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☆ This Ramadan, American Muslims say they feel urgent need to send aid to Gaza as threat of mass starvation looms
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-11 | by ( Monica Haider | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

On Friday, the European Union announced it’s opening an emergency maritime aid corridor from Cyprus to Gaza with allies including the US. The day prior, President Joe Biden announced the US Military is planning to build a temporary port along the Gaza coast to try to deliver much-needed humanitarian relief. In 2023, the nonprofit Islamic Relief raised more than $30 million in online donations during Ramadan, according to a spokesman for the organization. The charity, Human Appeal, has provided humanitarian relief in Gaza since 1991, according to Samina Taj, the organization’s associate director of communications. Since the start of the war in Gaza, Taj said their teams have mobilized to try to meet the desperate need for aid.

Persons: Nadia Duwaik, Duwaik, Joe Biden, Israel, Rashid, Dawoud Abo, Jad Shaheen, they’re, ”, ” Duwaik, she’s, Awrad Saleh, “, ” Saleh, Khan, It’s, it’s, Allah, Nasma, Shehadeh, ” Shehadeh, Ashraf Amra, Taj, Ramadan, Noor Traina, Traina Organizations: CNN, Ministry of Health, United Nations, European Union, Military, Dawoud Abo Alkas, Anadolu Agency, Getty, West Bank, Palestinian Children’s Relief, United Nations Agency, Islamic Relief, Islamic, The United Nations Relief, Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees Locations: Israel, Gaza, United, Cyprus, al, Gaza City, Palestinian American, West, Palestine, Khan Yunis, Rafah, Bethlehem, New York, East, Egypt, Washington , DC, Libya

☆ UN Agency Says Aid Shipment Blocked in Israeli Port
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-11 | by ( Feb. | At A.M. | ) www.usnews.com time to read: +2 min

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The main United Nations agency providing aid to Palestinians in Gaza is facing growing administrative hurdles from Israel, with a shipment amounting to a month's supply of food blocked in port, the agency's chief said. UNRWA has dismissed staff accused of involvement in the attack and launched an investigation. He said UNRWA had been informed by a contractor that provided handling services in the port of Ashdod that it could no longer continue working with UNRWA, following instructions from the Israeli authorities. Last week, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced on social media platform X that Israel was cancelling tax breaks previously offered to UNRWA. The decision was not formally communicated to the agency which only learned about it when the statement appeared on the platform, Lazzarini said.

Persons: Israel, Philippe Lazzarini, Lazzarini, Bezalel Smotrich, James Mackenzie, Steve Scheer Organizations: United Nations, United Nations Relief, Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees, UNRWA, Israel, West Bank Locations: JERUSALEM, Gaza, Israel, East, Ashdod, Turkey, East Jerusalem, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria

☆ Opinion | Abolish the U.N.’s Palestinian Refugee Agency
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-30 | by ( Bret Stephens | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

United Nations agencies and officials are no strangers to scandal and infamy. In the 1980s, Kurt Waldheim, a former U.N. secretary general, was unmasked as a former Nazi. He was the same secretary general who denounced Israel’s 1976 rescue of Jewish hostages in Entebbe as “a serious violation” of Uganda’s national sovereignty. Now comes the latest scandal of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees, better known as UNRWA. Last Friday, Israeli officials presented the U.S. government with an intelligence dossier detailing the involvement of 12 UNRWA employees, seven of them schoolteachers, in the massacre of Oct. 7.

Persons: Saddam Hussein, Kurt Waldheim, Ronen Bergman, Patrick Kingsley Organizations: Nations, Democratic, Iraq, Nazi, United Nations Relief, Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees, “ Intelligence, Street Locations: Haiti, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Entebbe, Gaza

In Gaza, it has been the main supplier of food, water and shelter to civilians during the Israel-Hamas war. The Israeli government has accused Hamas and other militant groups of siphoning off aid and using U.N. facilities for military purposes. UNRWA denies those allegations and says it took swift action against the employees accused of taking part in the attack. U.N. chief Guterres said nine of the accused UNRWA employees were immediately terminated, one was confirmed dead and the other two still need to be identified. The death toll includes more than 150 UNWRA employees, the most aid workers the U.N. has lost in a single conflict.

Persons: Antonio Guterres, Guterres, Philippe Lazzarini, Benjamin Netanyahu, ” Lazzarini Organizations: United, Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees, UNRWA, West, Israel, West Bank, Twitter, Health Ministry Locations: United Nations, Gaza, Israel, United States, East, West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, U.N, Israel's, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Switzerland, Finland, Norway, Ireland, israel

On December 22, the UN Security Council passed a resolution calling for further extended humanitarian pauses to allow more aid into Gaza. People carry some of their belongings as they walk to Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on January 4, fleeing central Gaza. But even as foreign aid to Gaza rose in the wake of the Hamas takeover, the amount of aid fluctuates annually, OECD data shows. In 2018, the Trump administration cut about $200 million in Palestinian aid and halted contributions to UNRWA. Medicine for Israeli hostages and Palestinians entered Gaza last Wednesday after Qatar brokered a deal with Israel and Hamas.

Persons: Khan Younis, —, Majdi, Fatah, Mohammed Abed, ”, Yara Asi, Israel, René Wildangel, Wildangel, ” Asi, Trump, Biden, Benjamin Netanyahu, “, Netanyahu Organizations: CNN, United Nations, West Bank, UN Office, Humanitarian Affairs, Service, Aid, World Health Organization, UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees, Israel, Israel Defense Forces, UN, Assembly, UNRWA, IDF, UN Security, World Food, Palestinian, Statistics, World Bank, Palestine Liberation Organization, PLO, Palestinian Authority, Hamas, West Bank ., Getty, University of Central, “, International Hellenic University, Amnesty, Palestinian Central Bureau, European Union, Organization for Economic Co, Development, Obama, Qatar Locations: Israel, Gaza, East Jerusalem, UN, Rafah, South Africa, Oslo Accords, AFP, Palestine, University of Central Florida, Oslo, Thessaloniki, Greece, United States, Europe, Qatar

☆ In Gaza, disease could be even deadlier than airstrikes, WHO says
▼ + stars: | 2023-12-04 | by ( Jacqueline Howard | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

CNN —As the Israel-Hamas conflict continues, there’s growing concern about how the situation may raise the risk of disease and illness in Gaza. There could be more deaths in Gaza from disease and a broken health infrastructure than from bombs and missiles, the World Health Organization has warned. “If the conflict impacts access to safe water, then there may be challenges with waterborne diseases,” she said. In this situation, the risk of death due to disease is much greater than the risk of death due to bombardment,” said Haque, who is not involved in WHO but has studied infectious disease, conflict and war. During the Israel-Hamas conflict, maternity care facilities have been affected by Israeli airstrikes due to evacuations, power outages, and a shortage of medical supplies.

Persons: “, Margaret Harris, Barry Levy, ”, Levy, Rebecca Katz, ” Katz, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, ” Tedros, Abed Rahim Khatib, Ubydul Haque, Haque, Dr, Sanjay Gupta, Shifa, CNN’s Martin Goillandeau, Eleni Giokos Organizations: CNN, World Health Organization, WHO, Tufts University School of Medicine, Center for Global Health Science, Security, Georgetown University, United Nations Relief, Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees, United Nations Office, Humanitarian Affairs, Getty, Rutgers Global Health Institute, CNN Health, Shifa Locations: Israel, Gaza, Covid, Al

☆ As fighting pauses, Gazans displaced from north want to return home to bury their dead
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-24 | by ( Nadeen Ebrahim | Abeer Salman | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Many are using the lull in fighting to try to travel back north, despite the Israeli military warning against this. But many Gazans say they need to use this pause in fighting to return home, where memories, belongings, money, clothes and even some of their loved ones remain – dead or alive. We have martyrs tossed all over the streets.”Palestinians trying to go back north were, however, blocked by Israeli forces, residents and a journalist told CNN. A Palestinian woman cries in anguish following Israeli strikes on Rafah, Gaza, on November 20, 2023. Palestinians on Friday called for a safe corridor that would allow them to cross north, gather their belongings, bury their dead and then return south.

Persons: CNN — “, Mahmoud Moharram, ” Moharram, “, Israel, Avichay Adraee, ” Adraee, ”, Asa’ad Agha, haven’t, ” Agha, Abo Mohamed, Fayoumi, Salah al, Mohammed Abed, David Satterfield, Crescent, Said Khatib, Agha Organizations: CNN, Hamas, Israel Defense Forces, ” Flyers, Getty, United States, United Nations Relief, Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees, Palestinian, UNRWA Locations: Gaza, Israel, Beit Lahia, “, Rafah, AFP, Egypt, Territories

☆ 'Survival feels uncertain': Palestinians in Gaza describe desperation under Israeli bombardment
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-15 | by ( Dalya Al Masri | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Mostafa Alkharouf | Anadolu Agency | Getty ImagesEvery day in the Gaza Strip brings desperate uncertainty as the war intensifies, Palestinian residents told CNBC. We don't know when our turn is, but we expect to get bombed any minute," Shouq Al Najjar, a 28-year-old development worker in Gaza, told CNBC. We're living in constant fear, and survival feels uncertain," she told CNBC. Home to 2.3 million people and roughly twice the size of Washington, D.C., the Gaza Strip is considered one of the most densely populated areas in the world. He was speaking via voice note in Rafah, near the single exit point out of the Gaza Strip that is not controlled by Israel.

Persons: Mostafa Alkharouf, Benjamin Netanyahu, Al Najjar, Najjar, Khan Younis, It's, Netanyahu, Zakout, Juliette Touma Organizations: Anadolu Agency, Getty, CNBC, Israel's, Palestinian, Hamas, Washington , D.C, Human Rights Watch, United Nations, West Bank, Israel Defense Forces, Mezan, Human Rights, Israel, World Health Organization, United Nations Relief, Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees Locations: Gaza, Sderot, Israel, Washington ,, Palestinian, Gaza City, North Gaza, Rafah, Egypt

☆ UN mourns more than 100 staff killed in Gaza, the highest number killed in any other conflict in its history
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-14 | by ( Hande Atay Alam | Helen Regan | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

“In the last 24 hours, one UNRWA staff member was killed with her family in the north of the Gaza Strip due to strikes,” the agency said in a statement. “This is the highest number of United Nations aid workers killed in a conflict in the history of the United Nations.”UN offices around the world lowered their flags to half-mast and UN staff held a moment of silence Monday to mourn and honor their colleagues killed in Gaza. “They were teachers, school principals, health workers, including a gynecologist, engineers, support staff and a psychologist,” the statement said. Israel’s current siege and bombardment has created a deepening humanitarian crisis with desperate conditions inside Gaza, including the near total collapse of the healthcare system and the widespread destruction of whole neighborhoods. This is the area of Gaza to which the Israeli military has instructed civilians in the north of Gaza and Gaza City to move.

Persons: “, ”, Antonio Guterres, Volker Türk, Israel, Thomas White, White, Philippe Lazzarini, “ They’re, ” Lazzarini, –, Khan Younis, Tim Lister, Niamh Kennedy, Tamar Michaelis, Kareem El Damanhoury Organizations: CNN, United, UN, United Nations Relief, Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees, Hamas, United Nations, Palestinian Ministry of Health, UNRWA, Human Rights, UNRWA Affairs, Protect Journalists Locations: United Nations, Gaza, “, New York, Ramallah, Israel, Rafah, Wadi Gaza, Gaza City

The Jabalia refugee camp is highlighted and the site of an airstrike within the camp shown. People and medics rush to the scene of an Israeli attack that hit the Jabalia refugee camp in north Gaza on Wednesday, Nov. 1. People and medics rushed to the scene of an Israeli attack that hit the Jabalia refugee camp in north Gaza on Wednesday, Nov. 1. The second airstrike hit on Wednesday Nov. 1 in the Falouja neighbourhood of Jabalia refugee camp, approximately half a mile from the site of Tuesday’s explosion. A third Israeli airstrike hit the Jabalia refugee camp on November 2, Reuters reported.

Persons: Benjamin Netanyahu’s, Volker Turk, ” Turk, ”, OpenStreetMap, Al Bureij, Khan Younis, Bureij, Jabalia, Nizar Rayan, Abdel Kareem Rayan, “, Justin Bronk, ” Bronk, Al Mouhawel, Ibrahim Biari, Daniel Hagari, Biari, situating, ” Hagari, Hagari, Hazem Qassem, Muhammad A’sar, Abu Hussein, Antony Blinken, Blinken, Netanyahu Organizations: Islamic, Human, Space Agency Sentinel, United Nations Office, Humanitarian Affairs, Masae Analytics, United Nations, Reuters, Palestine Refugees, UNRWA, United Nations Relief, Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees, Hamas, Palestinian, Technology, Royal United Services Institute, Israeli Air, Attack Munitions, Pentagon, Maxar, Jabalia Battalion, Interior Ministry, European Union Locations: Gaza, Israel, Palestinian, Gaza ., Beach, Al, Jabalia, Rafah, Palestine, Israeli, London, JDAMs, Iraq, Afghanistan, Al Almey, Falouja, United States

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