Deadly airdrops and a trickle of trucks won’t undo months of ‘engineered starvation’ in Gaza, Oxfam says
Oxfam has said the airdrops into Gaza are wholly inadequate for the population’s needs and has called for the immediate opening of all crossings for full humanitarian access into the territory devasted by relentless Israeli bombardments and a partial aid blockade.
Bushra Khalidi, Oxfam policy lead for the Occupied Palestinian territory, said:
Deadly airdrops and a trickle of trucks won’t undo months of engineered starvation in Gaza.
What’s needed is the immediate opening of all crossings for full, unhindered, and safe aid delivery across all of Gaza and a permanent ceasefire. Anything less risks being little more than a tactical gesture.
Key events
UN human rights chief says governments that don’t use their leverage to pressure Israel to end war may be ‘complicit in international crimes’
In a video statement released ahead of a conference on Palestine opening in New York tomorrow, the UN high commissioner for human rights, Volker Türk, has urged governments around the world to pressure Israel to end its assault on Gaza – and said those that don’t use their “leverage” may be complicit in “international crimes”. Here is what he said in full:
I urge immediate steps by Israel to end its unlawful continued presence in the occupied Palestinian territory, and for all parties to work for tangible progress towards a two state solution.
I urge governments to use the opportunity of this conference for concrete action that puts all possible pressure on the Israeli government to end the carnage in Gaza permanently.
Countries that fail to use their leverage may be complicit in international crimes. Every day we are watching the unspeakable tragedy in Gaza and the West Bank with horror and frustration.
Every day we see more destruction, more killings and the further dehumanisation of Palestinians.
The people of the world will judge this conference on what it delivers. I call again for an immediate, permanent ceasefire, the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages and all others arbitrarily detained, immediate and unhindered humanitarian access, and the delivery of massive humanitarian aid to Palestinians wherever they are.
Deadly airdrops and a trickle of trucks won’t undo months of ‘engineered starvation’ in Gaza, Oxfam says
Oxfam has said the airdrops into Gaza are wholly inadequate for the population’s needs and has called for the immediate opening of all crossings for full humanitarian access into the territory devasted by relentless Israeli bombardments and a partial aid blockade.
Bushra Khalidi, Oxfam policy lead for the Occupied Palestinian territory, said:
Deadly airdrops and a trickle of trucks won’t undo months of engineered starvation in Gaza.
What’s needed is the immediate opening of all crossings for full, unhindered, and safe aid delivery across all of Gaza and a permanent ceasefire. Anything less risks being little more than a tactical gesture.
In a post on X published after his phone call with Benjamin Netanyahu, Friedrich Merz added:
We will closely monitor developments and, in coordination with France, the UK, other European partners, the United States, and Arab states, decide in the coming days how we can contribute to improving the situation.
German chancellor calls on Netanyahu to provide aid to Gaza’s ‘starving’ civilians
Germany’s chancellor, Friedrich Merz, has called on his Israeli counterpart, Benjamin Netanyahu, to quickly provide aid to “starving” civilians in Gaza.
In a phone call between the two leaders, Merz “expressed his deep concern about the catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza,” according to a government statement.
The statement added:
He called on Prime Minister (Benjamin) Netanyahu to do everything in his power to achieve an immediate ceasefire. He urged him to provide the starving civilian population in Gaza with urgently needed humanitarian aid now.
This aid must reach the civilian population quickly, safely, and in the required quantities.
Merz, who leads Germany’s centre-right CDU, has been increasingly critical of Israel. But Germany was notably absent from the joint statement issued on Monday by the EU and 28 western countries including Britain and France, which called on Israel to immediately end its assault.
Germany is one of Europe’s most pro-Israel countries, and its leaders, due to the legacy of the Nazi holocaust, consider Israel’s security to be a Staatsräson, or “reason of state”.
Since the Hamas-led 7 October attack on southern Israel in 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage, Germany has remained one of Israel’s staunchest allies and its second largest arms supplier behind the US.
Here is another picture of an airdrop that has just been sent over the newswires:
Jordan and UAE begin air drops into Gaza
Here is a photo of humanitarian aid being airdropped into Gaza (the UAE and Jordan have reportedly begun a fresh round of air drops over the territory):
World Food Programme says it hopes Israeli pause in parts of Gaza Strip will allow food to enter region
The World Food Programme hopes that an Israeli humanitarian pause in designated areas of the Gaza Strip will allow for a surge in urgently needed food aid to the region, it said on Sunday.
The United Nations agency has enough food in or on its way to the region to feed the entire Gaza population of 2.1 million people for almost three months, it said in a post on X.
Turkish president welcomes move by French president to recognise Palestinian statehood
Turkey’s president on Sunday welcomed a move by his French counterpart to recognise Palestinian statehood, in a phone call between the two leaders, the Turkish presidency said.
“During a telephone conversation, president Erdoğan congratulated French president Macron on his decision to recognise Palestine as a state,” it said in a statement.
“A two-state solution is essential for a durable peace in the region,” Erdoğan said.
The Egyptian Red Crescent said it was sending on Sunday more than 100 trucks carrying over 1,200 metric tons of food aid to southern Gaza through the Israeli-controlled Kerem Shalom crossing.
“It is worth noting that the Egyptian Red Crescent has been present on the border since the beginning of the crisis, as the Rafah crossing has not been completely closed on the Egyptian side. It has continued its preparedness and efforts to facilitate the entry of aid, with the help of 35,000 volunteers from the association,” the Egyptian Red Crescent wrote in a Facebook post.
Why is the ICJ delaying the Gaza genocide verdict?
South Africa went to the international court of justice (ICJ) in December 2023 to accuse Israel of genocide over its conduct during its war in Gaza.
Israel rejects South Africa’s claim and accuses it of providing political cover for Hamas.
The proceedings are ongoing and my colleague Julien Borger explains in this analysis piece why it is likely for the world’s top court to take years to reach a conclusion despite the horrors of the Israeli assault being in plain view. Here is an extract:
Israel was originally due to present its rebuttal to the genocide charge brought by South Africa on Monday, but the court has granted its lawyers a six-month extension. The panel of 17 judges accepted Israel’s argument that it needed more than the nine months allotted to prepare its case, because they claimed “evidentiary issues” in South Africa’s presentation meant “the scope of the case remained unclear”.
The South African legal team countered that none of the arguments given by Israeli lawyers were a legitimate reason for delay, and dragging out the case was unjustifiable in view of the humanitarian emergency in Gaza. But the court sided with Israel, which now has until next January to present its case.
“I think [the ICJ is] being really cautious here because of the political climate,” said Juliette McIntyre, a senior lecturer in law at the University of South Australia. “They don’t want to be accused of just running roughshod over Israel’s procedural rights and finding that it’s committed genocide without fully giving them an opportunity to respond.”
Gaza health ministry says six more people have died of malnutrition, bringing total to 133
In an update posted to Telegram this morning, Gaza’s health ministry said hospitals in the Strip recorded six new deaths in the past 24 hours due to famine and malnutrition, including two children “exhausted by hunger”.
This brings the total number of deaths due to malnutrition to 133, including 87 children, since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza, which is increasingly being described as a genocide against the territory’s civilian population.
The UN’s humanitarian chief, Tom Fletcher, has written this in a post on X:
Welcome announcement of humanitarian pauses in Gaza to allow our aid through.
In contact with our teams on the ground who will do all we can to reach as many starving people as we can in this window.
As a reminder, the Israeli military said earlier that it had dropped seven packages of aid into Gaza and has said it will allow some aid to enter the Strip via “humanitarian corridors”. Countries in the region – including UAE, Jordan and Egypt – are reportedly in the process of delivering aid to the territory.
According to the BBC, which is quoting a UAE official, another aid air drop will take place between 12:00 local time (10:00 BST) and 14:00 local time (12:00 BST) in northern Gaza.
