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Palestinians in Gaza are ‘enduring a humanitarian catastrophe of epic proportions’, UN secretary general says
A trickle of aid into the Gaza Strip must become an ocean, the UN secretary-general António Guterres said, adding that the IPC famine alert “confirms what we have feared”, that Gaza is on the brink of famine.
“The facts are in – and they are undeniable,” he said in a statement.
“Palestinians in Gaza are enduring a humanitarian catastrophe of epic proportions. This is not a warning. It is a reality unfolding before our eyes.”
Key events
Donald Trump and Keir Starmer will have “failed humanity” if they do not act to stop the famine in Gaza, Oxfam has said.
An spokesperson for the charity described the escalating crisis as a “humanitarian catastrophe” and added that “urgent, forceful diplomacy” is required.
They said:
President Trump and prime minister Starmer will fail humanity if they do not act. For the first time, the IPC, the UN-backed monitor, has said famine is now unfolding in Gaza. This is no longer about alarm bells.
This is the acknowledgement of a humanitarian catastrophe. With president Trump still on British soil and the UK cabinet holding an emergency meeting today they no longer have time for equivocation or semantics. We must see an end to the genocide, opened borders, and the secure the release of hostages and detainees on both sides.
Airdrops and brief pauses for meagre deliveries of aid are nowhere near enough to prevent starvation and death on the scale the world is now witnessing. Only urgent, forceful diplomacy will achieve an immediate and unconditional ceasefire, break Israel’s siege, and allow lifesaving aid to flow freely and safely.
Palestinians in Gaza are ‘enduring a humanitarian catastrophe of epic proportions’, UN secretary general says
A trickle of aid into the Gaza Strip must become an ocean, the UN secretary-general António Guterres said, adding that the IPC famine alert “confirms what we have feared”, that Gaza is on the brink of famine.
“The facts are in – and they are undeniable,” he said in a statement.
“Palestinians in Gaza are enduring a humanitarian catastrophe of epic proportions. This is not a warning. It is a reality unfolding before our eyes.”
Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa), has reacted to the IPC famine alert.
In a post on X, he said the famine is “entirely man-made”, adding that the only way to “reverse this catastrophe is to flood Gaza with a mblockive scale up of aid”.
“The United Nations including Unrwa have the expertise & resources available,” Lazzarini wrote. “Unrwa alone has the equivalent of 6,000 trucks of food & medicine ready to cross into Gaza. Let us do our work without restrictions, in safety & dignity,” he added.
Unrwa has been the major distributor of aid in Gaza and has provided education, health and other basic services to millions of Palestinian refugees across the region.
But an Israeli ban on the agency in Gaza and the occupied West Bank took effect earlier this year after Israel accused it of being infiltrated by Hamas, the Palestinian militant group. Unrwa denies this claim.
Here are some of the latest images that have been sent over the newswires from Gaza:
The Guardian’s chief Middle East correspondent, Emma Graham-Harrison, has some more detail from the UN backed food security body’s report that said earlier that the “worst-case scenario of famine” is now unfolding in Gaza (see post at 09.22 for more details).
Here is an extract from her story about the Integrated Food Security Phase Clblockification (IPC) report:
The IPC report details how Israel’s “drastic restrictions” on the entry of food has limited shipments to far below the levels needed to cover basic needs in Gaza, without fresh foods such as vegetables and meat.
The population needs an estimated 62,000 metric tonnes of food staples each month. Israeli data shows no food entered Gaza in March or April, 19,900 tonnes entered in May and 37,800 tonnes entered in June, the IPC report says.
“This is unlike anything we have seen in this century,” said the WFP emergency director, Ross Smith, addressing reporters in Geneva via video link from Rome.
“It reminds us of previous disasters in Ethiopia or Biafra in the past century. We need urgent action now.”
Gaza needs to be flooded with ‘large-scale food aid’ now to prevent mblock starvation, World Food Programme says
Cindy McCain, the executive director of the World Food Programme, has said vast quantities of aid urgently needs to be allowed into Gaza at a much greater volume to “prevent mblock starvation”.
The unbearable suffering of the people of Gaza is already clear for the world to see. Waiting for official confirmation of famine to provide life-saving food aid they desperately need is unconscionable.
We need to flood Gaza with large-scale food aid, immediately and without obstruction, and keep it flowing each and every day to prevent mblock starvation.
People are already dying of malnutrition and the longer we wait to act, the higher the death toll will rise.
German chancellor Friedrich Merz said that two of the country’s aircraft could fly aid airdrop missions from Jordan to Gaza as soon as Wednesday, calling the help a small but important signal.
“This work may only make a small contribution to humanitarian aid, but it sends an important signal: We are here, we are in the region,” said Merz at a press conference alongside Jordan’s King Abdullah in Berlin.
Two A400M aircraft were on their way to Jordan at the moment, where they would refuel and then fly their aid mission at the weekend at the latest, in coordination with France and Germany, said Merz.
Merz also welcomed initial steps taken by Israel to allow in aid but said more must follow.
Lisa O’Carroll
The European Commission has proposed partially suspending Israel from its flagship £80bn Horizon science research programme over what officials called a “severe” humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
It comes amid worldwide condemnation of Israel’s actions in Gaza including demands by Donald Trump that it must do more to stop the “real starvation”. On Tuesday, the leading international authority on food crises, the Integrated Food Security Phase Clblockification, said the “worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out” in Gaza.
Horizon Europe is among the most prestigious science research programmes in the world and has never suspended a country before. Officials believe, however, the humanitarian crisis in Gaza is so severe that it now has a legal basis for suspension.
In its proposal to member states the commission reports that “90% of households face severe water insecurity and malnutrition rates are rising sharply” with “severe shortages of medicine” and “virtually the entire Gaza population … at risk of famine”.
Israel has denied that it is the cause of starvation, blaming it on other factors including the looting of aid by Hamas and distribution failures by the UN.
France will airdrop aid into Gaza ‘in coming days’, says diplomatic source
France will airdrop aid into Gaza “in coming days”, a diplomatic source has told the Agence France-Presse (AFP) news agency.
“France will carry out airdrops in the coming days to meet the most essential and urgent needs of the civilian population in Gaza,” the source said as they urged for “an immediate opening by Israel of the land crossing points”.
Spain said yesterday that it would airdrop 12 tonnes of food into Gaza this week, in what will be another rare example of a European nation joining Middle Eastern countries (like Jordan and the UAE) in sending aid into the territory by air.
The UK’s prime minister, Keir Starmer, is set to hold an emergency cabinet meeting on Gaza this afternoon.
The Labour government is under intense domestic pressure to take further action on Israel as UK public opinion hardens and pressure mounts on Starmer to at least (immediately) recognise Palestinian statehoood.
UK government sources have said that formal recognition of Palestinian statehood was a matter of “when, not if”. You can follow the latest developments in our UK politics live blog.
Death toll from Israeli attacks on Gaza surpblockes 60,000, says health ministry
At least 60,034 Palestinian people have been killed and 145,870 others injured in Israeli attacks on Gaza since 7 October 2023, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.
At least 113 Palestinian people were killed and 637 others injured in the last 24 hours alone, the ministry said, despite the Israeli military pause in parts of the Gaza Strip.
Gaza’s health ministry added in its Telegram post:
A number of victims are still under the rubble and on the streets, as ambulance and civil defense crews are unable to reach them until now.
‘Crumbs of aid won’t prevent human death at an unimaginable scale’, Oxfam warns
Oxfam has said the Integrated Food Security Phase Clblockification Initiative statement must “finally rouse the international community to act with a clarity and resolve that has so far been beyond it”.
Oxfam’s policy lead in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Bushra Khalidi, said:
Israel’s genocide has thrown Gaza into the final chaotic stages of a full-blown human catastrophe. Today’s warning of an unfolding famine – one created entirely by Israel’s murderous siege – must finally rouse the international community to act with a clarity and resolve that has so far been beyond it.
World leaders have been variously divided, complicit, uncaring, and collectively ineffectual in stopping Israel’s campaign of erasure. In failing to protect the Palestinian people, they have no more excuses left. Ending Israel’s genocide of Gaza is a test not only of our world order but of our collective humanity.
Air drops, and brief pauses for relative crumbs of aid, is nowhere near enough to prevent human death at an unimaginable scale. We need urgent forceful diplomacy and whatever restrictive measures are necessary in order to achieve an immediate and unconditional ceasefire, break Israel’s siege and allow humanitarian aid to flow freely and safely throughout Gaza. The hostages and unlawfully detained prisoners must be released.
My colleagues William Christou and Malak A Tantesh have written a useful explainer looking at how Israel’s ‘humanitarian pauses’ will affect Gaza’s starvation crisis caused by Israel’s restrictions on aid. Here is an extract from it:
Israel has announced airdropped aid will resume, which humanitarian organisations have said will provide a negligible amount of supplies. It also said that humanitarian corridors would be established to facilitate the entry of UN aid trucks into Gaza, though the number of trucks that will be allowed in was not specified.
NGOs say these steps may ease aid access, but with mblock starvation already under way, far more is needed. In particular, humanitarian groups have called for a full ceasefire in order to get civilians the help they need.
“We have to go back to the levels we had during the ceasefire, 500-600 trucks of aid every day managed by the UN, including Unrwa, that our teams would distribute in 400 distribution points,” said Juliette Touma, the Unrwa director of communications.
She explained that aid agencies had previously walked Gaza back from the brink of starvation and that to do so again, an unimpeded flow of aid would be needed to “reverse the tide and trajectory of famine”.
Palestinian who helped make Oscar-winning No Other Land killed in West Bank
William Christou
Awdah Hathaleen, a Palestinian activist and journalist who helped make the Oscar-winning doblockentary No Other Land, has been killed during an attack by Israeli settlers in the south Hebron hills.
The attack on Monday was captured on video, which appears to show an Israeli settler, Yinon Levi, who was put under sanctions by the US president, Joe Biden, then removed from the sanctions list by Donald Trump, firing his gun wildly at the time of the killing.
He was arrested later by Israeli police for questioning, though no charges have been filed against him.
The killing comes amid an increasing wave of settler and Israeli military violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. At least 1,009 Palestinians have been killed and more than 7,000 injured in the West Bank since October 2023.
Accountability for settlers who commit acts of violence against Palestinians is rare.
According to activists from the village of Umm al-Khair in the West Bank, where the shooting took place, the killing happened after a settler in a bulldozer drove through their land, destroying trees and property.
[English News]
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