Cairo Ministerial Conference Aims to Boost Humanitarian Response in Gaza

Dignitaries pose for a family photo at the “Cairo Ministerial Conference to Enhance the Humanitarian Response in Gaza” on Monday. (Egyptian Foreign Ministry)
Dignitaries pose for a family photo at the “Cairo Ministerial Conference to Enhance the Humanitarian Response in Gaza” on Monday. (Egyptian Foreign Ministry)
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Cairo Ministerial Conference Aims to Boost Humanitarian Response in Gaza

Dignitaries pose for a family photo at the “Cairo Ministerial Conference to Enhance the Humanitarian Response in Gaza” on Monday. (Egyptian Foreign Ministry)
Dignitaries pose for a family photo at the “Cairo Ministerial Conference to Enhance the Humanitarian Response in Gaza” on Monday. (Egyptian Foreign Ministry)

Egypt hosted on Monday the “Cairo Ministerial Conference to Enhance the Humanitarian Response in Gaza” aimed at securing clear commitments to provide aid to the Palestinian enclave.

The conference was organized by Egypt and the United Nations and attended by delegations from 103 countries and organizations.

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry said the event also seeks to bolster international aid and ensure sustainable response to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. It also aims to plan the early recovery in the enclave.

Palestinian political analyst and Fatah member Dr. Ayman al-Raqab underscored to Asharq Al-Awsat the importance of providing relief aid at this time.

The conference delivered a strong message that there can be no substitute to UNRWA, he added, predicting that financial pledges will meet Gaza’s needs.

Speaking at the conference, Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty condemned the ongoing and “unprecedented” Israeli assault on Gaza.

“Israel has been committing atrocities for the whole world to see for over a year,” he added, saying it has used “starvation, siege tactics and displacement as collective punishment against the Palestinians in flagrant violation of international laws.”

Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman al-Safadi urged immediate action to aid the people of Gaza. “All forms of pressure are needed to allow the delivery of aid in the enclave,” he stressed.

Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations Amina Mohammed said the disaster in Gaza is a “test to humanity” and it must end immediately.

Commissioner-General of UNRWA Philippe Lazzarini warned that the “international humanitarian response in Gaza is today being severely tested.”

The gatherers at the conferences underlined UNRWA’s role in providing aid to the Palestinians and condemned the Israeli Knesset’s recent legislation to end its operations.

Abdelatty stressed that Egypt condemns the “illegal” move, saying it was a “dangerous precedent to ban a UN agency”.

It reflects a dismissal of the international community and its institutions, he remarked, adding that there can be no substitute to UNRWA in Gaza and no other organization can replace it or carry out its work.

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Mustafa echoed these remarks, saying UNRWA has a pivotal role to play after the war on Gaza is over.

He called for rejecting all Israeli legislations that target the organization.



Israeli Soldier Sentenced to 7 Months in Jail for Abusing Palestinian Detainees

An Israeli soldier walks across an agricultural field at the entrance of the Tulkarem refugee camp in Tulkarem on February 5, 2025, as the army conducts a raid in the occupied West Bank city. (Photo by Zain JAAFAR / AFP)
An Israeli soldier walks across an agricultural field at the entrance of the Tulkarem refugee camp in Tulkarem on February 5, 2025, as the army conducts a raid in the occupied West Bank city. (Photo by Zain JAAFAR / AFP)
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Israeli Soldier Sentenced to 7 Months in Jail for Abusing Palestinian Detainees

An Israeli soldier walks across an agricultural field at the entrance of the Tulkarem refugee camp in Tulkarem on February 5, 2025, as the army conducts a raid in the occupied West Bank city. (Photo by Zain JAAFAR / AFP)
An Israeli soldier walks across an agricultural field at the entrance of the Tulkarem refugee camp in Tulkarem on February 5, 2025, as the army conducts a raid in the occupied West Bank city. (Photo by Zain JAAFAR / AFP)

An Israeli soldier who was found to have struck Palestinian detainees while they were restrained and blindfolded has been sentenced to seven months in jail by an Israeli military court.
The Israeli military on Thursday announced the court had accepted a plea agreement with the soldier, a reservist who it said admitted to having "severely abused" Palestinian detainees at the Sde Teiman military detention centre near the border with the Gaza Strip.
"The defendant was convicted of several incidents in which he struck detainees with his fists and his weapon while they were bound and blindfolded," the military said. It did not name the soldier or detail the charges he was convicted of, Reuters reported.
The military statement did not identify where the Palestinian detainees were from, why they had been detained or whether they had since been charged or convicted of crimes or released from detention.
In addition to seven months imprisonment, the court handed the soldier a suspended sentence and demoted him to the rank of private. The military said the soldier had served as a security guard at the detention center but did not say what rank he had held. Israeli media reported the soldier's jail sentence included time that he had already spent in detention.
The military court found that other masked soldiers had participated in the abuse but that their identities had not been determined, the military said, without saying how many.
The convicted soldier had beaten the detainees in front of other soldiers, some of whom had told him to stop, the military said, adding that a recording of the abuse had been found on the mobile phone of the convicted soldier.
The military has been investigating allegations that soldiers had abused Palestinians from Gaza held in military detention since the start of the war in October 2023. The military on Thursday did not say whether investigations were still ongoing or if any other soldiers had been charged.
In July last year, right-wing Israeli protesters broke into Sde Teiman detention facility and another Israeli military compound after investigators arrived to question soldiers about suspected abuse.