23/08/2025

SATURDAY | AUG 23, 2025

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Famine has struck Gaza, says monitor

CAIRO: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that Israel would immediately resume negotiations for the release of all hostages held in Gaza and an end to the nearly two-year-old war but on terms acceptable to Israel. It was Netanyahu’s first response to a temporary ceasefire proposal put forward by Egypt and Qatar that Hamas accepted on Monday. Israel will dispatch negotiators to talks once a location is set, an Israeli official said. Speaking to soldiers near Israel’s border with Gaza, Netanyahu said he was still set on approving plans for defeating Hamas and capturing Gaza City, the densely populated centre at the heart of the Palestinian enclave. Thousands of Palestinians have left their homes as Israeli tanks have edged closer to Gaza City over the last 10 days. “At the same time I have issued instructions to begin immediate negotiations for the release of all our hostages and an end to the war on terms acceptable to Israel. We are in the decision making phase,” he said. Israel’s plan to seize Gaza City was approved this month by the security Cabinet, which Netanyahu chairs, even though many of Israel’s closest allies have urged the government to reconsider. His latest remarks underscore the Israeli government view that any deal ensures the release of all 50 hostages captured in Israel in October 2023 and still held in Gaza. Israeli officials believe around 20 are still alive. The proposal on the table calls for a 60 day ceasefire and the release of 10 living hostages held in Gaza and of 18 bodies. In turn, Israel would release about 200 long serving Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. Once the temporary ceasefire begins, the proposal is for Hamas and Israel to begin negotiations on a permanent ceasefire that would include the return of the remaining hostages. – Reuters Netanyahu ready for talks Drop settlement project, Tel Aviv told LONDON: Britain and France were among 21 countries to sign a joint statement on Thursday calling Israel’s approval of a major settlement project in the West Bank “unacceptable and a violation of international law”. Israel approved the plans for the roughly 12 sq km parcel of land known as E1 just east of Jerusalem on Wednesday. “We condemn this decision and call for its immediate reversal in the strongest terms,” said the statement of foreign ministers, whose signatories also included Australia, Canada and Italy. Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden also signed the statement, as did the European Commission’s foreign affairs chief. The statement noted that Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said the plan “will make a two-state solution impossible by dividing any Palestinian state and restricting Palestinian access to Jerusalem”. “This brings no benefits to the Israeli people,” the foreign ministers said. “Instead, it risks undermining security and fuels further violence and instability, taking us further away from peace. “The government of Israel still has an opportunity to stop the E1 plan going any further. We encourage them to urgently retract this plan,” they said. – AFP

o Israel disputes IPC analysis

NEW YORK: Famine has struck an area of Gaza and will likely spread over the next month, a global hunger monitor determined yesterday, an assessment that will escalate pressure on Israel to allow more humanitarian aid into the enclave. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) system said 514,000 people – nearly a quarter of Palestinians in Gaza – are experiencing famine and that was due to rise to 641,000 by the end of next month. Some 280,000 of those people are in a northern region covering Gaza City, known as Gaza governorate, which the IPC said was in famine, its first such determination in the enclave. The rest are in Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis – central and southern areas that the IPC projected would be in famine by the end of next month. For a region to be classified as in famine at least 20% of people must be suffering extreme food shortages, with one in three children acutely malnourished and two people out of every 10,000 dying daily from starvation or malnutrition and disease. Even if a region has not yet been classified as in famine because those thresholds have not been met, the IPC can determine that households there are suffering famine conditions, which it describes as starvation, destitution and death. The IPC analysis comes after Britain, Canada, Australia and many European states said the humanitarian crisis had reached “unimaginable levels” after nearly two years of war between Israel and Hamas. UN Secretary-General Antonio BEIRUT: Some armed Palestinian groups in Lebanese refugee camps began handing over their weapons to the authorities on Thursday after reaching a deal earlier this year, with Washington hailing the move as a “historic step”. The efforts at disarmament came after the Lebanese government, under US pressure, tasked the army with formulating a plan to also disarm the militant group Hezbollah by the end of the year. The Lebanese army took into its custody a number of weapons in the Burj al-Barajneh refugee camp in Beirut’s southern suburbs. An AFP photographer saw a truck filled with weapons and ammunition transported from the camp to a nearby parking lot, where Lebanese army vehicles and personnel were deployed to inspect the cargo. “Today marks the beginning of the first phase of the process of handing over weapons from inside the Palestinian camps,” Lebanese Palestinian Dialogue Committee chairman Ramez Dimashkieh had said in an earlier statement. US envoy Tom Barrack offered his congratulations and said the development marked “a historic step towards unity and stability, showing true commitment to peace”.

Guterres has long warned of an “epic humanitarian catastrophe” in the enclave of more than 2 million people. Israel controls all access to Gaza. Cogat, the Israeli military agency that coordinates aid, on Thursday accused Hamas of a “false starvation campaign” and said the UN and others were spreading unfounded claims about hunger in Gaza. In a video on X, Cogat disputed that there was famine in Gaza. The UN has long complained of obstacles to getting aid into Gaza and distributing it, blaming impediments on Israel and lawlessness. Israel has been critical of the UN-led operation and accuses Hamas of stealing aid. The IPC said the analysis released yesterday only covered people living in Gaza, Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis governorates. It was unable to classify North Gaza governorate due to access restrictions and a lack of data and it excluded any remaining population in the southern Rafah region as it is largely uninhabited. It is the fifth time in the past 14 years that a famine has been determined by the IPC – an initiative involving 21 aid groups, UN agencies and regional organisations that is funded by the European Union, Germany, Britain and Canada. The IPC says it does not declare famine, but instead provides analysis for governments and others to do so. – Reuters

A woman prepares food for her family inside a tent in Gaza City. – REUTERSPIC

Palestinian camps in Lebanon begin disarming

Lebanese soldiers gather near a truck carrying a cache of small arms leaving the Burj al-Barajneh camp. – AFPPIC

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam also welcomed the move, saying that the “process will be completed with the handover of additional batches in the coming

weeks from Burj al-Barajneh and other camps”, according to a statement from his office. A Palestinian security official had told AFP on condition of anonymity

that “Fatah will begin handing over its weapons in Burj al-Barajneh camp within the framework of the coordination with the Lebanese army”. – AFP