[🇧🇩] Israel and Hamas war in Gaza-----Can Bangladesh be a peace broker?

[Saif]

Hamas agrees to US proposal on Gaza ceasefire, Palestinian official says

Hamas has agreed to a proposal by US special envoy Steve Witkoff for a Gaza ceasefire, a Palestinian official close to the group told Reuters on Monday, paving the way for a possible end to the war with Israel. The new proposal, which sees the release of ten hostages and 70 days of truce, was rece

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Hamas agrees to US proposal on Gaza ceasefire, Palestinian official says
REUTERS
Published :
May 26, 2025 20:54
Updated :
May 26, 2025 20:55

A drone view shows displaced Palestinians sheltering in tents set up near the rubble of buildings destroyed during the Israeli offensive, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in Gaza City February 17, 2025. Photo : REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas/Files

Hamas has agreed to a proposal by US special envoy Steve Witkoff for a Gaza ceasefire, a Palestinian official close to the group told Reuters on Monday, paving the way for a possible end to the war with Israel.

The new proposal, which sees the release of ten hostages and 70 days of truce, was received by Hamas through mediators.

"The proposal includes the release of ten living Israeli hostages held by Hamas in two groups in return for a 70-day ceasefire and a partial withdrawal from the Gaza Strip," the source said.

The proposal also sees the release of a number of Palestinian prisoners by Israel, including hundreds serving lengthy prison terms.

There was no immediate comment from Israel.

On March 18, Israel effectively ended a January ceasefire agreement with Hamas and renewed its military campaign in Gaza. Hamas and allied factions began firing rockets and attacks two days later.

Hamas has said it is willing to free all remaining hostages seized by its gunmen in attacks on communities in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, and agree to a permanent ceasefire if Israel pulls out completely from Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel would only be willing to agree to a temporary ceasefire in return for the release of hostages, vowing that war can only end once Hamas is eradicated.

Israel launched an air and ground war in Gaza after Hamas militants' cross-border attack on October 7, 2023, which killed 1,200 people by Israeli tallies with 251 hostages abducted into Gaza.

The conflict has killed nearly 54,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities, and devastated the coastal strip. Aid groups say signs of severe malnutrition are widespread.​

 

[Saif]

Head of US-backed Gaza aid foundation quits as further Israeli airstrikes kill dozens

The head of a U.S.-backed foundation set to begin aid deliveries in Gaza resigned unexpectedly, saying it could not uphold humanitarian principles amidst war, as an Israeli airstrike on a school building killed dozens of Palestinians sheltering inside. Reflecting growing international pressure on

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Head of US-backed Gaza aid foundation quits as further Israeli airstrikes kill dozens

REUTERS
Published :
May 26, 2025 19:43
Updated :
May 26, 2025 19:43

Palestinians inspect the damage at a school sheltering displaced people, following an Israeli strike, in Gaza City, May 26, 2025. Photo : REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas/Files

The head of a U.S.-backed foundation set to begin aid deliveries in Gaza resigned unexpectedly, saying it could not uphold humanitarian principles amidst war, as an Israeli airstrike on a school building killed dozens of Palestinians sheltering inside.

Reflecting growing international pressure on Israel, close ally Germany said its recent attacks in Gaza were inflicting a toll on civilians that could no longer be justified as a fight against Hamas - the Palestinian militant group which ignited the war with its cross-border Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel.

Israel has faced a mounting Western outcry this month as its military launched a new offensive in Gaza, already largely destroyed by Israeli bombardment during 19 months of conflict and where the population of 2 million is at risk of famine.

After nearly three months of blockade, Israeli authorities last week allowed a trickle of aid into the Palestinian enclave. But the few hundred trucks carried only a tiny fraction of the food needed.

Jake Wood, executive director of the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation for the past two months, said he resigned as it could not adhere “to the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence”.

Wood’s exit on Sunday underscores the confusion surrounding the foundation, which has been boycotted by the United Nations and the aid groups supplying aid to Gaza before Israel imposed a total blockade on the enclave in March.

The groups say the new system will undermine the principle that aid should be overseen by a neutral party. Israel, which floated a similar plan earlier this year, says it will not be involved in distributing aid but it had endorsed the plan and would provide security for it.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which would use private contractors working under a broad Israeli security umbrella, said it would begin deliveries on Monday, with the aim of reaching one million Palestinians by the end of the week.

“We plan to scale up rapidly to serve the full population in the weeks ahead,” it said in a statement.

The Switzerland-registered foundation has been heavily criticised by the United Nations, whose officials have said the private company’s aid distribution plans are insufficient for reaching the more than two million Gazans.

The new operation will rely on four major distribution centres in southern Gaza that will screen families for involvement with Hamas militants, potentially using facial recognition or biometric technology, according to aid officials.

But many details of how the operation will work remain unexplained, and it was not immediately clear whether aid groups that have refused to cooperate with the foundation would still be able to send in trucks.

Hamas condemned the new system, saying it would “replace order with chaos, enforce a policy of engineered starvation of Palestinian civilians, and use food as a weapon during wartime”.

Israel says the system is aimed at separating aid from Hamas, which it accuses of stealing and using food to impose control over the population, a charge rejected by Hamas, which says it protects aid convoys from gangs of armed looters.

CONTINUED AIRSTRIKES

While the aid system is worked out, Israel has continued to carry out strikes across densely populated Gaza, killing at least 45 people on Monday, local health authorities said.

In Gaza City, medics said, 30 Palestinians, including displaced women and children who were seeking shelter in a Gaza City school, were killed in an airstrike. Images shared widely on social media showed what appeared to be badly burned bodies being pulled from the rubble.

Israel’s military confirmed that it had targeted the school. It said that the building was being used as a centre by Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants to plan and organise attacks.

Farah Nussair, a survivor of the attack, said “just the tired ones” who needed food and water were in the school.

She added, a child in her lap: “We fled to the south, they bombed us in the south. We returned to the north, they bombed us in the north. We came to schools .... There is no security or safety, neither at schools, nor hospitals - not anywhere.”

Israel’s military said numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians. It did not provide evidence that the school was being used by militants.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, speaking to broadcaster WDR, said he planned to hold a call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week to tell him “to not overdo it,” though for “historical reasons”, Germany would always be more guarded in its criticism than some European partners.

“Harming the civilian population to such an extent, as has increasingly been the case in recent days, can no longer be justified as a fight against Hamas terrorism,” Merz said.

Another strike on a house in Jabalia, adjacent to Gaza City, killed at least 15 other people, medics said.

Israel stepped up military operations in the enclave in early May, saying it is seeking to eliminate Hamas’ military and governing capabilities and bring back remaining hostages.

The campaign, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said will end with Israel in complete control of Gaza, has squeezed the population into an ever-narrowing zone in coastal areas and around the southern city of Khan Younis.

The Israeli campaign, triggered after Hamas-led Islamist militants stormed Israeli communities on October 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people, has devastated Gaza and pushed nearly all of its residents from their homes.

The offensive has killed more than 53,000 people in Gaza, many of them civilians, according to its health authorities.​

 

[Saif]

Hamas-led groups execute four for looting aid trucks amid some Gaza dissent

Hamas has executed four men for looting some of the aid trucks that have begun entering Gaza, sources familiar with the incident said on Monday, as a clan leader in southern Gaza issued a challenge to the militant group over guarding the convoys. One source said the four were involved in an incide

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Hamas-led groups execute four for looting aid trucks amid some Gaza dissent

REUTERS
Published :
May 26, 2025 19:02
Updated :
May 26, 2025 19:02

A truck carries humanitarian aid destined for the Gaza Strip, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, at the Kerem Shalom crossing in southern Israel, November 11, 2024. Photo : REUTERS/Amir Cohen/Files

Hamas has executed four men for looting some of the aid trucks that have begun entering Gaza, sources familiar with the incident said on Monday, as a clan leader in southern Gaza issued a challenge to the militant group over guarding the convoys.

One source said the four were involved in an incident last week when six security officials were killed by an Israeli airstrike as they were working to prevent gang members from hijacking aid trucks.

"The four criminals, who were executed, were involved in the crimes of looting and causing the death of members of a force tasked with securing aid trucks," one of the sources told Reuters.

Seven other suspects were being pursued, according to a statement issued by an umbrella group identifying itself as the "Palestinian Resistance".

Humanitarian assistance began trickling into Gaza last week after Israel yielded to international pressure and lifted a blockade it imposed in early March that has left half a million people facing starvation, according to a global hunger monitor.

Aid groups have said that deliveries have been hampered by looting, but they have blamed Israel for creating a situation in which hundreds of thousands of people have been driven to desperation by the blockade.

Israel has accused Hamas of stealing aid, which the group denies, and the issue of control over the aid trucks has been hotly disputed.

Israeli military officials say the security teams put in place by Hamas are there to take delivery of the supplies not to protect them, but it has provided no evidence of Hamas looting since it eased its blockade last week.

Hamas, which took power in Gaza in 2007, has long cracked down hard on signs of dissent among Palestinians in Gaza but it has faced sizeable protests in recent months over the war and faced challenges to its control by armed groups of looters, some of whom it has punished by shooting them in the legs in public.

Yasser Abu Shabab, a leader of a large clan in the Rafah area, now under full Israeli army control, said he was building up a force to secure aid deliveries into some parts of the enclave. He published images of his armed men receiving and organising the traffic of aid trucks.

Hamas, which is unable to operate in the Rafah area where Abu Shabab has some controls, has accused him of looting international aid trucks in previous months and maintaining connections with Israel.

On a Facebook page in his name Abu Shabab denies that he has acted as an alternative to the government or other institutions and rejects accusations of looting.

On the page Abu Shabab is described as a "grassroots leader who stood up against corruption and looting" and who protected aid convoys.

But a Hamas security official called Abu Shabab a "tool used by the Israeli occupation to fragment the Palestinian internal front".

Asked if the UN was working with Abu Shabab, a spokesperson for the UN humanitarian agency OCHA said it did not pay anyone to guard aid trucks.

"What we do is talk to communities regularly, build trust and engage with the authorities on the urgent need for more aid to come in through more routes and more crossings," the spokesperson said.​

 

[Saif]

Head of US-backed Gaza aid foundation quits as further Israeli airstrikes kill dozens

The head of a U.S.-backed foundation set to begin aid deliveries in Gaza resigned unexpectedly, saying it could not uphold humanitarian principles amidst war, as an Israeli airstrike on a school building killed dozens of Palestinians sheltering inside. Reflecting growing international pressure on

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Head of US-backed Gaza aid foundation quits as further Israeli airstrikes kill dozens

REUTERS
Published :
May 26, 2025 19:43
Updated :
May 26, 2025 19:43

Palestinians inspect the damage at a school sheltering displaced people, following an Israeli strike, in Gaza City, May 26, 2025. Photo : REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas/Files

The head of a U.S.-backed foundation set to begin aid deliveries in Gaza resigned unexpectedly, saying it could not uphold humanitarian principles amidst war, as an Israeli airstrike on a school building killed dozens of Palestinians sheltering inside.

Reflecting growing international pressure on Israel, close ally Germany said its recent attacks in Gaza were inflicting a toll on civilians that could no longer be justified as a fight against Hamas - the Palestinian militant group which ignited the war with its cross-border Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel.

Israel has faced a mounting Western outcry this month as its military launched a new offensive in Gaza, already largely destroyed by Israeli bombardment during 19 months of conflict and where the population of 2 million is at risk of famine.

After nearly three months of blockade, Israeli authorities last week allowed a trickle of aid into the Palestinian enclave. But the few hundred trucks carried only a tiny fraction of the food needed.

Jake Wood, executive director of the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation for the past two months, said he resigned as it could not adhere “to the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence”.

Wood’s exit on Sunday underscores the confusion surrounding the foundation, which has been boycotted by the United Nations and the aid groups supplying aid to Gaza before Israel imposed a total blockade on the enclave in March.

The groups say the new system will undermine the principle that aid should be overseen by a neutral party. Israel, which floated a similar plan earlier this year, says it will not be involved in distributing aid but it had endorsed the plan and would provide security for it.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which would use private contractors working under a broad Israeli security umbrella, said it would begin deliveries on Monday, with the aim of reaching one million Palestinians by the end of the week.

“We plan to scale up rapidly to serve the full population in the weeks ahead,” it said in a statement.

The Switzerland-registered foundation has been heavily criticised by the United Nations, whose officials have said the private company’s aid distribution plans are insufficient for reaching the more than two million Gazans.

The new operation will rely on four major distribution centres in southern Gaza that will screen families for involvement with Hamas militants, potentially using facial recognition or biometric technology, according to aid officials.

But many details of how the operation will work remain unexplained, and it was not immediately clear whether aid groups that have refused to cooperate with the foundation would still be able to send in trucks.

Hamas condemned the new system, saying it would “replace order with chaos, enforce a policy of engineered starvation of Palestinian civilians, and use food as a weapon during wartime”.

Israel says the system is aimed at separating aid from Hamas, which it accuses of stealing and using food to impose control over the population, a charge rejected by Hamas, which says it protects aid convoys from gangs of armed looters.

CONTINUED AIRSTRIKES

While the aid system is worked out, Israel has continued to carry out strikes across densely populated Gaza, killing at least 45 people on Monday, local health authorities said.

In Gaza City, medics said, 30 Palestinians, including displaced women and children who were seeking shelter in a Gaza City school, were killed in an airstrike. Images shared widely on social media showed what appeared to be badly burned bodies being pulled from the rubble.

Israel’s military confirmed that it had targeted the school. It said that the building was being used as a centre by Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants to plan and organise attacks.

Farah Nussair, a survivor of the attack, said “just the tired ones” who needed food and water were in the school.

She added, a child in her lap: “We fled to the south, they bombed us in the south. We returned to the north, they bombed us in the north. We came to schools .... There is no security or safety, neither at schools, nor hospitals - not anywhere.”

Israel’s military said numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians. It did not provide evidence that the school was being used by militants.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, speaking to broadcaster WDR, said he planned to hold a call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week to tell him “to not overdo it,” though for “historical reasons”, Germany would always be more guarded in its criticism than some European partners.

“Harming the civilian population to such an extent, as has increasingly been the case in recent days, can no longer be justified as a fight against Hamas terrorism,” Merz said.

Another strike on a house in Jabalia, adjacent to Gaza City, killed at least 15 other people, medics said.

Israel stepped up military operations in the enclave in early May, saying it is seeking to eliminate Hamas’ military and governing capabilities and bring back remaining hostages.

The campaign, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said will end with Israel in complete control of Gaza, has squeezed the population into an ever-narrowing zone in coastal areas and around the southern city of Khan Younis.

The Israeli campaign, triggered after Hamas-led Islamist militants stormed Israeli communities on October 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people, has devastated Gaza and pushed nearly all of its residents from their homes.

The offensive has killed more than 53,000 people in Gaza, many of them civilians, according to its health authorities.​

 

[Saif]

Germany shifts tone on Israel over 'incomprehensible' Gaza carnage

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz delivered his most severe rebuke of Israel to date on Tuesday, criticising massive air strikes on Gaza as no longer justified by the need to fight Hamas and "no longer comprehensible". The message, delivered from a press conference in Finland, reflects a broader sh

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Germany shifts tone on Israel over 'incomprehensible' Gaza carnage

REUTERS
Published :
May 27, 2025 17:56
Updated :
May 27, 2025 17:56

A general view shows destruction in North Gaza, as seen from Israel, May 27, 2025. Photo : REUTERS/Amir Cohen TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz delivered his most severe rebuke of Israel to date on Tuesday, criticising massive air strikes on Gaza as no longer justified by the need to fight Hamas and "no longer comprehensible".

The message, delivered from a press conference in Finland, reflects a broader shift in public opinion but also a greater willingness from top-ranking German politicians to criticise Israel's conduct since the October 7, 2023 attacks by Hamas.

There was similar criticism from Merz's foreign minister Johann Wadephul and calls among his junior coalition partner, the Social Democrats, to halt arms exports to Israel or else risk German complicity in war crimes.

While not a complete rupture, the shift in tone is significant in a country whose leadership follows a policy of special responsibility for Israel, known as the Staatsraeson, due to the legacy of the Nazi Holocaust.

Germany, along with the United States, has been one of Israel's staunchest supporters, but Merz's words come as the European Union is reviewing its Israel policy and Britain, France and Canada also threatened "concrete actions" over Gaza.

"The massive military strikes by the Israelis in the Gaza Strip no longer reveal any logic to me. How they serve the goal of confronting terror. ... In this respect, I view this very, very critically," Merz said in Turku, Finland.

"I am also not among those who said it first ... But it seemed and seems to me that the time has come when I must say publicly, (that) what is currently happening is no longer comprehensible."

The comments are particularly striking given that Merz won elections in February promising to host Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on German soil in defiance of an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Merz also has hanging in the chancellery a picture of Zikim beach, where Hamas fighters arrived on boats during their rampage in 2023 that killed around 1,200 people.

The Chancellor plans to speak to Netanyahu this week, as attacks on Gaza killed dozens in recent days and its population of 2 million is at risk of famine. He did not reply to a question about German weapons exports to Israel, and a government official told a briefing that this was a matter for a security council presided over by Merz.

Israel's ambassador to Berlin, Ron Prosor, acknowledged German concerns on Tuesday but made no commitments.

"When Friedrich Merz raises this criticism of Israel, we listen very carefully because he is a friend,” Prosor told the ZDF broadcaster.

PRESSURE FROM BELOW?

Merz's comments come on top of a groundswell of opposition to Israel's actions. A survey by Civey, published in the Tagesspiegel newspaper this week, showed 51 per cent of Germans opposed weapons exports to Israel.

More broadly, while 60 per cent of Israelis have a positive or very positive opinion of Germany, only 36 per cent of people in Germany view Israel positively, and 38 per cent view it negatively, a survey by the Bertelsmann Foundation found in May.

This represents a notable change from the last survey in 2021, when 46 per cent of Germans had a positive opinion of Israel. Only a quarter of Germans recognise a special responsibility towards the state of Israel, while 64 per cent of Israelis believe Germany has a special obligation.

In another striking rebuke of Israel, Germany’s commissioner for antisemitism Felix Klein this week called for a discussion about Berlin’s stance on Israel, saying German support after the Holocaust could not justify everything Israel was doing.

Israeli historian Moshe Zimmermann said popular opinion in Germany towards Israel has reacted the same way as in other countries.

"The difference is in the political elites - the political elite is still under the influence of the lessons of WWII in a very one-dimensional way: 'Jews were our victims during WWII, so we have to take sides with the Jews wherever they are and whatever they do,'" he said.

"You can feel it in the reaction of the new foreign minister, Wadephul, and indirectly the fact that Merz didn't repeat his promise to invite Netanyahu. This is an unprecedented situation where the pressure from below is forcing the political class to reconsider."​

 

[Saif]

Palestinians wary as US-backed aid group begins operations in Gaza

Palestinians voiced wariness on Tuesday toward a US-backed foundation set to bring aid to Gaza amid signs of famine, with Hamas warnings about biometric screening procedures keeping many away from distribution points. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said it began operations on Monday, but there w

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Palestinians wary as US-backed aid group begins operations in Gaza

REUTERS
Published :
May 27, 2025 19:22
Updated :
May 27, 2025 19:22

Trucks transport aid as Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said it has commenced operations to begin distribution of aid, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, May 26, 2025. Photo : Gaza Humanitarian Foundation/Handout via REUTERS/Files

Palestinians voiced wariness on Tuesday toward a US-backed foundation set to bring aid to Gaza amid signs of famine, with Hamas warnings about biometric screening procedures keeping many away from distribution points.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said it began operations on Monday, but there was little indication of Palestinians turning up at distribution centres in southern Gaza even after almost three months of Israel blockading the enclave.

Palestinians said there was no known visits to new sites of distribution on Monday, but on Tuesday dozens headed to one of them established in Rafah to get some aid despite the warnings, at least three witnesses told Reuters.

Others stayed away.

"As much as I want to go because I am hungry and my children are hungry, I am afraid," said Abu Ahmed, 55, a father of seven. "I am so scared because they said the company belongs to Israel and is a mercenary, and also because the resistance (Hamas) said not to go," he said in a message on the chat app WhatsApp.

Israel says the Switzerland-based GHF is a U.S.-backed initiative and that its forces will not be involved in the distribution points where food will be handed out.

But its endorsement of the plan, which resembles Israeli schemes floated previously, and its closeness with the US has led many to question the neutrality of the foundation, including its own former chief, who resigned unexpectedly on Sunday.

The United Nations and other international aid groups have boycotted the foundation, which they say undermines the principle that humanitarian aid should be distributed independently of the parties to a conflict, based on need.

"Humanitarian assistance must not be politicised or militarised," said Christian Cardon, chief spokesperson of the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Israel, at war with Gaza's dominant Hamas militant group since October 2023, imposed the blockade in early March accusing Hamas of stealing supplies and using them to entrench its position. Hamas has denied such accusations.

Israeli officials said one of the advantages of the new aid system is the opportunity to screen recipients to exclude anyone found to be connected with Hamas.

Humanitarian groups briefed on the foundation's plans say anyone accessing aid will have to submit to facial recognition technology that many Palestinians fear will end up in Israeli hands to be used to track and potentially target them.

Details of exactly how the system will operate have not been made public.

Israel makes extensive use of facial recognition and other forms of biometric identification in the occupied West Bank and has been reported by Israeli and international media to be using such techniques in Gaza as well.

BEGGING FOR BREAD

Hamas, which has in recent months faced protests by many Palestinians who want the devastating war to end, has also warned residents against accessing GHF sites, saying Israel was using the company to collect intelligence information.

"Do not go to Rafah ...Do not fall into the trap...Do not risk your lives. Your homes are your fortress. Staying in your neighbourhoods is survival, and awareness is your protection," a statement published by the Hamas-linked Home Front said.

"These schemes will be broken by the steadfastness of a people who do not know defeat," it added.

The launch of the new system came days after Israel eased its blockade, allowing a trickle of aid trucks from international agencies into Gaza last week, including World Food Programme vehicles bringing flour to local bakeries.

But the amount of aid that has entered the densely populated coastal enclave has been only a small fraction of the 500-600 trucks that UN agencies estimate are needed every day.

"Before the war, my fridge used to be full of meat, chicken, dairy, soft drinks, everything, and now I am begging for a loaf of bread," Abu Ahmed told Reuters via a chat app.

As a small aid flow has resumed, Israeli forces - now in control of large parts of Gaza - have kept up attacks on various targets around the enclave, killing 3,901 Palestinians since a two-month-old ceasefire collapsed in mid-March, according to the Gaza health ministry.

In all, more than 54,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's air and ground war, launched following a cross-border Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023 that killed some 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage into Gaza.​

 

[Saif]

UN in dark over Gaza aid group deliveries

The United Nations said on Tuesday it had no information on whether the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a US-backed aid group, had actually delivered any supplies inside the war-ravaged Palestinian territory...

www.newagebd.net

UN in dark over Gaza aid group deliveries
Agence France-Presse . Geneva 27 May, 2025, 23:07

AFP file photo

The United Nations said on Tuesday it had no information on whether the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a US-backed aid group, had actually delivered any supplies inside the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.

The little-known group, which has stirred controversy since surfacing in early May, announced on Monday it had begun distributing truckloads of food in the Gaza Strip.

But officials from the UN humanitarian agency OCHA, and UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, said they were unaware whether any aid had actually been distributed.

The UN and international aid agencies have said they will not cooperate with the GHF, amid accusations it is working with Israel without any Palestinian involvement.

‘It is a distraction from what is actually needed, which is a reopening of all the crossings in to Gaza; a secure environment within Gaza; and faster facilitation of permissions and final approvals of all the emergency supplies that we have just outside the border that need to get in,’ OCHA spokesman Jens Laerke told a press briefing in Geneva.

UNRWA spokeswoman Juliette Touma told journalists aid to Gaza was still ‘very, very far’ from what was needed: a minimum of 500 to 600 trucks per day loaded with food, medical aid, fuel, water and other basic supplies, she said, speaking via video-link from Amman.

Israel, which recently stepped up its offensive against militant group Hamas, drew international condemnation after implementing a blockade on March 2 that has sparked severe food and medical shortages.

Humanitarian aid has begun trickling back into Gaza in recent days after Israel lifted the 11-week blockade.

Touma said no UNRWA supplies had gone in since March 2, while Laerke said he had no information on how many UN trucks had passed through the Kerem Shalom crossing in the last 24 hours, partly because Israel does not allow them to have a fixed presence there.

UN officials have raised concerns the GHF could be used to ‘weaponise’ aid by restricting who is eligible to receive it.

On Sunday, GHF executive director Jake Wood quit, saying it was impossible to do his job in line with humanitarian principles.

Hours later, GHF’s board accused ‘those who benefit from the status quo’ of attacking the group.

On Monday, GHF added: ‘It is clear that Hamas is threatened by this new operating model, and will do everything in its power to see it fail.’

The UN’s World Health Organisation has also confirmed it will not be working with the GHF.​

 

[Saif]

https://thefinancialexpress.com.bd/world/asia/netanyahu-says-hamas-gaza-chief-mohammed-sinwar-has-been-eliminated

Netanyahu says Hamas Gaza chief Mohammed Sinwar has been eliminated

REUTERS
Published :
May 28, 2025 20:36
Updated :
May 28, 2025 20:36

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday that Israel had eliminated Hamas Gaza chief Mohammad Sinwar, one of its most wanted targets and the younger brother of the deceased group's leader, Yahya Sinwar.

Mohammad Sinwar had been the target of an Israeli strike on a hospital in southern Gaza earlier this month and Netanyahu said on May 21 that it was likely he had been killed.

"We eliminated Mohammad Deif, (Ismail) Haniyeh, Yahya Sinwar and Mohammed Sinwar," Netanyahu said, confirming the death to the Israeli parliament, known as the Knesset.

"In the last two days we have been in a dramatic turn towards a complete defeat of Hamas," he said, adding that Israel was also "taking control of food distribution", a reference to a new aid distribution system in Gaza managed by a U.S.-backed group.

Hamas has yet to confirm his death Sinwar's death.

Sinwar was elevated to the top ranks of the Palestinian militant group last year after Israel killed his brother Yahya in combat.

Yahya Sinwar masterminded the October 2023 attack on Israel that triggered the war, now in its 20th month, and was later named the overall leader of the group after Israel killed his predecessor Ismail Haniyeh in Iran.​