Nearly 400.000 people have been displaced in the Gaza Strip since March 18, when Israel resumed military operations, breaking a two-month ceasefire, the UN Secretary-General's spokesman said today.
"Survivors in Gaza have been displaced multiple times and forced into ever smaller spaces where their basic needs cannot be met," spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
Almost all of Gaza's 2,4 million residents have already been displaced at least once since the war broke out on October 7, 2023, and the start of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas on January 19.
In a joint statement, the heads of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Tom Fletcher, the World Health Organization's Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, UNICEF's Catherine Russell, and the World Food Program's Cindy McCain, called on the world to "act urgently to save the Palestinians in Gaza."
Residents in Gaza are once again trapped, bombed and hungry, and due to more than a month of Israeli blockade, food, medicine and fuel are piling up at crossings, and access to shelters and essential equipment is blocked, they said.
They stressed that claims that there is enough food to feed the Palestinians are far from the truth.
"We are witnessing in Gaza a war effort that shows a flagrant disregard for human life," they wrote.
(BETA)
The leaders of France, Egypt and Jordan today rejected any exodus of Palestinians proposed by US President Donald Trump in Cairo, and pointed out that Gaza should be governed exclusively by a "strengthened" Palestinian Authority, not the Hamas movement that is currently in power there and with which Israel has been at war since 2023.
In a joint statement, the presidents of France and Egypt, Emmanuel Macron and Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, and Jordan's King Abdullah II called for the immediate restoration of the ceasefire in Gaza.
Macron arranged from Egypt for him and the other two participants in the meeting to speak to Trump by phone about the Gaza issue, the Elysee Palace said.
France wants to show solidarity with Gaza's two neighbors, Egypt and Jordan, who are upset by Trump's proposal to relocate Palestinians from Gaza. Today, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who supports the plan, is meeting with Trump at the White House.
In early February, Trump caused uproar and strong opposition when he announced the possibility of the US taking over the Gaza Strip and turning it into the "Riviera of the Middle East," with residents being relocated to Egypt and Jordan, which those two countries immediately and firmly rejected.
Macron, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Abdullah II also today rejected the displacement of Palestinians from their land or any annexation of Palestinian territory.
They also stressed that governance and the maintenance of order and security in Gaza, as well as in all Palestinian territories, should be exclusively under the leadership of a "strengthened Palestinian Authority", with strong regional and international support.
At a press conference, the French and Egyptian presidents appealed for the continuation of humanitarian aid to the nearly 2,4 million residents of Gaza.
Macron supported the Arab plan for the reconstruction of Gaza, which he described as realistic. The plan was conceived as a response to the Trump plan, and according to the initiative prepared by Egypt, it does not envisage the displacement of the population from Gaza.
Paris, however, believes that the Egyptian plan should be reinforced with security and government elements in the Palestinian territory to convince the Americans that it is functional. The Arab countries envisage a gradual return of the Palestinian Authority to the detriment of Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007.
"Hamas should have no share in this government, it should not pose a threat to Israel," Macron said.
(BETA)
Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem responded today to a call for a general strike demanding an end to the 18-month-long war in the Gaza Strip.
The streets are deserted, shops are closed, as are schools and public services in the West Bank, Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967, reports Agence France-Presse.
A coalition that brings together several Palestinian political movements, including the main rival groups, Fatah and Hamas, had called for a strike a day earlier to "stop the genocide and massacre" of the Palestinian people.
The call for a strike is addressed to all occupied Palestinian territories, refugee camps and people in solidarity with the Palestinian cause.
The rally is planned for today in downtown Ramallah, where most of the ministries of the Palestinian Authority, which has only limited powers in the occupied West Bank, are located.
Shops were also closed today in East Jerusalem, a part of the city inhabited mostly by Palestinians and occupied and annexed by Israel in 1967.
(BETA)
Israel overnight struck tents outside two major hospitals in the Gaza Strip, killing at least two people, including a local reporter, while Palestinian doctors said nine were wounded, including six reporters.
According to hospital reports, 15 more people were killed in separate attacks across the Gaza Strip.
The 18-month-old war began with a Hamas attack on Israeli territory on October 7, 2023, in which about 1.200 people were killed and more than 251 hostages were taken. Another 59 people remain in captivity, 24 of whom are believed to be alive.
According to the Gaza Health Ministry, more than 50.000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, were killed in the Israeli offensive on Gaza in response to this attack.
(BETA)
One person was killed today in an Israeli attack on a village in southern Lebanon, Lebanese authorities said.
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