The UN chief on Friday said that Palestinians were enduring “the cruelest phase” of the war in Gaza, where more than a dozen food trucks were looted following the partial easing of a lengthy Israeli blockade.
Aid was just beginning to trickle back into the war-torn territory after Israel announced it would allow limited shipments to resume as it pressed a newly expanded offensive aimed at destroying Hamas.
Palestinian Civil Defense official Mohammed al-Mughayyir said that at least 71 people were killed, while “dozens of injuries, and a large number of missing persons under the rubble have been reported as a result of Israeli air strikes” on Friday.
Photo: AFP
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement that “Palestinians in Gaza are enduring what may be the cruelest phase of this cruel conflict,” adding that Israel “must agree to allow and facilitate” humanitarian deliveries.
However, he pointed to snags, saying that of the nearly 400 trucks cleared to enter Gaza over the past few days, only 115 were able to be collected.
“In any case, all the aid authorized until now amounts to a teaspoon of aid when a flood of assistance is required,” he added.
“Meanwhile, the Israeli military offensive is intensifying with atrocious levels of death and destruction,” he said.
The World Food Programme (WFP) on Friday said that 15 of its “trucks were looted late last night in southern Gaza, while en route to WFP-supported bakeries.”
“Hunger, desperation and anxiety over whether more food aid is coming, is contributing to rising insecurity,” the UN body said in a statement, calling on Israeli authorities “to get far greater volumes of food assistance into Gaza faster.”
Aid shipments to the Gaza Strip restarted on Monday for the first time since March 2, amid mounting condemnation of the Israeli blockade, which has resulted in severe shortages of food and medicine.
“I appeal to people of conscience to send us fresh water and food,” said Sobhi Ghattas, a displaced Palestinian sheltering at the port in Gaza City. “My daughter has been asking for bread since this morning, and we have none to give her.”
The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, an Israeli Ministry of Defense body that oversees civilian affairs in the Palestinian territories, said that 107 humanitarian aid trucks entered Gaza on Thursday.
However, UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini on Friday said that the UN had brought in 500 to 600 per day on average during a six-week ceasefire that broke down in March.
“No one should be surprised, let alone shocked at scenes of precious aid looted, stolen or ‘lost,’” he wrote on X, adding that “the people of Gaza have been starved” for more than 11 weeks.
The Israeli military said that over the past day, its forces had attacked “military compounds, weapons storage facilities and sniper posts” in Gaza.
“In addition, the [air force] struck over 75 terror targets throughout the Gaza Strip,” it added.
Israel resumed operations in Gaza on March 18, ending the ceasefire that began on January 19.
On Friday, the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza said at least 3,673 people had been killed in the territory since then, taking the war’s overall toll to 53,822, mostly civilians.
Hamas’s October 2023 attack that triggered the war resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to official Israeli figures.
Militants also took 251 hostages, 57 of whom remain in Gaza, including 34 whom the Israeli military said are dead.
In the sweltering streets of Jakarta, buskers carry towering, hollow puppets and pass around a bucket for donations. Now, they fear becoming outlaws. City authorities said they would crack down on use of the sacred ondel-ondel puppets, which can stand as tall as a truck, and they are drafting legislation to remove what they view as a street nuisance. Performances featuring the puppets — originally used by Jakarta’s Betawi people to ward off evil spirits — would be allowed only at set events. The ban could leave many ondel-ondel buskers in Jakarta jobless. “I am confused and anxious. I fear getting raided or even
Eleven people, including a former minister, were arrested in Serbia on Friday over a train station disaster in which 16 people died. The concrete canopy of the newly renovated station in the northern city of Novi Sad collapsed on Nov. 1, 2024 in a disaster widely blamed on corruption and poor oversight. It sparked a wave of student-led protests and led to the resignation of then-Serbian prime minister Milos Vucevic and the fall of his government. The public prosecutor’s office in Novi Sad opened an investigation into the accident and deaths. In February, the public prosecutor’s office for organized crime opened another probe into
RISING RACISM: A Japanese group called on China to assure safety in the country, while the Chinese embassy in Tokyo urged action against a ‘surge in xenophobia’ A Japanese woman living in China was attacked and injured by a man in a subway station in Suzhou, China, Japanese media said, hours after two Chinese men were seriously injured in violence in Tokyo. The attacks on Thursday raised concern about xenophobic sentiment in China and Japan that have been blamed for assaults in both countries. It was the third attack involving Japanese living in China since last year. In the two previous cases in China, Chinese authorities have insisted they were isolated incidents. Japanese broadcaster NHK did not identify the woman injured in Suzhou by name, but, citing the Japanese
RESTRUCTURE: Myanmar’s military has ended emergency rule and announced plans for elections in December, but critics said the move aims to entrench junta control Myanmar’s military government announced on Thursday that it was ending the state of emergency declared after it seized power in 2021 and would restructure administrative bodies to prepare for the new election at the end of the year. However, the polls planned for an unspecified date in December face serious obstacles, including a civil war raging over most of the country and pledges by opponents of the military rule to derail the election because they believe it can be neither free nor fair. Under the restructuring, Myanmar’s junta chief Min Aung Hlaing is giving up two posts, but would stay at the
RSS