Aid trucks waiting to cross from Egypt into Gaza are "a lifeline" that need to move into the war-torn Palestinian enclave as soon as possible, the UN chief said Friday. READ FULL REPORT
Anna Lippman, a sociology instructor at Canada's York University, once resided at Kibbutz Re’im, the Gaza bordering Israeli region targetted by Hamas. She writes in The Conversationrecounting the plight of Palestinians living in Gaza, the West Bank or in Israel who are denied the fundamentals of living — even as Israelis living right next door enjoy a high quality of life. READ FULL REPORT HERE
Fadwa al-Najjar said she walked for 10 hours with her family from the north of war-torn Gaza to reach a UN camp for displaced Palestinians, witnessing terrifying scenes along the road.
"We saw bodies and limbs torn off and we just started praying, thinking we were going to die," she said, standing outside one of dozens of tents at the emergency camp.
"The bombings were happening overhead all the way. I would have preferred not to leave, to have stayed at home and died there," said Malak, one of Najjar's daughters.
A spokesperson for the UN human rights office says there are new signs that some Palestinians who initially moved south in response to the Israeli order to evacuate are returning to their homes because Israeli strikes are taking place in the south, too.
Shamdasani said the rights office had heard accounts about people wanting to migrate back north, including from one unidentified Palestinian who said, "I might as well die in my own house."
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres paid a visit to the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing with Gaza on Friday to oversee preparations for the delivery of aid to the war-torn enclave.
Cargo planes and trucks have been bringing aid to the crossing for days, but so far none has been delivered to Gaza, which Israel has besieged and bombed for 13 days in response to a deadly cross-border attack by Hamas militants on October 7.
The United Nations believes that the first aid delivery into the besieged Gaza Strip via the Rafah border crossing will take place "in the next day or so."
Egyptian state-linked broadcaster Al Qahera News had said the Rafah crossing -- the only route into Gaza -- would open on Friday, but Cairo later said it needed more time to repair roads.
Desperately needed international aid piled up Friday in Egypt near Gaza, with Palestinians in dire need of food and water after relentless bombing by Israel. READ FULL REPORT HERE
Haim Abraham, a lecturer in law at University College London, said the evidence of crimes by Hamas is clear. “They massacred civilians at their homes. They kidnaped civilians, taking them hostage. All of these things are clearly war crimes,” he said.
The Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross has said that Israel's instruction for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to leave their homes, “coupled with the complete siege explicitly denying them food, water, and electricity, are not compatible with international humanitarian law.” (AP)
(AP)
