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Top UN officials on Gaza: ‘These atrocities must end’

Palestinians transport a body from the site of an Israeli strike on a school housing displaced Palestinians in Gaza City's Zaytoun neighbourhood on September 21, 2024. (AFP)
Palestinians transport a body from the site of an Israeli strike on a school housing displaced Palestinians in Gaza City's Zaytoun neighbourhood on September 21, 2024. (AFP)
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Updated 23 September 2024
Reuters
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Top UN officials on Gaza: ‘These atrocities must end’

Palestinians transport a body from the site of an Israeli strike on a school housing displaced Palestinians.
  • “These atrocities must end,” said a statement signed by the heads of UN agencies that include UNICEF, WFP
  • “Humanitarians must have safe and unimpeded access to those in need,” said signatories
Updated 23 September 2024
Reuters
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UNITED NATIONS: Leading United Nations officials demanded on Monday “an end to the appalling human suffering and humanitarian catastrophe” in the Gaza Strip nearly one year into the war between Israel and Palestinian militants Hamas.
“These atrocities must end,” they said in a statement signed by the heads of UN agencies that include UNICEF and the World Food Programme along with other aid groups as world leaders gathered in New York for the annual UN General Assembly.
“Humanitarians must have safe and unimpeded access to those in need,” they said. “We cannot do our jobs in the face of overwhelming need and ongoing violence.”
The UN has long complained of obstacles to getting aid into Gaza during the war and distributing it amid “total lawlessness” in the besieged Palestinian enclave. Nearly 300 humanitarian aid workers, more than two-thirds of them UN staff, have been killed.
“The risk of famine persists with all 2.1 million residents still in urgent need of food and livelihood assistance as humanitarian access remains restricted,” the UN officials said. “Healthcare has been decimated. More than 500 attacks on health care have been recorded in Gaza.”
The war in the Palestinian enclave began on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas gunmen stormed into Israeli communities, killing around 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages back to Hamas-run Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.
Since then, Israel’s military has leveled swathes of the Palestinian enclave, driving nearly all of its 2.3 million people from their homes, giving rise to deadly hunger and disease and killing more than 41,000 people, according to Palestinian health authorities who do not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants.
The Israeli military says it takes steps to reduce the risk of harm to civilians and that at least a third of the Palestinian fatalities are militants. It accuses Hamas of using Palestinian civilians as human shields, which Hamas denies.

Topics: War on Gaza UN

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Hezbollah says launched drone attack on Israel military HQ

Hezbollah says launched drone attack on Israel military HQ
Updated 28 sec ago
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Hezbollah says launched drone attack on Israel military HQ

Hezbollah says launched drone attack on Israel military HQ
Updated 28 sec ago
Hezbollah said it conducted an “aerial attack with a squadron of exploding drones“

BEIRUT: Hezbollah said it launched a drone attack targeting Israel’s military headquarters and ministry of defense in the city of Tel Aviv on Wednesday.
In a statement, the Lebanese militant group said it conducted an “aerial attack with a squadron of exploding drones” on the site housing Israel’s main defense institutions in the commercial hub.
The Israeli military said in two statements that it intercepted two drones and 40 projectiles launched from Lebanon, and that the attack had caused no injuries.
The statements did not specify what sites had been targeted.

No end in sight to Sudan war as both sides seek ‘decisive’ win

No end in sight to Sudan war as both sides seek ‘decisive’ win
Updated 56 min 34 sec ago
AFP
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No end in sight to Sudan war as both sides seek ‘decisive’ win

No end in sight to Sudan war as both sides seek ‘decisive’ win
  • Rosemary DiCarlo, UN Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs said: “Let me stress that both warring parties bear responsibility for this violence“
  • “All indicators so far show that both sides are committed to military solutions, with no genuine interest in political resolutions,” said Mohamed Osman of HRW
Updated 56 min 34 sec ago
AFP

CAIRO: Sudan has seen a surge in extreme violence in recent weeks as the warring military and paramilitary push for a decisive victory, with no political solution in sight.
Fighting between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has intensified since late October, with reports of attacks on civilians including sexual violence against women and girls raising alarm.
The war that erupted in April 2023 has created what the UN calls the world’s worst displacement crises, with more than 11 million people forced from their homes.
It has put the country on the brink of famine, and sparked warnings of intensifying violence in a war that has already killed tens of thousands.
“Over the last two weeks, the situation in the country has been marked by some of the most extreme violence since the start of the conflict,” according to Rosemary DiCarlo, UN Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs.
“Let me stress that both warring parties bear responsibility for this violence,” she said, adding that both sides “seem convinced they can prevail on the battlefield.”
Since October 20, at least 124 civilians have been killed in central Al-Jazira state and another 135,000 have fled to other states, according to the UN.
With global attention focused on other wars, chiefly in Ukraine and the Middle East, civilians in Sudan are paying a steep price for the escalation.
“All indicators so far show that both sides are committed to military solutions, with no genuine interest in political resolutions or even easing the suffering of civilians,” according to Mohamed Osman of Human Rights Watch.
Amani Al-Taweel, director of the Africa program at the Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo, agreed.
“There is no political solution on the horizon,” she told AFP, adding that both sides were seeking a “decisive military solution.”
The war in Sudan has pitted army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan against his erstwhile ally Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, leader of the RSF.
The country is split into zones of control, with the army holding the north and east, and the government based in Port Sudan on the Red Sea coast.
The RSF controls much of the capital Khartoum, the Darfur region in the west and parts of Kordofan in the south, while the center is split.
With no mandatory military conscription, the Sudanese army includes Islamist-leaning forces as well as other factions.
The RSF is primarily made up of tribal militias from Darfur’s Arab communities.
According to local reports, the army has about 120,000 troops while the RSF has 100,000.
On the battlefield, Sudan’s air force gives the military an advantage.
Rights groups have accused both sides of committing atrocities.
The UN population agency published on Tuesday horrific accounts of women and girls fleeing the violence, including one who said she was urged to kill herself with a knife rather than be raped.
Successive rounds of talks have been held in Saudi Arabia, but the negotiations have yet to produce a ceasefire.
In August, the Sudanese military opted out of US-brokered negotiations in Switzerland and an African Union-led mediation has also stalled.
“The deadlock in peaceful channels, whether regionally or internationally, is exacerbating the violence,” said Mahmud Zakaria, a professor of political science at Cairo University’s Faculty of African Postgraduate Studies.
Since October, the RSF escalated its attacks in Al-Jazira state, south of Khartoum, following what the military said was the defection of one of its commanders to the army.
Before the war, Al-Jazira was known as Sudan’s breadbasket, hosting Africa’s largest agricultural project, yielding 65 percent of the country’s cotton, according to Zakaria.
Some areas have been scarred by conflict before.
Darfur saw a major war two decades ago, during which the then-government’s allies in the Janjaweed militia faced accusations of ethnic cleansing and genocide.
With roots in the Janjaweed, the RSF became a force in its own right in 2013.
Sudan’s conflict has increasingly drawn in regional powers, prompting the United States to urge all countries to stop arming rival generals.
Former Egyptian deputy foreign minister for African affairs Ali el-Hefny said progress will require global willpower.

Topics: Sudan Unrest rapid support forces (RSF) Al-Jazira General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan Mohamed Hamdan Daglo

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Erdogan still hopes to meet Assad to repair Turkiye-Syria ties, CNN Turk reports

Erdogan still hopes to meet Assad to repair Turkiye-Syria ties, CNN Turk reports
Updated 13 November 2024
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Erdogan still hopes to meet Assad to repair Turkiye-Syria ties, CNN Turk reports

Erdogan still hopes to meet Assad to repair Turkiye-Syria ties, CNN Turk reports
  • “Restoring ties with Bashar Assad will soothe regional tensions, hopefully,” Erdogan was quoted as saying
Updated 13 November 2024
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ANKARA: Türkiye’s President Tayyip Erdogan said he still hopes to meet with Syrian President Bashar Assad to repair ties with the neighboring country, broadcaster CNN Turk reported on Wednesday.
“Restoring ties with Bashar Assad will soothe regional tensions, hopefully,” Erdogan was quoted as telling reporters on his flight back from Azerbaijan.

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Israeli forces kill 22 people in Gaza, force new displacement in the north

Israeli forces kill 22 people in Gaza, force new displacement in the north
Updated 13 November 2024
Reuters
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Israeli forces kill 22 people in Gaza, force new displacement in the north

Israeli forces kill 22 people in Gaza, force new displacement in the north
  • Men were held for questioning, while women and children were allowed to continue toward Gaza City, residents and Palestinian medics said
  • “The scenes of the 1948 catastrophe are being repeated. Israel is repeating its massacres, displacement and destruction,” said Saed, 48, a resident of Beit Lahiya
Updated 13 November 2024
Reuters

CAIRO: Israeli military strikes killed at least 22 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, as Israeli forces deepened their incursion into Beit Hanoun town in the north, forcing most remaining residents to leave.
Residents said Israeli forces besieged shelters housing displaced families and the remaining population, which some estimated at a few thousand, ordering them to head south through a checkpoint separating two towns and a refugee camp in the north from Gaza City.
Men were held for questioning, while women and children were allowed to continue toward Gaza City, residents and Palestinian medics said.
Israel’s campaign in the north of Gaza, and the evacuation of tens of thousands of Palestinians from the area, has fueled claims from Palestinians that it is clearing the area for use as a buffer zone and potentially for a return of Jewish settlers.
“The scenes of the 1948 catastrophe are being repeated. Israel is repeating its massacres, displacement and destruction,” said Saed, 48, a resident of Beit Lahiya, who arrived in Gaza City on Wednesday.
“North Gaza is being turned into a large buffer zone, Israel is carrying out ethnic cleansing under the sight and hearing of the impotent world,” he told Reuters via a chat app.
Saed was referring to the 1948 Middle East Arab-Israeli war which gave birth to the state of Israel and saw the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their home towns and villages in what is now Israel.

NO PLANS FOR SETTLERS’ RETURN
The Israeli military has denied any such intention, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he does not want to reverse the 2005 withdrawal of settlers from Gaza. Hard-liners in his government have talked openly about going back.
It said forces have killed hundreds of Hamas militants in Jabalia, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun during its new military offensive, which began more than a month ago. Hamas and the Islamic Jihad armed wing claimed killing several Israeli soldiers during ambushes and anti-tank rocket fire.
Efforts by Arab mediators, Qatar and Egypt, backed by the United States, have so far failed to end the war in Gaza, with Hamas and Israel trading the blame for the lack of progress.
Speaking on Wednesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Israel “has accomplished the goals that it set for itself” by taking out Hamas’ leadership and ensuring the group is unable to launch another massive attack. “This should be a time to end the war,” he said.
“We also need to make sure we have a plan for what follows,” he said, “so that if Israel decides to end the war and we find a way to get the hostages out, we also have a clear plan so that Israel can get out of Gaza and we make sure that Hamas is not going back in.”
Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said Blinken’s comments showed: “We are facing one enemy and that the US enmity against the Palestinian people is no less than that of the occupation.”
On Tuesday, the United States stressed at the United Nations that “there must be no forcible displacement, nor policy of starvation in Gaza” by Israel, warning such policies would have grave implications under US and international law.
Medics said five people were killed in an Israeli strike that hit a group of people outside Kamal Adwan Hospital near Beit Lahiya, while five others were killed in two separate strikes in Nuseirat in central Gaza Strip where the army began a limited raid two days ago.
In Rafah, near the border with Egypt, one man was killed and several others were wounded in an Israeli airstrike, while three Palestinians were killed in two separate Israeli airstrikes in Shejaia suburb of Gaza City, medics added.
Later on Wednesday, an Israeli strike on a house in western Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip killed eight people, medics said.
Hamas-led gunmen attacked Israel last October, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
More than 43,500 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza over the past year, Palestinian health officials say, and Gaza has been reduced to a wasteland of wrecked buildings and piles of rubble, where more than 2 million Gazans are seeking shelter in makeshift tents and facing shortages of food and medicines.

Topics: War on Gaza Israel Palestinians Beit Hanoun Beit Lahiya

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Sudan extends opening of Adre crossing for aid delivery

Sudan extends opening of Adre crossing for aid delivery
Updated 13 November 2024
Reuters
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Sudan extends opening of Adre crossing for aid delivery

Sudan extends opening of Adre crossing for aid delivery
Updated 13 November 2024
Reuters

DUBAI: Sudan’s sovereign council said on Wednesday it would extend the use of the Adre border crossing with Chad, seen as essential by aid agencies for the delivery of food and other supplies to areas at risk of famine in the Darfur and Kordofan regions.
Experts determined earlier this year that while more than 25 million people across the country face acute hunger, several parts of the country are at increased risk of famine, and that one camp in the Darfur region was already in its throes, the consequence of war between Sudan’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.
Adre, which was closed by an order from the army-controlled government in February, was re-opened for
three months
in August until November 15, and it had not been clear whether that period would be extended.
Members of the government have protested against the opening, saying it allows for the RSF to deliver weapons.
However, the Sudanese army is not in physical control of the border crossing which lies within territory seized last year by the RSF, which controls most of Darfur.
Aid agencies decided against ignoring directives from the internationally recognized government, and had been bracing themselves for closure of the corridor, seen as a more efficient route than cross-line deliveries from army-controlled Port Sudan or the more remote Al-Tina border crossing.
The re-opening of Adre in August coincided with the rainy season and the destruction of several roads and bridges, meaning that
aid trickled in
at the start.
More than 300 aid trucks with supplies for more than 1.3 million people have since crossed into Sudan through Adre, according to UN humanitarian coordination official Ramesh Rajasingham in a briefing to the Security Council on Tuesday.
The World Food Programme on Saturday moved a convoy of 15 trucks across Adre with food and nutrition for 12,500 people in famine-stricken Zamzam camp, said spokeswoman Leni Kinzli to reporters on Tuesday.

Topics: Sudan Unrest aid

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