1 month ago
EU's Borrell: Gaza no longer 'open air prison', it has become 'open air graveyard'
Lisa O'Carroll
Lisa O’Carroll, the Guardian’s Brussels correspondent, has more on those comments by Josep Borrell:
The EU’s chief diplomat Josep Borrell condemned Benjamin Netanyahu this morning for creating what he said was a “manmade famine” in Gaza, and urged Israel to allow road deliveries of food immediately.
Arriving at a summit of foreign ministers in Brussels, he said European leaders have told the Israeli prime minister they cannot stand by and watch Palestinians starve to death.
In Gaza we are no longer on the brink of famine, we are in a state of famine affecting thousands of people.
Chancellor Sholz told Benjamin Netanyahu ‘we cannot stand by and watch Palestinians starve’. This famine is not a natural disaster. It is not a flaw. It is not an earthquake. It is entirely manmade.
Chancellor Scholz is saying Europeans cannot sit and watch Palestinian starving, when on the other side of the border there is food for months accumulated in stocks, while on the other side of the road there are people dying of hunger. This requires some action.
The EU, which funds much of the aid to Gaza, said the land border used to handle 500 tonnes of aid a day before the war. At present it was functioning at a level of 100 tonnes a day.
Borrell added: “Before the war, Gaza was the greatest open air prison. Today it is the greatest open air graveyard”.
Yesterday European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen, one of Israel’s staunchest supporters in the EU said: “Gaza is facing famine and we cannot accept this.”
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Al Jazeera reports that Israeli forces have arrested on of its journalists at al-Shifa hospital. Other local media have also reported that Ismail al-Ghoul has been detained.
Al Jazeera writes:
We’re getting reports that Israeli forces have arrested Al Jazeera Arabic’s correspondent Ismail al-Ghoul from inside the al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City. According to Palestinian writer and journalist Imad Zaqqout and other witnesses, al-Ghoul was beaten severely by Israeli soldiers before he was arrested with dozens of men and women within the hospital.
More details soon …
Israel’s foreign minister has said that the EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, should “stop attacking Israel”.
In comments on social media, Israel Katz said:
Israel allows extensive humanitarian aid into Gaza by land, air, and sea for anyone willing to help. Despite Hamas violently disrupting aid convoys and UNRWA’s collaboration with them, we persist. It’s time for EU Foreign Minister Josep Borrell to stop attacking Israel and recognise our right to self-defence against Hamas’ crimes.
Israel has accused UNRWA staff members of being involved in the Hamas attack inside Israel on 7 October. It has yet to present evidence of the accusations directly to UNRWA or the UN.
The IDF has announced that a soldier has been killed in the northern Gaza Strip.
EU's Borrell: Gaza no longer 'open air prison', it has become 'open air graveyard'
Lisa O'Carroll
Lisa O’Carroll, the Guardian’s Brussels correspondent, has more on those comments by Josep Borrell:
The EU’s chief diplomat Josep Borrell condemned Benjamin Netanyahu this morning for creating what he said was a “manmade famine” in Gaza, and urged Israel to allow road deliveries of food immediately.
Arriving at a summit of foreign ministers in Brussels, he said European leaders have told the Israeli prime minister they cannot stand by and watch Palestinians starve to death.
In Gaza we are no longer on the brink of famine, we are in a state of famine affecting thousands of people.
Chancellor Sholz told Benjamin Netanyahu ‘we cannot stand by and watch Palestinians starve’. This famine is not a natural disaster. It is not a flaw. It is not an earthquake. It is entirely manmade.
Chancellor Scholz is saying Europeans cannot sit and watch Palestinian starving, when on the other side of the border there is food for months accumulated in stocks, while on the other side of the road there are people dying of hunger. This requires some action.
The EU, which funds much of the aid to Gaza, said the land border used to handle 500 tonnes of aid a day before the war. At present it was functioning at a level of 100 tonnes a day.
Borrell added: “Before the war, Gaza was the greatest open air prison. Today it is the greatest open air graveyard”.
Yesterday European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen, one of Israel’s staunchest supporters in the EU said: “Gaza is facing famine and we cannot accept this.”
Oxfam: Israel controlling 'unpredictable and chaotic regime of approval, scanning and inspection' of humanitarian aid
Oxfam has accused Israel of controlling “an unpredictable and chaotic regime of approval, scanning and inspection” of humanitarian aid destined for the Gaza Strip.
In a new report, the NGO says “people living in Gaza will suffer mass death from disease and starvation far beyond the current 31,000 Palestinian war casualties unless Israel takes immediate steps to end its violations.”
The report claims that Israel is “leading a dysfunctional and undersized inspection system that keeps aid snarled up, subjected to onerous, repetitive and unpredictable bureaucratic procedures that are contributing to trucks being stranded in giant queues for 20 days on average.”
It adds that Israeli authorities are “routinely and arbitrarily rejecting items of aid as having ‘dual [military] use’”. Aid sent by the UK government that has been rejected, for example, included water filters and solar-powered lights.
It accuses Israel of having “cracked down on humanitarian missions, largely sealing off northern Gaza, and restricting international humanitarian workers’ access not only into Gaza, but Israel and the West Bank including East Jerusalem too.”
The report claims that in February there was a 44% reduction in the number of trucks allowed to enter Gaza compared to the month before.
Israel has repeatedly claimed that it could process more aid than is being delivered to Gaza, but that the UN, NGOs and other aid agencies are causing the hold-up through lack of supplies.
In January the Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague ordered that “Israel must take immediate and effective measures to enable the provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance to address the adverse conditions of life faced by Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.”
Sally Abi Khalil, Oxfam’s Middle East and North Africa Director, said
The ICJ order should have shocked Israeli leaders to change course, but since then conditions in Gaza have actually worsened. The fact that other governments have not challenged Israel hard enough, but instead turned to less effective methods like airdrops and maritime corridors is a huge red flag, signalling that Israel continues to deny the full potential of better ways to deliver more aid.
In an operational update, Israel’s military has said that it “struck a Hezbollah military structure and an observation post” in Ramyeh inside Lebanon. The village is situated just north of the UN-drawn blue line that separates Israel and Lebanon.
EU's Borrell: 'Israel is provoking famine' in Gaza
Israel is provoking famine in Gaza and using starvation as a weapon of war, the EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Monday.
“In Gaza we are no longer on the brink of famine, we are in a state of famine, affecting thousands of people,” Reuters reports Borrell said at the opening of a conference on humanitarian aid for Gaza in Brussels.
“This is unacceptable. Starvation is used as a weapon of war. Israel is provoking famine.”
31,726 Palestinians killed during Israeli military assault on Gaza – ministry
The Palestinian death toll in Gaza due to Israeli military action has risen to at least 31,726, according to officials there. 73,792 people have been injured since 7 October.
Reuters reports the Hamas-led ministry said 81 Palestinians were killed and 116 injured in the past 24 hours.
It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify casualty figures being issued in the conflict.
Reuters has spoken to a witness of events at the al-Shifa hospital complex via a chat app. It reports:
“Suddenly, we started to hear sounds of explosions, several bombings, and soon tanks started to roll, they came from the western road and headed toward Al Shifa, then sounds of gunfire and explosions increased,” Mohammad Ali, 32, who lives around one kilometre from the hospital, told Reuters via a chat app.
“We don’t know what is happening, but it looked as if it was a re-invasion of the Gaza City,” he added, saying that the military activities began at about 1am.
Israeli media is reporting that Israel’s military claims to have arrested 80 people during its raid on the al-Shifa hospital complex in Gaza City.
More details soon …
Israel claims troops are being fired upon from buildings in the al-Shifa hospital complex
In an operational briefing at just after 9am local time, Israel’s military released a video of what it claimed was “terrorist fire toward them from a number of hospital buildings”.
In the statement, the IDF said it was “continuing to conduct precise operational activity to thwart terrorism in the area of the al-Shifa hospital”.
It added “Over the past few hours, the troops identified terrorist fire toward them from a number of hospital buildings. The forces engaged the terrorists and identified several hits.”
The claims have not been independently verified.
Israel has used its Arabic language military spokesperson to issue an instruction for civilians to evacuate if they are in the vicinity of the al-Shifa hospital. It has instructed them to move south.
#عاجل 🔴 نداء الى كل المتواجدين والنازحين في حي الرمال وفي مستشفي الشفاء ومحيطه:
من اجل الحفاظ على أمنكم - عليكم اخلاء المنطقة بشكل فوري غرباً ومن ثم عبر شارع الرشيد (البحر) جنوباً إلى المنطقة الإنسانية في المواصي pic.twitter.com/X95ASt8zJP
During its five month military campaign against the Gaza Strip, Israel has repeatedly carried out airstrikes on the south of the territory, where huge numbers of people are being forced to live in makeshift tent camps.
Israel launches raid on al-Shifa hospital
The Israeli army has launched an operation around Gaza’s largest hospital, al-Shifa, saying in a statement that it is “based on intelligence information indicating the use of the hospital by senior Hamas terrorists”. The IDF also described the operation as “precise”.
In the wake of the raid, Palestinian health authorities say there is now a fierce fire burning in one of the buildings.
Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry says the blaze broke out at the entrance of the complex, causing cases of suffocation among displaced women and children in the hospital. It said communication had been cut off, with people trapped inside the surgery and emergency units of one of the buildings.
“There are casualties, including deaths and injuries, and it’s impossible to rescue anyone due to the intensity of the fire and targeting of anyone approaching the windows,” the ministry said, accusing Israeli forces of “another crime against health institutions”.
The Israeli military says soldiers entering the compound were fired on, according to Reuters. “The troops responded with live fire and hits were identified. Our troops are continuing to operate in the area of the hospital.”
Neither the IDF’s nor the Hamas claims could immediately be verified.
Welcome and opening summary
It has just gone 9am in Gaza and Tel Aviv. This is our latest live blog on the Israel-Gaza war and the wider Middle East crisis. I am Martin Belam and I’ll be with you for the next while.
The Israeli army has launched an operation around Gaza’s largest hospital al-Shifa, with witnesses reporting airstrikes on the devastated neighbourhood where it is located. The IDF also carried out a November operation in al-Shifa, sparking an international outcry.
More on that in a moment, but first, here’s a summary of the latest developments:
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, confirmed on Sunday he would launch an offensive into the southern city of Rafah despite growing international concern over the fate of Palestinian civilians sheltering there. Netanyahu said “no amount of international pressure will stop us from realising all the goals of the war”.
Netanyahu also said that civilians would be able to leave before troops enter Rafah. “Our goal in eliminating the remaining terrorist battalions in Rafah goes hand-in-hand with enabling the civilian population to leave Rafah,” Netanyahu said at a press appearance alongside visiting German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. “It’s not something that we will do while keeping the population locked in place.” But as others have done, Scholz raised the question: “Where should they go?”
Germany’s chancellor warned that an Israeli assault on Rafah would make regional peace “very difficult”, after talks with Jordanian King Abdullah.
Netanyahu responded to a call by Chuck Schumer, the US Senate leader and ally of Joe Biden for Israel to hold new elections. On Thursday, Schumer said he believed Netanyahu “has lost his way by allowing his political survival to take precedence over the best interests of Israel”. The Israeli prime minister responded on Sunday, saying that a pause in fighting to allow for elections to take place would paralyse the country for months. Netanyahu told CNN that he believed the Schumer intervention was “totally inappropriate”.
White House spokesperson John Kirby said on Sunday that Biden believed it was up to Israel to make its own decisions about internal politics. “We respect the sovereignty of the Israeli people,” Kirby told Fox News Sunday. “The president believes it’s up to the Israeli people and the Israeli government to determine if and when there’s going to be new elections.”
Anti-poverty charity Oxfam on Monday accused Israel of intentionally preventing the delivery of aid into Gaza during its war with Hamas, in violation of international humanitarian law. The non-governmental organisation said in a report that Israel continued to “systematically and deliberately block and undermine any meaningful international humanitarian response” in the Palestinian territory.
