The European Union on Thursday struck a deal with Israel to increase the amount of aid entering Gaza. It should lead to more lorries delivering food and the opening of additional border crossing points, the bloc's foreign affairs chief said.
"Today, we reached an agreement with Israel to expand humanitarian access to Gaza," Kaja Kallas wrote on X.
"This deal means more crossings open, aid and food trucks entering Gaza, repair of vital infrastructure and protection of aid workers. We count on Israel to implement every measure agreed."
Gaza's two million residents are facing dire humanitarian conditions as Israel has severely limited the entry of aid during its devastating war with Hamas.
Ms Kallas said the measures agreed on by Israel "are or will be implemented in the coming days, with the common understanding that aid at scale must be delivered directly to the population".
She said the steps included a "substantial increase of daily trucks for food and non-food items" driving into Gaza, the opening of several more crossing points in northern and southern areas, and the reopening of routes from Jordan and Egypt.
"The EU stands ready to co-ordinate with all relevant humanitarian stakeholders, UN agencies and NGOs on the ground, to ensure swift implementation of those urgent steps," she said.
The move comes as Israel and Hamas continue to haggle over the details of a US-backed ceasefire deal to halt the war.
The EU has been considering taking measures against Israel after finding it in breach of a co-operation deal between the two sides because of its actions in Gaza.
But the 27-nation bloc has struggled to find consensus on what steps to take, as it is divided between staunch supporters of Israel and countries backing the Palestinians.
Israel's war on Gaza has killed at least 57,680 Palestinians since October 7, 2023.
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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.
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