UNRWA: “We have only been able to distribute food in a very small part of southern Gaza”
Speaking to the BBC, UNRWA spokesperson Tamara Alrifai said that the UN agency for Palestinian refugees has only been able to distribute aid in a very small part of southern Gaza.
Alrifai said:
The humanitarian situation is catastrophic in Gaza … Over the last few days, we have seen a big reduction in the number of trucks coming in and the number of liters of fuel coming in, which is necessary for the trucks and for the water desalination plants and also for the electricity generators …
Because of the intensity of the fighting and the bombardment since the humanitarian pause stopped, we have only been able to distribute food in a very small part of southern Gaza, in Rafah. There are many, many people who are not in Rafah and whom we have not been able to access for the last few days, so they’re left with nothing.
Key events
72-year old Adina Moshe, an Israeli woman who was held captive by Hamas and later freed, has released the following testimony via the Hostages and Missing Persons Families Forum:
“My name is Adina Moshe and I returned from Hamas captivity but I left behind my close friends from Kibbutz Nir Oz there.
They are all very old with serious underlying medical conditions and without proper medications. When I was there, the food situation kept deteriorating. We ended up eating only rice.
I beg and plead: Please do everything for their release, also so that I can recover. Until they return, I will not be able to recover.”
Yemen’s Houthi rebels threatened on Saturday to attack vessels heading to Israeli ports unless food and medicine is allowed into the besieged Gaza Strip.
Agence France-Presse reports:
The latest warning comes amid heightened tensions in the Red Sea and surrounding waters following a series of maritime attacks by Houthi rebels since the start of the Israel-Hamas war on October 7.
In a statement posted on social media, the Houthis said they “will prevent the passage of ships heading to the Zionist entity” if humanitarian aid is not allowed into Hamas-ruled Gaza.
The Houthis have recently attacked ships they claim to have direct links to Israel, but their latest threat expands the scope of their targets.
Regardless of which flag ships sail under or the nationality of their owners or operators, Israel-bound vessels “will become a legitimate target for our armed forces”, the statement said.
Last week, the Houthis attacked two ships off the Yemeni coast, including a Bahamas-flagged vessel, claiming they were Israeli owned.
And last month, the rebel forces seized Galaxy Leader, an Israeli-linked cargo vessel.
“We warn all ships and companies against dealing with Israeli ports,” the latest Houthi statement said.
It added that all “ships linked to Israel or that will transport goods to Israeli ports” are not welcome in the Red Sea, a vital channel for global trade linked to the Suez Canal.
UNRWA: “We have only been able to distribute food in a very small part of southern Gaza”
Speaking to the BBC, UNRWA spokesperson Tamara Alrifai said that the UN agency for Palestinian refugees has only been able to distribute aid in a very small part of southern Gaza.
Alrifai said:
The humanitarian situation is catastrophic in Gaza … Over the last few days, we have seen a big reduction in the number of trucks coming in and the number of liters of fuel coming in, which is necessary for the trucks and for the water desalination plants and also for the electricity generators …
Because of the intensity of the fighting and the bombardment since the humanitarian pause stopped, we have only been able to distribute food in a very small part of southern Gaza, in Rafah. There are many, many people who are not in Rafah and whom we have not been able to access for the last few days, so they’re left with nothing.
In a new interview with PBS NewsHour on the ongoing Israel-Gaza war, Saudi foreign minister Sheikh Faisal bin Farhan said that in his engagements with the Biden administration and the US Congress, he hears a “clear message that peace is the answer”.
Bin Farhan said:
We are focused on ending the war now but we are also very, very interested in moving the cause of peace forward.
Both in my engagements with the administration and Congress, I hear a clear message that peace is the answer, and that will need a Palestinian element that will need us to move irrevocably to a Palestinian state.
Palestinian foreign ministry: more than 130 Palestinian families forcibly displaced from West Bank
The Palestinian foreign ministry has reported that more than 130 Palestinian families have been forcibly displaced from Bedouin communities by Israeli forces and extremist Israeli settlers in the West Bank since 7 October.
Since 7 October, said Palestinian health minister Mai al-Kaila, at least 260 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by extremist Israeli settlers. According to UN data, their attacks against Palestinians have more than doubled in the last two months.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society’s psychosocial support term carried out support sessions for children wounded by Israeli strikes at the al-Amal hospital in Khan Younis.
Pictures posted online showed the PRCS team celebrating the birthdays of the children and distributing various toys.
An Israeli hostage was reported killed in Gaza while two Palestinian men were reported killed in the West Bank. All three men were 25 years old.
In a joint statement, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum and the Be’eri kibbutz said that Sahar Baruch was killed in Hamas captivity after he was kidnapped by Hamas on 7 October.
According to the Jerusalem Post, Baruch was an electrical engineering student at Ben-Gurion University.
“We will demand the return of Sahar’s body as part of any hostage exchange agreement,” the statement said.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian man in the West Bank on Saturday, and another Palestinian man who was shot by Israeli forces the day before died on Saturday, the Associated Press reports, citing the Palestinian health ministry.
Rami Jamal al-Jundub was shot by Israeli forces in Faraa refugee camp on Friday and died from his wounds on Saturday, according to the Palestinian news agency WAFA. AP reports that the circumstances were not immediately clear on Saturday’s fatal shooting of the second Palestinian man by Israeli forces near the city of Hebron.
Today so far
-
An Israeli hostage was reported killed in Gaza. Sahar Baruch, 25, was an electrical engineering student at Ben-Gurion University. Hamas released a video earlier depicting Baruch with his hair shaven, saying he had been held hostage for 40 days (today is day 63 of the conflict). The video then showed his battered body covered in blood. Hamas has claimed Baruch’s death was caused by the Israel Defense Forces. Previously, the IDF said two Israeli soldiers had been seriously wounded in a failed hostage rescue mission on Friday, but Haaretz reports that the IDF puts the blame solely on Hamas for Baruch’s death.
-
Rights groups and world leaders reacted to the US for blocking a UN security council resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, with Avril Benoît, the executive director of Médecins Sans Frontières US, saying the US decision “makes it complicit in the carnage in Gaza”.
-
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the president of Turkey, called for the UN security council to be reformed. “The United Nations security council demand for ceasefire is rejected only by US veto. Is this justice?” Erdoğan said at a human rights conference in Istanbul.
-
Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, said the US vetoing a UN security council resolution for a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza made it complicit in Israel’s “genocide, ethnic cleansing and war crimes” against Palestinians, Reuters reports.
-
Gaza’s health ministry, which is run by Hamas, is reporting a total of 133 people killed in Israeli strikes over the past day, with 160 injured people arriving at al-Aqsa hospital another 99 wounded at Nasser hospital.
-
Heavy fighting continued overnight in northern Gaza, both from the air and on the ground, the Israel Defense Forces said on Saturday. According to the IDF, fighters from the battle team of the Kafir brigade fought and killed a group in the area of a school in the Shejaiya neighbourhood. IDF forces later found a number of Kalashnikov weapons, grenades and ammunition inside the classrooms.
-
The IDF said they attacked the operational headquarters of Hezbollah in Lebanese territory following a number of launches into northern Israel earlier today. There were no casualties in Israel from the launches.
Israel Defense Forces say the air force attacked the operational headquarters of Hezbollah in Lebanese territory in response to a number of launches into northern Israel earlier today.
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the president of Turkey, said in a speech on Saturday that a fairer world was possible “but not with America because the USA stands with Israel”, the AP reports.
Erdoğan used his speech on human rights to accuse the west of “barbarism” for its stance on the Israel-Hamas war and what he alleged was its toleration of Islamophobia.
“Israel has carried out atrocities and massacres that will shame the whole of humanity,” Erdoğan told a packed hall in Istanbul the day before the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
“All the values relating to humanity are being murdered in Gaza. In the face of such brutality, international institutions and human rights organisations are not taking any concrete steps to prevent such violations.”
The human rights declaration, proclaimed by the UN general assembly in Paris on 10 December 1948, enshrines a standard for human rights and freedoms for all people.
“From now on, humanity won’t think the USA supports the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” Erdoğan said.
He said Islamophobia and xenophobia “engulf western societies like poison ivy” and are the greatest threats to human rights. He told the cheering audience that the only value “the west holds on to is its barbarism. We have seen this example of the west’s barbarism in all those unfortunate events that they either supported or perpetrated.”
Turkey’s human rights record during Erdogan’s two decades in power has come under frequent criticism over the targeting of government critics and political opponents, the undermining of judicial independence and the weakening of democratic institutions.
Turkey withdrew from the Istanbul convention on preventing and violence against women and has failed to implement European court of human rights judgments.
According to the UN secretary general, António Guterres, more than 60% of Gaza’s housing has reportedly been destroyed or damaged, and 85% of the population has been forced from their homes.
Two Palestinians killed in the West Bank
Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian man in the West Bank on Saturday and another died from his wounds sustained in an Israeli raid the day before, the AP reports.
The Palestinian health ministry said the 25-year-old man who died from his wounds had been shot during an arrest raid in the Faraa refugee camp on Friday. Seven had been killed in this raid, including a local commander of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade.
The circumstances were not immediately clear, however, on Saturday’s fatal shooting of a 25-year-old Palestinian near the city of Hebron. The Israeli military did not respond to the AP’s request for comment.
A total of 274 Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank since the start of the conflict two months ago – most were killed during shootouts that the Israeli military says began during operations to arrest suspected militants.