[News] Middle East crisis live: starvation being used as a weapon, says EU official

[GL HERO SHIMA]

Hunger being used as a 'war arm' in Gaza, says EU foreign affairs chief

EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell criticised the lack of aid entering Gaza as a “manmade” disaster on Tuesday, telling the UN security council that hunger was being used as a “war arm”, reports AFP.

“This humanitarian crisis … is not a natural disaster, is not a flood, is not an earthquake, it is manmade,” said Borrell at UN headquarters in New Yor

US officials are preparing for a pause on funding the main UN agency for Palestinians to become permanent due to opposition in Congress, even as the Biden administration insists the aid group’s humanitarian work is indispensable, reports Reuters.

The US, along with more than a dozen countries, suspended its funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (Unrwa) in January after Israel accused 12 of the agency’s 13,000 employees in Gaza of participating in the deadly 7 October Hamas attack.

The UN has launched an investigation into the allegations, and Unrwa fired some staff after Israel provided the agency with information on the allegations.

The US – which is Unrwa’s largest donor, providing $300-$400m (£235-£313m) annually – said it wants to see the results of that inquiry and corrective measures taken before it will consider resuming funding.

Even if the pause is lifted, only about $300,000 (£234,735) – what is left of already appropriated funds – would be released to Unrwa. Anything further would require congressional approval.

Bipartisan opposition in Congress to funding Unrwa makes it unlikely the US will resume regular donations anytime soon, even as countries such as Sweden and Canada have said they will restart their contributions.

A supplemental funding bill in the US Congress that includes military aid to Israel and Ukraine and is supported by the Biden administration, contains a provision that would block Unrwa from receiving funds if it becomes law.

According to Reuters, US officials say they recognise “the critical role” Unrwa plays in distributing aid inside Gaza.

“We have to plan for the fact that Congress may make that pause permanent,” state department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters on Tuesday.

Washington has been looking at working with humanitarian partners on the ground, such as Unicef and the World Food Programme (WFP), to continue giving aid.
But officials are aware that Unrwa is hard to replace.

“There are other organisations that are now providing some distribution of aid inside Gaza, but that is primarily the role that Unrwa is equipped to play that no one else is due to their longstanding work and their networks of distribution and their history inside Gaza,” Miller said.

US citizen thought to have been taken hostage in Hamas attack reported dead

Joe Biden has said he was devastated to learn that a dual US-Israeli citizen thought kidnapped and held in Gaza had actually been killed during Hamas’ 7 October attack.

Itay Chen, 19, was about one year into his military service in the Israeli Armoured Corps when his base near the Gaza border was attacked.

On Tuesday the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement that Chen, whose name is also spelled Hen, “fell on October 7” and his body taken to the Palestinian territory.

Biden, who had met Chen’s father and brother at the White House in December, expressed his condolences.

“Jill and I are devastated to learn that American Itay Chen was killed by Hamas during its brutal terrorist assault,” Biden said in a statement.

“I reaffirm my pledge to all the families of those still held hostage: we are with you. We will never stop working to bring your loved ones home.”

US citizen thought to have been taken hostage in Hamas attack reported dead

A Palestinian citizen of Israel has been granted asylum in the UK after claiming he would face persecution in his home country on the grounds of his race, his Muslim faith and his opinion that Israel “is governed by an apartheid regime”.

“Hasan”, whose real identity is not being disclosed for his own protection, has attended pro-Palestinian protests in the UK, and his lawyers also argued that his activism would place him at increased risk of hostile attention on his return.

His lawyers said on Tuesday they believed the Home Office decision was unprecedented in the case of a Palestinian who held an Israeli passport.

The 24-year-old is understood to have spent most of his life in the UK. He had claimed asylum to avoid being sent to Israel, and a first-tier tribunal hearing had been due to take place today. However, the Home Office unexpectedly caved in on Monday and granted Hasan asylum, so avoiding a hearing in which his legal team were intending to argue that Palestinian citizens of Israel were unsafe, and in particular those that were willing to speak out.

It was Hasan’s belief, his lawyers said, that Israel was governed by “an apartheid regime that engages in systematic and pervasive discrimination, persecution and violence touching on all aspects of Palestinian life”.

You can read Dan Sabbagh’s 

Link:https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2024/mar/13/middle-east-crisis-live-starvation-being-used-as-a-weapon-says-eu-official