Nicaragua accuses Germany of helping ‘genocide’ in Gaza in ICJ case
Nicaragua accuses Germany of helping ‘genocide’ in Gaza in ICJ case/node/2469711/middle-east
Nicaragua accuses Germany of helping ‘genocide’ in Gaza in ICJ case
Judges at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) rule on emergency measures against Israel following accusations by South Africa that the Israeli military operation in Gaza is a state-led genocide, in The Hague, Netherlands, January 26, 2024. (REUTERS)
Nicaragua accuses Germany of helping ‘genocide’ in Gaza in ICJ case
Rights groups Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch this week said Israel is disregarding the ICJ’s interim order by limiting humanitarian aid to Gaza
Updated 03 March 2024
AFP
THE HAGUE: Nicaragua on Friday accused Germany of facilitating “genocide” in Gaza in a case started in the International Court of Justice, by giving support to Israel and suspending funding of the UN Palestinian refugee agency.
Through those measures, “Germany is facilitating the commission of genocide and, in any case has failed in its obligation to do everything possible to prevent the commission of genocide,” Nicaragua argued in a filing published by the Hague-based court.
Nicaragua was asking the court to take a swift interim stance against Germany before the case was given in-depth study by judges.
The lodging of the case follows the ICJ saying on January 26 that Israel must do everything to prevent genocidal acts in Gaza and take “immediate” measures for aid provisions.
FASTFACT
According to Nicaragua’s claim, Germany is violating the 1948 Genocide Convention and the 1949 Geneva Conventions on the laws of war in the occupied Palestinian territories.
That interim order was given as the court moves to weigh in full a case lodged in December by South Africa alleging that Israel was engaged in genocide in Gaza.
Israel has dismissed South Africa’s case as a “grossly distorted story.”
ICJ rulings are legally binding but the court has no enforcement mechanism.
Rights groups Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch this week said Israel is disregarding the ICJ’s interim order by limiting humanitarian aid to Gaza.
Accusations from Israel that staff from UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, took part in the October 7 Hamas attacks against Israeli communities prompted several countries, including Germany, Britain, Japan and the United States, to suspend their funding.
On Friday, the European Commission emphasized that it was maintaining its funding of UNRWA while reviewing arrangements in light of the Israeli allegation.
The commission said it was releasing 50 million euros ($54 million) to the UN agency next week with a further 32 million euros to follow later.
Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of about 1,160 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Militants also took about 250 hostages, 130 of whom remain in Gaza, including 31 that Israel says are presumed dead.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza on Friday gave the death toll in the strip from the unrelenting Israeli retaliation as 30,228, mostly women and children.
On Friday a spokesman for the UN humanitarian office OCHA said that “if something doesn’t change, a famine is almost inevitable” in the besieged territory.
British-Kuwaiti ties date back to 1899 Anglo-Kuwaiti Agreement
Updated 20 sec ago
Arab News
LONDON: Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Meshal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah visited the UK on Tuesday for the first time since becoming head of state in December 2023.
Sheikh Meshal accepted a personal invitation from King Charles III to visit the UK, marking another milestone in the 125-year relationship between the two countries, the Kuwait News Agency reported.
It is Sheikh Meshal’s first visit to the UK as a monarch; however, he traveled to the UK four times as crown prince.
In September 2022, he represented the late Emir Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah in offering condolences on the passing of Queen Elizabeth II.
He attended the coronation ceremony of King Charles III in May 2023, and in August, he met former UK prime minister Rishi Sunak during the 70th anniversary celebration of the Kuwait Investment Office in London.
The emir’s visit highlights the strong historical ties between Kuwait and the UK, which date back to the 1899 Anglo-Kuwaiti Agreement, as well as mutual respect, shared interests and cooperation on regional and global issues, KUNA added.
How Middle East conflicts are exacerbating global hunger and jeopardizing a generation
Children in Sudan and Gaza face malnutrition, resulting in stunted growth, developmental delays, and cognitive challenges
During famine, many succumb to cholera or malaria as malnourished bodies have depleted resistance, experts warn
Updated 24 min 35 sec ago
Sherouk Zakaria
DUBAI: Conflicts in the Middle East have intensified the global hunger crisis, leaving more children vulnerable to malnutrition and developmental issues, potentially jeopardizing the future of an entire generation.
Globally, almost 160 million people are in need of urgent assistance to stave off hunger, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or IPC, a global partnership that measures food insecurity.
While economic turmoil and climate extremes are among the top drivers of rising hunger worldwide, it is the conflicts in Gaza and Sudan that are the primary causes in the Middle East and North Africa region, according to the Global Report on Food Crises.
These conflicts, which have triggered mass displacements, disrupted supply chains and led to a significant drop in agricultural production, have deepened existing food insecurity for millions of people in an already climate stressed region.
In 2024, more than 41 million people were acutely food insecure across the MENA region, according to the latest figures of the World Food Programme.
There are no official figures on hunger-related deaths in Sudan. (AFP)
Almost half of these were in Sudan, where 24.6 million people are facing acute malnutrition, including 638,000 living in famine conditions and 8.1 million teetering on the brink of mass starvation.
The conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, which broke out on April 15, 2023, has displaced at least 10 million people, making it the world’s largest internal displacement crisis.
The IPC’s declaration of a famine in Sudan marks only the third formal famine determination since the international famine monitoring system was established two decades ago. Previous classifications were made in Somalia in 2011, South Sudan in 2017, and South Sudan again in 2020.
Children are bearing the brunt of Sudan’s hunger crisis.
Timmo Gaasbeek, a food security expert who has worked in Sudan, said that it is often infants and young children who are among the first to succumb to malnutrition and starvation during times of famine.
“Young children, and the elderly, are more vulnerable than adults, and will be at higher risk of death due to different diseases like diarrhea or malaria,” Gaasbeek told Arab News.
“In famines, most people die of diseases that their bodies have no resistance to because of hunger, rather than of lack of food itself.”
As of November 2024, an estimated 4.7 million children under the age of five, as well as pregnant and breastfeeding women, were suffering from acute malnutrition in Sudan, according to WFP.
Palestinian health authorities and the World Peace Foundation expect the number of children who have succumbed to hunger in Gaza to be far higher than official estimates. (AFP)
Even in areas where famine has not been declared, persistent hunger and malnutrition can also ultimately result in death. “Even a 35 percent deficit in energy intake can be fatal if sustained long enough,” Gaasbeek said.
“Millions of people in Sudan are currently at this level of hunger, or worse.”
Widespread hunger in Sudan has been compounded by a sharp economic decline, high food prices, and weather extremes combined with poor sanitation, which has triggered a deadly cholera outbreak, creating what has been dubbed “the world’s biggest humanitarian crisis.”
As of December, the IPC had declared famine in five areas, including Zamzam, Abu Shouk and Al-Salam in North Darfur. People in five other areas of North Darfur, including the besieged Al-Fasher, could face starvation by May. A further 17 areas are at risk of famine-level malnutrition.
As a result of the fighting and other logistical challenges, it took three months for a WFP aid convoy to reach Zamzam displacement camp in North Darfur, home to 500,000 people and the first area where famine was declared in August.
“The combination of fighting around North Darfur’s capital Al-Fasher, and impassable roads brought on by the rainy season from June to September, severed incoming transport of food assistance for months,” WFP said in a statement at the time.
Access was only made possible after Sudanese authorities agreed to temporarily open the Adre border crossing from Chad into Darfur until February 2025.
This aid was a drop in the ocean, however, as the destruction of Sudanese farming has set the country back years.
An internally displaced women sits next to a World Food Programme truck during a food distribution in Bentiu. (AFP)
Gaasbeek said that it would take about 800,000 tons of food aid in 2026 and 400,000 tons in 2027 to minimize hunger-related deaths in Sudan, which can only happen if the war ends before the start of the next planting season in June 2025.
“The key to stopping hunger in Sudan is getting more food into the country,” he said.
About two thirds of grain consumed in Sudan is produced locally, and commercial imports provide about a third. However, those two aspects are affected by the war and economic collapse.
“Commercial imports are maxed out at the moment as consumers have limited purchasing power and numerous logistical and financial challenges hindering food distribution,” Gaasbeek said.
“Companies have limited resources to import more. This means that the only thing that can make a difference this year is an increase in food aid imports.”
He estimates that if aid deliveries remain limited, some 6 million people could die from hunger in 2025. “If the conflict continues unabated, or worse escalates further, both food production and imports would stagnate, requiring very high levels of food aid to prevent mass starvation.”
While there are no official figures on hunger-related deaths in Sudan, Gaasbeek estimates that hunger and disease killed about 500,000 people in 2024 — about one percent of the population.
INNUMBERS
• 18.2m Children born into hunger in 2024 — or 35 every minute — according to Save the Children.
• 5 percent Rise in the number of children born into hunger in 2024 compared to a year earlier, according to UN FAO.
“It is not unrealistic, especially that the deaths of children are not very visible,” he said.
On Jan. 6, the UN launched a $4.2 billion call for funding to assist 20.9 million of the 30.4 million people across Sudan who are now in desperate need. More than half of them are children.
In late December, the Sudanese government rejected the IPC’s conclusions that famine was now rife in Sudan, accusing the organization of procedural and transparency failings and of failing to use updated field data.
The IPC had requested access to other areas at risk of famine in South Darfur, Al-Jazirah and Khartoum to gain data on the situation, but the government has been accused of stonewalling such efforts.
Sudan is not the only hunger hotspot in the MENA region.
The war between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which began on Oct. 7, 2023, has displaced some 90 percent of Gaza’s two million people and has led to high levels of acute food insecurity, with half the population expected to face extreme malnutrition.
On Nov. 9, the Famine Review Committee issued an alert warning of “imminent famine” in the besieged northern Gaza, where the World Health Organization estimates some 75,000 inhabitants remain.
With some 70 percent of Gaza’s crop fields destroyed, and with shops, factories and bakeries damaged or destroyed, domestic food manufacture has all but collapsed, according to the IPC. (AFP)
Many of the displaced are battling frigid winter temperatures in squalid tents, frequently flooded by heavy rain in south and central Gaza, without consistent access to food or medical services.
Early in the conflict, Israel imposed a blockade on the Gaza Strip, severely limiting the amount of humanitarian aid that was permitted to enter. Tighter restrictions have been imposed on northern Gaza since last October, as Israel intensifies efforts to weed out Hamas fighters.
In December, Israeli authorities allowed only two aid convoys to enter northern Gaza, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, exacerbating the hunger crisis.
With some 70 percent of Gaza’s crop fields destroyed, and with shops, factories and bakeries damaged or destroyed, domestic food manufacture has all but collapsed, according to the IPC.
As in Sudan, the burden of food scarcity has fallen on vulnerable children. In June, the WHO recorded 32 deaths from malnutrition, including 28 children under the age of five.
“Over 8,000 children under five years old have been diagnosed and treated for acute malnutrition, including 1,600 children with severe acute malnutrition,” WHO chief Tedros Ghebreyesus said at the time.
However, Palestinian health authorities and the World Peace Foundation expect the number of children who have succumbed to hunger in Gaza to be far higher than official estimates.
A woman bakes bread in a traditional clay oven at a makeshift displacement camp in Khan Yunis. (AFP)
More than 96 percent of women and children in Gaza cannot meet their basic nutritional needs, as they survive on rationed flour, lentils, pasta and canned goods — a diet that slowly compromises their health, according to the UN children’s fund, UNICEF.
For children, the impact of malnutrition on development can be irreversible.
“It affects their mental capacities and can put them at risk of physical challenges including stunted growth, delayed puberty, weakened immunity and increased risk of chronic diseases, vision and hearing impairments,” Dr. Yazeed Mansour Alkhawaldeh, a former health specialist at Medecins Sans Frontieres, told Arab News.
“Such circumstances can impact children’s cognitive and emotional development as well, resulting in a lower IQ and poor academic performance. They are also more prone to develop anxiety, depression and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.”
They also discussed a hostages-for-prisoners exchange deal
Updated 45 min 11 sec ago
Reuters AFP
CAIRO: Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and US President Joe Biden discussed in a phone call on Tuesday the ongoing mediation efforts by Cairo, Doha and Washington to reach a deal for a ceasefire in Gaza.
They also discussed a hostages-for-prisoners exchange deal, the Egyptian presidency said in a statement.
A spokesperson for the Egyptian leader said "the two presidents reviewed the latest developments in the negotiations and stressed the importance of the concerned parties' commitment to overcoming obstacles and showing the necessary flexibility to reach an agreement".
Israel army says intercepted missile fired from Yemen
The military had previously said it made “several attempts” to shoot down the missile, adding it had “likely” succeeded
It later reported that shrapnel from the missile “fell inside a civilian house” in the community of Mevo Beitar, near Jerusalem
Updated 17 min 19 sec ago
AFP
JERUSALEM: Israel’s military said Tuesday that it had “successfully intercepted” a missile fired from Yemen that sent sirens blaring across the center of the country in the early morning hours.
“An examination by the IAF (Israel air force) and the Home Front Command found that the missile fired from Yemen toward Israeli territory was successfully intercepted,” the army said in a statement.
The military had previously said it made “several attempts” to shoot down the missile, adding it had “likely” succeeded.
It later reported that shrapnel from the missile “fell inside a civilian house” in the community of Mevo Beitar, near Jerusalem, and that additional shrapnel was found in the nearby town of Tzur Hadassah.
Tuesday’s attack came less than a day after Yemen’s Houthis said they had launched a missile toward the commercial hub of Tel Aviv, which Israeli forces said was intercepted “prior to crossing into Israeli territory.”
The Houthis also claimed the Tuesday morning attack, saying they had launched a “hypersonic ballistic missile” at “occupied Jaffa,” a reference to Tel Aviv.
Later on Tuesday the militia claimed to have launched two attacks on Israel. The Israeli military did not issue any alerts or report intercepting any projectiles.
There were no sirens in either city and the Israeli military did not mention any incidents.
The Iran-backed Houthis have pledged to continue their attacks until “the end of the aggression against the Palestinians.”
Since the war in Gaza broke out in October 2023, the Houthis have repeatedly fired missiles and drones at Israel in what they say is a show of solidarity with the Palestinians.
The militia controls swathes of Yemen, and Israel has struck Houthi targets several times inside the country including in the capital Sanaa.
On Monday, Aoun named judge and diplomat Nawaf Salam as prime minister
Updated 14 January 2025
AFP
BEIRUT: French leader Emmanuel Macron is slated to visit Lebanon on Friday, both countries said, in the second such trip by a head of state since Lebanon elected a president last week.
The office of new Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said he met with the French ambassador to Beirut on Tuesday to discuss preparations for Macron’s visit. Macron’s office confirmed the date.
The trip comes after Lebanese lawmakers on Thursday elected Aoun president after two years of the position being vacant, under international pressure including from former colonial power France.
On Monday, Aoun named judge and diplomat Nawaf Salam as prime minister, giving him the tricky task of forming a cabinet to save the nation from five years of blistering economic crisis.
Macron’s office said the French president hoped to mark “the unwavering commitment of France to support Lebanon, its sovereignty and unity.”
Macron visited the country twice after a massive explosion at Beirut’s port in 2020 killed more than 220 people and decimated half the city.
His latest trip comes after a ceasefire in November, announced by Macron and US President Joe Biden, ended two months of all-out war between Israel and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.
Under that deal, the Lebanese army has 60 days to deploy alongside UN peacekeepers in the south of Lebanon as the Israeli army withdraws.
At the same time, Hezbollah is required to pull its forces north of the Litani River, some 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the border, and dismantle any remaining military infrastructure it has in the country’s south.
A committee composed of Israeli, Lebanese, French and US delegates, alongside a representative from UN peacekeeping force UNIFIL, has been tasked with monitoring the implementation of the deal.
“The trip will also be the occasion to work on the implementation of the ceasefire... and to reiterate France’s commitment toward this within UNIFIL,” his office said.
Macron said on Monday said Salam’s appointment of Salam represented “hope for change” in Lebanon.
Macron’s office said he hoped Salam’s government could be both “strong” and “represent all the diversity of the Lebanese people.”
A Paris conference on aid for Lebanon in October raised around $800 million for humanitarian aid in the Mediterranean country.
