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SvennoJ on 19 January 2025
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WFP chief says two million in dire need in Gaza

As we reported earlier, aid convoys from the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) began entering the Gaza Strip today through crossings in both the north and south.

Cindy McCain, the head of WFP, says that while this is a “critical first step”, the needs in Gaza are “immense”.

“After 15 months of war, we need all border crossings to stay open and function efficiently, effectively and reliably. And we need humanitarian teams to be able to move freely and safely across Gaza to reach those in need,” she said in a statement.

The statement adds that WFP has “enough food pre-positioned along the borders, and on its way to Gaza, to feed over a million people for three months”.

Whether or not WFP and other aid groups can continue to provide materials to alleviate the intense deprivation in the Gaza Strip, however, depends entirely on whether or not the shaky ceasefire will hold through its first phase.

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has already threatened to return to war.


Netanyahu’s intentions in ceasefire deal unclear amid mixed signals

While the Israeli PM accepted a Gaza ceasefire deal that draws a pathway to a permanent end to the Gaza war, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Saturday issued a statement saying his party would remain in the government because he received guarantees that the war “would not end in any way without achieving its full goals”.

Gershon Baskin, the Middle East director of the UK-based NGO International Communities Organisation and a former hostage negotiator, said Hamas would not have entered this deal without receiving guarantees that it would lead to the end of the war.

Commenting on what the statement issued by Smotrich could then be understood to mean, Baskin said Netanyahu “has never been accused of telling the truth all the time”.

“We don’t know if what he’s saying is truthful or not. What we do know is that he’s had no interest in ending this war for the past 15 months, and he has lots of reasons not to want to end this war now,” Baskin told Al Jazeera.


Israel’s Ben-Gvir calls for remaining captives to be released ‘through force’

Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who resigned from Netanyahu’s government over the approval of the ceasefire deal, has welcomed the release of three female Israeli captives as part of the agreement.

The far-right minister said the remaining captives should be released “through force, cutting off fuel, stopping humanitarian aid, and not through surrender”.