Live updates: Follow the latest on Israel-Gaza
Aid brought into Gaza by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) during the recent ceasefire will last for less than two weeks as supplies have been cut off completely since violence resumed, the agency’s director has told The National.
“The supply we stockpiled has been depleted to the extent that now we cannot supply bakeries any more,” Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner general of UNRWA, said in an interview on the sidelines of the Antalya Diplomacy Forum in the Turkish resort city. “We have ended the last round of food distribution and what's still remaining is some food for maybe one week, 10 days, for some popular kitchens.”
Humanitarians are once again recording horrific stories of killings of Gazans since the ceasefire collapsed. With Israel preventing aid deliveries, increasing levels of hunger and the spread of infectious disease are being observed as people are forced to live in dire conditions without basics such as adequate shelter and water supplies. All of that will lead to more people dying, Mr Lazzarini said.
“We have started to have stories of people telling us that, ‘please, we want to die. We want to die with our families because it has become absolutely unbearable.’”
More than 1,500 people have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since the ceasefire collapsed, the strip's health authorities have said. The overall number killed since the war began, prompted by Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, has surpassed 50,900.
The increase in what Israel has described as “military zones” in the Palestinian enclave has uprooted residents time and time again, and squeezed them into increasingly small areas in search of elusive safety.
Gazans have been moved around “like pinballs” under constant displacement orders by Israeli authorities, Mr Lazzarini said. “We have seen also that the areas where Palestinians are allowed to go have shrunk because of the military zone,” he added.
On Saturday, Israel’s military said it completed the takeover of a stretch of land that separates the cities of Rafah and Khan Younis in the south of the strip, surrounding the former and turning it into a “buffer zone”.
The Israeli-controlled route has raised fears among Palestinians of a long-term occupation of Gaza and division of the territory in a way that gives Israel control over the movement of Palestinians and the distribution of aid.
The ceasefire, which came into force in January but collapsed last month, had allowed aid workers to bring in 600 to 800 lorries of supplies a day. The brief pause in hostilities proved that relief could reach people in need if there was political will, the UNRWA chief said.
“During the period of the ceasefire, we brought more supply to Gaza than during the 15 months preceding the ceasefire,” Mr Lazzarini said. “That was an indication that if there is a will, we can make it happen.”
Everybody has realised the scope of the suffering, and the scope or the severity of the violation, but they come at no price. There is no accountability. There is total impunity prevailing
Philippe Lazzarini,
UNRWA commissioner general
Since the ceasefire broke down in March, Gaza has been “completely sealed off”, he said, in an attempt by Israel to pressure Hamas and turn the population against the militant group.
“The humanitarian assistance into the Gaza Strip is currently weaponised,” Mr Lazzarini said.
International humanitarian law requires that an occupying power supply aid to the population. The global community, including the International Committee of the Red Cross and the UN, sees Israel as the occupying power in Gaza, although the country refutes this.
UN member states need to add action to words of condemnation to change the status quo, Mr Lazzarini said.
“Everybody has realised the scope of the suffering, and the scope or the severity of the violation, but they come at no price,” he said. “There is no accountability. There is total impunity prevailing. And as long as this will be the case, I don't see how things can be reversed.”
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres last week repeated his call for a renewed ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, and the release of all hostages still being held by militant groups inside the enclave.
Beyond Gaza, recent Israeli legislation that essentially prevents UNRWA from working in territory under the country's control has made delivery of services, such as education and health care, increasingly difficult.
Last week, Israeli security forces raided six UNRWA-run schools in occupied East Jerusalem, ordering them to shut within 30 days. The closures would mean 800 pupils being forced to abruptly halt learning before the end of their school year. It remains unclear where else they could attend classes.
“That's a question we should ask the [Israeli Jerusalem] municipality or to those who have issued this order,” Mr Lazzarini said. “I am not aware of any alternative that they are offering. Such an order can only disrupt the education of these children, who are already members of one of the most vulnerable and destitute, underprivileged communities in East Jerusalem.”
UNRWA does not work exclusively in Gaza, East Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank. It also provides for Palestinian refugee communities in Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria, where it serves about 430,000 people in 12 refugee camps.
Mr Lazzarini said the agency’s work in Syria had not changed since the fall of the regime of former Syrian president Bashar Al Assad in December and the rise of new authorities led by transitional President Ahmad Al Shara, also head of former Al Qaeda affiliate Hayat Tahrir Al Sham.
“I would say the impact on our ability to operate and on our services has been minimal,” Mr Lazzarini said.
As Syria forms new state institutions across communities atomised over more than 13 years of conflict, and its new authorities come under international pressure to ensure representation of the country’s rich ethnic and religious diversity, Mr Lazzarini said its Palestinian population should also be included.
“You have an important minority called the Palestinian refugees,” he said. “We will have to make sure that they remain socio-economically included in Syria.”
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TV: World Cup Qualifier 2018 matches will be aired on on OSN Sports HD Cricket channel
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Maestro
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EBradley%20Cooper%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarring%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EBradley%20Cooper%2C%20Carey%20Mulligan%2C%20Maya%20Hawke%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%203%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Graduated from the American University of Sharjah
She is the eldest of three brothers and two sisters
Has helped solve 15 cases of electric shocks
Enjoys travelling, reading and horse riding
LILO & STITCH
Starring: Sydney Elizebeth Agudong, Maia Kealoha, Chris Sanders
Director: Dean Fleischer Camp
Rating: 4.5/5
The specs
Engine: 4-litre twin-turbo V8
Transmission: nine-speed
Power: 542bhp
Torque: 700Nm
Price: Dh848,000
On sale: now
Most F1 world titles
7 — Michael Schumacher (1994, ’95, 2000, ’01 ’02, ’03, ’04)
7 — Lewis Hamilton (2008, ’14,’15, ’17, ’18, ’19, ’20)
5 — Juan Manuel Fangio (1951, ’54, ’55, ’56, ’57)
4 — Alain Prost (1985, ’86, ’89, ’93)
4 — Sebastian Vettel (2010, ’11, ’12, ’13)
The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre flat-six
Torque: 450Nm at 6,100rpm
Transmission: 7-speed PDK auto or 6-speed manual
Fuel economy, combined: 13.8L/100km
On sale: Available to order now
Six large-scale objects on show
- Concrete wall and windows from the now demolished Robin Hood Gardens housing estate in Poplar
- The 17th Century Agra Colonnade, from the bathhouse of the fort of Agra in India
- A stagecloth for The Ballet Russes that is 10m high – the largest Picasso in the world
- Frank Lloyd Wright’s 1930s Kaufmann Office
- A full-scale Frankfurt Kitchen designed by Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky, which transformed kitchen design in the 20th century
- Torrijos Palace dome
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Lexus LX700h specs
Engine: 3.4-litre twin-turbo V6 plus supplementary electric motor
Power: 464hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 790Nm from 2,000-3,600rpm
Transmission: 10-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 11.7L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh590,000
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
Western Region Asia Cup T20 Qualifier
Sun Feb 23 – Thu Feb 27, Al Amerat, Oman
The two finalists advance to the Asia qualifier in Malaysia in August
Group A
Bahrain, Maldives, Oman, Qatar
Group B
UAE, Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia
UAE group fixtures
Sunday Feb 23, 9.30am, v Iran
Monday Feb 25, 1pm, v Kuwait
Tuesday Feb 26, 9.30am, v Saudi
UAE squad
Ahmed Raza, Rohan Mustafa, Alishan Sharafu, Ansh Tandon, Vriitya Aravind, Junaid Siddique, Waheed Ahmed, Karthik Meiyappan, Basil Hameed, Mohammed Usman, Mohammed Ayaz, Zahoor Khan, Chirag Suri, Sultan Ahmed
RESULTS
6.30pm UAE 1000 Guineas Trial Conditions (TB) US$100,000 (Dirt) 1,400m
Winner Final Song, Christophe Soumillon (jockey), Saeed bin Suroor (trainer).
7.05pm Handicap (TB) $135,000 (Turf) 1,000m
Winner Almanaara, Dane O’Neill, Doug Watson.
7.40pm Handicap (TB) $175,000 (D) 1,900m
Winner Grand Argentier, Brett Doyle, Doug Watson.
8.15pm Meydan Challenge Listed Handicap (TB) $175,000 (T) 1,400m
Winner Major Partnership, Patrick Cosgrave, Saeed bin Suroor.
8.50pm Dubai Stakes Group 3 (TB) $200,000 (D) 1,200m
Winner Gladiator King, Mickael Barzalona, Satish Seemar.
9.25pm Dubai Racing Club Classic Listed Handicap (TB) $175,000 (T) 2,410m
Winner Universal Order, Richard Mullen, David Simcock.
Kanguva
Director: Siva
Stars: Suriya, Bobby Deol, Disha Patani, Yogi Babu, Redin Kingsley
UK-EU trade at a glance
EU fishing vessels guaranteed access to UK waters for 12 years
Co-operation on security initiatives and procurement of defence products
Youth experience scheme to work, study or volunteer in UK and EU countries
Smoother border management with use of e-gates
Cutting red tape on import and export of food
WOMAN AND CHILD
Director: Saeed Roustaee
Starring: Parinaz Izadyar, Payman Maadi
Rating: 4/5
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ESSENTIALS
The flights
Emirates flies direct from Dubai to Rio de Janeiro from Dh7,000 return including taxes. Avianca fliles from Rio to Cusco via Lima from $399 (Dhxx) return including taxes.
The trip
From US$1,830 per deluxe cabin, twin share, for the one-night Spirit of the Water itinerary and US$4,630 per deluxe cabin for the Peruvian Highlands itinerary, inclusive of meals, and beverages. Surcharges apply for some excursions.
COMPANY PROFILE
Company name: BorrowMe (BorrowMe.com)
Date started: August 2021
Founder: Nour Sabri
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: E-commerce / Marketplace
Size: Two employees
Funding stage: Seed investment
Initial investment: $200,000
Investors: Amr Manaa (director, PwC Middle East)
Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo
Power: 398hp from 5,250rpm
Torque: 580Nm at 1,900-4,800rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Fuel economy, combined: 6.5L/100km
On sale: December
Price: From Dh330,000 (estimate)
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Dust and sand storms compared
Sand storm
- Particle size: Larger, heavier sand grains
- Visibility: Often dramatic with thick "walls" of sand
- Duration: Short-lived, typically localised
- Travel distance: Limited
- Source: Open desert areas with strong winds
Dust storm
- Particle size: Much finer, lightweight particles
- Visibility: Hazy skies but less intense
- Duration: Can linger for days
- Travel distance: Long-range, up to thousands of kilometres
- Source: Can be carried from distant regions
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About Karol Nawrocki
• Supports military aid for Ukraine, unlike other eurosceptic leaders, but he will oppose its membership in western alliances.
• A nationalist, his campaign slogan was Poland First. "Let's help others, but let's take care of our own citizens first," he said on social media in April.
• Cultivates tough-guy image, posting videos of himself at shooting ranges and in boxing rings.
• Met Donald Trump at the White House and received his backing.
