While General Pat Ryder did confirm that the US was behind the strike that killed Mushtaq al-Saidi, a leader of what he described as “Iran-backed” forces, he left out many key details, says Al Jazeera’s Patty Culhane.

“We believe that al-Saidi was part of the popular mobilisation forces, which comes under the umbrella of the Iraqi army. General Ryder wouldn’t go so far as to say, ‘Yes he was part of the Iraqi army’. He would only link him to Iranian-backed militia groups,” Culhane said.

Ryder also didn’t say if the US had informed the Iraqi government about the strike, only calling it “a necessary and proportionate action against this particular individual who was personally involved in the planning and execution of attacks against American personnel”.

The Iraqi prime minister expressed “extreme anger” about this strike, Culhane said, and there have been growing calls for US troops to be kicked out of Iraq, which Pentagon officials are downplaying.

Meanwhile escalation in the Red Sea continues

Israeli defense minister outlines plan for new phase in Gaza war 

Politico has reported that officials in US President Joe Biden’s administration are “drawing up plans” for a US response to a regional expansion of the war in Gaza, and to “hit back” at Houthi fighters in Yemen.

Citing four US officials familiar with the issue, the news organisation reports that conversations have taken place “about scenarios that could potentially draw the US into another Middle East war”. Plans are also being drafted to attack the Houthis in Yemen over their hostilities towards commercial shipping in the Red Sea with links to Israel.

US officials told Politico that the potential for a regional conflict is growing amid armed confrontations in Lebanon, Iraq and Iran, which has “convinced some in the administration that the war in Gaza has officially escalated far beyond the strip’s borders”. “The scramble inside the administration to draw up reports on potential points of attacks and possible US responses this week came as a result of orders from the top echelons of the administration over fears that the violence in the region will only continue to grow and that Washington will eventually have to intervene,” Politico reports.



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Scores of Palestinians killed; humanitarian groups unable to deliver life-saving assistance: UN

The government of Rwanda has denied recent reports in Israeli news outlet Zman that the country has discussed the possibility of receiving Palestinians “transferred” from Gaza. “The Government of Rwanda notes disinformation published in Zman Yisrael, an Israeli news outlet, alleging talks between Rwanda and Israel on the transfer of Palestinians from Gaza. This is completely false,” the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated in a post on X.

“No such discussion has taken place either now or in the past, and the disinformation should be ignored.”

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Children are bearing the brunt of Gaza’s humanitarian crisis as they suffer from months of hunger, trauma and displacement, says Tess Ingram, spokesperson for the UN’s Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

Ingram pointed to a recent UNICEF survey finding that 90 percent of children under the age of two in Gaza only have access to two main food groups – grain and dairy – compared with five food groups they need for healthy development. “We are very alarmed about the amount of nutrients that young children are getting for their growth and development”, Ingram told Al Jazeera.

The war’s long-term mental health impact on them is equally concerning, she said.

“We’re seeing traumatic stress responses in so many children we engage with. In other conflicts, children may experience trauma, but they have the ability to go to safety. That hasn’t been happening in Gaza,” she said. “Until the fighting stops and children can feel safe, we cannot really begin to assess and respond to their long-term mental health needs.”

Southern Gaza is now unlivable. Every day, there is a shortage of everything, including food. Signs of starvation are everywhere. There are families that live on one meal a day. Some families do not even have the energy to queue up to get that one meal, so they end up going days without food. On top of that, there is the lack of medical supplies and other essential goods. It is having an impact on the most vulnerable: children.

We cannot stress this enough: children are being targeted both with weapons and with starvation.

As humanitarian conditions continue to worsen in Gaza, small children are among the most vulnerable.

“They’re dying in every way possible. The death toll had been over 8,000 when you were last able to get an accurate death toll. It’s been several weeks now, so the figure is likely closer to 10,000,” Tanya Haj-Hassan, a doctor with Medecins Sans Frontieres, told Al Jazeera.

“About three months into the Ukraine war, the UN had stated that the lives of children had been devastated on a level not seen since World War Two. At the time, on average, two children were being killed per day. The average number of children being killed per day in Gaza is well over 100.”

Al Jazeera’s correspondent reports that the Israeli army hit the Qalia Plain, south of the Lebanese city of Tyre.

Earlier, we reported that Hezbollah claimed to have targeted the Maroun air control base on Jabal al-Jarmak in Israel with 62 missiles of various types, and inflicted direct and confirmed hits.

In response, Israel has been carrying out raids inside Lebanese territory.

Hezbollah attacks Israel in latest exchange of fire across Lebanese border

A group of pro-Palestine demonstrators has blocked access to a bridge near the British Parliament, calling for a ceasefire in Gaza in an act of civil disobedience.

Cumbersome process and ‘arbitrary’ Israeli inspections slow aid delivery into Gaza, US senators say

https://apnews.com/article/israel-gaza-rafah-aid-us-senators-2bc2a3c5e5f8af8e2d3f0b7242c1a885

At Egypt’s Rafah border crossing, lines of hundreds of trucks carrying aid wait for weeks to enter Gaza, and a warehouse is full of goods rejected by Israeli inspectors, everything from water testing equipment to medical kits for delivering babies, two U.S. senators said Saturday after a visit to the border.

Sens. Chris Van Hollen and Jeff Merkley pointed to a cumbersome process that is slowing relief to the Palestinian population in the besieged territory — largely due to Israeli inspections of aid cargos, with seemingly arbitrary rejections of vital humanitarian equipment. The system to ensure that aid deliveries within Gaza don’t get hit by Israeli forces is “totally broken,” they said.

“What struck me yesterday was the miles of backed-up trucks. We couldn’t count, but there were hundreds,” Merkley said in a briefing with Van Hollen to a group of reporters in Cairo.


US ambassador to Egypt Herro Mustafa Garg (2ndL), US Senator Chris Van Hollen (3rdL) and US Senator Jeff Merkley (C), along with a US delegation, visit the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing with the southern Gaza Strip on Friday [AFP]


The U.S. has been pressing Israel for weeks to let greater amounts of food, water, fuel, medicine and other supplies into Gaza, and the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution on Dec. 22 calling for an immediate increase in deliveries. Three weeks ago, Israel opened its Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza, adding a second entry point for aid after Rafah.

Still, the rate of trucks entering has not risen significantly. This week, an average of around 120 trucks a day entered through Rafah and Kerem Shalom, according to U.N. figures, far below the 500 trucks of goods going in daily before the war and far below what aid groups say is needed.

Van Hollen and Merkley said a more simplified process for getting aid into Gaza is necessary. During a three-day visit to Egypt, they met with Egyptian officials, U.N. aid agencies and non-governmental relief groups working in Gaza. At Rafah on Friday, they also spoke to doctors who had come out of Gaza and a truck driver waiting to get in.

Trucks carrying aid cargos can wait for weeks at the border for their turn to be processed, they said they were told by aid officials. They enter the Egyptian side of the border, drive along no-man’s land to the Israeli facility at Nitzana for inspection by the military, then return to Rafah to cross into Gaza — or go to Kerem Shalom for inspection and entry there.

Kerem Shalom operates eight hours a day, and both it and Nitzana close part of Friday and all Saturday. “This, in a 24-hour-a day” humanitarian crisis, Van Hollen said.

Israel says the inspections are necessary to prevent items of military use from reaching Hamas.

During the process, cargos are unloaded and reloaded several times. If inspectors reject a single item in a truck, it must return with its entire cargo to be re-packaged, starting the weeks-long process all over again, said Van Hollen, a Democrat from Maryland. The reasons for rejection are often “very vague, and they are conveyed informally. Sometimes they were very unreasonable,” said Merkley, a Democrat from Oregon.

The two senators said they saw a warehouse in Rafah filled with material that had been rejected in inspection. It included oxygen cylinders, gas-powered generators, tents and medical kits used in delivering babies.

Aid workers told the senators the tents were refused because they included metal poles, and the medical kits because they included scalpels. Most solar-powered equipment appears to be barred — though it is vital in Gaza, where central electricity has collapsed and fuel for generators is in short supply.

“The warehouse was a testament to the arbitrariness” of the process, Van Hollen said.

There is a process for pre-approving cargos, but it can take weeks, they said, and even items that obtained prior approval are sometimes rejected during inspection. After inspection, trucks are considered “sanitized” and their drivers are not allowed to interact with anyone; the senators said they were told one truck driver was turned back after someone brought him a cup of coffee, violating the rule.

Speaking to reporters in Jerusalem this week, Col. Elad Goren, a senior official in the Israeli military body overseeing Palestinian civilian affairs known as COGAT, admitted that Israeli security checks could be hampering rapid aid delivery but largely blamed the bottlenecks on international agencies and the United Nations.

Asked about certain forms of medical equipment not being allowed in, he said, “I want to make it clear we are not refusing anything that is underneath four headlines … Food, water, medical supplies and shelters.”

Goren said the U.N. should increase manpower and workers’ hours and deploy more trucks to deliver aid. He maintained the humanitarian situation in Gaza was under control and there was sufficient food. Officials at COGAT did not respond to Associated Press requests for comment on the senators’ briefing.

Van Hollen and Merkley said U.N. and other aid workers described extensive problems in distributing aid. They must ration the small amount of fuel Israel allows to enter Gaza between hospitals, bakeries and aid trucks. Frequent collapses of the communications system — or simple inability to recharge phone batteries — makes contact and coordination with aid teams impossible.

Arranging safe passage for aid deliveries is an enormous challenge, they said. “Nothing about deconfliction is working,” Merkley said. Aid groups inform the Israeli military of their movements but even once they have assurances an area is safe, it sometimes gets struck.

“No place really becomes deconflicted,” Merkley said. “It is not safe for them to move.”

Middle Eastern nations need to use their influence over regional actors to ensure the Gaza conflict is contained and to prevent “an endless cycle of violence”, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said.

Blinken spoke late in the day after meeting the leaders of Turkey and Greece at the start of a week-long trip. Blinken, who will also visit Arab states, Israel and the occupied West Bank, said if efforts to settle the crisis failed, the outcome would be “lives of insecurity and conflict for people in the region”.

A ceasefire would contain the conflict.... Always blaming everyone else.

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