Latest news with #Azzoum
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
United Nations slams US- and Israel-backed Gaza aid group as a ‘failure'
The United Nations says the Israeli- and United States-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) is a 'failure' from a humanitarian perspective. Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said aid operations have stalled because the GHF is not delivering supplies safely to those in need. 'GHF, I think it's fair to say, has been, from a principled humanitarian standpoint, a failure,' Laerke told reporters in Geneva on Friday. 'They are not doing what a humanitarian operation should do, which is providing aid to people where they are, in a safe and secure manner.' The UN and major aid groups have refused to cooperate with the GHF, citing concerns that it prioritises Israeli military objectives over humanitarian needs. The newly formed private organisation began operations on May 26 after Israel had completely cut off supplies into Gaza for more than two months, sparking warnings of mass famine. It says it has distributed more than 18 million meals since then. On Friday, more than 30 Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks, medical sources told Al Jazeera. Al Jazeera's Tariq Abu Azzoum, reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, said Israeli forces were targeting parts of Khan Younis in southern Gaza with artillery fire and ground attacks. 'The Israeli military is deepening its ground operations,' Azzoum said, saying there were clashes in the eastern part of the city. The besieged territory remained under a communications blackout for a second day on Friday. Hamas has denounced what it described as an Israeli decision to cut communication lines in Gaza, calling it 'a new aggressive step' in the country's 'war of extermination'. Israel continues to force civilians into what it calls the 'safe zone' of al-Mawasi, a barren coastal strip with no infrastructure, which it has repeatedly bombed. A drone strike on a tent there killed at least two people on Friday. The attack left 'everyone on the ground quite confused about where they can go in order to find safety', Azzoum said. In the occupied West Bank, Israel sealed all crossings and checkpoints between Palestinian towns and cities early on Friday, shortly after it launched a wave of air strikes on targets in Iran. Sources told Al Jazeera the closures were imposed without any indication of when they might be lifted. The Palestine Red Crescent Society said its ambulances were being denied access to patients, including those in urgent need of medical care. In occupied East Jerusalem, Israeli forces closed Al-Aqsa Mosque, preventing Palestinians from attending Friday prayers. Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa held an emergency cabinet meeting in response and activated crisis committees across the West Bank.
Qatar Tribune
29-05-2025
- Health
- Qatar Tribune
Israeli attacks kill over 60 in Gaza as hunger crisis deepens
Agencies Gaza Israeli attacks have killed at least 64 people across Gaza, the Health Ministry said, as starving Palestinians struggle to access the limited amount of aid supplies that have entered the coastal enclave. At least 23 people were killed on Thursday in a series of Israeli attacks on residential buildings in the Bureij refugee camp, central Gaza, according to Gaza's civil defence. Reporting from Deir el-Balah, Al Jazeera's Tareq Abu Azzoum said casualties from the Bureij attack were transported to al-Awda Hospital and Al-Aqsa Hospital. 'There has been a state of alert in the emergency department as emergency services said they spent at least 30 minutes recovering casualties from the site of the strike,' Azzoum said. At least seven people were killed in strikes on a kindergarten and a home belonging to the Azzam family in Jabalia, northern Gaza, the official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported. Later on Thursday, multiple explosions were reported near a newly opened aid distribution point, run by the previously unknown United States-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), at the Netzarim Corridor in central Gaza. It was not immediately clear what caused the blasts and there were no immediate reports of casualties. The explosions came after 10 people were killed when Israeli forces shot at Palestinians seeking aid at another GHF site in southern Gaza in separate incidents on Tuesday and Wednesday, Gaza's Government Media Office said. Dozens of people were injured when thousands of hungry Palestinians rushed the GHF site in the first incident on Tuesday. The GHF has been accused of helping Israel fulfil its military objectives, while excluding Palestinians, bypassing the United Nations system and failing to adhere to humanitarian principles. The UN and other international aid groups have boycotted the foundation, which they said undermines the principle that humanitarian aid should be distributed independently of the parties to a conflict and based on need. 'This new scheme is surveillance-based rationing that legitimises a policy of deprivation by design,' senior UN aid official for the occupied Palestinian territory, Jonathan Whittall, told reporters in Jerusalem. 'The UN has refused to participate in this scheme, warning that it is logistically unworkable and violates humanitarian principles by using aid as a tool in Israel's broader efforts to depopulate areas of Gaza,' he said. Israel's ambassador to the UN Danny Danon told the Security Council on Wednesday that Israel would allow aid deliveries 'for the immediate future' via both the UN and the GHF. Danon said the UN should 'put their ego aside and cooperate with the new mechanism'. According to the foundation, it handed out the equivalent of 840,262 meals on Tuesday and Wednesday. In a separate incident on Wednesday, the World Food Programme said 'hordes of hungry people' broke into the al-Ghafari warehouse in Deir el-Balah, central Gaza, looking for food supplies. 'Initial reports indicate two people died and several were injured in the tragic incident,' WFP said in a statement on X, adding that it was still confirming details. After ending an 11-week blockade last week following growing international pressure, Israel has allowed limited humanitarian supplies to be delivered, but aid groups have warned that the amount is not nearly enough. Sigrid Kaag, the UN's special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, told the Security Council that the amount of aid Israel had so far allowed the UN to deliver was 'comparable to a lifeboat after the ship has sunk' when everyone in Gaza was facing the risk of famine.
