UNRWA Says Food Distribution in Rafah Suspended Due to Insecurity

Displaced Palestinian children carry containers with food in Rafah, on the southern Gaza Strip, on May 19, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Hamas group. (AFP)
Displaced Palestinian children carry containers with food in Rafah, on the southern Gaza Strip, on May 19, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Hamas group. (AFP)
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UNRWA Says Food Distribution in Rafah Suspended Due to Insecurity

Displaced Palestinian children carry containers with food in Rafah, on the southern Gaza Strip, on May 19, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Hamas group. (AFP)
Displaced Palestinian children carry containers with food in Rafah, on the southern Gaza Strip, on May 19, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Hamas group. (AFP)

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said on Tuesday that food distribution in Gaza's southern city of Rafah were currently suspended due to lack of supplies and insecurity.

UNRWA said in a statement on X that only seven out of its 24 health centers were operational and that it had not received any medical supplies in the past 10 days due to "closures/disruptions" at the Rafah and Kerem Shalom crossings into Gaza.

Israel mounted a new push in central Gaza on Monday, bombarding towns in the north of the Palestinian enclave and saying it intended to broaden operations in Rafah despite US warnings of the risk of mass casualties in the southern city.

Simultaneous Israeli assaults on the southern and northern edges of Hamas-ruled Gaza this month have caused a new exodus of hundreds of thousands of people from their homes, and sharply restricted the flow of aid, raising the risk of famine.



Israeli Airstrikes Kill at Least 31 in Lebanon

 Smoke billows over Beirut's southern suburbs after Israeli strikes, amid hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, as seen from Baabda, Lebanon, November 25, 2024. (Reuters)
Smoke billows over Beirut's southern suburbs after Israeli strikes, amid hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, as seen from Baabda, Lebanon, November 25, 2024. (Reuters)
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Israeli Airstrikes Kill at Least 31 in Lebanon

 Smoke billows over Beirut's southern suburbs after Israeli strikes, amid hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, as seen from Baabda, Lebanon, November 25, 2024. (Reuters)
Smoke billows over Beirut's southern suburbs after Israeli strikes, amid hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, as seen from Baabda, Lebanon, November 25, 2024. (Reuters)

Massive explosions lit up Lebanon’s skies with flashes of orange, sending towering plumes of smoke into the air as Israeli airstrikes pounded Beirut’s southern suburbs. The blasts damaged buildings and left shattered glass and debris scattered across nearby streets. No casualties were reported after many residents fled the targeted sites.

Some of the strikes landed close to central Beirut and near Christian neighborhoods and other targets where Israel had issued evacuation warnings, including in Tyre and Nabatiyeh province. Israeli airstrikes also hit the northeast Baalbek-Hermel region without warning.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry said that 26 people were killed in southern Lebanon, four in the eastern Baalbek-Hermel province and one in Choueifat, a neighborhood in Beirut’s southern suburbs that was not subjected to evacuation warnings on Monday.

The deaths brought the total toll to 3,768 killed in Lebanon throughout 13 months of war between Israel and Hezbollah and nearly two months since Israel launched its ground invasion. Many of those killed since the start of the war between Israel and Hezbollah have been civilians, and health officials said some of the recovered bodies were so severely damaged that DNA testing would be required to confirm their identities.

Israel says it has killed more than 2,000 Hezbollah members. Lebanon’s Health Ministry says the war has displaced 1.2 million people.