UN humanitarian chief delivers ‘apocalyptic’ warning over Gaza aid
UN humanitarian chief delivers ‘apocalyptic’ warning over Gaza aid
Emergency relief coordinator says famine looming as Israel’s Rafah offensive blocks vital aid routes
The United Nations’ humanitarian chief has warned of “apocalyptic” consequences due to aid shortages in Gaza, where Israel’s military offensive in the southern city of Rafah has blocked desperately needed food.
“If fuel runs out, aid doesn’t get to the people where they need it. That famine, which we have talked about for so long, and which is looming, will not be looming any more. It will be present,” the UN under-secretary general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, Martin Griffiths, told AFP on the sidelines of meetings with Qatari officials in Doha.
“And I think our worry, as citizens of the international community, is that the consequence is going to be really, really hard. Hard, difficult, and apocalyptic.”
Griffith said 50 trucks of aid a day could reach the hardest-hit people north of Gaza through the reopened Erez crossing on the northern frontier. However, he added, the battles near the Rafah and Kerem Shalom crossings in Gaza’s south meant the vital routes were effectively blocked.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The United Nations’ humanitarian chief has warned of “apocalyptic” consequences due to aid shortages in Gaza, where Israel’s military offensive in the southern city of Rafah has blocked desperately needed food.
Cogat, an Israeli defence ministry agency, said on Saturday that it was facilitating the delivery of food, water and aid into Gaza, including “hundreds of tents” for displaced people.
An Israeli airstrike on Sunday killed 20 people in central Gaza, mostly women and children, according to records at Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in the nearby town of Deir al-Balah, where the bodies were taken.
Footage released by rescuers in the area of Beit Lahiya showed efforts to retrieve the body of a woman from the rubble against a backdrop of explosions and billowing smoke, while residents in the urban Jabaliya refugee camp nearby recounted a relentless onslaught of artillery fire and airstrikes.
He said the whole eastern side of the city had become a battle zone where the Israeli fighter jets “strike anything that moves”.Mahmoud Bassal, a spokesperson for the civil defence, said rescuers had recovered at least 150 bodies, more than half of them women and children, since Israel launched the operation in Jabaliya last week.
On Saturday, the war cabinet minister, Benny Gantz, threatened to resign if Netanyahu failed to adopt an agreed plan for Gaza, calling into question the future of the Israeli government.
The original article contains 716 words, the summary contains 227 words. Saved 68%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
Apocalyptic but only for Israel, I guess?
EDIT: To be clear I'm not saying he's wrong, but it's a very strange use of language to describe geopolitical events. Not to downplay the genocide, but there is a fucking lot going on in the world and Apocalypse doesn't quite describe the Fall of Israel, imo.