UN calls for ‘full investigation’ after Israeli military fired on a car in Rafah, killing staffer
A United Nations staff member has been killed in an attack in eastern Rafah, after the vehicle they were travelling in came under fire. The Israeli military is believed to have carried out the attack, but it is yet to confirm whether its forces were responsible for the killing.
The UN has confirmed that this is their first international staff casualty in Gaza since Israel’s war on Gaza began, while UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has condemned the attack and called for a full investigation.
Israel is attacking known aid worker locations in Gaza, says HRW
Israel’s military has carried out at least eight attacks on aid workers’ convoys and premises in Gaza since October last year, even though the aid groups had provided their coordinates to Israeli authorities, according to a prominent rights group.
Human Rights Watch, in a new report, said Israeli authorities did not issue advance warnings to any of the aid organisations before the attacks, which have killed or wounded at least 31 humanitarian workers and those with them.
It said aid groups allege that a bomb used in one Israeli attack in January was US-made and was delivered by an F-16 aircraft that reportedly uses British-made components.
“Israel’s allies need to recognize that these attacks that have killed aid workers have happened over and over again, and they need to stop,” said Belkis Wille, associate director at HRW.
US-built floating pier for Gaza could start operating this week: Report
The Associated Press news agency is reporting that a floating pier built by the US military to facilitate the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza could be operational in the coming days.
The US plan envisions aid ships travelling from Cyprus to a platform built off the coast of Gaza, where the cargo will be offloaded onto trucks. Smaller US Army vehicles will then transport the aid trucks to a pier built onshore. From there, third-party contractors will drive the trucks onto the beach and hand over the aid to humanitarian agencies.
The construction of the offshore floating platform was completed earlier this month.
Sabrina Singh, a spokeswoman for the Pentagon, said the pier and causeway – which have been assembled at the Israeli port of Ashdod – are “just waiting to be affixed to the coastline of Gaza”.
An anonymous US official told AP that the US army expects to finish anchoring the causeway onto the beach in Gaza by Wednesday or Thursday.
And that all for maybe 90 to 150 trucks a day, weather permitting.
Aid from Rafah and Kerem Shalom have stopped since May 5th. Avg was just creeping up to 280 a day. Note the jump in date on the bottom, last confirmed entry was 6 trucks from Kerem Shalom on May 11th.
The aid pier can only replace half of this, but it's desperately needed now. It won't be efficient either since all the distribution systems have been set up from Rafah which is now blocked. And military operations are ongoing in the North again.
The deterioration of International law at work
Nearly 76 million people displaced by war, disasters worldwide: Monitor
Wars in Sudan and Gaza have pushed the number of internally displaced people (IDPs) worldwide to a record 75.9 million at the end of 2023, according to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC).
The new high figure is an increase on the 71.1 million people displaced by the end of 2022, the IDMC said in its annual global report which noted that 68.3 million people worldwide were displaced by conflict and violence, and 7.7 million by natural disasters.
At 9.1 million, Sudan has the highest number of IDPs recorded for a single country, the monitor said.
In the Gaza Strip, 1.7 million Palestinians were internally displaced by the end of 2023 amid Israel’s war on the besieged territory.
“We have never, ever recorded so many people forced away from their homes and communities. It is a damning verdict on the failures of conflict prevention and peace-making,” Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) chief Jan Egeland said.
The IDMC was created by the NRC in 1998.
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