29-02-24, 12:57
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#49
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Join Date: Feb 2011
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re: UK & US Building Port & Create Sea Route to Get URGENT Aid From Cyprus Into Gaza
Netanyahu is Deliberately Starving Palestinians, UN Human Rights Expert Says
UN special rapporteur Michael Fakhri says denial of food is war crime and constitutes‘A Situation of GENOCIDE’
Humanitarian Workers Face Deportation From Israel After FREEZE on Visas
Dozens of Foreign Staff Had to Leave and New Specialists Can’t Be Brought In
Press Freedom Groups Urge US to Hold Israel Accountable For Killings of Journalists & BLOCKAGE of Press
BBC 29 FEB 2024
UN Chief Warns Israeli Offensive in Rafah is 'FINAL Nail in The Coffin' For Gaza Aid
Israel is intentionally starving Palestinians and should be held accountable for war crimes – and genocide, according to the UN’s leading expert on the right to food.
Hunger and severe malnutrition are widespread in the Gaza Strip, where about 2.2 million Palestinians are facing severe shortages resulting from Israel destroying food supplies and severely restricting the flow of food, medicines and other humanitarian supplies. Aid trucks and Palestinians waiting for humanitarian relief have come under Israeli fire.
“There is no reason to intentionally block the passage of humanitarian aid or intentionally obliterate small-scale fishing vessels, greenhouses and orchards in Gaza – other than to deny people access to food,” Michael Fakhri, the UN special rapporteur on the right to food, told the Guardian.
Humanitarian Workers Face Deportation From Israel
Israel has stopped issuing visas for international staff of humanitarian organisations that work in occupied Palestinian territories, hampering efforts to get food and other vital supplies into Gaza.
Dozens of foreign aid workers, including heads of organisations, have had to leave Israel and the Palestinian territories, or are overstaying their visas and risking deportation so they can continue working, an alliance of aid groups has warned.
Emergency response teams, who have the specialist experience to deal with the multiple challenges of working in Gaza, are particularly affected, said Faris Arouri, director of the Association of International Development Agencies (AIDA), an umbrella group representing aid groups operating in the West Bank and Gaza.
They are deployed on short notice from regional headquarters to deal with unexpected crises, but the visa block means aid groups have not been able to bring any experts into Jerusalem, from where most aid to Gaza is coordinated.
Visas are required to enter Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, but new ones have effectively been blocked by the ministry of welfare and social affairs. Its officials must provide a letter of recommendation before a visa application can be processed, but they stopped issuing these after the 7 October Hamas attacks.
At the time, the ministry said the state of emergency affected its work, and all humanitarian visas were automatically extended to 8 February 2024. When that exemption expired, the ministry told the humanitarian organisations it had stopped issuing letters and the visa process was being discussed by “various government authorities”.
“Instead of advocating to enter Gaza, we are being forced to advocate just to let staff come to Jerusalem,” Arouri said, adding that the visa freeze was unprecedented.
'FINAL Nail in The Coffin'
Death Toll Goes Up in Israeli Attack on Palestinians Waiting For Food
Netanyahu Says He Opposes Palestinian State
Journalists Call For Access to Gaza in Open Letter
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