Israel is holding up food for 1.1 million Palestinians in Gaza, the main UN aid agency there says
JULIA FRANKEL
Fri, February 9, 2024
Palestinians protest against the suspension of funds from several donor countries to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, UNRWA, in front of Agency's offices in the West Bank city of Beitunia Wednesday, Feb. 7, 2024. Several countries suspended funding worth some $440 million, almost half of the UNRWA's annual budget following Israeli allegations that 12 UNRWA employees participated in the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks.
JULIA FRANKEL
Fri, February 9, 2024
Palestinians protest against the suspension of funds from several donor countries to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, UNRWA, in front of Agency's offices in the West Bank city of Beitunia Wednesday, Feb. 7, 2024. Several countries suspended funding worth some $440 million, almost half of the UNRWA's annual budget following Israeli allegations that 12 UNRWA employees participated in the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks.
(AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel has imposed financial restrictions on the main U.N. agency providing aid in the Gaza Strip, a measure which prevented a shipment of food for 1.1 million Palestinians from reaching the war-battered enclave, the agency's director said Friday.
The restrictions deepened a crisis between Israel and UNRWA, whose operations have been threatened following Israeli accusations that some of its workers participated in the Oct. 7 attack that triggered Israel's war in Gaza. Those accusations have led major donor nations, including the U.S., to suspend funding to the U.N. organization and left its future in question.
UNRWA's director, Philippe Lazzarini, said Friday that that a convoy of food donated by Turkey has been sitting for weeks in the Israeli port city of Ashdod. The agency said that the Israeli contractor they work with received a call from Israeli customs authorities “ordering them not to process any UNRWA goods.”
That stoppage means 1,049 shipping containers of rice, flour, chickpeas, sugar and cooking oil — enough to feed 1.1 million people for one month — are stuck, even as an estimated 25% of families in Gaza face catastrophic hunger.
The World Food Program warned Friday that Gaza could be plunged into famine as early as May. The U.N. food agency defines a famine as when 30% of children are malnourished, one-fifth of households face acute food shortages and two of every 10,000 people are dying from hunger or malnutrition.
Israel declared war and imposed a siege on Gaza in response to the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, which killed 1,200 people and took 250 others hostage. The war has led to a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, with only a trickle of humanitarian aid entering the territory each day.
Israel has long railed against UNRWA, accusing it of tolerating or even collaborating with Hamas and perpetuating the 76-year-old Palestinian refugee crisis. UNRWA, which serves about 6 million Palestinians whose families were displaced during the war surrounding Israel's creation in 1948, denies the charges. But the tensions have only intensified following the latest allegations by Israel.
Juliette Touma, communications director for the agency, said that UNWRA's bank account with Bank Leumi, which the agency has held for decades, was also frozen this week. In addition, Touma said that Israeli customs authorities notified the agency that UNRWA will no longer be granted tax exemptions.
Israel's finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, tweeted on Thursday that “the state of Israel will not give tax benefits to terrorist aides.”
Smotrich, a far-right ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, didn't respond to a request for comment.
The agency has been able to reroute other aid shipments through Port Said in Egypt, but Lazzarini warned Friday that the holdup means further difficulties in the already challenging task of aid distribution to Gaza. About 80% of Gaza's 2.3 million people have been displaced by the war.
UNWRA is the main provider of aid to Palestinians in Gaza, but Israeli bombardment and combat between Israel and Hamas has made much of the territory too dangerous for aid convoys to cross. For the last two weeks, the agency has been unable to deliver aid to around 300,000 Palestinians estimated to still be in the northern half of Gaza, where the World Food Program says food insecurity is the worst.
Lazzarini said efforts have instead focused on the 1.3 million displaced Palestinians sheltering in the makeshift tent camps of Rafah, a city on the border with Egypt where the agency relies on local police to escort aid convoys to distribution points and prevent theft. But that has also grown increasingly challenging, as Israeli warplanes bomb targets in the city.
Airstrikes there killed eight police officers in the city over the last four days, Lazzarini said, making police reluctant to continue helping the agency. Three strikes have taken place near an UNWRA clinic, Lazzarini said. Israeli media have portrayed the police escorts as an attempt by Hamas to seize aid shipments for its own use.
Lazzarini said that the police the agency works with weren't affiliated with militant groups. Touma said that the police escort was necessary to prevent people from throwing stones at the convoy and attempting to steal aid from them.
Israel alleged last month that 12 employees of the aid agency participated in the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks in southern Israel. Several countries suspended funding worth about $440 million, almost half of the agency’s annual budget.
Two U.N. investigations are underway, including an independent review announced this week. The review, headed by a former French foreign minister, is supposed to focus on the way the agency ensures that it remains neutral and responds to allegations that it failed to do so. Colonna’s team plans to look at whether the system works and how it might be improved.
Lazzarini said Friday that he immediately fired the workers, rather than suspending them, without first investigating the evidence against them. Two had been killed by the time the allegations surfaced. Lazzarini said there was too much pressure on the organization — and current conditions make investigating the workers difficult — to do anything else.
“Knowing that the organization is under fierce and ugly attacks,” he said, “I could not take the risk ... I could have suspended them, but I fired them.”
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel has imposed financial restrictions on the main U.N. agency providing aid in the Gaza Strip, a measure which prevented a shipment of food for 1.1 million Palestinians from reaching the war-battered enclave, the agency's director said Friday.
The restrictions deepened a crisis between Israel and UNRWA, whose operations have been threatened following Israeli accusations that some of its workers participated in the Oct. 7 attack that triggered Israel's war in Gaza. Those accusations have led major donor nations, including the U.S., to suspend funding to the U.N. organization and left its future in question.
UNRWA's director, Philippe Lazzarini, said Friday that that a convoy of food donated by Turkey has been sitting for weeks in the Israeli port city of Ashdod. The agency said that the Israeli contractor they work with received a call from Israeli customs authorities “ordering them not to process any UNRWA goods.”
That stoppage means 1,049 shipping containers of rice, flour, chickpeas, sugar and cooking oil — enough to feed 1.1 million people for one month — are stuck, even as an estimated 25% of families in Gaza face catastrophic hunger.
The World Food Program warned Friday that Gaza could be plunged into famine as early as May. The U.N. food agency defines a famine as when 30% of children are malnourished, one-fifth of households face acute food shortages and two of every 10,000 people are dying from hunger or malnutrition.
Israel declared war and imposed a siege on Gaza in response to the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, which killed 1,200 people and took 250 others hostage. The war has led to a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, with only a trickle of humanitarian aid entering the territory each day.
Israel has long railed against UNRWA, accusing it of tolerating or even collaborating with Hamas and perpetuating the 76-year-old Palestinian refugee crisis. UNRWA, which serves about 6 million Palestinians whose families were displaced during the war surrounding Israel's creation in 1948, denies the charges. But the tensions have only intensified following the latest allegations by Israel.
Juliette Touma, communications director for the agency, said that UNWRA's bank account with Bank Leumi, which the agency has held for decades, was also frozen this week. In addition, Touma said that Israeli customs authorities notified the agency that UNRWA will no longer be granted tax exemptions.
Israel's finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, tweeted on Thursday that “the state of Israel will not give tax benefits to terrorist aides.”
Smotrich, a far-right ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, didn't respond to a request for comment.
The agency has been able to reroute other aid shipments through Port Said in Egypt, but Lazzarini warned Friday that the holdup means further difficulties in the already challenging task of aid distribution to Gaza. About 80% of Gaza's 2.3 million people have been displaced by the war.
UNWRA is the main provider of aid to Palestinians in Gaza, but Israeli bombardment and combat between Israel and Hamas has made much of the territory too dangerous for aid convoys to cross. For the last two weeks, the agency has been unable to deliver aid to around 300,000 Palestinians estimated to still be in the northern half of Gaza, where the World Food Program says food insecurity is the worst.
Lazzarini said efforts have instead focused on the 1.3 million displaced Palestinians sheltering in the makeshift tent camps of Rafah, a city on the border with Egypt where the agency relies on local police to escort aid convoys to distribution points and prevent theft. But that has also grown increasingly challenging, as Israeli warplanes bomb targets in the city.
Airstrikes there killed eight police officers in the city over the last four days, Lazzarini said, making police reluctant to continue helping the agency. Three strikes have taken place near an UNWRA clinic, Lazzarini said. Israeli media have portrayed the police escorts as an attempt by Hamas to seize aid shipments for its own use.
Lazzarini said that the police the agency works with weren't affiliated with militant groups. Touma said that the police escort was necessary to prevent people from throwing stones at the convoy and attempting to steal aid from them.
Israel alleged last month that 12 employees of the aid agency participated in the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks in southern Israel. Several countries suspended funding worth about $440 million, almost half of the agency’s annual budget.
Two U.N. investigations are underway, including an independent review announced this week. The review, headed by a former French foreign minister, is supposed to focus on the way the agency ensures that it remains neutral and responds to allegations that it failed to do so. Colonna’s team plans to look at whether the system works and how it might be improved.
Lazzarini said Friday that he immediately fired the workers, rather than suspending them, without first investigating the evidence against them. Two had been killed by the time the allegations surfaced. Lazzarini said there was too much pressure on the organization — and current conditions make investigating the workers difficult — to do anything else.
“Knowing that the organization is under fierce and ugly attacks,” he said, “I could not take the risk ... I could have suspended them, but I fired them.”
Undercover Israeli killings in West Bank hospital may be war crimes: UN experts
Reuters
Fri, February 9, 2024 at 8:42
Aftermath of an Israeli raid, in Jenin
GENEVA (Reuters) - The killing of three Palestinian men in a hospital in the occupied West Bank last month by Israeli commandos disguised as medical workers and Muslim women may amount to war crimes, a group of U.N. experts said on Friday.
The three militants were killed on Jan. 29 in a joint undercover operation by the army, Shin Bet security service and border police in the Ibn Sina hospital in Jenin, one of the most volatile cities in the West Bank, Israel's military said.
"Under international humanitarian law, killing a defenceless injured patient who is being treated in a hospital amounts to a war crime," the U.N. experts said in a statement, referring to Basel Al-Ghazzawi, a patient being treated for injuries it said were caused by an Israeli air strike.
"By disguising themselves as seemingly harmless, protected medical personnel and civilians, the Israeli forces also prima facie committed the war crime of perfidy, which is prohibited in all circumstances," they added, calling for Israel to conduct an investigation.
The experts concerned are special rapporteurs engaged by the United Nations to examine a specific human rights issue.
Israel’s military was not immediately available for comment on their statement.
CCTV footage from the hospital showed a group of about 10 people, dressed variously in civilian clothes and medical garb and including three in headscarves and women's clothing, pacing through a corridor, armed with assault rifles.
Israel's military has said that one of the men killed in the hospital was a member of the militant Palestinian group Hamas, which governs Gaza, and the others worked for Jenin Brigade and the armed wing of Islamic Jihad.
The West Bank has seen an explosion of violence since the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7 and the subsequent invasion of Gaza by Israel.
(Reporting by Emma Farge in Geneva; Additional reporting by Emily Rose in Jerusalem; Editing by Gareth Jones)
UN calls for mental health support for children impacted by Gaza war
Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber
Updated Thu, February 8, 2024
Aftermath of an Israeli strike on a house in Rafah
By Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber
GENEVA (Reuters) -A United Nations committee appealed on Thursday for "massive psychosocial support" for children traumatised by violence in Gaza, the occupied West Bank and Israel and said it would review Israel's treatment of children later this year.
Israel's military offensive in Gaza, launched in the wake of a deadly rampage by Hamas militants in southern Israel on Oct. 7, has displaced most of the Palestinian enclave's 2.3 million people, left homes and infrastructure in ruins and caused acute shortages of food, water and medicine.
Children and women make up the bulk of the nearly 28,000 people killed during the offensive, according to the authorities in Gaza. In their Oct. 7 attack in Israel, the militants killed about 1,200 people and took 253 hostages.
"The rights of children living under the state of Israel's effective control are being gravely violated at a level that has rarely been seen in recent history," said Ann Skelton, chair of the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC).
"We call for massive psychosocial support for children and families to relieve the traumatic and long-lasting impact of war, including Israeli children who were victims of, or witnesses to, the (Oct. 7) attacks and those whose family members have been taken hostage," she told a news conference.
UNICEF said last week that nearly all children in Gaza were thought to require mental health support.
Skelton said the committee "deeply regrets" that Israel had postponed its participation in a planned dialogue on child issues and that it was now scheduled to take place in September.
Israel's diplomatic mission in Geneva said officials were focused on the war effort against Hamas, which made them "unable to dedicate the necessary resources to prepare and appear before the Committee in January."
"It is regrettable, but sadly not surprising, that the CRC does not convey understanding for Israel's request to postpone its review before the Committee, due to the state of the war," the Permanent Mission of Israel in Geneva said in a statement.
Skelton also voiced concern for children living in the occupied West Bank, which she said faced "facing arbitrary arrests, extrajudicial killings and violence committed by occupying forces and settlers".
Israel's military has said it operates against suspected militants in the West Bank.
The West Bank had already been experiencing the highest levels of unrest in decades during the months preceding the Oct. 7 assault on Israel, but confrontations have increased sharply following the Israeli ground invasion of Gaza.
(Reporting by Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber; Editing by Gareth Jones and Cynthia Osterman)
Reuters
Fri, February 9, 2024 at 8:42
Aftermath of an Israeli raid, in Jenin
GENEVA (Reuters) - The killing of three Palestinian men in a hospital in the occupied West Bank last month by Israeli commandos disguised as medical workers and Muslim women may amount to war crimes, a group of U.N. experts said on Friday.
The three militants were killed on Jan. 29 in a joint undercover operation by the army, Shin Bet security service and border police in the Ibn Sina hospital in Jenin, one of the most volatile cities in the West Bank, Israel's military said.
"Under international humanitarian law, killing a defenceless injured patient who is being treated in a hospital amounts to a war crime," the U.N. experts said in a statement, referring to Basel Al-Ghazzawi, a patient being treated for injuries it said were caused by an Israeli air strike.
"By disguising themselves as seemingly harmless, protected medical personnel and civilians, the Israeli forces also prima facie committed the war crime of perfidy, which is prohibited in all circumstances," they added, calling for Israel to conduct an investigation.
The experts concerned are special rapporteurs engaged by the United Nations to examine a specific human rights issue.
Israel’s military was not immediately available for comment on their statement.
CCTV footage from the hospital showed a group of about 10 people, dressed variously in civilian clothes and medical garb and including three in headscarves and women's clothing, pacing through a corridor, armed with assault rifles.
Israel's military has said that one of the men killed in the hospital was a member of the militant Palestinian group Hamas, which governs Gaza, and the others worked for Jenin Brigade and the armed wing of Islamic Jihad.
The West Bank has seen an explosion of violence since the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7 and the subsequent invasion of Gaza by Israel.
(Reporting by Emma Farge in Geneva; Additional reporting by Emily Rose in Jerusalem; Editing by Gareth Jones)
UN calls for mental health support for children impacted by Gaza war
Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber
Updated Thu, February 8, 2024
Aftermath of an Israeli strike on a house in Rafah
By Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber
GENEVA (Reuters) -A United Nations committee appealed on Thursday for "massive psychosocial support" for children traumatised by violence in Gaza, the occupied West Bank and Israel and said it would review Israel's treatment of children later this year.
Israel's military offensive in Gaza, launched in the wake of a deadly rampage by Hamas militants in southern Israel on Oct. 7, has displaced most of the Palestinian enclave's 2.3 million people, left homes and infrastructure in ruins and caused acute shortages of food, water and medicine.
Children and women make up the bulk of the nearly 28,000 people killed during the offensive, according to the authorities in Gaza. In their Oct. 7 attack in Israel, the militants killed about 1,200 people and took 253 hostages.
"The rights of children living under the state of Israel's effective control are being gravely violated at a level that has rarely been seen in recent history," said Ann Skelton, chair of the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC).
"We call for massive psychosocial support for children and families to relieve the traumatic and long-lasting impact of war, including Israeli children who were victims of, or witnesses to, the (Oct. 7) attacks and those whose family members have been taken hostage," she told a news conference.
UNICEF said last week that nearly all children in Gaza were thought to require mental health support.
Skelton said the committee "deeply regrets" that Israel had postponed its participation in a planned dialogue on child issues and that it was now scheduled to take place in September.
Israel's diplomatic mission in Geneva said officials were focused on the war effort against Hamas, which made them "unable to dedicate the necessary resources to prepare and appear before the Committee in January."
"It is regrettable, but sadly not surprising, that the CRC does not convey understanding for Israel's request to postpone its review before the Committee, due to the state of the war," the Permanent Mission of Israel in Geneva said in a statement.
Skelton also voiced concern for children living in the occupied West Bank, which she said faced "facing arbitrary arrests, extrajudicial killings and violence committed by occupying forces and settlers".
Israel's military has said it operates against suspected militants in the West Bank.
The West Bank had already been experiencing the highest levels of unrest in decades during the months preceding the Oct. 7 assault on Israel, but confrontations have increased sharply following the Israeli ground invasion of Gaza.
(Reporting by Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber; Editing by Gareth Jones and Cynthia Osterman)
Palestinian woman says she was mistreated after Israel detained her in Gaza
Fri, February 9, 2024
By Mohammad Salem
RAFAH, Gaza Strip (Reuters) - Israeli soldiers seized Tamam al-Aswad after their tanks crashed through the walls of a Gaza City school where she was sheltering in December, later imprisoning her for weeks in Israel where she says she was insulted and mistreated.
Aswad says she was freed on Thursday at the Kerem Shalom crossing point from Israel into Gaza and has been unable to contact her family after last seeing them at the moment of her arrest.
Israel's military did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on Aswad's detention and allegations of mistreatment. It has previously said it detains Palestinians in accordance with international law and its protocols are to treat prisoners with dignity.
"Two tanks entered the school. I was watching from a hole in the wall and I saw them entering homes and blowing them up. I heard women's voices from inside those homes. It was terrifying," she said.
Aswad is one of many Palestinians that Israel has detained during its four-month-old assault on Gaza, an offensive that has led to massive devastation across much of the tiny, crowded enclave, pushing most of its inhabitants from their homes.
Palestinian health authorities say nearly 28,000 people have been killed in the war.
Israel says it wants to crush the militant group Hamas which rampaged across the border on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages according to Israeli tallies.
Israel has won control of much of northern and central Gaza, areas it told civilians to leave early in the conflict and says it has killed about 10,000 of the group's fighters, though Hamas disputes that.
When Israeli forces entered the Omar Ibn al-Aas school in Gaza City's Sheikh Radwan district where Aswad was sheltering on Dec. 14, they lined up the men and ordered them to strip before taking the women to the side, she said.
They assembled captives at the al-Taqwa mosque nearby. "They were interrogating me, asking 'which faction do you belong to?'" she said. Aswad said she told them she was only a housewife and had not harmed anybody.
"They told me: 'You are a threat to Israel's security. You will be detained for five years'," she said. She was then handcuffed and blindfolded and put on a bus with other detainees, she said.
ABUSE
During the drive, the soldiers insulted her and other detainees, she said. She was told to keep her head bent over and despite this being very uncomfortable, they hit her on the head, arm or neck if she tried to lift her head. The same was done to others on the bus, she said.
The first place where they were held for several days "was bitterly cold", Aswad said. She was then blindfolded again, handcuffed and shackled, and transferred to Damon Prison in Haifa, she said.
Israel has not said how many people it has detained during its military operations in Gaza. Rights groups have estimated that the number is in the thousands.
"It was forbidden to raise your head even if your neck or back hurt. It was forbidden to say anything even if you were in pain," she said.
In detention, she said soldiers ordered her over to a wall where there was an Israeli flag. "The soldier said to me 'kiss the flag, kiss the flag'," she said. When she refused, he banged her head into the wall and then hit her on the back, she said.
Reuters was unable to independently confirm any of the allegations.
Eventually a soldier told the detainees "all the women of Gaza will return to their homes", she said. Her return was "an indescribable joy", but it is incomplete. She is now in Rafah in the south and believes her husband and children are still in Gaza City, where much of the worst fighting has happened.
"God willing, we will reach each other," she said.
(Reporting by Mohammad Salem, writing by Angus McDowall, Editing by William Maclean)
Fri, February 9, 2024
By Mohammad Salem
RAFAH, Gaza Strip (Reuters) - Israeli soldiers seized Tamam al-Aswad after their tanks crashed through the walls of a Gaza City school where she was sheltering in December, later imprisoning her for weeks in Israel where she says she was insulted and mistreated.
Aswad says she was freed on Thursday at the Kerem Shalom crossing point from Israel into Gaza and has been unable to contact her family after last seeing them at the moment of her arrest.
Israel's military did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on Aswad's detention and allegations of mistreatment. It has previously said it detains Palestinians in accordance with international law and its protocols are to treat prisoners with dignity.
"Two tanks entered the school. I was watching from a hole in the wall and I saw them entering homes and blowing them up. I heard women's voices from inside those homes. It was terrifying," she said.
Aswad is one of many Palestinians that Israel has detained during its four-month-old assault on Gaza, an offensive that has led to massive devastation across much of the tiny, crowded enclave, pushing most of its inhabitants from their homes.
Palestinian health authorities say nearly 28,000 people have been killed in the war.
Israel says it wants to crush the militant group Hamas which rampaged across the border on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages according to Israeli tallies.
Israel has won control of much of northern and central Gaza, areas it told civilians to leave early in the conflict and says it has killed about 10,000 of the group's fighters, though Hamas disputes that.
When Israeli forces entered the Omar Ibn al-Aas school in Gaza City's Sheikh Radwan district where Aswad was sheltering on Dec. 14, they lined up the men and ordered them to strip before taking the women to the side, she said.
They assembled captives at the al-Taqwa mosque nearby. "They were interrogating me, asking 'which faction do you belong to?'" she said. Aswad said she told them she was only a housewife and had not harmed anybody.
"They told me: 'You are a threat to Israel's security. You will be detained for five years'," she said. She was then handcuffed and blindfolded and put on a bus with other detainees, she said.
ABUSE
During the drive, the soldiers insulted her and other detainees, she said. She was told to keep her head bent over and despite this being very uncomfortable, they hit her on the head, arm or neck if she tried to lift her head. The same was done to others on the bus, she said.
The first place where they were held for several days "was bitterly cold", Aswad said. She was then blindfolded again, handcuffed and shackled, and transferred to Damon Prison in Haifa, she said.
Israel has not said how many people it has detained during its military operations in Gaza. Rights groups have estimated that the number is in the thousands.
"It was forbidden to raise your head even if your neck or back hurt. It was forbidden to say anything even if you were in pain," she said.
In detention, she said soldiers ordered her over to a wall where there was an Israeli flag. "The soldier said to me 'kiss the flag, kiss the flag'," she said. When she refused, he banged her head into the wall and then hit her on the back, she said.
Reuters was unable to independently confirm any of the allegations.
Eventually a soldier told the detainees "all the women of Gaza will return to their homes", she said. Her return was "an indescribable joy", but it is incomplete. She is now in Rafah in the south and believes her husband and children are still in Gaza City, where much of the worst fighting has happened.
"God willing, we will reach each other," she said.
(Reporting by Mohammad Salem, writing by Angus McDowall, Editing by William Maclean)
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