UN raises alarm on 'catastrophic' Gaza hunger, US warns of wider war with Hezbollah

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An Israeli military strike on a home in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza, has killed at least three people and injured 12 others, including women and children, according to the Wafa news agency.

Earlier, it was reported that several people were missing under the rubble after the Israeli military bombed the house belonging to the Abu Awad family.

#شاهد | انتشال أطفال جرحى من تحت منزل أبو عواد الذي استهدفه الاحتلال في بيت لاهيا شمال غزة، والبحث مستمر عن مفقودين تحت الأنقاض. pic.twitter.com/hosH3M3fXh

— وكالة شهاب للأنباء (@ShehabAgency) June 25, 2024

The Palestine Red Crescent has shared photos on X of its staff distributing hygiene packages in the north of the Strip, aimed at reducing the spread of disease resulting from overcrowding at displacement shelters.

“The PRCS is striving to reactivate all medical and relief services in the Gaza and North Gaza Governorates and is currently working on operating several clinics and medical points in both governorates,” the group stated

The risks to humanitarian workers in Gaza are intolerable, the United Nations said on Tuesday as it pressed Israel for more effective coordination with the aid groups, approval for the U.N. to use essential security equipment and for the Israeli military to facilitate aid deliveries.

"Humanitarian operations have repeatedly been in the crosshairs in Gaza," U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters on Tuesday. "The risks, frankly, are becoming increasingly intolerable."

He said the head of U.N. safety and security met on Monday with COGAT, the Israeli military branch responsible for aid transfers, to discuss U.N. difficulties working in Gaza during Israel's war on the enclave.

Linda Thomas-Greenfield stated that the United States is “deeply concerned about violence committed by extremist settlers in the West Bank – and we have sanctioned a number of extremist settlers and their organizations.”

“We will use the tools at our disposal to expose and promote accountability for those who threaten peace, security, and stability,” she said.

In her statement to the council, she also highlighted the high number of Palestinians killed by Israeli soldiers in the occupied West Bank and emphasized the need for Israel to release the tax revenue owed to the Palestinian Authority to prevent its collapse.

The US has long maintained that it sees the Palestinian Authority as the successor to Hamas and wants it to take governmental control of the Gaza Strip once Israel’s war on the enclave ends.

The United States remains deeply concerned about violence committed by extremist settlers in the West Bank – and we have sanctioned a number of extremist settlers and their organizations.

We will use the tools at our disposal to expose and promote accountability for those who…

— Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield (@USAmbUN) June 25, 2024

The secretary-general of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies says the food crisis in the coastal enclave has reached a “critical point.”

“Many people are already facing severe food insecurity, and the situation worsens each day. Children are especially affected, with many suffering from malnutrition,” Jagan Chapagain posted on X.

“In Rafah, recent hostilities have exacerbated the already dire humanitarian crisis, disrupting food distribution due to supply shortages and severely impacting people’s health.

The food crisis in Gaza has reached a critical point, with the risk of hunger increasing daily.

Many people are already facing severe food insecurity, and the situation worsens each day. Children are especially affected, with many suffering from malnutrition.

In Rafah, recent…

— Jagan Chapagain (@jagan_chapagain) June 25, 2024

An Israeli military court has extended the detention of Rasha Hirzallah, a journalist from Nablus working for the Palestinian news agency Wafa, until August 11.

Initially placed under administrative detention in early June for alleged incitement on social media, she has been held without charge or trial. Her detention order has been extended twice since then.

According to the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society and the Commission for Detainees’ Affairs, Israeli authorities detained and interrogated Hirzallah on June 2, subsequently placing her under administrative detention

Senior U.N. officials have told Israel they will suspend aid operations across Gaza unless urgent steps are taken to better protect humanitarian workers, two U.N. officials say.

A U.N. letter sent to senior Israeli officials this month said Israel must provide U.N. workers with direct communication with Israeli forces on the ground in Gaza, among other steps, the officials said.

They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing negotiations with Israeli officials. The U.N. officials say there has been no final decision on suspending operations across Gaza and that talks with Israelis were ongoing.

The U.N. World Food Program has already suspended aid delivery from a U.S.-built pier in Gaza over security concerns.

Israeli military officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies has called for the opening of “all available corridors for a continuous and expanded flow of humanitarian aid” and the release of all captives in Gaza.

“We take no side other than the side of humanity,” the organization stated in a post on X. “Protect civilians, healthcare workers, and facilities.”

We take no side other than the side of humanity.

We reiterate our calls on all parties to:

- Protect civilians, healthcare workers and facilities.
- Ensure safe and unhindered access throughout the entire Gaza Strip.
- Open all available corridors for a continuous and expanded… pic.twitter.com/baCD9enXQL

— IFRC (@ifrc) June 25, 2024

Ten children per day are losing one or both of their legs due to Israel's war on Gaza, the head of the UN agency supporting Palestinian refugees said Tuesday.

"Basically we have every day 10 children who are losing one leg or two legs on average," UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini told reporters in Geneva.

Citing figures from the UN children's agency UNICEF, he said that number "does not even include the arms and the hands, and we have many more" of these.

"Ten per day, that means around 2,000 children after the more than 260 days of this brutal war," Lazzarini said.

He said amputation often takes place "in quite horrible conditions, and sometimes without anaesthesia".

Ir Amim, a Jerusalem-focused Israeli rights group, reported that Kfar Aqab residents are only receiving 12 hours of running water per week “in the middle of extreme heat … and there seems to be no concern from the Jerusalem municipality.”

Kfar Aqab is one of seven Palestinian neighbourhoods that are part of the Israeli-run Jerusalem municipality but located beyond the Israeli separation barrier.

“Its residents receive little to no municipal services, yet Palestinians are often pushed to move there in order to avoid home demolitions,” the group stated.

“The Jerusalem municipality is responsible for meeting the basic needs of all its residents – Israelis and Palestinians – and it is neglecting the latter.

1/3 In the middle of extreme heat, residents of the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Kfar Aqab are receiving only 12 hours of running water per week.

12 hours per week.

And there seems to be no concern from the Jerusalem municipality. pic.twitter.com/L4QlNMMuEB

— Ir Amim English (@IrAmimAlerts) June 25, 2024

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock cautioned on Tuesday that "miscalculation" could trigger all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon, urging the need for "extreme restraint" as tensions soar.

"With every rocket across the Blue Line between Lebanon and Israel, the danger grows that a miscalculation could trigger a hot war," Baerbock said on X during a visit to Beirut, referring to the demarcation line between Israel and Lebanon.

"All who bear responsibility must exercise extreme restraint," she added.

Baerbock met Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, who said the best way to reach "a return to calm in south Lebanon is to put an end to the Israeli aggression... and fully apply United Nations Resolution 1701", according to a statement from his office.

Baerbock also met with her Lebanese counterpart Abdallah Bou Habib during her brief trip to Beirut, which came after visits to Israel and the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Senior U.N. officials have told Israel they will suspend aid operations across Gaza unless urgent steps are taken to better protect humanitarian workers, two U.N. officials say.

A U.N. letter sent to senior Israeli officials this month said Israel must provide U.N. workers with direct communication with Israeli forces on the ground in Gaza, among other steps, the officials said.

They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing negotiations with Israeli officials. The U.N. officials say there has been no final decision on suspending operations across Gaza and that talks with Israelis were ongoing.

The U.N. World Food Programme has already suspended aid delivery from a U.S.-built pier in Gaza over security concerns.

Israeli military officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin met his Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant at the Pentagon on Tuesday, warning that a conflict between Israel and Hezbollah could spark a regional war and urging a diplomatic solution.

"Another war between Israel and Hezbollah could easily become a regional war, with terrible consequences for the Middle East," Austin said. "Diplomacy is by far the best way to prevent more escalation."

Gallant, speaking at the opening of the meeting with Austin, said that "we are working closely together to achieve an agreement but we must also discuss readiness on every possible scenario."

Gallant is on a visit to Washington seeking to reaffirm the value of ties with Israel's top ally after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly chastised the United States for what he said was a delay in weapons deliveries.

A UN humanitarian worker described the suffering she witnessed first-hand in Gaza, where she saw children mutilated and families bombed out of their homes, in an emotional testimony Tuesday.

Speaking to journalists in Geneva following a three-month stint in the territory, Yasmina Guerda of the UN humanitarian agency OCHA described the desperation from the viewpoint of civilians under the Israeli military's assault.

"You have 10-15 minutes to evacuate your building because it's going to be bombed. Your little kids are sleeping... You wake them up," she said.

"You take one last look at your room and say a permanent goodbye, because you know it will be dust."

As horrifying as that sounds, she stressed that this is the "best-case scenario", since many others are not warned before an attack.

Canada on Tuesday urged its citizens in Lebanon to leave "while they can," warning of the risk of escalating violence between Israel and Hezbollah in the region.

Foreign Minister Melanie Joly in a statement called for Canadians to depart while commercial flights remain in operation.

"The security situation in Lebanon is becoming increasingly volatile and unpredictable due to sustained and escalating violence between Hezbollah and Israel and could deteriorate further without warning," she said.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock arrived in the Lebanese capital on Tuesday after a visit to Jerusalem.

Israel is looking to use Elon Musk's Starlink to maintain Internet connectivity should there be a potential all-out-war with Lebanese Hezbollah on the northern border that causes power outages in Israel, a newspaper report said on Tuesday.

The Calcalist financial daily said that the finance and communications ministries were seeking to utilise Starlink's 5,000 low-orbit satellites to ensure stable data and information flow for state authorities during emergencies.

Both ministries did not immediately comment to Reuters.

The closure of the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza has prevented the medical evacuations of at least 2,000 patients, a World Health Organization official said on Tuesday, calling for Rafah and other routes to be reopened.

Before the closure, "approximately 50 critical patients a day left Gaza ... It means that since the 7th of May at least 2,000 people have been unable to leave Gaza to receive medical care," said Rik Peeperkorn, WHO representative in the West Bank and Gaza.

Israel's eight-month war on the Gaza Strip has created a deadly time bomb: open sites where rotting refuse has piled up for months due to access to Gaza's main landfills being blocked.

This situation has seen a proliferation of contagious diseases, especially among the displaced, amid a dire humanitarian situation generated by Israel's genocidal onslaught in which vital infrastructure has been deliberately targeted and disabled.

With the onset of summer and rising temperatures, the Nuseirat camp's rubbish dump, in the central region of the Gaza Strip, is one of many such sites now posing an increasing risk to the health of thousands of displaced Palestinians who have been forced to seek shelter close to the landfill.

Read the full story here.

Overcrowded prisons have forced Israel to cancel planned arrest operations against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank due to a lack of space.

The Israeli army was due to make 20 arrests of Palestinians in the coming week but was forced to cancel due to a lack of space in prisons, where detainees have reported horrific conditions.

There are as many as 9,300 Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails, according to Palestinian NGO Adammeer, with the number surging since the start of the Gaza war in October.

Read the full story here.

The head of the embattled United Nations agency supporting Palestinian refugees said Tuesday that it had secured funding until the end of August.

"We have cash until end of August," said Philippe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, which coordinates nearly all aid to Gaza but has been facing a cash crunch since January, when many countries suspended funding after Israel accused a dozen of its 13,000 Gaza employees of involvement in the October 7 attack by Hamas.

Chaos is taking hold in Gaza as smuggling bands form and add to the difficulties in delivering aid, the head of the United Nations Palestinian refugee agency said on Tuesday.

"Basically, we are confronted nowadays with a near total breakdown of law and order," UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini told reporters, blaming in part an increase in gangs involved in cigarette smuggling.

"It's becoming more and more complicated (to deliver aid)," he added.

Ten children on average per day in Gaza are losing one or both of their legs in the war raging in the besieged territory, the head of the UN agency supporting Palestinian refugees said Tuesday.

"Basically we have every day 10 children who are losing one leg or two legs on average," UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini told reporters in Geneva, citing figures from the UN children's agency UNICEF.

These numbers did not include children who lost hands or arms, he said.

Almost half a million people are still experiencing "catastrophic" hunger in Gaza, a United Nations-backed assessment found on Tuesday.

Warnings from March of imminent famine in the north of the Palestinian territory have not come to pass, but the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) partnership said 495,000 people - around 22 percent of the Gaza population, according to the UN - are still facing "catastrophic levels of acute food insecurity".

Germany's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on Tuesday announced 19 million euros ($20.3 million) in more aid to Gaza and criticised parts of the Israeli government for actions that she said undermined the country's long-term security.

Baerbock was in Jerusalem as part of efforts to prevent war between Israel and Hamas from escalating into a regional conflict.

"Increasing settler violence is spreading fear and terror in the [occupied] West Bank and digging ever deeper trenches of hatred," she said.

"Parts of the Israeli government coalition are stirring up trouble and endangering long-term Israeli security interests with their aggressive settler policy," she added.

US President Joe Biden's ceasefire proposal is the "only realistic way" to end the war in Gaza, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said Tuesday.

A high risk of famine persists across the whole of the Gaza Strip as long as conflict continues and humanitarian access remains restricted, a global hunger monitor said on Tuesday.

Over 495,000 people, or more than one fifth of Gaza's population, are facing the most severe, catastrophic level of food insecurity, said an update from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC).

The Gaza Strip's health ministry said Tuesday that at least 37,658 people have been killed during more than eight months of Israel's air and ground offensive.

The toll includes at least 32 deaths over the past 24 hours, a ministry statement said, adding that 86,237 people had been wounded in the Gaza Strip since the war began on October 7.

Israel's national security adviser said the Israeli government was discussing with the US how the UN, European and "moderate" Arab states can find an alternative to Hamas' rule in the Gaza Strip.

Israel’s Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled unanimously that the military must begin drafting ultra-Orthodox men for military service, a decision that could lead to the collapse of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition as Israel continues to wage war in Gaza.

The court ruled that in the absence of a law that distinguishes between Jewish seminary students and other draftees, Israel’s compulsory military service system applies to the ultra-Orthodox like any other citizens.

Israel will spend the coming weeks trying to resolve the conflict with Lebanon's Iran-backed group Hezbollah and would prefer a diplomatic solution, Israel's national security adviser said on Tuesday.

National security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi also said Israel was discussing with Washington a possible joint effort by the United States, European and some Arab countries to find a replacement for Hamas rule in the Gaza Strip.

Brazil has deported a Palestinian man and his family after Brazilian federal police were alerted by the United States that a "Hamas operative" was traveling to the South American country, Brazilian authorities said on Monday.

Muslim Abuumar along with his pregnant wife, son and mother-in-law, were detained on Friday entering the country at Sao Paulo's Guarulhos airport and put on a Qatar Airways flight back to Doha two days later, police sources told Reuters.

"The request came from the U.S. Department of State," a senior federal police officer said. "It was proven before a judge that (Abuumar) was deeply involved with Hamas," he said.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will visit Russia, Russian news agencies reported on Tuesday, citing Kremlin foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov.

TASS said Ushakov did not disclose the timing but said the dates had been agreed. Another state agency, RIA, said Abbas had planned to come to Russia in November last year, but the visit was postponed at the request of the Palestinian side.

Russia says it wants to help resolve the conflict in the Middle East and that peace will not be possible without the establishment of a Palestinian state.

A collaborative investigation by international media outlets on Tuesday shed light on the circumstances behind more than 100 Palestinian journalists and media workers being killed in the Gaza war, some while wearing a press vest.

A consortium led by investigative outlet Forbidden Stories and involving around 50 journalists from 13 organisations including AFP, The Guardian and the Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism group (ARIJ) took part in the four-month probe.

It looked into strikes involving journalists and media infrastructure since Israel launched a devastating offensive in the Gaza Strip.

The Gaza civil defence agency said an Israeli air strike early on Tuesday killed 10 members of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh's family, in an attack the Israeli military did not immediately confirm.

"There are 10 martyrs... as a result of the strike, including Zahr Haniyeh, sister of Hamas political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh," Mahmud Basal, spokesman for Gaza's civil defence, told AFP, also reporting "several" wounded.