Gazans say hunger is causing social breakdown, fueling fears of exodus into Egypt

Update International relief agencies said public order was disintegrating in Gaza as hunger spread, fueling fears of a mass exodus to Egypt. (AFP)
1 / 4
International relief agencies said public order was disintegrating in Gaza as hunger spread, fueling fears of a mass exodus to Egypt. (AFP)
Update Gazans say hunger is causing social breakdown, fueling fears of exodus into Egypt
2 / 4
Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters accompany a newly released Israeli hostage before handing her over to the Red Cross in Rafah, Gaza Strip, during a prisoner swap in Rafah,on November 28, 2023. (AFP/File)
Update Gazans say hunger is causing social breakdown, fueling fears of exodus into Egypt
3 / 4
Israeli left-wing activists hold a demonstration near the Ministry of Defence in Tel Aviv on December 5, 2023, calling for a ceasefire and exchange of hostages amid continuing battles between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas. (AFP)
Update Gazans say hunger is causing social breakdown, fueling fears of exodus into Egypt
4 / 4
Yocheved Lifshitz (C), who was released by Hamas after 16 days in captivity, attends a protest with others holding signs showing portraits of other Israeli hostages held in Gaza since the October 7 attacks during a demonstration in Tel Aviv on December 9, 2023. (AFP/File)
Short Url
Updated 12 December 2023
Follow

Gazans say hunger is causing social breakdown, fueling fears of exodus into Egypt

Gazans say hunger is causing social breakdown, fueling fears of exodus into Egypt
  • The narrow coastal strip has been under a full Israeli blockade since the start of the conflict

GAZA: Hamas said it was striking back against Israeli forces across Gaza on Monday and Palestinians and international relief agencies said public order was disintegrating as hunger spread, fueling fears of a mass exodus to Egypt.
The narrow coastal strip has been under a full Israeli blockade since the start of the conflict more than two months ago and the border with Egypt is the only other way out.
Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been driven from their homes and residents say it is impossible to find refuge, or increasingly food, in the densely populated enclave, with around 18,000 people already killed and conflict intensifying.
Gazans said people forced to flee repeatedly were dying of hunger and cold as well as bombardment, describing desperate attacks on aid trucks and sky high prices.
“Had any of us expected that our people may die of hunger, had it crossed anyone’s mind before?” said Rola Ghanim, among many expressing bewilderment on social media.
Aid trucks risked being stopped by desperate residents if they even slowed down at an intersection, Carl Skau, said deputy executive director of the UN World Food Programme.
“Half of the population are starving, nine out of 10 are not eating every day,” he told Reuters on Saturday.
One Palestinian told Reuters he had not eaten for three days and had to beg for bread for his children.
“I pretend to be strong but I am afraid I will collapse in front of them at any moment,” he said by telephone, declining to be named for fear of reprisals.
After the collapse of a week-long cease-fire on Dec. 1, Israel began a ground offensive in the south last week and has since pushed from the east into the heart of the city of Khan Younis, with warplanes attacking an area to the west.
On Monday, militants and some residents said fighters were preventing Israeli tanks moving further west through the city and clashing with Israeli forces in northern Gaza, where Israel had said its tasks were largely complete.
Israel said dozens of Hamas fighters had surrendered and urged others to join them. The armed wing of Hamas said it had fired rockets toward Tel Aviv, where Israelis fled to shelters.
UN officials say 1.9 million people — 85 percent of Gaza’s population — are displaced and describe the conditions in the southern areas where they have concentrated as hellish.
“I expect public order to completely break down soon and an even worse situation could unfold including epidemic diseases and increased pressure for mass displacement into Egypt,” UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said on Sunday.

ISRAEL DENIES SEEKING TO EMPTY GAZA
Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner general of UNRWA, the UN body responsible for the welfare of Palestinian refugees, wrote on Saturday that pushing Gazans closer and closer to the border pointed to “attempts to move Palestinians into Egypt.”
The border with Egypt is heavily fortified, but Hamas militants blew holes in the wall in 2008 to break a tight blockade. Gazans crossed to buy food and other goods but quickly returned, with none permanently displaced.
Egypt has long warned it would not allow Gazans into its territory this time, fearing they would not be able to return.
Jordan, which absorbed the bulk of Palestinians after the creation of Israel in 1948, accused Israel on Sunday of seeking “to empty Gaza of its people.”
Israeli government spokesperson Eylon Levy called the accusation “outrageous and false,” saying his country was defending itself “from the monsters who perpetrated the Oct. 7 massacre” and bringing them to justice.
Hamas gunmen on Oct. 7 killed 1,200 people and took 240 hostage, according to Israeli tallies. About 100 hostages were freed during the truce, some with relatives left behind.
“I am petrified I will get bad news that he is no longer alive,” Sharon Alony-Cunio, released with her two little girls, told Reuters of her husband, who is still being held.
Israel has vowed to annihilate the militant Islamist group, which has ruled Gaza since 2007 and is sworn to Israel’s destruction.
Since Oct 7. at least 18,205 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza and 49,645 wounded, according to the Gaza health ministry. The toll no longer includes northern Gaza and many people there and elsewhere remain trapped under rubble.
Israel says the instructions to move are among measures to protect the population. It accuses militants from Hamas, which controls Gaza, of using civilians as human shields and stealing humanitarian aid, which Hamas denies.
The Israeli military accused Hamas of hiding weapons in UNRWA facilities in Jabalia and distributed video purporting to show Hamas gunmen beating people and taking aid in the Gaza City district of Shejaia.
Israel has prevented most aid from moving into Gaza, saying it fears it will just fuel Hamas attacks.
Government spokesman Eylon Levy said Israel was working to open the Kerem Shalom crossing which processed most aid before the war and blamed international agencies for holdups at the crossing from Egypt, which is designed for pedestrians.
In the Israeli-occupied West Bank and neighboring Jordan, most shops and businesses closed in response to Palestinian calls for a strike but the impact on Israel was unclear.
The Gaza health ministry said 32 Palestinians were killed in Khan Younis overnight. The armed wing of Hamas said it had hit two Israeli tanks with rockets and fired mortars at Israeli forces.
Militants and residents said fighting was also fierce in Shejaia, east of the center of Gaza City, the northwestern Sheikh Radwan district and Jabalia further north.
In central Gaza, where Israel told people to move on Monday toward “known shelters in the Deir Al-Balah area” health officials said the Shuhada Al-Aqsa hospital had received 40 dead.
Medics also said an Israeli air strike had killed four in a house in Rafah, one of two places near Egypt where Israel says Palestinians should take refuge.


Israel military strikes kill 32 Palestinians in Gaza, medics say

Israel military strikes kill 32 Palestinians in Gaza, medics say
Updated 14 sec ago
Follow

Israel military strikes kill 32 Palestinians in Gaza, medics say

Israel military strikes kill 32 Palestinians in Gaza, medics say
  • Among the 32 killed, at least seven died in an Israeli strike on a house in central Gaza City
The Israeli military said it killed a Palestinian it accused of involvement in Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel in a vehicle strike in Gaza, and is investigating claims that the individual was an employee of aid group World Central Kitchen.
At least 32 Palestinians were killed in Israeli military strikes across Gaza overnight and into Saturday, with most casualties reported in northern areas, medics told Reuters.
Later on Saturday medics said seven people were killed when an Israeli air strike targeted a vehicle near a gathering of Palestinians receiving aid in the southern area of Khan Younis south of the enclave.
According to residents and a Hamas source, the vehicle targeted near a crowd receiving flour belonged to security personnel responsible for overseeing the delivery of aid shipments into Gaza.
Among the 32 killed, at least seven died in an Israeli strike on a house in central Gaza City, according to a statement from the Gaza Civil Defense and the official Palestinian news agency WAFA early on Saturday.
The Gaza Civil Defense also reported that one of its officers was killed in attacks in northern Gaza’s Jabalia, bringing the total number of civil defense workers killed since October 7, 2023, to 88.
Earlier on Saturday, WAFA reported that three employees of the World Central Kitchen, a US-based, non-governmental humanitarian agency, were killed when a civilian vehicle was targeted in Khan Younis, southern Gaza.
The World Central Kitchen has not yet commented on the incident.

Syria’s military ‘temporarily’ withdraws from Aleppo to prepare for counteroffensive

Syria’s military ‘temporarily’ withdraws from Aleppo to prepare for counteroffensive
Updated 30 min 27 sec ago
Follow

Syria’s military ‘temporarily’ withdraws from Aleppo to prepare for counteroffensive

Syria’s military ‘temporarily’ withdraws from Aleppo to prepare for counteroffensive
  • Syrian military confirms militantss enter Aleppo, says dozens of soldiers killed

AMMAN: The Syrian military said on Saturday that dozens of its troops had been killed during an militant attack in northwestern Syria and that militants had managed to enter large parts of Aleppo city, forcing the army to redeploy.

The Syrian military statement was the first public acknowledgement by the army that insurgents led by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham had entered the government-held city of Aleppo in a surprise attack that began earlier this week.

“The large numbers of terrorists and the multiplicity of battlefronts prompted our armed forces to carry out a redeployment operation aimed at strengthening the defense lines in order to absorb the attack, preserve the lives of civilians and soldiers, and prepare for a counterattack,” the army said.

The insurgent attack marks the most significant challenge in years to President Bashar Assad, jolting the frontlines of the Syrian civil war that have largely been frozen since 2020.

The Syrian military statement said that the insurgents had not been able to establish fixed positions in Aleppo city due to the army’s continued bombardment of their positions.

Two Syrian military sources said earlier that Russian and Syrian warplanes targeted insurgents in an Aleppo suburb on Saturday. Russia deployed its air force to Syria in 2015 to aid Assad in the Syrian civil war, which began in 2011.

The insurgent force began its surprise offensive earlier this week, sweeping through government-held towns and reaching Aleppo nearly a decade after government forces backed by Russia and Iran drove militants from the city.

Speaking on Friday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow regarded the militant attack as a violation of Syria’s sovereignty. “We are in favor of the Syrian authorities bringing order to the area and restoring constitutional order as soon as possible,” he said.


Israel says it struck Hezbollah weapons smuggling sites in Syria, testing a fragile ceasefire

Israel says it struck Hezbollah weapons smuggling sites in Syria, testing a fragile ceasefire
Updated 30 November 2024
Follow

Israel says it struck Hezbollah weapons smuggling sites in Syria, testing a fragile ceasefire

Israel says it struck Hezbollah weapons smuggling sites in Syria, testing a fragile ceasefire
  • ‘Military infrastructure’ at the Syria-Lebanon border being used by Hezbollah for weapons smuggling

TEL AVIV: Israeli aircraft struck Hezbollah weapons smuggling sites along Syria’s border with Lebanon, the Israeli military said Saturday, testing a fragile, days-old ceasefire that halted months of fighting between the sides but has seen continued sporadic fire.
The military said it struck sites that had been used to smuggle weapons from Syria to Lebanon after the ceasefire took effect, which the military said was a violation of its terms. There was no immediate comment from Syrian authorities or activists monitoring the conflict in that country. Hezbollah also did not immediately comment.
The Israeli strike, the latest of several since the ceasefire began on Wednesday, came as unrest spread to other areas of the Middle East, with Syrian insurgents breaching the country’s largest city, Aleppo, in a shock offensive that added fresh uncertainty to a region reeling from multiple wars.
The truce between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah, brokered by the United States and France, calls for an initial two-month ceasefire in which the militants are to withdraw north of Lebanon’s Litani River and Israeli forces are to return to their side of the border.
The repeated bursts of violence — with no reports of serious casualties — reflected the uneasy nature of the ceasefire that otherwise appeared to hold. While Israel has accused Hezbollah of violating the ceasefire, Lebanon has also accused Israel of the same in the days since it took effect.
Many Lebanese, some of the 1.2 million displaced in the conflict, were streaming south to their homes, despite warnings by the Israeli and Lebanese militaries to stay away from certain areas.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported that an Israeli drone attacked a car in the southern village of Majdal Zoun. The agency said there had been casualties but gave no further details. Majdal Zoun, near the Mediterranean Sea, is close to where Israeli troops still have a presence.
The military said earlier Saturday that its forces, who remain in southern Lebanon until they withdraw gradually over the 60-day period, had been operating to distance “suspects” in the region, without elaborating, and said troops had located and seized weapons found hidden in a mosque.
Israel says it reserves the right under the ceasefire to strike against any perceived violations. Israel has made returning the tens of thousands of displaced Israelis home the goal of the war with Hezbollah but Israelis, concerned Hezbollah was not deterred and could still attack northern communities, have been apprehensive about returning home.
Hezbollah began attacking Israel on Oct. 8, 2023, in solidarity with the Palestinian militant group Hamas and its assault on southern Israel the day before. Israel and Hezbollah kept up a low-level conflict of cross-border fire for nearly a year, until Israel escalated its fight with a sophisticated attack that detonated hundreds of pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah fighters. It followed that up with an intense aerial bombardment campaign against Hezbollah assets, killing many of its top leaders including longtime chief Hassan Nasrallah, and it launched a ground invasion in early October.
More than 3,760 people have been killed by Israeli fire in Lebanon during the conflict, many of them civilians, according to Lebanese health officials. The fighting killed more than 70 people in Israel — over half of them civilians — as well as dozens of Israeli soldiers fighting in southern Lebanon.


Militants control ‘most of’ Aleppo city, Syria war monitor says

Militants control ‘most of’ Aleppo city, Syria war monitor says
Updated 57 min 50 sec ago
Follow

Militants control ‘most of’ Aleppo city, Syria war monitor says

Militants control ‘most of’ Aleppo city, Syria war monitor says
  • Syrian authorities closed Aleppo airport as well as all roads leading into the city on Saturday

BEIRUT: A monitor of Syria’s war said Saturday militants now controlled a majority of Aleppo city, reporting Russian air strikes on parts of Syria’s second city for the first time since 2016.

“Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) and allied factions... took control of most of the city and government centers and prisons,” said the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, adding that overnight, Russian “warplanes launched raids on areas of Aleppo city for the first time since 2016.”

Syrian authorities closed Aleppo airport as well as all roads leading into the city on Saturday, three military sources said, as militants opposed to President Bashar Assad said they had reached the heart of Aleppo.

The opposition fighters, led by the Islamist militant group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, carried out a surprise sweep through government-held towns this week and reached Aleppo nearly a decade after having been forced out by Assad and his allies.

Russia, one of Assad’s key allies, has promised Damascus extra military aid to thwart the militants, two military sources said, adding new hardware would start arriving in the next 72 hours.

The Syrian army has been told to follow “safe withdrawal” orders from the main areas of the city that the militants have entered, three army sources said.

The militants began their incursion on Wednesday and by late Friday an operations room representing the offensive said they were sweeping through various neighborhoods of Aleppo.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Militants opposed to Assad return to city after nearly a decade

• Aleppo airport has been closed, military sources say

• Damascus expects Russian hardware to arrive soon, sources say

They are returning to the city for the first time since 2016, when Assad and his allies Russia, Iran, and regional Shiite militias retook it, with the insurgents agreeing to withdraw after months of bombardment and siege.

Mustafa Abdul Jaber, a commander in the Jaish Al-Izza militant brigade, said their speedy advance this week had been helped by a lack of Iran-backed manpower in the broader Aleppo province. Iran’s allies in the region have suffered a series of blows at the hands of Israel as the Gaza war has expanded through the Middle East.

The opposition fighters have said the campaign was in response to stepped-up strikes in recent weeks against civilians by the Russian and Syrian air force on areas in militant-held Idlib, and to preempt any attacks by the Syrian army.

Opposition sources in touch with Turkish intelligence said Turkiye, which supports the militants, had given a green light to the offensive.

But Turkish foreign ministry spokesperson Oncu Keceli said on Friday that Turkiye sought to avoid greater instability in the region and had warned recent attacks undermined de-escalation agreements.

The attack is the biggest since March 2020, when Russia and Turkiye agreed to a deal to de-escalate the conflict.

CIVILIANS KILLED IN FIGHTING

On Friday, Syrian state television denied militants had reached the city and said Russia was providing Syria’s military with air support.

The Syrian military said it was fighting back against the attack and had inflicted heavy losses on the insurgents in the countryside of Aleppo and Idlib.

David Carden, UN Deputy Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for the Syria Crisis, said: “We’re deeply alarmed by the situation unfolding in northwest Syria.”

“Relentless attacks over the past three days have claimed the lives of at least 27 civilians, including children as young as 8 years old.”

Syrian state news agency SANA said four civilians including two students were killed on Friday in Aleppo by insurgent shelling of university student dormitories. It was not clear if they were among the 27 dead reported by the UN official.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday that Moscow regarded the militant attack as a violation of Syria’s sovereignty.

“We are in favor of the Syrian authorities bringing order to the area and restoring constitutional order as soon as possible,” he said.


Iran to begin enriching uranium with thousands of advanced centrifuges, UN watchdog says

Iran to begin enriching uranium with thousands of advanced centrifuges, UN watchdog says
Updated 30 November 2024
Follow

Iran to begin enriching uranium with thousands of advanced centrifuges, UN watchdog says

Iran to begin enriching uranium with thousands of advanced centrifuges, UN watchdog says
  • International Atomic Energy Agency only mentioned Iran enriching uranium with new centrifuges to 5 percent purity
  • Report further raises tensions over Tehran’s program as it enriches at near weapons-grade levels

DUBAI: Iran will begin enriching uranium with thousands of advanced centrifuges at its two main nuclear facilities at Fordo and Natanz, the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog said Friday, further raising tensions over Tehran’s program as it enriches at near weapons-grade levels.
The notice from the International Atomic Energy Agency only mentioned Iran enriching uranium with new centrifuges to 5 percent purity, far lower than the 60 percent it currently does — likely signaling that it still wants to negotiate with the West and the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump.
However, it remains unclear how Trump will approach Iran once he enters office, particularly as it continues to threaten to attack Israel amid its war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip and just after a ceasefire started in its campaign in Lebanon. Trump withdrew America from Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers in 2018, setting in motion a series of attacks and incidents across the wider Mideast.
Iran’s mission to the United Nations did not respond to a request for comment over the IAEA’s report. Tehran had threatened to rapidly advance its program after the Board of Governors at the IAEA condemned Iran at a meeting in November for failing to cooperate fully with the agency.
In a statement, the IAEA outlined the plans Iran informed it of, which include feeding uranium into some 45 cascades of its advanced IR-2M, IR-4 and IR-6 centrifuges.
Cascades are a group of centrifuges that spin uranium gas together to more quickly enrich the uranium. Each of these advanced classes of centrifuges enrich uranium faster than Iran’s baseline IR-1 centrifuges, which have been the workhorse of the country’s atomic program. The IAEA did not elaborate on how many machines would be in each cascade but Iran has put around 160 centrifuges into a single cascade in the past.
It’s unclear if Iran has begun feeding the uranium yet into the centrifuges. Tehran so far has been vague about its plans. But starting the enrichment at 5 percent gives Tehran both leverage at negotiations with the West and another way to dial up the pressure if they don’t like what they hear. Weapons-grade levels of enrichment are around 90 percent.
Since the collapse of Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers following the US’ unilateral withdrawal from the accord in 2018, it has pursued nuclear enrichment just below weapons-grade levels. US intelligence agencies and others assess that Iran has yet to begin a weapons program.
The US State Department said in a statement to The Associated Press it was “deeply concerned with Iran’s announcement that it is choosing the path of continued escalation as opposed to cooperation with the IAEA.”
“Iran’s continued production and accumulation of uranium enriched up to 60 percent has no credible civilian justification,” it added.
Iran, as a signatory to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, has pledged to allow the IAEA to visit its atomic sites to ensure its program is peaceful. Tehran also had agreed to additional oversight from the IAEA as part of the 2015 nuclear deal, which saw sanctions lifted in exchange for drastically limiting its program.
However, for years Iran has curtailed inspectors’ access to sites while also not fully answering questions about other sites where nuclear material has been found in the past after the deal’s collapse.
Iranian officials in recent months, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian, had signaled a willingness to negotiate with the West. But Iran also has launched two attacks on Israel amid the war.
Kazem Gharibabadi, an Iranian diplomat, said in a post on the social platform X that he met with EU diplomat Enrique Mora, criticizing Europe as being “self-centered” while having “irresponsible behavior.”
“With regard to the nuclear issue of Iran, Europe has failed to be a serious player due to lack of self-confidence and responsibility,” Gharibabadi wrote.
For his part, Mora described having a “frank discussion” with Gharibabadi and another Iranian diplomat. Those talks included “Iran’s military support to Russia that has to stop, the nuclear issue that needs a diplomatic solution, regional tensions (important to avoid further escalation from all sides) and human rights,” he wrote on X.