Live updates: Follow the latest from Israel-Gaza
Palestinians in northern Gaza have received UN aid distributed through local tribes and police, in an effort to prevent overcrowding during deliveries. The new approach comes amid continuing warnings of famine and the first deliveries of aid by sea.
As well as laborious border checks by Israeli officials holding up overland deliveries, distribution has also been affected by desperate residents rushing aid convoys and Israeli troops shooting scores of Palestinians dead.
The process has been hindered by overcrowding at delivery points and reports of looting by the UN.
I asked my young son not to fast because he would only be able to break his fast with rice, but he refused and insisted on fasting all day
Hassan Al Kafarna,
from Jabalia
However, a convoy reached northern Gaza on Saturday night, under the protection of local tribes and Palestinian policemen, who managed to secure the lorries from being overwhelmed by thousands of Gazans who have been deprived of aid.
Sources involved in the aid delivery at the Kuwait roundabout, east of Jabalia, said residents had been told not to crowd around the delivery point, where flour and food were dropped off by UNRWA, the UN agency working for Palestinian refugees, from six lorries. In a separate delivery, seven lorryloads of aid reached Gaza city.
Hassan Al Kafarna, from Jabalia, was happy to receive flour for the first time in an organised way.
"To control the arrival of aid without causing bloodshed is a respectable and commendable effort that deserves appreciation. Everyone should support this work and play a positive role in it," he told The National.
He is currently living in his partially destroyed house and is delighted that his children will finally have bread to eat.
"I asked my young son not to fast because he would only be able to break his fast with rice, but he refused and insisted on fasting all day. Now he will be happy to have suhoor and eat bread."
Yoused Ghabaeen, from Beit Lahia in northern Gaza, has been leaving his home in search of food for iftar since the beginning of Ramadan, taking great personal risk amid clashes.
"Now I feel like Ramadan has begun and my family is starting to think about what dishes to prepare for iftar," he told The National.
As his home was destroyed by Israeli bombing, he is currently living with relatives. "I hope this nightmare ends soon and I can start rebuilding my home and return to our normal life," he said.
The overland deliveries in the north come amid growing international pressure for Israel to speed up approval of aid at land borders.
Gaza needs 200-300 lorryloads of food per day to avoid shortages. On Saturday, the first shipment of aid through a maritime route, organised by Cyprus, the UAE and the EU, reached a makeshift jetty in Gaza carrying 200 tonnes of supplies.
A second ship has been loaded but its departure was delayed by bad weather on Sunday, according to the US food charity World Central Kitchen.
As the bottlenecks continue at Gaza's land borders, which would otherwise be the most efficient aid distribution channels, the US will soon be joining the aid effort, with army engineers helping to build a floating pier. Gaza currently lacks a functioning port with significant capacity for aid deliveries.
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Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
New process leads to panic among jobseekers
As a UAE-based travel agent who processes tourist visas from the Philippines, Jennifer Pacia Gado is fielding a lot of calls from concerned travellers just now. And they are all asking the same question.
“My clients are mostly Filipinos, and they [all want to know] about good conduct certificates,” says the 34-year-old Filipina, who has lived in the UAE for five years.
Ms Gado contacted the Philippines Embassy to get more information on the certificate so she can share it with her clients. She says many are worried about the process and associated costs – which could be as high as Dh500 to obtain and attest a good conduct certificate from the Philippines for jobseekers already living in the UAE.
“They are worried about this because when they arrive here without the NBI [National Bureau of Investigation] clearance, it is a hassle because it takes time,” she says.
“They need to go first to the embassy to apply for the application of the NBI clearance. After that they have go to the police station [in the UAE] for the fingerprints. And then they will apply for the special power of attorney so that someone can finish the process in the Philippines. So it is a long process and more expensive if you are doing it from here.”
Employment lawyer Meriel Schindler of Withers Worldwide shares her tips on achieving equal pay
Do your homework
Make sure that you are being offered a fair salary. There is lots of industry data available, and you can always talk to people who have come out of the organisation. Where I see people coming a cropper is where they haven’t done their homework.
Don’t be afraid to negotiate
It’s quite standard to negotiate if you think an offer is on the low side. The job is unlikely to be withdrawn if you ask for money, and if that did happen I’d question whether you want to work for an employer who is so hypersensitive.
Know your worth
Women tend to be a bit more reticent to talk about their achievements. In my experience they need to have more confidence in their own abilities – men will big up what they’ve done to get a pay rise, and to compete women need to turn up the volume.
Work together
If you suspect men in your organisation are being paid more, look your boss in the eye and say, “I want you to assure me that I’m paid equivalent to my peers”. If you’re not getting a straight answer, talk to your peer group and consider taking direct action to fix inequality.
Pharaoh's curse
British aristocrat Lord Carnarvon, who funded the expedition to find the Tutankhamun tomb, died in a Cairo hotel four months after the crypt was opened.
He had been in poor health for many years after a car crash, and a mosquito bite made worse by a shaving cut led to blood poisoning and pneumonia.
Reports at the time said Lord Carnarvon suffered from “pain as the inflammation affected the nasal passages and eyes”.
Decades later, scientists contended he had died of aspergillosis after inhaling spores of the fungus aspergillus in the tomb, which can lie dormant for months. The fact several others who entered were also found dead withiin a short time led to the myth of the curse.
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Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
