Currently Online 
UN:
Israel must investigate reports of torture of Palestinian detainees: UN expert
The UN special rapporteur on torture, Alice Jill Edwards, has called on Israel to investigate multiple allegations of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of Palestinian detainees since October 7.
Edwards said in a statement that she had received allegations of people being beaten up, kept blindfolded in cells and handcuffed for long periods.
She also received reports of some detainees being deprived of sleep, threatened with physical and sexual violence, insulted and exposed to humiliating acts, including “being photographed and filmed in degrading poses”.
“I am particularly concerned that this emerging pattern of violations, coupled with an absence of accountability and transparency, is creating a permissive environment for further abusive and humiliating treatment of Palestinians,” Edwards said.
“Those responsible at all levels, including commanders, must be held accountable, while victims have a right to reparation and compensation.”
UN warns of chaos in Gaza without ‘massive’ aid injection
The UN says without a huge amount of aid quickly entering Gaza, hunger and chaos will rapidly break out among the desperate and terrified population.
The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs warns “if aid does not begin to enter Gaza in massive quantities, desperation and hunger will spread,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters.
He highlighted the closure of the Rafah crossing and limited functionality of the Karem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) crossing in southern Gaza “have choked off the flow of life-saving supplies”. The World Food Programme has already announced it cannot distribute food in southern Gaza anymore.
Dujarric said Gaza’s hospitals lack fuel and medicine because of the continued closure of the Rafah crossing. It has been closed since Israeli forces seized the Palestinian side of the crucial transportation route on May 6.
‘No child should die from starvation’: UNICEF chief
Children in Gaza increasingly face death from hunger and dehydration, UNICEF warns.
“Children in Gaza continue to pay a catastrophic price from blocked aid routes and intensified military operations and fighting in Rafah and beyond, which have paralyzed the only pediatric hospital in north Gaza able to provide nutrition services,” Executive Director Catherine Russell wrote.
“No child should die from starvation,” she said.
More than seven months into the Israeli war, vast swathes of Gaza lay in ruins and most of the people who live there have been displaced during a crippling blockade on food, clean water and medicine.
Children who have survived over 7 months of war in Gaza are at ever growing risk of dying from malnutrition and dehydration.
For small children, severe acute malnutrition can leave permanent cognitive and physical damage.
No child should die from starvation.
— Catherine Russell (@unicefchief) May 23, 2024
Israeli authorities giving priority to private sector trucks: UNRWA chief
Philippe Lazzarini says when it comes to the Israeli-controlled Karem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) land crossing into Gaza, “the private sector for the time being is being prioritised”.
At the inspection process, private sector cargo vehicles are inspected “before any other trucks” carrying aid to the desperate people of Gaza, a development that’s occurred over the past two weeks, he said.
While private goods are “welcome in the Gaza Strip”, most Gazans are starving after seven months of war and cannot afford goods at the current market prices.
“We need a combination of both humanitarian aid and market,” said Lazzarini, head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).
The number of aid trucks entering Gaza through the southern crossings of Rafah and Karem Abu Salem has fallen dramatically in recent weeks, aid agencies say. The Israeli military takeover of the vital Rafah crossing into Gaza has compounded the problem.
