Gaza: WHO calls for immediate aid amid fears of famine

The World Health Organization (WHO) is calling for immediate help amid warnings from international experts of imminent famine in the embattled north of the Gaza Strip. The latest assessment of a food crisis analysis initiative is “deeply alarming,” wrote WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Platform within days, not weeks.”

The independent experts of the IPC initiative (Integrated Food Security Phase Classification) had previously written in an unusually urgent call: “All actors who are directly involved in the conflict or have an influence on its course must act immediately, within days and not only in a few weeks to avert this catastrophic situation.”

The warning comes shortly before the end of a 30-day deadline set by the United States on October 13th within which Israel must improve the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip. Otherwise, according to the US government, military aid to its most important ally in the Middle East could be restricted.

The US State Department admitted on Monday that Israel had taken important steps to increase humanitarian aid. However, more is needed to alleviate the suffering of the people in the densely populated coastal area – which has been largely destroyed after more than a year of war.

Meanwhile, Qatar is said to have asked representatives of the radical Islamic Hamas to leave the Gulf emirate. The call was made around ten days ago at the urgent request of the USA, as the “Times of Israel” and the “Financial Times” reported, citing informed people. Hamas has had a political office in the Qatari capital Doha since 2012, as the USA had asked to maintain a communication channel with the terrorist organization.

“Hamas is a terrorist group that has killed Americans and continues to hold Americans hostage. After repeatedly rejecting proposals to release hostages, its leaders should no longer be welcome in the capitals of American partners. We have made this clear to Qatar,” stated a high-ranking US government representative at the request of the German Press Agency.

The execution of the American-Israeli citizen Hersh Goldberg-Polin and five other hostages by Hamas at the end of August also contributed to the latest US decision, a US official told the Times of Israel. It is therefore unclear exactly when the Hamas representatives will leave the country and where they will go. Turkey and Iraq are considered possible retreats.

Qatar, like the USA and Egypt, is mediating in talks about ending the Gaza war between Israel and Hamas, which, as a matter of principle, do not negotiate directly with each other. The efforts have not made any significant progress for months.

Terrorists from Hamas and other extremist Palestinian organizations triggered the Gaza war with a massacre in Israel near the border with the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023. More than 1,200 people were killed in the attack and around 250 others were taken hostage to Gaza.

In addition to the fighting in the Gaza Strip, the armed conflict between the Israeli army and the Shiite Hezbollah militia in Lebanon continues unabated. The Israeli army said it bombed Hezbollah command centers in residential areas near the Lebanese coastal city of Tyre. The militia, which, like Hamas, is supported by Iran, deliberately placed its headquarters in residential areas for planning attacks on Israel.

The Lebanese Ministry of Health said three people were killed and around 30 others were injured in the Israeli attacks on Tire, about 25 kilometers north of the de facto border with Israel.

According to its own statements, Israel’s army also destroyed rocket launchers from which Israeli territory was fired. In addition, ground troops killed dozens of Hezbollah fighters and destroyed weapons depots and terrorist infrastructure. The information provided by both warring parties could not initially be independently verified.

Hezbollah has been attacking Israel since the beginning of the Gaza war. According to her own statements, she wants to support Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Israel responds with almost daily massive air strikes and has also deployed ground troops in the sealed-off coastal area since September. The leadership of the Jewish state wants to drive the Hezbollah militia out of the border area to the north so that around 60,000 civilians evacuated from northern Israel can return to their homes.

Hezbollah attacked Israel with dozens of rockets, hitting an Arab village in the north of the country. The army said five rockets were fired at the town of Kafr Jasif, northeast of Haifa. Four of the projectiles were intercepted and the fifth hit a residential building. Nobody was injured. The “Times of Israel” published a video recording of the house, two concrete ceilings were broken through.

Several soldiers are said to have been injured in an air strike in northwest Syria. According to the Syrian state news agency Sana, the nighttime attack targeted several locations in the Aleppo and Idlib area. Syrian sources blame the Israeli Air Force for the attack. The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the incident. The information could not be independently verified.

Sana and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights based in Great Britain reported, among other things, loud explosions in the area around the city of Al-Safira in Aleppo province.

Israel’s air force repeatedly bombs targets in neighboring Syria in an attempt to prevent Iran and its allied militias such as Hezbollah from expanding their military influence in the country. Israeli attacks have increased since the Gaza war began.