Vessels supporting US-built Gaza aid pier wash away in heavy seas | Israel-Palestine conflict News

CENTCOM said that four vessels had broken free from their moorings, but that pier was still functional.

Waves have swept away vessels supporting the United States-built pier installed to transfer aid to Gaza, the US Central Command (CENTCOM) has said.

In a statement on Saturday, CENTCOM noted that during the transportation of humanitarian aid, the US floating dock was disconnected from the small boat tugging it and the vessels broke free from their moorings with two of them now anchored on the beach near the pier.

Part of the dock later drifted towards Israel’s Ashdod shore, while the third and fourth vessels have beached on the coast of Israel near Ashkelon, CENTCOM added.

No injuries have been reported so far and efforts to recover the vessels are under way with assistance from the Israeli and US navies.

Reporting from Washington DC, Al Jazeera’s Heidi Zhou-Castro said that the Pentagon has stressed that the pier still remained fully functional.

“They [the Department of Defense] emphasised that throughout this operation, no US personnel will enter Gaza,” she added.

[Al Jazeera]

The construction of the $320m floating pier was completed in mid-May to provide aid to the Gaza Strip.

The pier has been criticised as a complicated and costly alternative that tries to deflect attention from demanding a much simpler solution – for Israel to fully open all land crossings to Gaza and to secure aid trucks going in.

But in March, US President Joe Biden said in his State of the Union that the pier would “receive large shipments carrying food, water, medicine and temporary shelter”, a move largely seen as an attempt to appease his Democratic Party’s base as he runs for re-election in November.

Meanwhile, on Friday, Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson of UN chief Antonio Guterres, said that the World Food Programme (WFP) has “taken possession of 97 trucks since the floating dock came into operation”.

“After a rocky start, the situation is stabilised,” Dujarric said.

“What we want to see, as we’ve been saying, is massive aid coming in through land routes,” he added.

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Car explosion kills at least one in Syria’s Damascus | Syria’s War News

The explosion comes as an Israeli drone attack reportedly targeted a car and a truck near Syria’s border with Lebanon.

A car explosion has killed one person in Syria’s capital Damascus, Syrian news agency SANA reported, without identifying the victim.

“One person was killed when an explosive device exploded in their car in the Mezze district,” a police official quoted by SANA said.

The Mezze neighbourhood of Damascus houses the Iranian consulate, destroyed last month in a strike blamed on Israel. The attack at the time killed seven people including two Iranian generals and a member of the Lebanese Shia group Hezbollah, and triggered a direct Iranian military assault on Israel for the first time, prompting fears of a region-wide war.

Rami Abdurrahman, who heads the UK-based opposition war monitor the the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), said the man killed in the explosion was a Mezze resident who carried a card identifying him as a Syrian army officer. Abdurrahman said the dead man had close ties to Iran.

Security incidents, including blasts targeting military and civilian vehicles, occur intermittently in the capital of war-ravaged Syria.

The explosion comes against a backdrop of heightened regional tensions, including Israel’s war on Gaza.

Hours after the blast in Damascus, an Israeli drone attack reportedly targeted a car and a truck outside the western Syrian town of Qusayr, northwest of Damascus, close to Lebanon’s border, the Observatory and a Beirut-based pan-Arab TV station reported.

“An Israeli drone fired two missiles at a Hezbollah car and truck near the town of Qusayr in Homs province, as they were on their way to al-Dabaa military airport, killing at least two Hezbollah fighters and wounding others,” the Syrian Observatory said.

Last month, an explosive device went off in a car in Mezz, without causing any casualties, SANA reported at the time.

Israel has launched hundreds of air raids in Syria since the war broke out in 2011, targeting Iran-backed forces, including Hezbollah, as well as Syrian army positions.

The attacks have increased since Israel’s war on Gaza began on October 7, which followed an unprecedented Hamas attack on Israel.

Syria’s war has killed more than half a million people and displaced millions more since it erupted in 2011 after Damascus cracked down on antigovernment protests.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has received strong backing from Iran, which, along with support from Russia, allowed his government to turn the tide against the opposition, despite international and regional opposition to his rule and widespread human rights abuses.

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Israel continues to bomb Gaza, including Rafah, despite ICJ ruling | Israel-Palestine conflict News

Israel has continued its relentless attacks on Rafah despite the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordering it to put an end to the military operation there, and multiple deaths were reported from central and northern Gaza, which have been subjected to renewed attacks.

The Shaboura camp and areas close to the Kuwaiti Hospital in Rafah on Saturday were targeted, Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Deir el-Balah, said. Several people who have been injured in the bombardment have been transferred to the hospital, he said.

The hospital renewed its appeal for fuel deliveries “to ensure its continued operation”, saying it was the only one in Rafah governorate still receiving patients.

The ICJ ruling, the third of its kind this year, ordered Israel to halt its offensive, citing “immense risk” to some 1.4 million Palestinians taking shelter in Rafah, the southernmost part of Gaza. More than 800,000 Palestinians have been forced to flee Rafah since Israel launched the current offensive on May 7.

The UN’s top court seeks to rein in the mounting death toll of Palestinians since October, while also alleviating a continuing humanitarian crisis resulting from the internal displacement and severe hunger trailing most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people. Nearly 36,000 Palestinians have been killed and vast swaths of Gaza have been flatted by Israeli carpetbombing.

Israel gave no indication it was preparing to change course, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticising the ICJ ruling, calling the charges of genocide brought by South Africa as “false, outrageous and morally repugnant”.

The UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories called on Saturday for sanctions against Israel for defying the court.

“Be sure: Israel will not stop this madness until WE make it stop. Member states must impose sanctions, arms embargo and suspend diplo[matic]/political relations with Israel till it ceases its assault,” Francesca Albanese posted on X.

Stepped up attacks in northern Gaza

Israel also hit a school sheltering displaced people in Gaza’s as-Saftawi neighbourhood in Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, according to Al Jazeera journalists on the ground, citing medical sources.

The Palestinian news agency, Wafa, confirmed that at least 10 people were killed and 17 others injured in the series of attacks on the neighbourhood located just south of Jabalia.

Israeli forces stepped up attacks on Jabalia camp on Saturday, pushing already displaced people to flee the area anew.

Israeli warplanes also bombed a house located in another northern Gaza city of Beit Hanoon, killing 10 people, including women and children, according to Wafa.

In Gaza City, an Israeli attack targeting a family home in the Sabra neighbourhood, killed a woman and injured other people. An unspecified number of people were also reported killed by an Israeli air attack on a residential building in the Daraj neighbourhood, according to Wafa.

Other neighbourhoods of Gaza City, including Sheikh Ajlin, Tal al-Hawa and Zeitoun, also came under heavy artillery shelling, Wafa added, but there were no immediate details on casualties.

As casualties continue to mount in northern Gaza, Israeli troops continue to surround Kamal Adwan Hospital, according to Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, the head of the paediatrics department.

He said that the hospital is unable to treat incoming patients due to the continuous siege. Some patients and premature babies are still inside the hospital, he added.

Abu Safiya said he contacted the Red Cross and UNICEF, but did not get any assurance that anything would be done to end the Israeli siege of the hospital.

Deaths in Wadi Gaza

Meanwhile, Israeli quadcopters also fired on Palestinians congregating in Wadi Gaza, killing at least six people, according to Al Jazeera’s Mahmoud.

Palestinians desperate for aid often gather in Wadi Gaza to try and reach aid trucks coming from the floating pier near Gaza City. Part of the floating pier built by the US has been washed away, according to videos shared on social media on Saturday.

Also in central Gaza, an Israeli air attack on an apartment building in the Nuseirat refugee camp, in central Gaza killed at least four people.

Israeli troops also took over the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, further slowing sporadic deliveries of aid for Gaza’s 2.3 million people. Earlier this week, the UN refugee agency for Palestinians (UNRWA) announced it would suspend food distribution in Rafah, citing a lack of supplies and the lack of security in the densely populated city.

On Friday, UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said on social media site X that the situation had reached “a moment of clarity”.

“At a time when the people of Gaza are staring down famine … it is more critical than ever to heed the calls made over the last seven months: Release the hostages. Agree a ceasefire. End this nightmare.”

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Modi’s media marathon | TV Shows

As Narendra Modi fights for a third term in office, his media blitz is like nothing he has done before.

With voter turnout in India’s elections unexpectedly low, traditionally interview-shy Prime Minister Narendra Modi is spending more time with journalists than ever before.

Contributors:
Abhik Deb – Reporter, Scroll.in
Maya Mirchandani – Associate Professor, Ashoka University
Pragya Tiwari – Writer & Co-Founder, Indian History Collective
Siddharth Varadarajan – Founding Editor, The Wire

On our radar:

This week, the International Criminal Court announced its intention to seek arrest warrants for the leaders of Israel and Hamas. Tariq Nafi reports on how the decision came about and the reactions it has provoked.

The headline fixer

Eight months of Israel’s war on Gaza has shone an often unflattering spotlight on media coverage by mainstream United States news outlets. Historian Assal Rad explains the mission she has undertaken to “fix” misleading headlines.

Featuring:

Assal Rad – Research Director, National Iranian American Council

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‘Down with dictatorship’: Tunisians rally against gov’t crackdown on media | Media News

Demonstration comes after two Tunisian commentators critical of President Saeid were sentenced to prison.

Several hundred Tunisians have marched through the capital, Tunis, chanting “down with the dictatorship” as they protested a spate of arrests under a presidential decree critics say is being used to stifle dissent.

Since Tunisia’s 2011 revolution, the country has been considered among the more open media environments in the Arab world. But politicians, journalists and unions say that freedom of the press has faced a serious threat under the rule of President Kais Saied who came to power following free elections in 2019.

Two Tunisian media figures received one-year jail sentences in recent days after making comments the authorities deemed critical, in the latest prosecutions under Decree 54 issued by Saied in 2022 banning the “spreading of false news”.

“Down with the decree,” the demonstrators shouted as they marched through Tunis on Friday.

“Dictator Kais, it’s your turn now,” they added, in allusion to the Arab Spring uprising, which toppled longtime leader Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in 2011.

Two years after his election, Saied shut down the elected parliament and moved to rule by decree. He also assumed authority over the judiciary, a step that the opposition called a coup.

Since then, many of his critics have been prosecuted or sent to jail.

On Wednesday, broadcaster Borhen Bsaies and political commentator Mourad Zeghidi were both jailed for a year – six months for spreading “false news” and a further six months for “spreading news that includes false information with the aim of defaming others”.

During the hearing, both Bsaies and Zeghidi had defended their “journalistic work”.

Zghidi’s lawyer, Kamel Massoud, condemned Decree 54 as “unconstitutional”.

“When politics enters the courtroom, justice leaves,” he said.

Tunisia has now imprisoned a total of six journalists, including Bsaies and Zeghidi, since Saeid’s Decree 54 came into force.

Meanwhile, more than 60 journalists, lawyers and opposition figures have been prosecuted under the same decree, according to the National Syndicate of Tunisian Journalists.

In May, police arrested 10 people, including journalists, lawyers and officials of civil society groups, in what Amnesty International called a “deep crackdown” targeting activists and journalists. Human Rights Watch has called on Tunisia to respect free speech and civil liberties.

In January, Tunisian authorities also arrested journalist Samir Sassi, on “terrorism” allegations.

The arrests have drawn criticism from the United Nations, the European Union and the United States, as well as Tunisia’s former colonial ruler France.

Saied has dismissed the criticism as foreign “interference”.

He also rejected accusations of authoritarian rule and said his steps were aimed at ending years of “chaos and corruption” in the country.

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Italy to resume UNRWA funding as Gaza faces humanitarian crisis | Israel-Palestine conflict News

Italy has announced it will restore funding for the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) months after it suspended aid to the agency over Israeli allegations linking UN staff to the deadly October 7 attack.

Rome joins several Western donors in resuming aid after an independent review of UNRWA, led by French former foreign minister Catherine Colonna, found that Israel had not provided any evidence to back its claims.

Israel launched a brutal military offensive in the wake of the October 7 attack, killing more than 35,000 Palestinians. Up to 1,100 people were killed and about 250 people were taken captive in the attack inside Israel claimed by the Hamas group.

The Palestinian enclave remains in ruins after nearly eight months of Israel’s war.

Most of the key donors, including the United States and the European Union, have resumed funding due to the unprecedented humanitarian situation in Gaza worsened by Israel’s restrictions on aid delivery.

“Italy has decided to resume financing specific projects intended for assistance to Palestinian refugees, but only after rigorous controls that guarantee that not even a penny risks ending up supporting terrorism,” Antonio Tajani told Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa during a meeting on Saturday.

Tajani said he had informed the visiting premier “that the government has arranged new funding for the Palestinian population, for a total of 35 million euros ($38m)”.

“Of this, five million will be allocated to UNRWA,” he said in a statement, with the remaining 30 million euros allocated to Italy’s “Food for Gaza” initiative in coordination with other UN aid agencies.

Mustafa also held talks with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni during which the Italian prime minister told Mustafa that Rome supported efforts towards a sustainable ceasefire in Gaza, the release of Israeli captives held by Hamas and improved humanitarian aid for the people of Gaza, her office said in a statement.

The UNRWA, which coordinates nearly all aid to Gaza, has been in crisis since January, when Israel accused about a dozen of its 13,000 Gaza employees of being involved in the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel.

That led many nations, including top donor the US, to abruptly suspend funding to the agency, threatening its efforts to deliver aid in Gaza, leaving millions at risk of hunger and possible death.

Created in 1949, the UNRWA employs about 30,000 people in the Palestinian territories, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.

‘Full-blown famine’

UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini had described the steps to suspend funding an “additional collective punishment” for Palestinians already reeling from non-stop Israeli bombardment.

UN Special Rapporteur on Gaza, Francesca Albanese, also called the decision to cut funding “immoral” amid widespread hunger and a health crisis in the besieged Palestinian territory.

As news of the funding reinstatement was announced, Gaza faced constant bombardment overnight, preventing the delivery of UN services to many parts of the territory.

Earlier this week, the UNRWA announced it would suspend food distribution in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah, citing a lack of supplies and insecurity in the densely populated city. The Rafah crossing – the lifeline for humanitarian aid delivery – remains shut after Israel took control of the border with Egypt on May 7. Limited aid supplies have entered Gaza since May 6, some of it through a temporary pier built by the US, but it is not enough to meet soaring needs.

The UN World Food Programme has said that Palestinians in northern Gaza are experiencing “full-blown famine”. Earlier this month, Israel resumed attacks in northern Gaza weeks after withdrawing its forces from there.

Meanwhile, Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, who is reporting from central Gaza’s Deir el-Balah area, reported attacks were continuing on Saturday in the vicinity of the Kuwaiti Hospital, including the Shaboura refugee camp.

Artillery shelling hit [the camp’s] surroundings, preventing ambulances from reaching the hospital.

“Gradually, step by step, another health facility is being pushed out of service as the Israeli military approaches the main roads leading to the Kuwaiti Hospital,” our correspondent said.

No hospitals are currently accessible in northern Gaza, the World Health Organization reports, and as of Friday, only the al-Awda Hospital was “considered partially functional” in the north, though it, too, was inaccessible amid Israeli military operations.

The International Rescue Committee and the organisation Medical Aid for Palestinians, reported that in central Gaza displaced people are surviving on just 3 percent of the internationally recognised minimum requirements of water.

At one shelter for displaced Palestinians, 10,000 people received just 4,000 litres (1,057 gallons) of water per day, “translating to about 0.4 litres per person, for drinking, washing, cooking and cleaning”, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA) reports.

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ICJ orders Israel to end its Rafah offensive | Israel-Palestine conflict

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The UN’s top court is ordering Israel to immediately halt its offensive on Rafah, open the border crossing to let aid to flow freely into Gaza and to allow unimpeded access for investigators over allegations of genocide in Palestine. Israel said it is acting on its right to defend itself and called charges of genocide outrageous.

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ICJ rules Israel must stop Rafah operation, what’s next? | Gaza News

The International Court of Justice called on Israel to end its operation in Rafah, the southernmost town in Gaza.

Over the last two weeks, Israel has reduced entire neighbourhoods in Rafah to rubble and forcefully displaced hundreds of thousands of people.

Israel says it needs to move into Rafah to complete its mission of defeating Hamas. However, the ICJ ruled that Israel’s war aims effectively violate the rights of Palestinians under the Genocide Convention.

Here’s all you need to know about the ICJ’s new orders.

What was the ICJ ruling on South Africa’s case against Israel?

According to the court, Israel must stop its offensive on Rafah.

The court was not convinced that Israel had taken sufficient measures to protect civilian life and voted – 13 judges to two – that Israel must take effective measures to enable any UN-backed commission of inquiry to enter Gaza and probe genocide allegations.

The court also reaffirmed its previous January 26 ruling that Israel must scale up aid to Palestinians in Gaza.

“The ICJ is essentially saying: OK, enough,” said Alonso Gurmendi, an international law scholar at King’s College, London.  “It is a pretty substantial order … it [reflects] a loss of patience [with Israel] in my opinion.”

Director-General of South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation Zane Dangor and South African Ambassador to the Netherlands Vusimuzi Madonsela at the ICJ where South Africa requests new emergency measures over Israel’s attacks on Rafah, The Hague, Netherlands, May 16, 2024 [Yves Herman/Reuters]

What was South Africa’s complaint against Israel?

South Africa initially filed an emergency request for Israel to end its offensive on Rafah, but then broadened its request for a full ceasefire in Gaza.

Will this stop Israel’s attack on Rafah?

Minutes after the ruling came in, reports emerged of Israeli air raids in Rafah.

For now, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not made a formal statement. But analysts believe that Israel will continue to violate the ICJ’s order.

Legal scholars and analysts said Israel refused compliance with earlier ICJ provisional measures on January 26. The ICJ had called on Israel to scale up aid to protect the rights of Palestinians under the genocide convention.

Gurmendi added that the new provisional measure compounds the pressure on Western states that arm Israel.

“How can you justify selling weapons for Israel to use in Rafah? I don’t think you can. I think it is legally impossible,” he said. “So while this [ICJ order] won’t stop the operation in Rafah itself, it builds pressure on the idea that it is OK to just keep selling weapons to Israel.”

What else did the ICJ say?

It ordered Israel to open the Rafah crossing for unhindered provision of aid.

“The order is [legally] binding on Israel. Previous [ICJ] orders [to scale up aid] have already put states on notice that there is an imminent risk of genocide and therefore their duty – under the genocide convention –  to prevent that has already been triggered,” said Heidi Matthews, a legal scholar at York University in Toronto.

“Obviously, some folks will be disappointed that there wasn’t a full ceasefire order. This is still a big move, but it’s not a full ceasefire move,” she added.

Any reaction from Palestine or Palestinian groups?

Hamas welcomed the ICJ rulings. It said in a statement that Israel continues to commit massacres in the Gaza Strip. The group added that it expects the court to eventually issue an order for Israel to stop its war on the entire besieged strip.

“What is happening in Jabalia and other governorates of the Strip is no less criminal and dangerous than what is happening in Rafah.”

“We call on the international community and the United Nations to pressure the occupation to immediately comply with this decision and to seriously and genuinely proceed in translating all UN resolutions that force the Zionist occupation army to stop the genocide it has been committing against our people for more than seven months.”

How did Israel respond?

The response from Israeli officials has been largely defiant.

Many officials repeated prior accusations that the court was aiding “terrorists.”

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that Israel was in a “war for its existence,” adding that stopping the invasion of Rafah was akin to demanding Israel “cease to exist”.

He warned that stopping the assault meant the “enemy will reach the beds of our children and women throughout the country.” He then tweeted that “history will judge who stood by the Nazis of Hamas and ISIS [ISIL].”

Will the ICJ be able to enforce Friday’s ruling?

They have no enforcement power in the UN system. Enforcement relies on members of the court to uphold their obligations under international law and on the UN Security Council.

How does this court hearing differ from the last one?

Both hearings aimed to secure an end to Israel’s devastating war on Gaza. Experts told Al Jazeera that the ICJ’s new orders intensify pressure on Israel and allied states to protect Palestinians and end its war on Gaza, which has killed more than 35,000 people and made the enclave effectively uninhabitable.

Israel’s Finance Minister and leader of the Religious Zionist Party Bezalel Smotrich [Gil Cohen Magen/AFP]

What’s next?

ICJ orders are legally binding. However, the court’s ruling will now be discussed at the UN Security Council, where states can decide to take united action to enforce the court’s orders. Security Council resolutions are also legally binding.

However, the US has a veto, which it has historically used to shield Israel from the consequences of violating international law.

On April 18, the US vetoed a proposed resolution that would have made Palestine the 194th UN member.

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El-Sisi and Biden agree to send aid to Gaza via Karem Abu Salem crossing | Israel-Palestine conflict News

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has agreed in a phone call with his United States counterpart, Joe Biden, to allow United Nations aid through the Karem Abu Salem border crossing (known in Israel as Kerem Shalom) to the bombarded and besieged Gaza Strip, the White House says.

“President Biden welcomed the commitment from President el-Sisi to permit the flow of UN-provided humanitarian assistance” through the crossing, it said in a readout of the call, adding: “This will help save lives.”

The aid will be sent to Gaza via the crossing – located where the borders of Egypt, Israel and Gaza come together – until legal mechanisms are in place to reopen the crucial Rafah border crossing from the Palestinian side, the Egyptian presidency said.

The agreement resulted from “the difficult humanitarian situation of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, the lack of means of life in the Strip, and the lack of fuel needed for hospitals and bakeries,” the statement said

The move was also confirmed by the Palestinian Authority presidency, according to the Wafa news agency.

According to the White House statement, Biden expressed “his full commitment to support efforts to reopen the Rafah crossing with arrangements acceptable to both Egypt and Israel”. The statement said he agreed to send a senior team to Cairo next week for further talks.

Israeli forces seized the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt on May 6, shortly after it launched a widely criticised ground and aerial offensive in the area where tens of thousands of displaced families had sought shelter.

The resulting closure has created a backlog of aid in Egypt, where some of the food aid has begun to rot.

Al Jazeera’s Kimberly Halkett, reporting from Washington, DC, said it is “not entirely a big surprise” that the opening of the crossing has been secured.

“What has been happening is, behind the scenes for a number of weeks now, we’ve been told there have been talks taking place between Israel, Egypt and US officials to get some sort of a deal to try and get some sort of opening to facilitate aid to come in,” Halkett said.

“The goal actually, from a United States standpoint, is to try and get a neutral third party … to try and take control of the Rafah crossing – and that seems to be where the stumbling block is,” Halkett added.

Aid agencies and rights groups, including several UN bodies, have warned that dwindling supplies in Gaza will result in a famine and will further worsen an already dire humanitarian crisis.

Before the closure of the Rafah crossing, supplies of humanitarian aid and much needed fuel were trickling into the territory. Shortages have caused multiple hospitals to cease operations and have affected much of Gaza’s north, where famine has taken hold in some ravaged areas.

Earlier on Friday, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned that access to the Gaza Strip is extremely limited with fewer than 1,000 truckloads of humanitarian assistance entering the enclave since May 7, the day Israel’s Rafah offensive began.

“There are a lot of doorways into Gaza. … Whether by land or by sea, we don’t control those doorways, but we want them all to be open,” UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said on Thursday.

The announcement on Friday came as the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered Israel to stop its military offensive in Rafah and open the border crossing for aid.

“The humanitarian situation is now to be characterised as disastrous,” the ICJ, also known as the World Court, said on Friday. It also demanded access to Gaza for war crimes investigators.

More than a million Palestinians have fled Rafah in recent weeks as Israeli forces pressed deeper into Gaza’s southern-most city. People displaced by fighting lack shelter, food, water and other essentials for survival, the UN says.

Gaza’s Ministry of Health said 35,857 Palestinians have now been killed and 80,293 injured in the Israeli assault on the enclave since October 7. The war began after Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel killed 1,139 people.

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Worms, insects infest Gaza bound food stuck rotting in Egyptian sun | Gaza

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Worms and insects are eating up shipments of food originally meant for the people of Gaza. The trucks carrying them have been stuck on the Egyptian side of the border for weeks after Israel closed the Rafah border crossing in early May.

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