Lorries carrying aid wait on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing, ready to enter Gaza, on Thursday. Reuters
Lorries carrying aid wait on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing, ready to enter Gaza, on Thursday. Reuters
Lorries carrying aid wait on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing, ready to enter Gaza, on Thursday. Reuters
Lorries carrying aid wait on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing, ready to enter Gaza, on Thursday. Reuters

All crossings into Gaza need to be ‘open and reliable’ during ceasefire, WFP says


Nada AlTaher
  • English
  • Arabic

Live updates: Follow the latest on Israel-Gaza

Food is being stockpiled at all border crossings into Gaza, ready to be sent in as soon as the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas comes into effect, a senior UN official told The National on Friday.

But to ensure enough aid reaches those in need, all entry points should be "open and functioning reliably" and distribution teams should to be able to move freely and safely inside the Palestinian enclave, the World Food Programme's Middle East senior spokeswoman Abeer Etefa said.

The six-week first phase of the proposed three-stage truce is scheduled to begin on Sunday and will include the exchange of Hamas hostages for Palestinians jailed by Israel, the retreat of Israeli forces from urban areas and an increased flow of aid into Gaza.

The 600 lorries of assistance per day provided for in the ceasefire terms is a step up from the amounts that Israel has allowed in for most of its 15-month military offensive in Gaza, which has devastated the territory, killed or injured tens of thousands and displaced most of its 2.3 million population. The UN estimates that 90 per cent of Gazans are facing food insecurity.

"We are ready to scale up and distribute life-saving assistance for one million in Gaza ... the most important thing is to keep people alive," Ms Etefa said. Teams are already mapping and planning which areas will be visited by aid workers, she said.

"Hungry and desperate Gazans need 150 lorries of food a day, or 300,000 tonnes every month, to provide meaningful assistance," Ms Etefa said. "We need to flood Gaza with food supplies." She said food aid in the form of dry foods like pasta, rice and flour need to be complemented by fresh produce such as vegetables, meat and dairy, meaning that local production needs to be supported.

A child cries as Palestinians gather to receive food cooked by a charity kitchen, amid a hunger crisis in Gaza's southern area of Khan Younis. Reuters
A child cries as Palestinians gather to receive food cooked by a charity kitchen, amid a hunger crisis in Gaza's southern area of Khan Younis. Reuters

Negotiations on the second stage of the ceasefire are scheduled to begin 16 days after the first phase begins, but the focus now is on ensuring that first stage is completed successfully, with aid teams taking matters "day by day", Ms Etefa said. "Phase two will be extremely complicated on how to get people back on their feet and help them rebuild their livelihoods. It will be incredibly challenging and difficult," she said.

"People are in a situation where they have lost their homes – including our own staff. They don't have homes to sleep in. There are many questions ahead. Funding and reconstruction are among the things that need to be reconsidered."

Korean Film Festival 2019 line-up

Innocent Witness, June 26 at 7pm

On Your Wedding Day, June 27 at 7pm

The Great Battle, June 27 at 9pm

The Witch: Part 1. The Subversion, June 28 at 4pm

Romang, June 28 at 6pm

Mal Mo E: The Secret Mission, June 28 at 8pm

Underdog, June 29 at 2pm

Nearby Sky, June 29 at 4pm

A Resistance, June 29 at 6pm 

 

Tearful appearance

Chancellor Rachel Reeves set markets on edge as she appeared visibly distraught in parliament on Wednesday. 

Legislative setbacks for the government have blown a new hole in the budgetary calculations at a time when the deficit is stubbornly large and the economy is struggling to grow. 

She appeared with Keir Starmer on Thursday and the pair embraced, but he had failed to give her his backing as she cried a day earlier.

A spokesman said her upset demeanour was due to a personal matter.

Thor: Ragnarok

Dir: Taika Waititi

Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Cate Blanchett, Jeff Goldblum, Mark Ruffalo, Tessa Thompson

Four stars

Your rights as an employee

The government has taken an increasingly tough line against companies that fail to pay employees on time. Three years ago, the Cabinet passed a decree allowing the government to halt the granting of work permits to companies with wage backlogs.

The new measures passed by the Cabinet in 2016 were an update to the Wage Protection System, which is in place to track whether a company pays its employees on time or not.

If wages are 10 days late, the new measures kick in and the company is alerted it is in breach of labour rules. If wages remain unpaid for a total of 16 days, the authorities can cancel work permits, effectively shutting off operations. Fines of up to Dh5,000 per unpaid employee follow after 60 days.

Despite those measures, late payments remain an issue, particularly in the construction sector. Smaller contractors, such as electrical, plumbing and fit-out businesses, often blame the bigger companies that hire them for wages being late.

The authorities have urged employees to report their companies at the labour ministry or Tawafuq service centres — there are 15 in Abu Dhabi.

List of officials:

Referees: Chris Broad, David Boon, Jeff Crowe, Andy Pycroft, Ranjan Madugalle and Richie Richardson.

Umpires: Aleem Dar, Kumara Dharmasena, Marais Erasmus, Chris Gaffaney, Ian Gould, Richard Illingworth, Richard Kettleborough, Nigel Llong, Bruce Oxenford, Ruchira Palliyaguruge, Sundaram Ravi, Paul Reiffel, Rod Tucker, Michael Gough, Joel Wilson and Paul Wilson.

Five films to watch

Castle in the Sky (1986)

Grave of the Fireflies (1988)

Only Yesterday (1991)

Pom Poki (1994)

The Tale of Princess Kaguya (2013)

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Our legal consultants

Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais

Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.

ELIO

Starring: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana, Brad Garrett

Directors: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina

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The Scale for Clinical Actionability of Molecular Targets
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Gothia Cup 2025

4,872 matches 

1,942 teams

116 pitches

76 nations

26 UAE teams

15 Lebanese teams

2 Kuwaiti teams

The National Archives, Abu Dhabi

Founded over 50 years ago, the National Archives collects valuable historical material relating to the UAE, and is the oldest and richest archive relating to the Arabian Gulf.

Much of the material can be viewed on line at the Arabian Gulf Digital Archive - https://www.agda.ae/en

Play-off fixtures

Two-legged ties to be played November 9-11 and November 12-14

 

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The specs
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  • Power: 640hp
  • Torque: 760nm
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  • Price: Not announced yet
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Director: Jesse Armstrong

Rating: 3.5/5

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  • Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
  • Flexible payment plans from developers
  • Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
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The Facility’s Versatility

Between the start of the 2020 IPL on September 20, and the end of the Pakistan Super League this coming Thursday, the Zayed Cricket Stadium has had an unprecedented amount of traffic.
Never before has a ground in this country – or perhaps anywhere in the world – had such a volume of major-match cricket.
And yet scoring has remained high, and Abu Dhabi has seen some classic encounters in every format of the game.
 
October 18, IPL, Kolkata Knight Riders tied with Sunrisers Hyderabad
The two playoff-chasing sides put on 163 apiece, before Kolkata went on to win the Super Over
 
January 8, ODI, UAE beat Ireland by six wickets
A century by CP Rizwan underpinned one of UAE’s greatest ever wins, as they chased 270 to win with an over to spare
 
February 6, T10, Northern Warriors beat Delhi Bulls by eight wickets
The final of the T10 was chiefly memorable for a ferocious over of fast bowling from Fidel Edwards to Nicholas Pooran
 
March 14, Test, Afghanistan beat Zimbabwe by six wickets
Eleven wickets for Rashid Khan, 1,305 runs scored in five days, and a last session finish
 
June 17, PSL, Islamabad United beat Peshawar Zalmi by 15 runs
Usman Khawaja scored a hundred as Islamabad posted the highest score ever by a Pakistan team in T20 cricket

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TRAP

Starring: Josh Hartnett, Saleka Shyamalan, Ariel Donaghue

Director: M Night Shyamalan

Rating: 3/5

'The worst thing you can eat'

Trans fat is typically found in fried and baked goods, but you may be consuming more than you think.

Powdered coffee creamer, microwave popcorn and virtually anything processed with a crust is likely to contain it, as this guide from Mayo Clinic outlines: 

Baked goods - Most cakes, cookies, pie crusts and crackers contain shortening, which is usually made from partially hydrogenated vegetable oil. Ready-made frosting is another source of trans fat.

Snacks - Potato, corn and tortilla chips often contain trans fat. And while popcorn can be a healthy snack, many types of packaged or microwave popcorn use trans fat to help cook or flavour the popcorn.

Fried food - Foods that require deep frying — french fries, doughnuts and fried chicken — can contain trans fat from the oil used in the cooking process.

Refrigerator dough - Products such as canned biscuits and cinnamon rolls often contain trans fat, as do frozen pizza crusts.

Creamer and margarine - Nondairy coffee creamer and stick margarines also may contain partially hydrogenated vegetable oils.

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What is a calorie?

A food calorie, or kilocalorie, is a measure of nutritional energy generated from what is consumed.

One calorie, is the amount of heat needed to raise the temperature of 1 kilogram of water by 1°C.

A kilocalorie represents a 1,000 true calories of energy.

Energy density figures are often quoted as calories per serving, with one gram of fat in food containing nine calories, and a gram of protein or carbohydrate providing about four.

Alcohol contains about seven calories a gram. 

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Updated: January 18, 2025, 10:14 AM`