge military service. The court's ruling was a response to several petitions by civil society groups calling for mandatory military service for ultra-Orthodox men. A growing chorus of Israelis have called for ultra-Orthodox men to share <an equal burden> in military service. Hundreds of thousands of Israeli reservists have been deployed to Gaza, the occupied West Bank and along the northern border with Lebanon since the outbreak of war with Hamas on October 7. These exemptions, which successive governments have failed to regulate in legislation, have been a source of growing political friction for decades. The issue of ultra-Orthodox enlistment toppled a previous Netanyahu-led coalition government in 2018, precipitating years of political deadlock.>>
Read more here:
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2024/06/25/israel-s-top-court-rules-army-must-draft-young-ultra-orthodox-jewish-men_6675677_4.html

Sky News - June 23, 2024 - Siobhan Robbins - Europe correspondent
<<Attacks on Jews and Muslims in Germany surged after Israel-Hamas war outbreak
Molotov cocktails were thrown at a community centre in an antisemitic attack in Berlin - while four attempted murders are among the nearly 2,000 incidents of Islamophobia recorded in 2023. Attacks on Jews and Muslims in Germany have surged since the outbreak of the recent Israel-Hamas war, new figures show Antisemitic incidents rose by more than 80% last year, compared to 2022. Some 4,782 episodes were recorded - an average of 13 per day. The figures from the monitoring group the Federal Association of Departments for Research and Information on Antisemitism (RIAS) show there was a major up tick following Hamas's 7 October attacks. In the three months following, 2,787 incidents were documented. That's more than the whole of 2022 when 2,616 were recorded. While many complaints were linked to anti-Israel activism, authors of today's report said Jews increasingly experienced antisemitism in their immediate surroundings: at work, in educational institutions, and on social media. Violent attacks in this period also rose, with around two-thirds of all cases of extreme violence, assaults, and threats occurring after 7 October, according to the report released today. Examples cited include Molotov cocktails being thrown at a Jewish community centre in Berlin, flares being thrown at a Jewish family's home in North Rhine-Westphalia, and increasing <threats of extermination> against Jewish institutions. <In all areas of life, Jews are being harassed, threatened, and attacked. Since October 7, threats against open Jewish life have become more acute,> said Benjamin Steinitz, managing director of the Bundesverband RIAS. <The unprecedented rise in antisemitic incidents must be understood as a wake-up call: the state has the responsibility to ensure that Jews can safely participate in civic life. Last but not least, it is up to all of us to put a stop to the normalisation of antisemitism.> Attacks on Muslims also shot up following 7 October according to a separate report released this week. Four attempted murders are among the 1,926 incidents recorded in Germany in 2023 by the CLAIM network of NGOs monitoring Islamophobia and anti-Muslim hatred. An attempted arson attack at a mosque which had been marked with a swastika, and a woman being pushed onto train tracks after being asked if she was a member of Hamas, are also among the incidents. CLAIM's report showed that incidents rose 114% last year with more than five anti-Muslim attacks taking place every day - including discrimination, verbal and physical attacks, or damage to property.>>
Read more and video:
https://news.sky.com/story/attacks-on-jews-and-muslims-in-germany-rocketed-after-israel-hamas-war-outbreak-13158465

Sky News - June 23, 2024 - Alistair Bunkall - Middle East correspondent
<<Prospects for West Bank are bleak amid rising violence with world's eyes on Gaza
Since the Hamas attacks, Israeli security forces have tried to prevent the West Bank from becoming another front in the war, but their draconian approach could be pushing the area closer to collapse. Only a few weeks ago, the United Nations released a statement condemning what it described as <day after day of unprecedented bloodshed> against Palestinians in the West Bank. With global eyes mostly focused on Gaza and increasingly the tense Israel-Lebanon border, life in the West Bank has dramatically deteriorated for Palestinians living there. Since the Hamas attacks, Israeli security forces have worked to prevent the West Bank from becoming another front in the war, although there is evidence that their draconian approach is actually pushing the area closer to collapse. Last year was already the most violent year in the West Bank for decades, even before 7 October, and more than 500 Palestinians have been killed in the Occupied Territories since those attacks. The IDF regularly launches raids into Palestinian towns, especially Jenin and Tulkarm, to arrest or kill wanted militants - raids which often lead to the deaths of civilians, too. More military checkpoints have disrupted movement around the region for Palestinians, leading to damaging consequences for the local economy. Airstrikes, which the IDF hadn't used as a tactic for twenty years, are now relatively commonplace; almost 50 have been carried out in the West Bank since 7 October. In the last eight and a half months, Israeli security officials have also arrested more than 9,000 Palestinians, including hundreds of children - around half of them held on what is known as administrative detention - without charge and indefinitely. So crammed are Israel's prisons, it's been reported the IDF and police have been forced to cancel arrest operations because there is no room left. The frequency of violence by extremist Israeli settlers on Palestinians has led the US to label some of them terror attacks and impose sanctions against a number of them.
More than 1,000 Palestinians, mainly from herding communities, have been displaced as a result of settler violence. But it's not one-sided, as 24 Israelis, some of the soldiers, were killed by Palestinians in 2023, a 15-year high.
Palestinian prisoners 'beaten every day'
The West Bank has also been the origin of a number of terror attacks since 7 October, some of which were thwarted before they were launched.
Israel also accuses Iran of sending money into the West Bank to incite further violence against Israelis. Only this weekend an Israeli man was shot and killed in the Palestinian town of Qalqilya. But the current hard-right Israeli coalition government has taken an unforgiving approach to Palestinians and is looking to take advantage of the current period of conflict. Approval was given earlier this year for 3,400 new settlement homes to be built, even though Israeli settlements are illegal under international law.>>
Read more and videos:
https://news.sky.com/story/prospects-for-west-bank-are-bleak-amid-rising-violence-with-worlds-eyes-on-gaza-13157695

BBC - June 20, 2024 - By Yolande Knell
<<Inside Gaza aid depot: Food waits as Israel and UN trade blame
Lying in the sun, on the Israel-Gaza border, just miles from starving Palestinian families, there are hundreds of pallets of food - from packets of rice to bunches of bananas. Although for the past week Israel's military has been observing a daytime pause in fighting on a key stretch of road just beyond the main Kerem Shalom crossing point, humanitarian agencies say they are still struggling to get vital aid into southern Gaza. They blame growing lawlessness for making it too dangerous to pick up and move goods. <The looting has become quite profound,> says Georgios Petropoulos, head of the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Gaza. He estimates that last Tuesday, three-quarters of the goods on board lorries entering from the crossing were stolen. UN officials say the vehicles are systematically attacked and stopped by armed gangs, particularly those smuggling cigarettes, which are sold on the black market in Gaza for exorbitant amounts. Lorries bringing fuel into Gaza have also recently been targeted. As Israel's military offensive has removed Gaza's Hamas government, there is no plan for how to fill the power vacuum. There are few police officers left working in the Palestinian territory. It is not clear if organised crime cartels are affiliated to Hamas or Gazan clans.
<Meaningful decisions now have to be taken about what we will do for civil order in Gaza and who will take care of delivering that,> Mr Petropoulos says. On a media tour of Kerem Shalom, the Israeli military body responsible for operating the crossings, Cogat, told journalists it placed no limit on the amount of aid that could go into Gaza. We were shown what was said to be a backlog of more than 1,000 lorryloads of aid which had undergone security checks and were awaiting collection from the Gaza side. <This is largely due to the fact that international organisations have not taken sufficient steps to improve their distribution capacity,> said Cogat spokesman Shimon Freedman. He accused the UN - which is the main supplier of aid in Gaza - of having insufficient lorries, as well as needing <to increase manpower, to extend working hours, to increase storage> and take other <logistical and organisational steps>. Cogat spokesman Shimon Freedman says aid agencies need to improve their distribution capacity
During the war, Israel has stepped up its criticism of aid agencies as the International Court of Justice has twice issued provisional measures, ordering it to enable humanitarian assistance to Gaza. These came about as a result of South Africa's case alleging that Israel was violating the Genocide Convention of 1948, an accusation it strongly denies. The UN and relief groups rebut claims that they are understaffed or inefficient, pointing to the difficulties of operating in an active war zone. They say Israeli bombings have damaged their infrastructure and reduced their capacity. <We've recruited scores of new staff and hundreds of volunteers to distribute aid. We've delivered 28 million meals and six million medical treatments - so [clearly] we can get manpower together,” Sean Carroll, president of American Near East Refugee Aid (Anera) tells me.
But he says increased workers do not help when <the war makes the pickup of goods too dangerous, or roads are impassable. When there isn't enough fuel and there aren't enough trucks or parts inside Gaza.> Anera welcomed a commitment it said Cogat had made this week to allow more lorries to be imported to Gaza, saying it was now campaigning to buy these urgently. However, Mr Carroll says an ongoing problem remains <the arbitrariness of the rules and procedures, which change constantly> when it comes to moving goods around. Aid groups stress how the overloaded relief system in Gaza broke down in May when Israel began its military ground invasion in the crowded southern city of Rafah, saying it was targeting remaining battalions of Hamas fighters there. About a million Palestinians, most of them already displaced by the fighting, were forced to flee, deepening the humanitarian crisis. At the same time, aid organisations lost access to important storage and distribution centres. Ever since Israeli forces took control of the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing, Egypt has prohibited its use, saying it is no longer safe for humanitarian work. Aid and fuel are now being rerouted to Kerem Shalom. According to UN figures, in May a daily average of 97 aid lorries entered Gaza - a 42% drop on the previous month. In the first two weeks of June, the number had fallen again to 89 lorries. The provision of food across Gaza is patchy
In nearby Khan Younis, Gazans tell the BBC that no international assistance is now reaching them. <When we were in Rafah, from time to time, we would see aid. Since we came here, 20 days ago, we haven't seen anything yet,> says Mahmoud al-Biss, who says he struggles to feed his two children. Locals describe a vicious circle as increased desperation forces people to loot incoming aid lorries. It appears that some donated items including sunflower oil and sugar are being sold on market stalls. <Today, the country has become chaotic, we no longer receive aid coupons and when the aid comes, we steal it,> a man called Hassan says. In an effort to make up the shortfall in goods, the Israeli authorities have begun allowing more private buyers in Gaza to bring in supplies from Israel and the occupied West Bank. Unlike the UN convoys, these lorries use privately contracted armed escorts enabling them to see off attacks. However, a lot of items they bring in are unaffordable for most Gazans. Israel has opened up three other crossings into Gaza, which all provide aid to the northern part of the strip, where the UN has warned of the highest risk of famine.
International airdrops have now largely stopped but the maritime corridor from Cyprus began to operate again on Thursday. There have been a series of difficulties with a floating pier set up by the US military at a cost of some $230m (£182m), which Mr Petropoulos, from OCHA, describes as <a failure>. The past week has highlighted political resistance in Israel to tackling the dire food shortages in Gaza. This has caused unusual divisions between the government and the army. When I asked the Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari about the <tactical pauses> near the Kerem Shalom crossing, he said they had been introduced <in order to follow the order of the cabinet to enter humanitarian aid into Gaza.>
He sought to play down what had been a serious backlash, including from the far-right Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich. On the social media platform, X, he suggested that allowing more supplies into the Palestinian territory benefitted Hamas, kept it in power and <may pour the achievements of the war down the drain.> Similar attitudes have also seen extremist Israeli groups attacking aid convoys heading towards the Gaza Strip. Sean Carroll from Anera says <political reasons> on the Israeli side are partly responsible for difficulties in getting supplies into the territory. <It's pretty clear there's a problem and if it were only logistical, it could be solved,> he suggests. <We have to find a system that works and is based on good faith and that ultimately assumes some trust towards the United Nations,> says Georgios Petropoulos from OCHA. Back in Khan Younis, men scrambling to buy the basics for their families express their frustration, feeling trapped and exhausted. <There is no situation more difficult than this,> says Mahmoud al-Biss. <I am displaced, alone with my two kids, trying to survive. There is nobody standing with me.> >>
Source:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cv22ymmp46ro

BBC - June 20, 2024 - By Jon Donnison
<<Gaza's water system, destroyed by war, is sickening its children
Tala, 5, and her family have been forced to live in a tent. Five-year-old Tala Ibrahim Muhammad al-Jalat is just about awake but not moving, her milky eyes rolled to the back of her head. Tala is severely dehydrated and malnourished. By her bedside in Nasser hospital in Khan Younis her father Ibrahim Muhmmad al-Jalat holds her hand, careful not to disturb the intravenous drip feeding into her wrist. He knows that the scorching weather, with temperatures close to 40 degrees, and a lack of clean water have brought his daughter close to death. <The situation is getting worse,> he says. <The temperature in our tent is unimaginable, and the water we drink is definitely contaminated, because both young and old are getting sick.> With their homes destroyed, hundreds of thousands of Gazans are now displaced, living under canvas in makeshift camps with little protection from the scorching sun. Getting water, whether it is clean or not, is a daily struggle. Long queues form at distribution centres. With the sewage system badly damaged and with few toilets, what water there is is easily contaminated. <It is no secret that the biggest cause of intestinal infections currently occurring in the Gaza Strip is the contamination of the water supplied to these children,> says Dr Ahmed al-Fari, head of the children's departments at Nasser Hospital. People are seen gathering at a site in Gaza to fill up water containers. Water is piped in to collection points like this - but people fear it is contaminated. <The first problem is intestinal infections with vomiting and diarrhoea which causes dehydration,> he says. <The second problem is hepatitis C or A, which are no less dangerous than intestinal infections, if not more so.> The United Nations Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs says 67% of Gaza's water and sanitation system, poor at the best of times, has now been destroyed. <We need a tremendous international effort to re-establish water and sewage networks,> says Salaam Sharab, who's a water engineer in the Khan Younis municipality. <We in Khan Younis have lost between 170 and 200km of pipes, which have been completely destroyed, along with wells and water tanks.>
Blue pipes for water are seen amid rubble in Gaza
Gaza's water infrastructure has been heavily damaged in the war
The Israeli military says it is allowing around 200 trucks carrying humanitarian aid to enter the strip through the Kerem Shalom crossing every day.
It says the problem is that aid agencies on the other side are not distributing it. The aid agencies argue continued fighting, especially in the area around Rafah in southern Gaza, means it is too dangerous for them to operate. They also say what's being allowed in is a drop in the ocean of what's actually needed. Children with pre-existing conditions can be especially hard hit by malnutrition and contaminated water. Lying semi-conscious on a bed further down the corridor from Tala is nine-year-old Yunis Jumaa, who has cerebral palsy.
A mother sits by the side of a hospital bed with her emaciated child. Yunis's mother Ghanima brought him to the hospital. His mother Ghanima says eight months of war have dramatically worsened his health.
<When he developed this malnutrition and dehydration, he became as you see him now,> she says. <There is no bottled water. The children walk a long distance - when they get water it reaches us contaminated,> she adds. Gazans' growing desperation to get food and water means there is also a threat of looting with reports of aid trucks being ransacked by gunmen as well as by ordinary civilians. But the International Criminal Court prosecutor has accused Israel of using starvation as a weapon of war and has requested arrest warrants for the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as well as the Defence Minister Yoav Gallant. The Israeli government has reacted with outrage at the move. It insists that claims by aid agencies that there is already widespread famine in Gaza are exaggerated and says it is Hamas which started the war, bringing suffering and misery to Palestinians. The United Nations has warned that more than a million Gazans face the highest level of starvation by the middle of July.
Israeli ministers deny there is a humanitarian crisis in Gaza. But for Ibrahim Muhmmad al-Jalat and Ghanima Jumaa at their children's bedsides in Nasser hospital, it doesn't feel that way.>>
Read more here:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cd119dz515wo

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