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Israel’s aid blockade to Gaza ‘unacceptable’: Red Cross

The Red Cross on Thursday denounced the human cost of the war raging in Gaza, slamming Israel’s “unacceptable” full blockade on aid into the besieged and conflict-ravaged Palestinian territory.Aid agencies have repeatedly warned of a growing humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, which they say has been exacerbated by an Israeli blockade on all aid since early March.”It is unacceptable that humanitarian aid is not allowed into the Gaza Strip,” Pierre Krahenbuhl, director general of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), told reporters in Geneva.”That’s just fundamentally against anything that international humanitarian law provides.”The situation in Gaza is on a “razor’s edge” and “the next few days are absolutely decisive”, he added.”There’s a moment where we will also run out of anything that’s left in terms of medical supplies and other” aid, he said.Israel resumed military operations in Gaza on March 18 after talks to prolong a ceasefire stalled.The country denies a humanitarian crisis is unfolding in the Gaza Strip, where it plans to expand military operations to force Hamas to free hostages held there since the Iran-backed group’s unprecedented October 2023 attack.- ‘We should all be terrified’ -“What we would need is an immediate return to a ceasefire situation to ease the pressure,” Krahenbuhl said.”I think everybody should feel deep indignation about what is happening in Gaza. I can’t reconcile myself with the human cost of this conflict,” he said.”Frankly, if this is the future of warfare, we should all be terrified, and we should all be aware that this questions the very foundations of our humanity.”Israel is reportedly aiming to shut down the existing UN-led aid distribution system in Gaza, forcing all deliveries to go through Israeli hubs.Krahenbuhl stressed that “there is no monopoly among humanitarian organisations” to deliver aid. “States can undertake it.”But he insisted that any delivery of aid must respect humanitarian principles “such as the impartiality of aid, that it actually reaches people, that it’s not politically motivated and directed”.Every effort to get aid to Gazans in need should be “taken seriously”, Krahenbuhl said.”But right now, the most effective way to get aid to people is to lift… actions or decisions that were taken to prevent aid from reaching” inside Gaza.”There are huge quantities of aid that are on the borders of Gaza that can go in tomorrow,” he insisted.

Israel forces close UN schools in annexed east Jerusalem

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees said Thursday that Israel closed three of its schools in annexed east Jerusalem, months after an Israeli ban on its activities took effect.An AFP photographer at the scene reported that a closure notice in Hebrew was left at the entrance of at least one of the schools, and UNRWA said at least one of its staff members was detained.”From May 8, 2025, it will be prohibited to operate educational institutions, or employ teachers, teaching staff or any other staff, and it will be forbidden to accommodate students or allow the entry of students into this institution,” the closure order read. UNRWA’s director in the West Bank, Roland Friedrich, told AFP that “heavily armed” forces surrounded three UNRWA schools in east Jerusalem’s Shuafat camp at 9:00 am on Thursday.Friedrich added that 550 pupils aged six to 15 were present when the closure was enforced, calling the event “a traumatising experience for young children who are at immediate risk of losing their access to education.”Friedrich said that police were being deployed at three separate schools in other parts of east Jerusalem, which has been annexed by Israel since 1967.An AFP photographer reported that Israeli forces removed children from two schools, many of whom left in tears, and posted a closure notice stating that the schools were operating illegally without “authorisation”.Several young pupils, some visibly moved and others shocked, hugged in front of the school before leaving the premises.The Palestinian Authority condemned the move in a statement to AFP, calling it a “violation of children’s right to education”.In a statement, its ministry of education called the closures a “crime” and urged international institutions to “to assume their responsibilities and defend the right of refugee children to a free and safe education”.UNRWA has provided support for Palestinian refugees around the Middle East for more than 70 years, but has long clashed with Israeli officials, who have repeatedly accused it of undermining the country’s security.- ‘Wholly inadequate’ -At the end of January, Israeli legislation came into force severing ties with the agency, which is banned from operating on Israeli soil.Contact between it and Israeli officials is also forbidden.Israel has accused UNRWA of providing cover for Hamas militants, claiming that some of the agency’s employees took part in Hamas’s October 7, 2023 assault on Israel which sparked the war in Gaza.A series of investigations, including one led by former French foreign minister Catherine Colonna, found some “neutrality-related issues” at UNRWA, but stressed Israel had not provided evidence for its headline allegation.Palestinian human rights group Adalah reported that Israeli police were raiding six UNRWA-run schools in east Jerusalem.The organisation filed a petition with Israel’s Supreme Court in mid-January arguing the new legislation against UNRWA violated “fundamental human rights and Israel’s obligations under international law”.The Supreme Court rejected its request for the legislation to be suspended.In April, Adalah demanded a halt to the closure orders on UNRWA-run schools at the Supreme Court. The state responded that the Jerusalem municipality was offering alternative schooling and the court rejected the NGO’s motion.Adalah called the proposed alternatives “wholly inadequate”.Israel claims all of Jerusalem as its capital, though the United Nations considers its annexation of the city’s eastern sector illegal.The Palestinians see east Jerusalem as the capital of a future independent state.

Lebanon reports one dead in strikes that Israeli says targeted Hezbollah

Lebanon said heavy Israeli strikes on the country’s south on Thursday killed one person as the Israeli army said it struck Hezbollah “infrastructure”, the latest raids despite a fragile ceasefire.Israel has continued to launch regular strikes on its neighbour despite the November truce which sought to halt more than a year of hostilities with the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group including two months of full-blown war.Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) said “Israeli warplanes carried out a wide-scale aerial aggression on the Nabatiyeh region, launching a series of heavy raids in two waves” targeting hills and valleys in the area, located around 12 kilometres (seven miles) from the border.The health ministry said the strikes killed one person and wounded eight others, adding that the toll was provisional.The Israeli military said it struck “a terrorist infrastructure site” used by Hezbollah “to manage its fire and defence array”.It said it struck Hezbollah operatives, “weapons, and tunnel shafts”, adding that “this infrastructure is part of a significant underground project that… has been rendered inoperable” by Israeli military raids.It called the site and activities there “a blatant violation of the understanding between Israel and Lebanon”.The NNA said “huge explosions… echoed in most areas of Nabatiyeh and the south”, causing “terror and panic” among residents, who rushed to pick up their children from school, as ambulances headed to the targeted areas.An AFP photographer saw smoke rising from hills in the region.- ‘Children were scared’ -“We heard a loud strike, about 10 consecutive blows,” said Jamal Sabbagh, a 29-year-old doctor who was giving schoolchildren health checks near the city of Nabatiyeh.”Some of the children were scared and there was panic, the teachers were also frightened,” he told AFP.The raids come a day after an Israeli strike killed a commander from Palestinian militant group Hamas in the southern city of Sidon.Under the ceasefire agreement, Hezbollah was to pull back its fighters north of Lebanon’s Litani River, some 30 kilometres (20 miles) from the Israeli border.Israel was to pull all its forces from Lebanon, but it has kept troops in five areas that it deems “strategic”.The Lebanese army has been deploying in the area as the Israeli army has withdrawn and has been dismantling Hezbollah infrastructure there.President Joseph Aoun said late last month that the Lebanese army is now deployed in more than 85 percent of the south and that the sole obstacle to full control across the frontier area was “Israel’s occupation of five border positions”.Lebanon has called on the international community to pressure Israel to end its attacks and withdraw all its troops.Hezbollah, long a dominant force in Lebanon, was heavily weakened in its latest war with Israel.Lebanese authorities have vowed to implement a state monopoly on bearing arms, though Aoun has said disarming Hezbollah is a “delicate” matter that requires dialogue.The November truce was based on a UN Security Council resolution that says Lebanese troops and United Nations peacekeepers should be the only forces in south Lebanon, and calls for the disarmament of all non-state groups.

First responders in Gaza run out of supplies

First responders in Gaza said Thursday that their operations were at a near standstill, more than two months into a full Israeli blockade that has left food and fuel in severe shortage.Israel denies a humanitarian crisis is unfolding in the Gaza Strip, where it plans to expand military operations to force Hamas to free hostages held there since the Iran-backed group’s unprecedented October 2023 attack.”Seventy-five percent of our vehicles have stopped operating due to a lack of diesel fuel,” the civil defence agency’s spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP.He added that its teams, who play a critical role as first responders in the Gaza Strip, were also facing a “severe shortage of electricity generators and oxygen devices”.For weeks, UN agencies and other humanitarian organisations have warned of dwindling supplies of everything from fuel and medicine to food and clean water in the coastal territory that is home to 2.4 million Palestinians.The UN’s agency for children, UNICEF, warned that Gaza’s children face “a growing risk of starvation, illness and death” after UN-supported kitchens shut down due to lack of food supplies.Over 20 independent experts mandated by the UN’s Human Rights Council demanded action on Wednesday to avert the “annihilation” of Palestinians in Gaza.On Thursday, Palestinians waited in line to donate blood at a field hospital in Gaza’s southern city of Khan Yunis, an AFP journalist reported.”In these difficult circumstances, we have come to support the injured and sick, amid severe food shortages and a lack of proteins, by donating blood”, Moamen al-Eid, a Palestinian waiting in the line, told AFP.- ‘No food or drink’ -Hind Joba, the hospital’s laboratory head, said that “there is no food or drink, the crossings are closed, and there is no access to nutritious or protein-rich food”.”Still, people responded to the call, fulfilling their humanitarian duty by donating blood” despite the toll on their own bodies, she added.”But this blood is vital, and they know that every drop helps save the life of an injured.”Israel returned to military operations in Gaza on March 18 after talks to prolong a six-week ceasefire stalled.On Monday, the country’s security cabinet approved a new roadmap for military operations in Gaza, aiming for the “conquest” of the territory while displacing its people en masse, drawing international condemnation.An Israeli security official stated that a “window” remained for negotiations on the release of hostages until the end of US President Donald Trump’s visit to the Gulf, scheduled from May 13 to 16.Hamas, which is demanding a “comprehensive and complete agreement” to end the war, on Wednesday denounced what it called Israel’s attempt to impose a “partial” deal.According to the civil defence agency, air strikes at dawn killed at least eight people.The war was sparked by Hamas’s unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, which resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official data.Of the 251 people abducted in Israel that day, 58 are still being held in Gaza, including 34 declared dead by the Israeli army. Hamas is also holding the body of an Israeli soldier killed during a previous war in Gaza, in 2014.The Israeli offensive launched in retaliation for the October 7 attack has killed at least 52,653 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to data from the Hamas-run Health Ministry, which is considered reliable by the UN.

Emirates airline group announces record $6.2 bn gross profit

Dubai’s Emirates Group, which includes the Middle East’s biggest airline, announced on Thursday gross annual profit of $6.2 billion, its third record in three years.The 18 percent rise in profit, based on strong customer demand, slimmed to $5.6 billion after the UAE’s recently introduced corporate tax, which was applied for a full financial year for the first time.”The Emirates Group has raised the bar to set new records for profit, revenue and cash assets,” chairman Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum said in a statement.The group invested $3.8 billion in new aircraft, infrastructure and technology “to support its growth plans”, the statement said.Its workforce grew by 9 percent to an unprecedented 121,223 employees.The group declared a $1.6 billion dividend to its owner, the Investment Corporation of Dubai (ICD).Emirates airline, excluding the group’s other businesses, posted a record $5.8 billion pre-tax profit, up 20 percent from the year before.Its revenue grew by 6 percent, reaching $34.9 billion.Emirates’ ground services arm Dnata also boasted a record pre-tax profit of $430 million, up 2 percent from last year.State-owned Emirates Group operates the world’s largest long-haul carrier.As of March, it had 314 aircraft pending delivery, including 61 A350s and 205 Boeing 777x, the statement said.It said it was retrofitting 219 aircraft at a cost of $5 billion to make up for delayed aircraft orders.Sheikh Ahmed had previously said the group was retrofitting 90 percent of its fleet to make up for the delays.