Monday, 15 April 2024 11:05 AM [ Last Update: Monday, 15 April 2024 11:05 AM ]
Palestinians wait to receive food cooked by a charity kitchen in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, January 16, 2024. (Photo by Reuters)
Israel has continued to obstruct the delivery of aid into Gaza amid its 7-month genocidal war on the besieged territory, using food as a tool to “pressure” and “blackmail” Palestinians, according to a rights group.
A report by the European-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor published on Monday said Israel is continuously limiting the entry and distribution of aid in Gaza, especially the Gaza City and North Gaza governorates, where at least 300,000 people reside according to UN estimates.
Israel’s war on Gaza which began on October 7 in the aftermath of Hamas’s Operation Al-Aqsa Storm, has so far killed nearly 33,800 people with thousands more presumed dead under the rubble.
The recent report warns that the chokehold on aid threatens to exacerbate and deepen the widespread famine in the area, confirming aid agencies’ fears that deaths by starvation and diseases may top deaths by bombs in Gaza.
“Israel’s restriction of humanitarian access into the Gaza Strip, particularly the strip’s northern parts, and its impeding of the timely delivery of life-saving food supplies is drastically worsening the already-dire food insecurity faced by the Palestinian population there,” it said.
According to the report, Israel currently allows 169 trucks to cross daily into Gaza via the Kerem Abu Slem/Kerem Shalom crossing and the Rafah land crossing since early April.
“This is still far less than the 500 trucks per day that were entering the strip prior to October 7, as well as the operational capacity of both border crossings,” it said.
The report warned that the restrictions on allowing aid into the war-battered territories are putting more people at risk of dying from starvation.
Gaza’s Health Ministry reported that as of April 1, 32 people, including 28 children, had died of malnutrition and dehydration at hospitals in northern Gaza.
Euro-Med Monitor also criticized Israeli authorities for continuing to impede the entry of humanitarian aid into the strip via the land crossings and ensuring that aid cannot enter in a timely, efficient, and systematic manner.
Israeli ministers have “openly stated that starvation and aid must be used as a tool of pressure, blackmail, and weaponry in the current military attacks,” it said.
“Israel persists in its crime of starving the strip’s civilian population despite all of the legally-binding international resolutions and the obligations placed upon,” it said, citing the Genocide Convention and the UN Security Council resolution adopted on March 25 demanding an immediate ceasefire and “the urgent need to expand the flow” of aid into Gaza.
Israel blocks food trucks 3 times more than other aid in Gaza: UN
Famine has been projected to arrive in the north of Gaza “anytime between mid-March and May 2024.”
The report also warned that not allowing sufficient amounts of aid into the besieged Gaza Strip has already caused residents to lose unhealthy amounts of weight.
The latest analysis from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) partnership released in March warned that the situation in Gaza is catastrophic, with northern Gaza facing imminent famine and the rest of the strip at risk as well.
It concluded that famine may occur by the end of May 2024 if the war did not end and sustained access for the provision of essential supplies and services to the population did not take place.
Meanwhile, international charity group Oxfam recently revealed that people in northern Gaza have been forced to survive on an average of just 245 calories a day since January. Adults typically require between 1,600–3,000 calories per day.
According the Euro-Med Monitor report, Palestinians also have to risk their lives by waiting for aid trucks near Israeli checkpoints, which have become death points, as hungry crowds of civilians are frequently targeted by the Israeli military.
On 29 February, Israeli troops fired on crowds of Palestinians gathered to collect flour in the southwest of Gaza City, killing at least 112 people and injuring some 760.
Israel has been claiming for weeks that there has been a change in the amount of aid entering the Strip, but the report said no real action has been taken.
“The number of trucks permitted to enter the Strip, particularly Gaza City and North Gaza, remain unaltered. Moreover, the Erez/Beit Hanoun checkpoint in the north of Gaza remains closed,” it said.
There are only three roads that Israel permits humanitarian relief convoys to use to reach the northern Gaza Strip and these roads are “in very poor condition” and do not provide any security guarantees, the report added.
According to a recent report by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), access into Gaza is characterized by “lengthy inspection processes, fuel shortages resulting from Israeli restrictions, and restrictions on the movement of trucks, convoys, and vetted drivers…and congestion at the Kerem Shalom crossing.”
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Israel
Herzog to honour three hostages mistakenly killed by IDF in Gaza
In December, Yotam Haim, Samer Talalka and Alon Shamriz were tragically killed by Israeli forces amid combat in the Gaza City neighborhood of Shejaiya
BY JC REPORTERJEWISH NEWS SYNDICATEAPRIL 15, 2024 12:58
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Israeli President Isaac Herzog will hold a ceremony on Monday afternoon to honour three hostages accidentally killed by Israeli forces while trying to escape Hamas captivity in Gaza.
In December, Yotam Haim, Samer Talalka and Alon Shamriz were tragically killed after they had eluded their captors but were mistakenly identified by Israeli troops as threats amid combat in the Gaza City neighborhood of Shejaiya.
“Together with the entire people of Israel, I bow my head in deep sorrow and mourn the death of three of our hostages,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the time. “This is an unbearable tragedy and all of Israel is grieving their loss this evening. My heart goes out to the bereaved families at this difficult time.”
During the ceremony at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem, their families will be presented with certificates of recognition in the name of the State of Israel.
On Sunday, Netanyahu confirmed that Hamas has rejected the latest hostages-for-ceasefire proposal.
“The rejection of the proposal by the three mediators [United States, Egypt and Qatar], which included the most significant flexibility on Israel’s part, proves that [Hamas chief in Gaza Yahya] Sinwar does not want a humanitarian deal and the return of the hostages, is continuing to exploit the tension with Iran and is striving to unite the sectors and achieve a general escalation in the region,” according to a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office.
“Israel will continue to strive to realise the objectives of the war with Hamas with full force, and leave no stone unturned to return the 133 hostages from Gaza forthwith,” it added.
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News / IN-DEPTH / Palestine / Koreas / Editor’s Choice
Activists in Seoul condemn Israeli genocide in Gaza
Sunday, 14 April 2024 9:23 AM [ Last Update: Sunday, 14 April 2024 9:23 AM ]
Supporters of the Palestinian cause march during a rally in Seoul on Oct. 11, 2023. (Yonhap)
South Korean activists, along with people from other parts of the world, rallied in Seoul on Saturday to protest against the ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza.
During the rally, a British Jewish student condemned hegemonic power support for Israel and their policies toward the issue of Palestine.
Israel is an apartheid state created as a settler colonial project.
The US the UK and other Western powers aim is to destroy Palestinians and create another Western power in the Middle East.
British Jewish Student Activist
- Seoul forum and civic action expose Israeli genocide Seoul forum and civic action expose Israeli genocideHundreds of people have staged a rally in the South Korean capital to voice their support for Palestinians and condemn the Israeli genocide in Gaza.
Activists in Seoul held yet another forum on Friday, which was aimed at informing people about the Israeli atrocities as well as South Korea’s role in fueling Israeli violence against Palestinians.
Even after Israel’s Gaza attack began, after October 7th, weapons exports from South Korea to Israel continued, so we are clearly responsible since South Korea may be contributing to genocide.
Lee Young-Ah, People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy
- UN experts urge immediate halt in arms exports to Israel UN experts urge countries to immediately halt arms exports to IsraelA group of UN experts has warned that any arms exports to Israel that would be used in Gaza are likely a violation of international law and must stop immediately.
Pro-Palestinian demonstrations large and small take place around the world amid Israeli threats to conduct a ground attack on Rafah where more than 1.3 million Palestinians are seeking refuge.
Those Palestinians are suffering from starvation amid the regime’s crippling siege of Gaza and its relentless bombardment of the coastal sliver.
- UNSC voices ‘grave concern’ over killing of charity staff in Gaza UN Security Council voices ‘grave concern’ over killing of charity staff in GazaThe UN Security Council has expressed “grave concern” over an Israeli airstrike that killed seven members of the US-based charity, World Central Kitchen earlier this month in the Gaza Strip.
Many of these people have been demonstrating in solidarity with Palestinians each week for six months.
They believe that the spread of a greater understanding of Palestine and the occupation through their activism can generate international pressure and result in the end of Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
- 20th consecutive protest march in Seoul for Gaza Palestinians, pro-Palestine people march in Seoul for GazaSouth Koreans have rallied in the capital Seoul to show solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza.
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