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Israel Changes Policy Towards ISIS, Hires 15,000 Personnel to Confront Threats

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, Reuters
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, Reuters
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Israel Changes Policy Towards ISIS, Hires 15,000 Personnel to Confront Threats

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, Reuters
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, Reuters

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett issued instructions to change the policy on dealing with ISIS terrorists to impose severe penalties on their activities and monitor their behavior and their accounts on social networks.

Bennett stepping up anti-ISIS measures follows two people being killed in a shooting attack in Hadera, the second attack linked to the militant group in Israel within a week.

Moreover, Tel Aviv issued a series of security decisions that included recruiting 15,000 individuals to its police and border guards’ apparatuses. The increase in personnel is meant to deter additional threats of terror attacks during Islam’s holy month of fasting, Ramadan.

“A second attack by ISIS supporters inside Israel requires the security forces to adapt quickly to the new threat,” said Bennett, adding that extremist elements of the Arab community in Israel are being directed by an extremist Islamic ideology to carry out terrorist operations that take human lives.

One of the two attackers who carried out the shooting Sunday had served a year and a half in an Israeli prison following a conviction for attempting to enter Syria to become an ISIS fighter.

Ibrahim Agbarieh, 29, from the Israeli town of Umm al-Fahm was arrested by Turkish police ahead of boarding a bus headed for the Syrian border. Apparently, information provided to Turkey by Israeli authorities led to the arrest.

The second assailant, Ayman Agbarieh, also from Umm al-Fahm, identified with ISIS. He was arrested by the Shin Bet security service in 2017 on suspicion of weapons violations but was released three weeks later without charges.

Two people were killed in the shooting, both of them 19-year-old members of the Border Police.

“My heart breaks for the death of Border Police members Shirel Abukarat and Yazan Falah, who died shielding civilians with their bodies from vile murderers,” a statement from Bennett said.

“I wish a speedy recovery to the wounded and send my deep condolences to the family.”

Five other people – a Border Police member and four civilians – are hospitalized at Hadera's Hillel Yaffeh Medical Center. The hospital said Monday that the Border Police officer is in very serious condition. Another person is in moderate condition, and the rest were slightly injured.

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UN Warns US Aid Cuts Threaten Millions of Afghans with Famine

(FILES) Afghan men stand in a queue as they wait to receive food being distributed as an aid by the World Food Program (WFP) organization at Nawabad Kako Sahib area in Baraki Barak district of Logar Province on January 7, 2024. (Photo by Wakil KOHSAR / AFP)
(FILES) Afghan men stand in a queue as they wait to receive food being distributed as an aid by the World Food Program (WFP) organization at Nawabad Kako Sahib area in Baraki Barak district of Logar Province on January 7, 2024. (Photo by Wakil KOHSAR / AFP)
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UN Warns US Aid Cuts Threaten Millions of Afghans with Famine

(FILES) Afghan men stand in a queue as they wait to receive food being distributed as an aid by the World Food Program (WFP) organization at Nawabad Kako Sahib area in Baraki Barak district of Logar Province on January 7, 2024. (Photo by Wakil KOHSAR / AFP)
(FILES) Afghan men stand in a queue as they wait to receive food being distributed as an aid by the World Food Program (WFP) organization at Nawabad Kako Sahib area in Baraki Barak district of Logar Province on January 7, 2024. (Photo by Wakil KOHSAR / AFP)

Fresh US cuts to food assistance risk worsening already widespread hunger in Afghanistan, according to the World Food Program, which warned it can support just half the people in need -- and only with half rations.
In an interview with AFP, WFP's acting country director Mutinta Chimuka urged donors to step up to support Afghanistan, which faces the world's second-largest humanitarian crisis, AFP said.

A third of the population of around 45 million people needs food assistance, with 3.1 million people on the brink of famine, the UN says.

"With what resources we have now barely eight million people will get assistance across the year and that's only if we get everything else that we are expecting from other donors," Chimuka said.

The agency already has been "giving a half ration to stretch the resources that we have", she added.

In the coming months, WFP usually would be assisting two million people "to prevent famine, so that's already a huge number that we're really worried about", Chimuka said.

Already grappling with a 40 percent drop in funding for this year globally, and seeing a decline in funding for Afghanistan in recent years, WFP has had to split the standard ration -- designed to meet the daily minimum recommended 2,100 kilocalories per person.

"It's a basic package, but it's really life-saving," said Chimuka. "And we should, as a global community, be able to provide that."
WFP, like other aid agencies, has been caught in the crosshairs of funding cuts by US President Donald Trump, who signed an executive order freezing all foreign aid for three months shortly after his inauguration in January.

Emergency food aid was meant to be exempt, but this week WFP said the United States had announced it was cutting emergency food aid for 14 countries, including Afghanistan, amounting to "a death sentence for millions of people" if implemented.

Washington quickly backtracked on the cuts for six countries, but Afghanistan -- run by Taliban authorities who fought US-led troops for decades -- was not one of them.

If additional funding doesn't come through, "Then there's the possibility that we may have to go to communities and tell them we're not able to support them. And how do they survive?"

She highlighted the high levels of unemployment and poverty in the country, one of the world's poorest where thousands of Afghans are currently being repatriated from Pakistan, many without most of their belongings or homes to go to.

'Vicious cycle'
The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, UNAMA, this week urged international donors to keep supporting Afghanistan, saying 22.9 million needed assistance this year.

"If we want to help the Afghan people escape the vicious cycle of poverty and suffering, we must continue to have the means to address urgent needs while simultaneously laying the groundwork for long-term resilience and stability," said Indrika Ratwatte, the UN's resident and humanitarian coordinator in Afghanistan, in a statement.

The statement warned that lack of international aid in Afghanistan could lead to increased migration and strain on the broader region.

The call for funding comes as other countries including Germany and Britain have also made large cuts to overseas aid.

But the Trump administration cut has been the deepest. The United States was traditionally the world's largest donor, with the biggest portion in Afghanistan -- $280 million -- going to WFP last fiscal year, according to US State Department figures.

But other UN agencies, as well as local and international NGOs are being squeezed or having to shut down completely, straining the network of organisations providing aid in Afghanistan.

The Trump administration also ended two programs -- one in Afghanistan -- with the UN Population Fund, an agency dedicated to promoting sexual and reproductive health, the agency said Monday.

And other organisations working on agriculture -- on which some 80 percent of Afghans depend to survive -- and malnutrition are impacted.

"We all need to work together," said Chimuka. "And if all of us are cut at the knees... it doesn't work."