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Palestinians gather to receive aid outside an UNRWA warehouse earlier this month in Gaza.
Israel bans main Gaza aid agency despite warnings from US
The Israeli Parliament on Monday voted to ban the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, from operating in its territory — despite warnings from the Biden administration that doing so could impact US policy toward Israel. The Knesset even voted to designate UNRWA a terror group and to prohibit Israeli authorities from having contact with the agency.
UNRWA is the main humanitarian agency in Gaza, and this could impact millions of people who depend on it for aid. Critics of the legislation, which includes allies of the Jewish state, have expressed concern it will exacerbate the already dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where the local health ministry now says over 43,000 Palestinians have died amid the war over the past year. Foreign ministers from Canada, Australia, France, Germany, Japan, South Korea, and the UK on Monday expressed “grave concern” over the Israeli move.
This comes roughly two weeks after Washington told Israel it had 30 days to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza or risk cuts to military support from the US.
State Department spokesperson Matthew Millersaid Monday that the US urges Israel not to implement the legislation, underscoring that UNRWA is playing an “irreplaceable role right now in Gaza, where they’re on the front lines of getting humanitarian assistance to the people they need it.” Miller said there’s nothing that can replace UNRWA amid the current crisis.
Israel accuses UNRWA of involvement in the Oct. 7 attack, which killed roughly 1,200 in Israel and saw hundreds of hostages taken. A UN investigation that concluded in August said nine UNRWA employees may have been involved in the attack and all were fired. Several countries suspended funding to UNRWA over the allegations, but most have since restored funding, but not the US.
We’ll be watching to see how this legislation, which won’t take effect for 90 days, impacts the US-Israel relationship.
Meanwhile, across the border, Hezbollah has elected Naim Kassem to succeed Hassan Nasrallah as secretary general after Nasrallah was killed in September.
Kassem was already one of the group's leading spokesmen, often conducting interviews with foreign media. Critics say he lacks his predecessor's gravitas, but the man considered most likely to succeed Nasrallah, Hashem Safieddine, was also killed in recent weeks as Israel ramps up its efforts to dismantle Hezbollah.
FILE PHOTO: A soldier stands at Trident Pier, a temporary pier to deliver aid, off the Gaza Strip, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, near the Gaza coast, June 25, 2024.
US to scrap Gaza pier project
US military officials announced Wednesday they would dismantle the floating pier they had attempted to operate off the coast of Gaza, ending a difficult, expensive, monthslong mission to provide aid to civilians in the enclave.
Troubled from the start, the $230 million pier was announced in March but did not come online until May. It was only operational for about 20 days and has faced multiple challenges due to rough waters. It is currently anchored in the Israeli port of Ashdod.
When it was functional, it was used to deliver about 8,000 metric tons of aid — roughly equivalent to what humanitarian agencies say needs to enter Gaza every day.
The pier was pitched as a way to ensure Gazans on the verge of starvation could access food, medicine, and clean water while allowing Israel to continue its military campaign against Hamas. A UN-backed global hunger monitor reported last week that over 495,000 people are facing the most severe level of food insecurity, approximately 22% of the population, and hunger is widespread.
People gather to get food relief in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah, on March 17, 2024.
In Gaza, food is scarce and famine is spreading
A group of UN-mandated experts on Tuesday warned that famine is spreading throughout the Gaza Strip, where at least 33 children have died of malnutrition since the end of May.
Food has been scarce in the enclave since the beginning of Israel’s ground invasion, due in part to Israeli restrictions on the entry of aid into Gaza. But the amount of humanitarian aid entering the enclave dropped by two-thirds when the war spread south to Rafah, dropping from an average of 176 aid trucks a day to just 58 because of the tightening of Egypt’s border with the region and the deadly security conditions.
Meanwhile, Israel accuses UN agencies of failing to distribute supplies efficiently and says the UN famine warnings amount to “misinformation.” The number of people the UN-backed global famine monitor forecasts as facing “catastrophic” food insecurity has dropped from 1.1 million to 495,000 people since its previous update in March.
Other solutions to increase aid – like the US-built temporary pier – only delivered 137 trucks of aid before collapsing due to inclement weather. The pier is expected to be reattached this week and should allow for millions of pounds of aid to enter from Cyprus.Ursula von der Leyen
Hard Numbers: Aid corridor, Starving in Sudan, Iran the executioner, Uber-vaccinated in Deutschland, Nightmarish sea lizard
230: The government of Cyprus, just 230 miles from Gaza, has proposed the establishment of a one-way maritime corridor to provide uninterrupted aid to Palestinian civilians trapped there. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will travel to the island nation later this week to discuss the plan.
25 million: The World Food Program warns that war in Sudan now threatens the food security of 25 million people in Sudan, South Sudan, and Chad, making it the world’s largest hunger crisis.
834: A new report from the Norway-based Iran Human Rights organization says Iran executed at least 834 people in 2023, the highest total in two decades and a 435 surge from the previous year. Iranian authorities have faced large recent protests over its repressive social policies.
217: According to the Lancet, a medical journal, a 62-year-old German man who voluntarily received 217 coronavirus jabs over 29 months has shown “no signs” of COVID-19 and has not suffered vaccine-related side effects. #SeemsExcessive
26: Scientists have discovered fossils belonging to a "nightmarish" 26-foot-long sea lizard with “dagger-like” teeth that stalked the world’s oceans 66 million years ago. We’re curious whether the inevitable Hollywood blockbuster will be a horror film or an animated musical.
Specialists tend to the body of a victim outside a damaged shopping center hit by a missile strike in Belgorod, Russia, on Feb. 15, 2024.
Hard Numbers: Missiles hit Russian border city, ex-FBI informant in Biden bribe case faces charges, Gaza needs new ‘Marshall Plan,’ UK slips into recession, Bangkok’s air becomes unbreathable
7: At least seven people, including a one-year-old girl, were reportedly killed on Thursday by an apparent Ukrainian missile strike in Belgorod, the closest major Russian city to Ukraine. This is not the first time Belgorod has been targeted amid the Russia-Ukraine war – dozens were killed in a strike there last December, as Ukraine seeks to show that it can still strike Russia, even as Moscow’s forces slowly push forward the front lines in the Donbas. Meanwhile, the US warned that the eastern Ukrainian town of Avdiivka, which has seen some of the worst fighting recently, is at risk of falling into Russian control.
25: Alexander Smirnov, a former FBI informant, has been charged with lying about President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden accepting payments from Ukrainian energy firm Burisma Holdings. The US Justice Department said Smirnov gave the false statements because he disliked Biden. If convicted, Smirnov faces up to 25 years in jail.
20 billion: The damage from the war in Gaza so far is estimated to be roughly $20 billion, according to a UN trade body official. The estimate is based on satellite images, but for an exact number, there will need to be an on-the-ground investigation. The official said that the Las Vegas-sized Gaza strip will need a “Marshall Plan” of its own after the Israel-Hamas war, in reference to the US-led effort to rebuild Europe after World War II.
0.3: The UK economy fell into a recession at the end of 2023, dealing yet another blow to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak as he hopes for reelection in a vote widely expected later this year. Data released Thursday showed GDP fell 0.3% in the final three months of last year, after shrinking 0.1% in the previous quarter.
156: The air in Bangkok was so polluted on Thursday that city employees were ordered to work from home for two days, and private sector workers were strongly encouraged to do the same. How bad was it? The Thai capital’s Air Quality Index hit 156. When levels go above 100, it’s considered to be unhealthy for sensitive groups, while levels above 150 are dangerous for everyone.