Aid to Gaza 'Facing Total Collapse', Warn 12 NGOs

 A Palestinian boy looks through a hole in the wall into a damaged room after an Israeli strike on a school housing displaced Palestinians in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on April 17, 2025. (AFP)
A Palestinian boy looks through a hole in the wall into a damaged room after an Israeli strike on a school housing displaced Palestinians in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on April 17, 2025. (AFP)
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Aid to Gaza 'Facing Total Collapse', Warn 12 NGOs

 A Palestinian boy looks through a hole in the wall into a damaged room after an Israeli strike on a school housing displaced Palestinians in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on April 17, 2025. (AFP)
A Palestinian boy looks through a hole in the wall into a damaged room after an Israeli strike on a school housing displaced Palestinians in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on April 17, 2025. (AFP)

The humanitarian aid system in Gaza is "facing total collapse" because of Israel's blockade on aid supplies since March 2, the heads of 12 major aid organizations warned Thursday, urging Israel to let them "do our jobs".

Israel has vowed to maintain its blockage on humanitarian aid to the war-ravaged territory, saying it is the only way to force Hamas to release the 58 hostages still held there.

"Every single person in Gaza is relying on humanitarian aid to survive," the chief executives of 12 NGOs, including Oxfam and Save the Children, wrote in a joint statement.

"That lifeline has been completely cut off since a blockade on all aid supplies was imposed by Israeli authorities on March 2," they said, adding that "This is one of the worst humanitarian failures of our generation."

A survey of 43 international and Palestinian aid organizations working in Gaza found that almost all have suspended or drastically cut services since a ceasefire ended on March 18, "with widespread and indiscriminate bombing making it extremely dangerous to move around", the NGOs said.

"Famine is not just a risk, but likely rapidly unfolding in almost all parts of Gaza," they said. "Survival itself is now slipping out of reach and the humanitarian system is at breaking point."

"We call on all parties to guarantee the safety of our staff and to allow the safe, unfettered access of aid into and across Gaza through all entry points, and for world leaders to oppose further restrictions."

Israel's renewed assault has killed at least 1,691 people in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, bringing the overall toll since the war erupted to 51,065, most of them civilians.

Hamas's October 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, also mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.



Lebanon: Barrack Says US Cannot 'Compel' Israel to Do Anything

US Ambassador to Türkiye and Special Envoy to Syria Tom Barrack speaks during an interview with The Associated Press at the US Embassy in Awkar, northern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, July 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
US Ambassador to Türkiye and Special Envoy to Syria Tom Barrack speaks during an interview with The Associated Press at the US Embassy in Awkar, northern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, July 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
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Lebanon: Barrack Says US Cannot 'Compel' Israel to Do Anything

US Ambassador to Türkiye and Special Envoy to Syria Tom Barrack speaks during an interview with The Associated Press at the US Embassy in Awkar, northern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, July 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
US Ambassador to Türkiye and Special Envoy to Syria Tom Barrack speaks during an interview with The Associated Press at the US Embassy in Awkar, northern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, July 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Washington cannot "compel" Israel to do anything, US special envoy Thomas Barrack said in Beirut on Monday, in response to a reporter's question about Lebanese demands that the US guarantees a halt to Israeli strikes on Lebanese territory.

The US last month proposed a roadmap to Lebanon's top officials to fully disarm Hezbollah within four months, in exchange for a halt to Israeli strikes and a withdrawal of Israeli troops still occupying positions in southern Lebanon, Reuters said.

Lebanon has asked Washington to act as a security guarantor to ensure that Israel will pull out its troops in full and halt targeting operations against members of Hezbollah, if the armed group begins handing in weapons.

Asked about those guarantees, Barrack told reporters after a meeting with Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam that the US "has no business in trying to compel Israel to do anything."

He also told reporters that the US was not forcing Lebanon to strip Hezbollah of its arms, or considering sanctions against Lebanese officials if Hezbollah is not disarmed.

"There's no consequence, there's no threat, there's no whip," Barrack said.

Barrack, a longtime adviser to US President Donald Trump, also serves as US ambassador to Türkiye and special envoy for Syria.

He is making his third trip to Lebanon in just over a month to discuss the US roadmap, which covers disarmament of non-state armed groups, long-awaited economic reforms and better ties with Lebanon's neighbor Syria.

Israel and Hezbollah fought a months-long war last year that ended with a US-brokered truce calling for both sides to halt fighting, for Israel to withdraw troops, and for Lebanon to be free of all non-state arms, starting with the southern region closest to the Israeli border.

While Hezbollah has handed in some weapons from depots in the country's south to the Lebanese army, Israel says the group is violating the ceasefire by attempting to re-establish itself.

Lebanon and Hezbollah say Israel has breached the truce by continuing to occupy at least five vantage points in a strip of the Lebanese border, and carrying out strikes on what Israel says are Hezbollah members and arms depots.