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Charities, Humanitarian Groups Press for End to Israeli-Backed Aid Group in Gaza

Palestinians attend an anti-war protest and against Hamas in a rare show of public anger against the group that rules the territory, in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza Strip, Wednesday, March 26, 2025. (AP)
Palestinians attend an anti-war protest and against Hamas in a rare show of public anger against the group that rules the territory, in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza Strip, Wednesday, March 26, 2025. (AP)
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Charities, Humanitarian Groups Press for End to Israeli-Backed Aid Group in Gaza

Palestinians attend an anti-war protest and against Hamas in a rare show of public anger against the group that rules the territory, in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza Strip, Wednesday, March 26, 2025. (AP)
Palestinians attend an anti-war protest and against Hamas in a rare show of public anger against the group that rules the territory, in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza Strip, Wednesday, March 26, 2025. (AP)

Dozens of international charities and humanitarian groups called Tuesday for disbanding a controversial Israeli- and US-backed system to distribute aid in Gaza because of recurring chaos and violence against Palestinians seeking food at its sites. 

The call by groups including Oxfam, Save the Children and Amnesty International was made as at least 10 Palestinians were killed Tuesday while seeking desperately needed food, witnesses and health official said. Meanwhile, Israeli airstrikes killed at least 37 people Tuesday in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis, according to Nasser Hospital. 

In other developments, Israel’s defense minister, Israel Katz, warned that his country would respond forcefully to the firing of a missile the military said originated from Yemen. Sirens sounded across parts of Israel, alerting residents to the attack and the launch of two projectiles from Gaza. All were intercepted by Israeli defense systems. 

The missile launch marked the first attack by the Iran-backed Houthi militants since the end of the brief, but intense war initiated by Israel with Iran. Katz said Yemen could face the same fate as Tehran. 

Nasruddin Amer, deputy head of the Houthi media office, vowed on the social media platform X, that Yemen will not “stop its support for Gaza ... unless the aggression stops and the siege on Gaza is lifted.” 

The renewal of tensions came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he planned to meet with US President Donald Trump and other administration officials next week in Washington. Trump has signaled that he is ready for Israel and Hamas to wind down the war in Gaza, which is likely to be a focus of their talks. 

Speaking to a meeting of his Cabinet on Tuesday, Netanyahu did not elaborate on plans for the visit, except to say he will discuss a trade deal. 

Iran is also expected to be a main topic of discussion. After brokering a ceasefire between those two countries, Trump has indicated that he’s turning his attention to ending the fighting between Israel and Hamas. 

That war has killed more than 56,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but says more than half of the dead were women and children. The war was sparked by the October 2023 Hamas attack on southern Israel that killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and saw 251 others taken hostage. Some 50 hostages remain, many of them thought to be dead. 

The bodies of 116 people killed by Israeli strikes were brought to hospitals in Gaza over the past 24 hours, the health ministry said Tuesday afternoon. 

Charities and NGOs call for end to Gaza Humanitarian Foundation  

More than 165 major international charities and non-governmental organizations called Tuesday for an immediate end to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which the US and Israel backed to take over aid distribution in Gaza from a network led by the United Nations. 

“Palestinians in Gaza face an impossible choice: starve or risk being shot while trying desperately to reach food to feed their families,” the group said in a joint news release. 

The call by the charities and NGOs was the latest sign of trouble for the GHF, a secretive US- and Israeli-backed initiative headed by an evangelical leader who is a close ally of Trump. 

The GHF started distributing aid on May 26, following a nearly three-month Israeli blockade that pushed Gaza’s population of more than 2 million people to the brink of famine. 

In a statement Tuesday, the organization said it has delivered more than 52 million meals over five weeks. 

“Instead of bickering and throwing insults from the sidelines, we would welcome other humanitarian groups to join us and feed the people in Gaza,” the statement said. “We are ready to collaborate and help them get their aid to people in need.” 

Last month, the organization said there has been no violence in or around its distribution centers and that its personnel have not opened fire. It has called for the Israeli military to investigate allegations from Gaza’s Health Ministry that more than 500 Palestinians have been killed at or near the aid-distribution program over the past month. 

The Israeli Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday. 

Foundation is linchpin of new aid system  

The GHF is the linchpin of a new aid system that wrested distribution away from aid groups led by the UN. The new arrangement limits food distribution to a small number of hubs guarded by armed contractors. Currently four hubs are set up, all close to Israeli military positions. Palestinians often must travel long distances to the hubs. 

Israel demanded an alternative plan because it accuses Hamas of siphoning off aid. The United Nations and aid groups deny there is significant diversion. They reject the new mechanism, saying it allows Israel to use food as a weapon, violates humanitarian principles and will not be effective. 

The Israeli military said it recently took steps to improve organization in the area. 

Israel says it only targets fighters and blames civilian deaths on Hamas, accusing the fighters of hiding among civilians because they operate in populated areas. 

At least 10 Palestinians killed seeking aid At least 10 Palestinians were killed in Gaza Tuesday while seeking aid, hospitals said. 

Seven of the deaths occurred in Khan Younis. Three other people were killed by gunfire Tuesday while waiting to receive aid near the Netzarim corridor, which separates northern and southern Gaza. 

Dozens more were wounded, according to the Awda Hospital in the Nuseirat refugee camp, and the Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza City, which received the casualties. 

The casualties were among thousands of starved Palestinians who gather at night to take aid from passing trucks in the area of the Netzarim route, a road that cuts through central Gaza from Israel to the Mediterranean Sea. 

The Israeli military late Tuesday warned residents to evacuate an additional area of Khan Younis, pushing them into an increasingly confined zone along the coast. 

Also Tuesday, an 11-year-old girl was killed when an Israeli strike hit her family's tent west of Khan Younis, according to the Kuwait field hospital that received her body. 

The UN Palestinian aid agency said the Israeli military also struck one of its schools sheltering displaced people in Gaza City on Monday. The strike left no casualties but caused significant damage, UNRWA said. 

Elsewhere, the Palestinian Health Ministry in the occupied West Bank said Israeli forces killed two Palestinians in the territory, including a 15-year-old, in separate events. 

The Israeli military said it was reviewing the shooting of the teen, saying it appeared to happen when people threw rocks toward soldiers. In the second death, military officials said a “suspicious individual” was seen trying to cross into Israel from the southern West Bank, prompting soldiers to open fire. 

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Arab World

Sudan’s War Fuels Silent Disaster for Forests

Damage to Sudan’s forests caused by the war and indiscriminate tree cutting (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Damage to Sudan’s forests caused by the war and indiscriminate tree cutting (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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Sudan’s War Fuels Silent Disaster for Forests

Damage to Sudan’s forests caused by the war and indiscriminate tree cutting (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Damage to Sudan’s forests caused by the war and indiscriminate tree cutting (Asharq Al-Awsat)

As war tears through Sudan, the environment has been buried beneath the smoke of battle, mass displacement and hunger. Yet it is one of the sectors suffering the broadest and deepest losses.

Experts say what is unfolding in Sudan’s forests is no longer routine environmental degradation. It is a silent disaster threatening the country’s natural resources and climate balance, as the state’s ability to monitor and protect them weakens and living pressures grow.

The collapse of basic services, fuel shortages and soaring living costs have forced thousands of Sudanese families back to firewood and charcoal as alternative energy sources.

The result has been a surge in tree felling and the depletion of forest belts. Internal displacement has added to the pressure, with large numbers of people moving to safer areas and setting up temporary shelters in wooded zones, amid an almost total absence of environmental oversight and law enforcement.

A bitter reality

On the outskirts of Khartoum state, among acacia trees near the confluence of the two Niles, Aisha Abdullah collected firewood and described the choices now facing families.

“We used to rely on cooking gas, but the price of a cylinder has risen to about 90,000 Sudanese pounds, around $22.50, and we can no longer afford it,” she said. “We have no option left but firewood to cook food. We know that cutting trees harms the environment, but how can a family live without food?”

In Gezira state, Salah al-Tayeb said economic hardship has pushed many people toward the forests.

“The price of a sack of charcoal has reached about 105,000 Sudanese pounds, around $26.25, which is beyond the means of most families,” he said. “That is why firewood has become the only available option for many people to meet their daily needs.”

Saadia Abdullah, a tea seller on Nile Street in Omdurman, said the war has upended her work as fuel prices climbed and incomes fell.

“I used to use gas and charcoal in my work normally, but prices have become beyond our capacity,” she said. “Today I rely on firewood so I can prepare tea and continue working under these difficult conditions.”

Accelerating environmental damage

Moussa Suleiman Moussa, director general of the National Forestry Corporation, said forests have become an emergency energy source during the war because of power cuts and shortages of cooking gas.

Official data show about 60% of acacia forests in Gezira state have deteriorated, along with 45% in Sennar state. Other states have been affected to varying degrees.

In remarks to Asharq Al-Awsat, Moussa said Sudan’s forest area is estimated at about 30 million feddans after South Sudan’s secession in 2011, equal to around 12.5% of the country’s area. Plans had aimed to raise that figure to 25% , but the war halted that path and accelerated the depletion.

Bishra Hamed, former head of the Higher Council for Environment and Natural Resources in Khartoum state, said Sudan’s environmental resources are facing a “wide and multifaceted assault” as the effects of war intersect with economic, social and security crises.

He said the weakened role of the state and declining law enforcement have allowed the firewood, charcoal and timber trade to expand. Modern methods are being used to cut trees and move them quickly through networks operating inside and outside the country.

“Between 70% and 80% of the population depends directly on natural resources for their livelihoods, whether through farming, herding or firewood production. This makes environmental degradation a direct threat to economic and social stability in a country already suffering from structural fragility,” he said.

Hamed also warned that unregulated mining inside forests and natural reserves is deepening the crisis by stripping more vegetation and polluting soil and water, creating complex environmental challenges that will be hard to contain in the near term.

Environmental expert Awad Mohammed Siddig said the damage goes beyond temporary resource consumption. It amounts to the rapid dismantling of an entire ecosystem.

He said the loss of vegetation strips soil of its ability to retain moisture and allows desertification to spread in already fragile areas, while habitats disappear and biodiversity declines.

In remarks to Asharq Al-Awsat, Siddig said rural communities are paying the price directly through falling agricultural production, weaker protection from advancing sand and disruption to the water cycle.

Climate and environmental expert Noureldin Ahmed said forests are among Sudan’s most important natural resources because they help moderate the climate, protect soil and provide food and shelter for millions of living organisms.

He said wide areas have become barren after once serving as a natural lung that supplied oxygen and reduced the effects of desertification and climate change. He warned that the continued deterioration of vegetation cover threatens to multiply Sudan’s climate and humanitarian crises.

Mounting economic losses

Forestry expert Talaat Dafallah said the loss of dense vegetation contributes to rising temperatures and weakens the local environment’s ability to absorb carbon emissions.

He said the damage is also draining vital resources such as timber and gum arabic, with annual losses in the forestry sector estimated at about $500 million because of illegal tree cutting.

In remarks to Asharq Al-Awsat, Dafallah said the immediate priority is to reduce household dependence on firewood by providing cooking gas where possible, expanding the use of improved stoves and supporting solar energy in neighborhoods and displacement centers.

The damage has not stopped at the natural environment. It has reached key economic sectors. In Kordofan, one of the world’s most important gum arabic producing regions, production chains have been badly hit, affecting millions of people who depend on the sector as a main source of income.

With the war dragging on and state institutions retreating, Sudan’s environment is facing a real existential challenge. Depletion is accelerating without protection or recovery plans, while environmental, economic and humanitarian losses deepen day by day, raising the prospect of long-term consequences that could affect generations to come.

Arab World

Yemen’s Economy Pays Heavy Price of Houthi War

Houthi supporters rally in Sanaa in solidarity with Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah (AFP)
Houthi supporters rally in Sanaa in solidarity with Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah (AFP)
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Yemen’s Economy Pays Heavy Price of Houthi War

Houthi supporters rally in Sanaa in solidarity with Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah (AFP)
Houthi supporters rally in Sanaa in solidarity with Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah (AFP)

Yemeni government data has revealed the scale of the unprecedented economic and humanitarian deterioration the country has suffered because of a war that has dragged on for more than a decade, saying the conflict ignited by the Houthis caused cumulative losses to the national economy estimated at about $126 billion by 2021.

The figures come as poverty and unemployment widen and prospects for economic recovery decline at an alarming pace.

Data issued by the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation showed that Yemen’s economy continued to contract under the weight of the war and its impact across productive and service sectors, amid stalled oil exports, weaker trade activity and growing pressure on the local currency.

This has directly affected living standards and people’s ability to secure their basic needs.

According to the report on economic, development and humanitarian indicators in Yemen for 2024 and 2025, real gross domestic product shrank by 43% between 2015 and 2024. It had contracted by about 50% between 2011 and 2021, reflecting, according to the report’s authors, the depth of the economic crisis and the continuing cumulative impact on all parts of the national economy.

The war has caused a decline in the activity of Yemeni ports and raised insurance fees, government media said.

Yemeni data shows that per capita GDP fell to just $471 in 2024, compared with $1,430 in 2014, a sharp decline that reveals the scale of the collapse in purchasing power and individual income levels during the war years.

The report attributes part of this decline to the repercussions of the war and Houthi attacks on oil export ports, which halted oil exports, the country’s main source of foreign currency. This has worsened public finance imbalances and weakened the government’s ability to fund basic services and development spending.

Unemployment exceeds average rates

In the labor market, Yemeni government data painted a bleak picture of employment conditions. Youth unemployment reached 32.4%, exceeding the global average of 13.6% and the Arab average of 25.9%, in a clear sign of the widening gap between education outcomes and labor market needs, as well as the weakened economy’s limited ability to generate new jobs.

The report said the continued decline in education, health and living standards has deepened the crisis, with human capital eroding and economic and social fragility expanding, especially among young people, who have become the most affected by the lack of job opportunities and weak training and rehabilitation programs.

Human development indicators also showed a sharp decline in Yemen’s global ranking. The country scored 0.470 on the Human Development Index, compared with an Arab average of 0.719, ranking 184th out of 193 countries in the 2025 Human Development Report. Yemen ranked 160th in 2014, reflecting the scale of the decline in education, health and income indicators.

Poverty widens

On the humanitarian front, the Yemeni report’s data showed a striking expansion in needs. The number of people requiring humanitarian assistance rose this year to about 23.1 million, compared with 19.5 million last year and 18.2 million the year before, as humanitarian funding falls sharply.

According to Yemeni government data, actual funding coverage for humanitarian needs last year did not exceed 28% of total needs, compared with an average of 64% between 2016 and 2024. This leaves millions of Yemenis facing a widening gap between rising needs and the resources available for humanitarian response.

The data also confirmed that 50.3% of Yemeni families suffer from multidimensional poverty, with a clear divide between rural and urban areas. The rate rises to 51.1% in rural areas, compared with 44.3% in urban areas, reflecting widening deprivation in income, education, health and basic services.

The report warned that the continuation of this trend would have long-term consequences for human capital and the prospects for economic recovery, given the close link between declining growth, rising poverty and unemployment, and the widening vulnerability of Yemeni families.

Food is available, but out of reach

On food security, Yemen’s Planning Ministry said that despite the availability of food commodities in markets in February, access to them remains the biggest challenge for Yemeni families because of the continued rise in prices, the falling value of the local currency and the sharp decline in humanitarian assistance.

According to a report by the Food Security Technical Secretariat at the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation, supported by the Food Security and Nutrition Information Systems program of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and funded by the World Bank, total imports of basic food commodities in February reached about 194,517 tons, including 84,000 tons of wheat, representing 43% of total food imports.

But this relative availability of supply did not prevent prices from continuing to rise. The price of one food basket reached about 232,000 Yemeni rials in February, up 3% from the start of this year, while food basket prices rose by 575% compared with levels recorded in 2016.

The crisis has been worsened by a sharp decline in food aid distribution. Food assistance reached only 2% of total beneficiaries, while those benefiting from nutrition assistance accounted for about 6%, low levels that reflect the limited response compared with the scale of rising needs.

The report’s authors called for an urgent package of policies, foremost among them supporting a comprehensive and sustainable peace process, ending the Houthi coup, stimulating economic growth, strengthening labor-intensive sectors, improving the business environment and increasing investment in infrastructure and human capital.

They also called for expanding youth employment programs and vocational training, describing this as the most realistic path to reducing poverty and achieving sustainable recovery.

Arab World

Syria Says Arrested Assad-Era General Over Chemical Attack

In August 2013, the army under Assad's rule was accused of using chemical weapons to target areas then under opposition control, killing more than 1,400 men, women and children, according to US intelligence and rights groups. (Reuters file)
In August 2013, the army under Assad's rule was accused of using chemical weapons to target areas then under opposition control, killing more than 1,400 men, women and children, according to US intelligence and rights groups. (Reuters file)
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Syria Says Arrested Assad-Era General Over Chemical Attack

In August 2013, the army under Assad's rule was accused of using chemical weapons to target areas then under opposition control, killing more than 1,400 men, women and children, according to US intelligence and rights groups. (Reuters file)
In August 2013, the army under Assad's rule was accused of using chemical weapons to target areas then under opposition control, killing more than 1,400 men, women and children, according to US intelligence and rights groups. (Reuters file)

Syria's interior ministry on Friday announced the arrest of a general from ousted president Bashar al-Assad's era, accusing him of involvement in a 2013 chemical attack on a suburb of the capital, Damascus.

In August 2013, the army under Assad's rule was accused of using chemical weapons to target areas then under opposition control, killing more than 1,400 men, women and children, according to US intelligence and rights groups.

With Syria at the height of its civil war, the Assad government denied responsibility, but agreed to hand over its chemical arsenal in order to avert US strikes.

Assad went on to remain in power for more than a decade, only to be ousted in 2024 by opposition forces led by now President Ahmed al-Sharaa.

On Friday, the ministry said it arrested "Khardal Ahmed Dayoub, a former brigadier general in the forces of the ousted regime and former head of the Air Force Intelligence branch in Daraa, for his direct involvement in systematic violations against civilians".

The ministry accused Dayoub of being "implicated in chemical attacks during his service in the Damascus branch and his presence in the Harasta area" where "he oversaw repressive operations and contributed to the logistical coordination for the bombing of Eastern Ghouta with internationally prohibited chemical weapons".

Dayoub, the latest in a string of Assad-era officials detained in recent months, is also accused of extrajudicial killings and coordination with Iran and Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah, both of which were backing the ousted government.

Survivors of the attacks, including medics, at the time risked their lives by posting dozens of videos online, and spoke to journalists including AFP reporters about the horror they had witnessed.

The footage showed dozens of corpses, many of them children, outstretched on the ground.

Other images showed unconscious children, people foaming at the mouth and doctors trying to help them breathe.

- Global condemnation -

The scenes provoked revulsion and condemnation around the globe.

A United Nations report later said there was clear evidence sarin gas had been used.

Syria agreed that year to join the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and disclose and hand over its toxic stockpile under Russian and US pressure, averting the threat of strikes by Washington and its allies.

But that was not the last of the chemical attacks: the OPCW went on to blame Assad's forces for others later in the civil war.

Syria's civil war had begun in 2011, with a brutal crackdown on peaceful anti-regime protesters that yielded an armed uprising. More than half a million people ended up being killed, and millions more forced into exile.

Last month, Interior Minister Anas Khattab announced the arrest of Adnan Abboud Hilweh, one of the Syrian generals internationally sanctioned over involvement in the Ghouta attack.

Syria's new authorities have vowed to provide justice and accountability for Assad-era atrocities, while activists and foreign governments have emphasized the importance of transitional justice to ensure the country moves forward.

Last month, a Syrian court conducted the first hearing in an in absentia trial of Assad himself, alongside several senior members of his government.

Assad fled to Moscow as his country fell to opposition hands in December 2024, bringing to a stunning end decades of rule by his clan.