Latest news with #hungerCrisis
RNZ News
09-06-2025
- Politics
- RNZ News
Israel intercepts Gaza-bound aid ship, detaining Greta Thunberg and other prominent activists
By Kareem Khadder, Mohammed Tawfeeq, Abeer Salman and Helen Regan , CNN The Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) said the Israeli military had "attacked" and "unlawfully boarded" the "Madleen," which was attempting to deliver aid to Gaza - where more than 600 days of war, and an 11-week Israeli blockade of all aid, has pushed the enclave's 2.1 million people deeper into a hunger crisis. Climate activist Thunberg and Rima Hassan - a French member of the European Parliament - are among those on the "Madleen." "(The vessel) is safely making its way to the shores of Israel. The passengers are expected to return to their home countries," Israel's Foreign Ministry said in a post on X early Monday local time. Israel plans to bring the detained activists to Ashdod port and then through a "quick deportation process" via Ben-Gurion Airport, according to a source familiar with the matter. They are expected to arrive in Ashdod on Monday evening, local time. The foreign ministry also posted a video showing members of the "Madleen" crew sitting side by side wearing orange life jackets while a solider offers them bottled water and plastic-wrapped sandwiches. Thunberg can be seen sitting near the front of the group. The FFC had earlier said the ship had come "under assault in international waters," in a Telegram post. "Quadcopters are surrounding the ship, spraying it with a white paint-like substance. Communications are jammed, and disturbing sounds are being played over the radio," the FFC said. A video posted by Israel's foreign ministry appeared to show a Navy staffer sending a radio message to the vessel saying the "maritime zone off the coast of Gaza was closed." In a video livestreamed from the boat, activist Yasemin Acar showed a white substance on the deck, saying it had been dropped on the vessel. Acar was later heard saying it was affecting her eyes. The FFC group also posted a video on Telegram, showing members of the crew sitting inside the boat with their hands in the air. After losing communication with the vessel, the FFC began posting pre-recorded video messages from Thunberg and others onboard. "If you see this video, we have been intercepted and kidnapped in international waters by the Israeli occupational forces, or forces that support Israel," Thunberg said in her video. In a statement, the FFC said Israel had acted with "total impunity" and that the vessel's cargo, which included baby formula, food and medical supplies was "confiscated." Israel said it would transfer the goods to Gaza through humanitarian channels. "Israel has no legal authority to detain international volunteers aboard the Madleen," said Huwaida Arraf, human rights attorney and Freedom Flotilla organizer. "This seizure blatantly violates international law and defies the (International Court of Justice's) binding orders requiring unimpeded humanitarian access to Gaza." Israel had repeatedly vowed to stop the aid boat from reaching Gaza, and described the ship as a "selfie yacht" carrying "celebrities." "I have instructed the IDF to ensure that the 'Madleen' flotilla does not reach Gaza," Israeli defense minister Israel Katz said on Sunday. After the flotilla crew members were detained, Katz said in a post on X that he had instructed the military to screen videos of the Hamas attacks on Israel from 7 October, 2023 to the activists upon their arrival at Ashdod Port. Israel's foreign ministry said the group "attempted to stage a media provocation whose sole purpose was to gain publicity." "There are ways to deliver aid to the Gaza Strip - they do not involve Instagram selfies," it added. In an earlier statement on Monday, the ministry said "unauthorized attempts to breach the blockade are dangerous, unlawful, and undermine ongoing humanitarian efforts." The French foreign ministry said on Monday that there were six French nationals on board the "Madleen," and that it is in contact with Israeli authorities to bring them back. The French government had previously warned the activists against their plan "due to the risks involved," a statement from the ministry added. An Élysée source told CNN that France's President Emmanuel Macron "has requested that arrangements be made, as quickly as possible, for the return" of its nationals. The foreign ministry statement also called on the Israeli government to allow "immediate, large-scale, and unhindered access for humanitarian aid to Gaza." Hamas demanded the immediate release of the activists and condemned their detention in a statement, calling the interception "a flagrant violation of international law, and an attack on civilian volunteers acting out of humanitarian motives." As the "Madleen" was taken to Ashdod, some 15 activists protested the ship's seizure in the city. The demonstrators carried signs reading, "resist genocide," "release the Madleen activists now" and "stop state terror." "We… have come to express our support and solidarity with the Madleen as part of the Freedom Flotilla, whose activists were abducted by Israel," one activist is heard saying in English. The demonstrators were interrupted by a passerby who shouted in Hebrew, "You're living in Israel," calling the protesters "bullies" and "hooligans." The "Madleen" is part of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, an organisation that has campaigned against Israel's blockade of Gaza and tried to break the siege by boat. The crew, which had publicised the location of the ship with an online tracker, began preparing for the possibility of interception by the Israeli military. On Monday morning, the UK-flagged civilian vessel was north of Egypt in the Mediterranean Sea, slowly approaching the coast of Gaza, but the tracker has since appeared to have stopped. "We know that it's a very risky mission and we know that previous experiences with flotillas like this have resulted in attacks, violence and even cases of death," Thunberg told CNN on Saturday. Israel imposed a full humanitarian blockade of Gaza on 2 March, cutting off food, medical supplies, and other aid to the more than 2 million Palestinians who live in the territory for 11 weeks. Faced with growing international pressure, Israel began allowing a trickle of aid in late May. But humanitarian organisations say it is only a fraction of the aid that entered the enclave before the war, and have warned of a worsening humanitarian crisis and the growing risk of widespread famine. A UN-backed report warned in late April that one in five people were facing starvation. Dozens of Palestinians have been killed over the past week while on their way to try and obtain aid from a new US-backed group commissioned to deliver aid to Gaza, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). The group is intended to replace the UN-led system of distributing aid in Gaza. The United Nations has warned that the new distribution mechanism has become a "death trap" for desperate people seeking food in the strip. Last month, another vessel from the Freedom Flotilla Coalition came under what its organisers claimed was an Israeli drone attack off the coast of Malta in international waters. The group did not provide evidence that the drone was Israeli, while the Israeli military has declined to comment on the alleged attack. The ship, the "Conscience," was heading to Malta, where a large contingent of activists, including Thunberg, were due to board before it departed for Gaza. The later voyage on the "Madleen," which was intercepted by Israel, departed from Sicily last Friday. - CNN
Free Malaysia Today
31-05-2025
- Health
- Free Malaysia Today
RSF drone strike kills 6 in Sudan hospital as cholera rages
The United Nations says the conflict in Sudan has created the world's biggest hunger and displacement crises. (EPA Images pic) KHARTOUM : Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) bombarded the key southern city of El-Obeid yesterday, killing six people in a hospital, as doctors in the capital Khartoum fought to contain a cholera outbreak. World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said they were 'appalled' by the latest strike, adding: 'Attacks on health must stop. We call for protection of all health infrastructure and health personnel. The best medicine is peace.' An army source told AFP the drone strike on the Social Insurance Hospital, which also wounded 12, was part of a simultaneous strike on residential areas of the city with heavy artillery. The bombardment had also hit a second hospital in the city centre, the source added. A medical source at El-Obeid Hospital, the city's main facility, confirmed the toll. El-Obeid, a strategic city 400km southwest of Khartoum, was besieged by the RSF for nearly two years before the regular army broke the siege in February. It was one of a series of counter-offensives that later saw the army recapture Khartoum. The city, which the RSF has repeatedly bombarded, is a key staging post on the army's supply route to the west, where the besieged city of El-Fasher is the only state capital in the vast Darfur region still under its control. The RSF and the army have clashed repeatedly along the road between El-Obeid and El-Fasher in recent weeks. On Thursday, the paramilitaries said they retook the town of Al-Khoei, around 100km west of El-Obeid, after the army recaptured it earlier this month. The war between army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his former deputy, RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, has killed tens of thousands of people and uprooted 13 million since it erupted in April 2023. The United Nations says the conflict has created the world's biggest hunger and displacement crises. In Khartoum, where a cholera outbreak has killed dozens this week, doctors struggled to treat patients with dwindling supplies as the disease rapidly spread. 'We are using all available means to limit its spread and treat infected patients,' Dr Hamad Adel, with Doctors Without Borders (MSF), told AFP from Bashair Hospital. Patients lay on rusted metal beds, receiving IV drips in a makeshift isolation centre fashioned out of a tent in the sweltering 40°C heat, AFPTV footage showed. In a dedicated section, children lay side by side, emaciated and exhausted in the midst of what aid groups warn is a public health disaster. Cholera, an acute diarrhoeal illness caused by ingesting contaminated water or food, is easily preventable and treatable with clean water, sanitation and medical care – all now in short supply in Khartoum. In other overwhelmed hospitals across the war-ravaged capital, medics have been forced to lay patients on floors in hallways and courtyards. The outbreak has been blamed on power outages caused by RSF drone attacks on the capital's power stations, which cut access to clean water for millions across the city this month. Cholera is endemic to Sudan, but outbreaks have become worse and more frequent since the war has decimated the country's already fragile health system. Up to 90% of hospitals in the conflict's main battlegrounds have at some point been forced shut, according to the doctors' union. The war has effectively split Sudan in two, with the army holding the centre, east and north, while the paramilitaries and their allies control nearly all of Darfur and parts of the south. The RSF has failed to seize El-Fasher, which would consolidate its hold on Darfur, but has continued to pound the city, with starving civilians trapped inside. The UN World Food Programme said Thursday its facility had been 'hit and damaged by RSF repeated shelling'. The US – which has sanctioned both Burhan and Daglo – has condemned the bombing. 'Safe, sustained humanitarian access is critical and violations that endanger civilians and relief efforts demand serious attention,' said senior Africa adviser Massad Boulos. Since losing Khartoum in March, the RSF has adopted a two-pronged strategy: long-range drone strikes on army-held cities accompanied by a counter-offensive in the south. On Thursday, the paramilitaries announced they had captured Dibeibat in South Kordofan state. Swathes of South Kordofan are controlled by a rebel group allied with the RSF.
South China Morning Post
18-05-2025
- Politics
- South China Morning Post
Israel will allow limited aid into Gaza after nearly 3 months of blockade, Netanyahu says
Israel says it will allow a limited amount of humanitarian aid into Gaza after a nearly three-month blockade to avoid a 'hunger crisis', after global experts on food crises warned of famine. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday his cabinet approved a decision to allow a 'basic' amount of food into Gaza. Israel imposed a complete blockade on humanitarian aid starting on March 2. Netanyahu said allowing some aid in would enable Israel to expand its new military operation, which began on Saturday. It was not immediately clear when aid would enter Gaza, or how. Netanyahu said Israel would work to ensure that Hamas will not control aid distribution and ensure the aid does not reach Hamas militants. The decision to provide Gaza residents with basic food aid was made on the recommendation of the Israeli Army, Netanyahu's office said.
Times of Oman
13-05-2025
- Health
- Times of Oman
World's worst hunger crises: WHO warns as 2.1 million in Gaza face starvation
Geneva: Gaza is on the verge of famine, as the ongoing blockade continues to affect the flow of humanitarian aid, including food, medicine, and essential supplies. With the entire population of 2.1 million facing hunger, and nearly half a million already in catastrophic conditions, the crisis has become the world's worst hunger crisis, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). In a statement released on Monday, the WHO said, "The risk of famine in Gaza is increasing with the deliberate withholding of humanitarian aid, including food, in the ongoing blockade. The entire 2.1 million population of Gaza is facing prolonged food shortages, with nearly half a million people in a catastrophic situation of hunger, acute malnutrition, starvation, illness and death. This is one of the world's worst hunger crises, unfolding in real time." The latest food security analysis was released today by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) partnership, of which WHO is a member. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stressed that Gaza is already in the grip of a hunger crisis and said that people are starving, falling ill, and dying while lifesaving food and medicine remain just minutes away across the border. "We do not need to wait for a declaration of famine in Gaza to know that people are already starving, sick and dying, while food and medicines are minutes away across the border. The analysis released today shows that without immediate access to food and essential supplies, the situation will continue to deteriorate, causing more deaths and descend into famine. We call for an immediate end of the aid blockade, the release of all hostages, and a ceasefire," Ghebreyesus said. Since the aid blockade began on March 2, 57 children have reportedly died from the effects of malnutrition, according to the Ministry of Health. This number is likely an underestimate and is likely to increase. If the situation persists, nearly 71,000 children under the age of five are expected to be acutely malnourished over the next eleven months, according to the IPC report. The WHO further said that pregnant and breastfeeding mothers are also at high risk of malnutrition, with nearly 17,000 expected to require treatment for acute malnutrition over the next eleven months, if the dire situation does not change. "Malnourished mothers struggle to produce enough nutritious milk, putting their babies at risk, while the delivery of counselling services for mothers is heavily compromised. For infants under six months, breastmilk is their best protection against hunger and disease - especially where clean water is scarce, as it is in Gaza," WHO said. (ANI)
