Israel Warning of famine: WHO calls for immediate aid for Gaza
The World Health Organization (WHO) is calling for immediate aid in view of warnings from international experts of an imminent famine in the embattled northern Gaza Strip. The latest assessment by a food crisis analysis initiative is "deeply alarming", WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on Platform X. "We call for an immediate scale-up and secure access for humanitarian aid - especially food and medicines for severe malnutrition - within days, not weeks."
09.11.2024, 04:38
SDA
Previously, the independent experts of the IPC (Integrated Food Security Phase Classification) initiative had written in an unusually urgent appeal: "All actors directly involved in the conflict or with influence over its course must act immediately, within days, not weeks, to avert this catastrophic situation."
The warning comes shortly before the expiry of a 30-day deadline set by the US on October 13, within which Israel must improve the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip. Otherwise, according to the US government, military aid for its most important ally in the Middle East could be restricted.
The US State Department admitted on Monday that Israel had taken important steps to provide more humanitarian aid. However, more is needed to alleviate the plight of the people in the densely populated coastal area, which has been largely destroyed after more than a year of war.
Reports: Qatar expels Hamas representative at US request
Meanwhile, Qatar is said to have asked representatives of the radical Islamic group Hamas to leave the Gulf emirate. The call was made around ten days ago at the urgent request of the USA, as reported by the "Times of Israel" and the "Financial Times", among others, citing informed sources. Hamas has maintained a political office in the Qatari capital Doha since 2012, as the USA had asked to maintain a communication channel to the terrorist organization.
"Hamas is a terrorist group that has killed Americans and continues to hold Americans hostage. Having repeatedly rejected proposals to release hostages, its leaders should no longer be welcome in the capitals of American partners. We have made that clear to Qatar," a senior US government official told Deutsche Presse-Agentur.
The execution of the American-Israeli citizen Hersh Goldberg-Polin and five other hostages by Hamas at the end of August also contributed to the latest US decision, a US official told the Times of Israel. It is therefore unclear when exactly the Hamas representatives will leave the country and where they will go. Possible places of retreat include Turkey and Iraq.
Like the USA and Egypt, Qatar is mediating in the talks on ending the Gaza war between Israel and Hamas, which do not negotiate directly with each other as a matter of principle. The efforts have not made any decisive progress for months.
Terrorists from Hamas and other extremist Palestinian organizations triggered the Gaza war with a massacre in Israel near the border with the Gaza Strip on 7 October 2023. More than 1,200 people were killed in the attack and around 250 others were taken hostage in Gaza.
Israeli army: Hezbollah command centers bombed
In addition to the fighting in the Gaza Strip, the armed conflict between the Israeli army and the Shiite Hezbollah militia in Lebanon continues unabated. According to the Israeli army, it bombed Hezbollah command centers in residential areas near the Lebanese coastal city of Tyre. The militia, which, like Hamas, is supported by Iran, had deliberately placed its headquarters for planning attacks on Israel in residential areas.
The Lebanese Ministry of Health announced that three people had been killed and around 30 others injured in the Israeli attacks on Tyros, around 25 kilometers north of the de facto border with Israel.
According to Israel's army, it also destroyed rocket launching pads from which Israeli territory had been fired upon. In addition, ground troops killed dozens of Hezbollah fighters and destroyed weapons depots and terrorist infrastructure. The claims of both warring parties could not initially be independently verified.
Hezbollah has been attacking Israel since the beginning of the Gaza war. According to its own statements, this is to support Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Israel responds with massive airstrikes on an almost daily basis and has also been deploying ground troops in the sealed-off coastal area since September. The leadership of the Jewish state wants to drive the Hezbollah militia out of the border area towards the north so that around 60,000 civilians evacuated from northern Israel can return to their homes.
Rocket hits Arab town in Israel
Hezbollah attacked Israel with dozens of rockets, hitting an Arab village in the north of the country. According to the army, five rockets were fired at the village of Kafr Jasif, north-east of Haifa. Four of the missiles were intercepted, the fifth hit a residential building. No one was injured. The "Times of Israel" published a video recording of the house, two concrete ceilings were penetrated.
Injuries reported in Israeli airstrike in Syria
Meanwhile, several soldiers were reportedly injured in an airstrike in north-western Syria. According to the Syrian state news agency Sana, the night-time attack targeted several locations in the Aleppo and Idlib region. Syrian sources blame the Israeli air force for the attack. The Israeli military did not initially comment on the incident. The information could not be independently verified.
Sana and the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported loud explosions in the vicinity of the city of Al-Safira in Aleppo province, among other things.
Israel's air force repeatedly bombs targets in neighboring Syria in order to prevent Iran and its allied militias such as Hezbollah from expanding their military influence in the country. Israeli attacks have increased since the beginning of the Gaza war.
