UN Halts All Food Distribution in Rafah Due to Insecurity and After Running Out of Supplies 

Palestinians line up for free food during the ongoing Israeli air and ground offensive on the Gaza Strip in Rafah, Jan. 9, 2024. (AP)
Palestinians line up for free food during the ongoing Israeli air and ground offensive on the Gaza Strip in Rafah, Jan. 9, 2024. (AP)
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UN Halts All Food Distribution in Rafah Due to Insecurity and After Running Out of Supplies 

Palestinians line up for free food during the ongoing Israeli air and ground offensive on the Gaza Strip in Rafah, Jan. 9, 2024. (AP)
Palestinians line up for free food during the ongoing Israeli air and ground offensive on the Gaza Strip in Rafah, Jan. 9, 2024. (AP)

The United Nations suspended food distribution in the southern Gaza city of Rafah on Tuesday due to a lack of supplies and an untenable security situation caused by Israel’s expanding military operation. The UN warned that humanitarian operations across the territory were nearing collapse.

A senior United States official said Israel has addressed many of the Biden administration's concerns about a full-scale ground invasion of Rafah aimed at rooting out Hamas fighters there. US President Joe Biden had previously opposed a total military assault on a city filled with displaced civilians if plans did not prioritize the safety of innocent Palestinians. The US official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly.

The official said the administration stopped short of greenlighting the Israeli invasion plan, but said Israeli officials’ changes to the planning suggested they were taking the American administration’s concerns seriously.

Over the past two weeks, hundreds of thousands of people have fled Rafah in a chaotic exodus, seeking shelter in new tent camps or crowding into areas already devastated by previous Israeli offensives. Some 400,000 people are believed to still be in Rafah after around 900,000 rushed to escape, according to COGAT, the Israeli military office in charge of Palestinian civilian affairs.

Getting aid to displaced civilians has been hampered by closed and chaotic land crossings, as well as problems plaguing the US military’s new floating pier meant to provide an alternative sea route for aid into Gaza. Over the weekend, hungry Palestinians took aid from a UN vehicle convoy coming from the pier, and the UN said since then it had been unable to receive trucks there.

Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters in Washington that for the past few days, forward movement of aid from the pier was paused but it resumed Tuesday. There was no confirmation from the UN.

The UN's World Food Program said it was running out of food for central Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of people are now living.

“Humanitarian operations in Gaza are near collapse,” said Abeer Etefa, a WFP spokesperson. If food and other supplies don’t resume entering Gaza “in massive quantities, famine-like conditions will spread,” she said.

The warning came as Israel seeks to contain the international fallout from a request at the world’s top war crimes court for arrest warrants targeting both Israeli and Hamas leaders. The move garnered support from three European countries, including Israel's key ally France.

“Use of starvation as a method of warfare” was among the accusations against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant by the chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court — charges they and other Israeli officials angrily deny. The prosecutor accused three Hamas leaders of war crimes over killings of civilians in the group's Oct. 7 attack.

The UN says some 1.1 million people in Gaza — nearly half the population — face catastrophic levels of hunger and that the territory is on the brink of famine. Throughout the war, Rafah has been filled with scenes of hungry children holding out pots and plastic containers at makeshift soup kitchens, with many families reduced to eating only one meal a day.

The humanitarian crisis deepened after Israeli forces pushed into Rafah on May 6. Tanks and troops seized the vital Rafah crossing into Egypt, and it's been closed ever since. After May 10, only about three dozen trucks made it into Gaza via the nearby Kerem Shalom crossing from Israel because fighting made it dangerous for aid workers to reach it, the UN says.

Israel insists it puts no restriction on the number of trucks entering Gaza. COGAT said 450 trucks entered Tuesday from its side to Kerem Shalom and a small crossing in northern Gaza. It said more than 650 trucks are waiting on the Gaza side of Kerem Shalom to be retrieved, blaming “lack of logistical capabilities and manpower gaps” among aid groups.

For months, the UN has warned that an Israeli assault on Rafah could wreck the effort to get food, medicine and other supplies to Palestinians across Gaza.

Asked about the ramifications of suspending aid, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said simply: “People don’t eat.”

Etefa said the WFP was still passing out hot meals and “limited distributions” of reduced food packages in central Gaza, but “food parcel stocks will run out within days,” she said.

The US touted the $320 million pier project as a route for accelerated deliveries. The first 10 trucks rolled off a ship onto the pier on Friday and were taken to a WFP warehouse. However, a second convoy on Saturday was met by Palestinian crowds who removed all the food from 11 trucks, and only five truckloads made it to the warehouse, Etefa said.

No further deliveries came from the pier Sunday or Monday, Etefa said.

“The responsibility of ensuring aid reaches those in need does not end at the crossings and other points of entry into Gaza — it extends throughout Gaza itself,” she said.

At the same time, battles have escalated in northern Gaza as Israeli troops conduct operations against Hamas fighters, who the military says regrouped in areas already captured in offensives months ago.

One of the main hospitals still operating in the north, Kamal Adwan, was forced to evacuate after it was “targeted” by Israeli troops, the Gaza Health Ministry said. Around 150 staff and dozens of patients fled the facility, including intensive care patients and infants in incubators “under fire from shelling,” it said. The Israeli military did not immediately reply to requests for comment.

The nearby Awda hospital has been surrounded by troops the past three days, and an artillery shell hit its fifth floor, the hospital administration said Tuesday. A day earlier, the international medical aid group Doctors Without Borders said Awda had run out of drinking water.

The war between began on Oct. 7, when Hamas-led militants crossed into Israel and killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 250 hostage. ICC prosecutor Karim Khan accused Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif and Ismail Haniyeh of crimes against humanity, including extermination, murder and sexual violence.

Israel responded to the Oct. 7 with an offensive that has laid waste to Gaza and killed more than 35,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between noncombatants and fighters in its count.

Monday's call by Khan for arrest warrants deepens Israel’s global isolation at a time when it is facing growing criticism from even its closest allies over the war. France, Belgium, and Slovenia each said they backed Khan's decision.

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz headed to France on Tuesday in response, urging it to “declare loud and clear” that the request for warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant “is unacceptable to you and to the French government.”

His meetings there could set the tone for how countries navigate the warrants — if they are eventually issued — and whether they could pose a threat to Israeli leaders. A panel of three ICC judges will decide whether to issue the arrest warrants and allow a case to proceed. The judges typically take two months to make such decisions.

Israel still has the support of its top ally, the United States, as well as other Western countries that spoke out against the decision. But if the warrants are issued, they could complicate international travel for Netanyahu and his defense minister, even if they do not face any immediate risk of prosecution because Israel itself is not a member of the court.



Houthis in Yemen Strip their Head of Govt of his Powers

The Houthis prevented Ahmed al-Rahwi from naming the head of his office. (Houthi media)
The Houthis prevented Ahmed al-Rahwi from naming the head of his office. (Houthi media)
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Houthis in Yemen Strip their Head of Govt of his Powers

The Houthis prevented Ahmed al-Rahwi from naming the head of his office. (Houthi media)
The Houthis prevented Ahmed al-Rahwi from naming the head of his office. (Houthi media)

The Iran-backed Houthi militias have prevented their so-called prime minister, Ahmed al-Rahwi, from naming the head of his office.

The Houthis have instead forced him to appoint a person of their choosing against his wishes, revealed informed sources in the Houthi-held capital Sanaa.

The Houthis are attempting to strip al-Rahwi, who was named as head of the militias’ new government, of his powers, making his appointment simply a cover for imposing their agenda and favoring Houthis who are descended of the line of their leader Abdulmalik al-Houthi.

The sources revealed that al-Rahwi had headed to the government headquarters with Rabih al-Mehdi, the director of the office of his predecessor. Mehdi hails from the Abyan province that is held by the legitimate government.

Al-Rahwi was seeking to keep al-Mehdi in his post. However, a leading Houthi member, Mohammed Qassem al-Kabisi, who used to occupy the position of government secretary, barred him from making the appointment.

Kabisi even prevented al-Mehdi from entering his office, resulting in an argument with al-Rahwi.

Kabisi informed al-Rahwi that he had no authority in naming the head of his office, saying that he does instead.

Al-Rahwi turned to the Houthis’ so-called ruling high political council to resolve the dispute and was informed that he should accept Kabisi as head of his office despite his objection.

A decree was issued days later naming Kabisi to the post.

He will effectively hold absolute power in government, while al-Rahwi will simply play a figurative role and only be needed to approve decisions and procedures taken by the Houthi leadership, joining other ministers who have no real duties.

The Houthis have formed a new government that will follow in the footsteps of its predecessor in keeping actual power to the militias themselves.

The new lineup includes a pro-Houthi figure, with no diplomatic background or experience, who was named foreign minister, replacing leading General People's Congress member Hisham Sharaf.

The appointment only fueled claims that the Houthis were seeking to eliminate their partners from rule. Al-Rahwi himself had no say in the lineup.

The Houthis announced the formation of their government on August 12. It met on August 17 to discuss its program, referred it to parliament the same day and by the next morning, an announcement was made that it was approved with no amendments or objections.

The incident with al-Rahwi has fueled speculation that the coming period will witness more struggles for power among the Houthis and their partners, whom they are trying to keep out of rule.

Observers noted that Kabisi is the son of a top Houthi leader. Qassem al-Kabisi is one of the founders of the group and is close to their leader Abdulmalik al-Houthi.

The senior Houthi officials believe they have the right to represent the Houthis in rule since they are its founders and oldest members.