#Cindy McCain

[justinspoliticalcorner]

AP, via NPR:

WASHINGTON — A top U.N. official said Friday that hard-hit northern Gaza was now in "full-blown famine" after more than six months of war between Israel and Hamas and severe Israeli restrictions on food deliveries to the Palestinian territory. Cindy McCain, the American director of the U.N. World Food Program, became the most prominent international official so far to declare that trapped civilians in the most cut-off part of Gaza had gone over the brink into famine. "It's horror," McCain told NBC's "Meet the Press" in an interview to air Sunday. "There is famine — full-blown famine — in the north, and it's moving its way south." She said a cease-fire and a greatly increased flow of aid through land and sea routes was essential to confronting the growing humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, home to 2.3 million people.

According to World Food Programme director Cindy McCain (the spouse of the late John McCain), northern Gaza is in a full-on famine.

[emperornorton47]

[detective-like-i-give-a-damn]

"The un stopped giving out food in rafah because it ran out of food" multiple countries fund this what is the FUCKING PROBLEM

[sayruq]

Three days ago, the Israeli military dropped flyers ordering displaced people and residents of Rafah to leave. In the orders where people were told to move out of Rafah, the military said it was “about to operate with force against the terror organisations in the area”. A UN estimate says there are 1.2 million people sheltering in dire conditions in Rafah, Gaza's southern city. The "full-blown famine" that has taken hold in the north of Gaza has spread to the south, Cindy McCain, the head of the World Food Programme, confirmed over the weekend. There are roughly 200 Palestinians that are being forcibly displaced from Rafah every hour, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (Unrwa) said on Wednesday. During an online press briefing, medical doctors and humanitarian aid workers reporting from the ground in Gaza spoke about the impossible feat of moving people from Rafah, as people are ridden by famine plus a collapsed transportation and healthcare system. "There are children and elderly that are so starved that they can barely walk. These people cannot just relocate to another area, to so-called 'safe zones'. It is not possible," Alexandra Saieh, head of humanitarian policy from Save the Children, said. Several aid workers have expressed that there is no "safe" area in the Gaza Strip for people to relocate to. "The concept of safe zones is a lie," Helena Marchal, from Medecins du Monde, said. Aid workers also reiterated the difficulty of getting aid both into Gaza and then distributing it. Both the Rafah and the Kerem Shalom crossings, through which most aid reached the besieged Strip, have closed since Sunday evening. Roads across Gaza are largely destroyed or blocked by people sheltering, contributing to the difficulty of movement of both goods and people. Only a very limited number of routes, especially between the north and south, are available for humanitarian use, Jeremy Konyndyk, from Refugees International, explained. Another issue is overcrowding. "In Deir al-Balah and the Mawasi area on the outskirts of the Rafah and Khan Younis governorates, there is barely any space. There are tents everywhere, on the beach, on the sidewalks, the streets, the graveyards, the courtyards of the hospitals, in the courtyards of the schools," Ghada Alhaddad, from Oxfam International, said. Saieh explained that it took her team six weeks and four failed attempts to move a couple of hundred food parcels from Rafah to the north of Gaza. "One litre of fuel cost $40 yesterday," according to Ranchal. Fuel enters through the Rafah crossing. If the fuel is cut off, the aid operation collapses," Konyndyk said.

[probablyasocialecologist]

The World Food Programme (WFP) announced on Wednesday a pause in the movement of its employees in Gaza until further notice following an attack on a team returning from an aid delivery mission on Tuesday evening, just metres from an Israeli-controlled checkpoint. “This is totally unacceptable and the latest in a series of unnecessary security incidents that have endangered the lives of WFP’s team in Gaza,” said the UN agency’s Executive Director Cindy McCain, calling on the Israeli authorities and all parties to the conflict to act immediately to ensure the safety and security of all aid workers in Gaza. Thankfully, no one was injured in the attack, WFP said. “As last night’s events show, the current deconfliction system is failing and this cannot go on any longer,” Ms. McCain added. A “clearly marked UN humanitarian vehicle – part of a convoy that had been fully coordinated with the [Israeli Defense Forces] IDF – was struck 10 times by IDF gunfire, including with bullets targeting front windows,” UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric told reporters at a briefing at UN Headquarters on Wednesday.

28 August 2024

[sophia-zofia]

Three days ago, the Israeli military dropped flyers ordering displaced people and residents of Rafah to leave. In the orders where people were told to move out of Rafah, the military said it was “about to operate with force against the terror organisations in the area”.  A UN estimate says there are 1.2 million people sheltering in dire conditions in Rafah, Gaza's southern city. The "full-blown famine" that has taken hold in the north of Gaza has spread to the south, Cindy McCain, the head of the World Food Programme, confirmed over the weekend.  There are roughly 200 Palestinians that are being forcibly displaced from Rafah every hour, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (Unrwa) said on Wednesday.  During an online press briefing, medical doctors and humanitarian aid workers reporting from the ground in Gaza spoke about the impossible feat of moving people from Rafah, as people are ridden by famine plus a collapsed transportation and healthcare system. "There are children and elderly that are so starved that they can barely walk. These people cannot just relocate to another area, to so-called 'safe zones'. It is not possible," Alexandra Saieh, head of humanitarian policy from Save the Children, said.  Several aid workers have expressed that there is no "safe" area in the Gaza Strip for people to relocate to. "The concept of safe zones is a lie," Helena Marchal, from Medecins du Monde, said. Restricted movement Aid workers also reiterated the difficulty of getting aid both into Gaza and then distributing it. Both the Rafah and the Kerem Shalom crossings, through which most aid reached the besieged Strip, have closed since Sunday evening.  Roads across Gaza are largely destroyed or blocked by people sheltering, contributing to the difficulty of movement of both goods and people. Only a very limited number of routes, especially between the north and south, are available for humanitarian use, Jeremy Konyndyk, from Refugees International, explained. Another issue is overcrowding. "In Deir al-Balah and the Mawasi area on the outskirts of the Rafah and Khan Younis governorates, there is barely any space. There are tents everywhere, on the beach, on the sidewalks, the streets, the graveyards, the courtyards of the hospitals, in the courtyards of the schools," Ghada Alhaddad, from Oxfam International, said. Saieh explained that it took her team six weeks and four failed attempts to move a couple of hundred food parcels from Rafah to the north of Gaza.  "One litre of fuel cost $40 yesterday," according to Ranchal. Fuel enters through the Rafah crossing. "The whole aid operation runs on fuel. If the fuel is cut off, the aid operation collapses," Konyndyk said.  Severe malnutrition Professor John Maynard, a surgeon from the UK who has spent the last two weeks operating on Palestinians in Gaza, highlighted complications from a direct result of malnutrition.

"I had two patients, 16 and 18, both of whom had survivable injuries, [and] both of whom died last week as a direct result of malnutrition." His colleague Dr Kahler, spoke of a "tipping point" after six-eight months, "the immunological system breaks down". "It is at that time when infections and complications from malnutrition will start," he added.  A famine, one aid worker explained, requires three thresholds: a sustained, severe lack of access to food, high levels of child malnutrition, and highly elevated mortality as a result of famine and disease.  All thresholds have been passed in the north, Konyndyk stated.  "If there is a Rafah invasion, this will certainly push things past the tipping point, and we will see a skyrocketing mortality related to the famine."

[gowns]

The head of the UN World Food Program (WFP) described the situation in Gaza as "catastrophic" as only 0.002 percent of the coastal enclave's immediate relief needs have entered so far, according to Palestine's Health Ministry. Cindy McCain described the 20 aid trucks that were allowed to enter via Egypt on Saturday as a "drop in the ocean". Speaking on ABC's This Week programme, McCain said aid agencies needed secure and sustainable access to the enclave. She added that the WFP is doing its very best to ensure aid gets to the people who need it but that Gaza was a war zone and that "things happen".

-- Middle East Eye, 10/22/23

"Two small convoys entered Gaza over the weekend, totaling 34 trucks between them, meaning that the territory is 7,246 trucks short of regular deliveries."

-- CNN, 10/23/23

[allthegeopolitics]

Northern Gaza is experiencing a “full-blown famine”, the head of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has said, and warned that it is “moving its way south”. In an interview with NBC News set to air on Sunday (May 5), Cindy McCain said that her remarks are based on what the WFP has seen and experienced on the ground. UN officials and aid agencies have for months warned of such a scenario.

Continue Reading

[capybaracorn]

Northern Gaza in ‘full-blown famine’, UN food agency chief says

‘It’s horror’: World Food Programme head calls for immediate ceasefire and ‘unfettered access’ into besieged territory.

(4th of May 2024) [See the link for the videos]

Northern Gaza is experiencing a “full-blown famine”, the head of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has said, and warned that it is “moving its way south”.

In an interview with NBC News set to air on Sunday, Cindy McCain said that her remarks are based on what the WFP has seen and experienced on the ground. UN officials and aid agencies have for months warned of such a scenario.

“It’s horror. It’s so hard to look at and it’s so hard to hear,” McCain told the US broadcaster’s Meet the Press programme.

“What we are asking for and what we continually ask for is a ceasefire and the ability to have unfettered access, to get in safe through the various ports and gate crossings,” she said, according to a video clip of the interview.

On Saturday, a delegation from Palestinian group Hamas was in Egypt to continue negotiations on a ceasefire amid an uptick in international pressure for a deal to be reached.

Hamas’s spokesman Osama Hamdan said there had been “some forward steps”.

Yet Israel has threatened to launch its ground invasion of Rafah in the southernmost tip of the enclave, which is home to more than 1.4 million displaced Palestinians who have fled the Israeli military’s relentless bombardment in other parts of the Gaza Strip.

Israel has severely restricted the entry of critical humanitarian supplies into Gaza despite warnings from its allies and the United Nations of a looming famine in parts of the Palestinian territory. Its military has also repeatedly attacked and killed Palestinian civilians waiting to collect aid in the Strip.

This week it reopened the Beit Hanoon (Erez) crossing into northern Gaza, but Israeli settlers attacked two aid convoys sent by Jordan. The UN has said the amounts remain insufficient to meet the vast and growing needs of Gaza’s starving population.

The UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification has previously warned that more than 70 percent of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is facing “catastrophic hunger” any time between mid-March and May.

On Saturday, Gaza’s Ministry of Health said at least 34,654 Palestinians have been killed and 77,908 wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7.

[odinsblog]

Secretary of State Blinken suggested that the ICC has complimentary jurisdiction. It's supposed to defer to good faith national prosecutions. The problem is that Israel has zero history of prosecuting senior officials for war crimes.

And particularly in this case, it has never announced an investigation into Netanyahu's and Galant's starvation strategy, even though Kareem Khan visited the region twice and warned that the starvation strategy was his focus. So there's been no investigation whatsoever. And indeed, the Israeli publication 972 found that Israel was secretly monitoring the prosecutors' communications to try to open investigations to pretend that it was doing something, when in fact none of those investigations have gone anywhere.

To the contrary, Mossad, the Israeli Secret Service, literally threatened the prosecutor, did a sting operation against her husband, handed her cash as if to try to bribe or buy her off. None of this shows a conscientious commitment to justice. Now, as for the evidence, I think it's pretty clear that there is widespread starvation in Gaza.

Now, Israel likes to blame everybody else, but in fact if you look at the evidence, it is the primary reason. Defense Minister Galant said early on, I have ordered a complete siege in the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed.

And since then, he's largely lived up to that. Now, the rule is that parties to a conflict must allow and facilitate rapid and unimpeded access of humanitarian relief for civilians in need. Israel hasn't done that.

In fact, there is plenty of evidence that it is sort of engaged in this starvation by bureaucratic obstacle. Their trucks have been waiting three weeks to get in. Then they get sent to the end of the line because Israel finds some vague reason to say, oh, there's a dual use item in there - like crutches or maternity kits - and sends them to the end of the line again. That kind of obstruction has led both Samantha Power, the USAID Administrator, and Cindy McCain, the World Food Program head, to say there is famine in Gaza. Netanyahu opened up a couple of extra border crossings when Biden pressed him, but then negated that promptly by starting the war in southern Gaza and cutting off the two main supplies.

So, that's the evidence of the deliberateness of this obstruction.

—Ken Roth: The ICC’s Arrest Warrant for Netanyahu IS Justified

[dzthenerd490]

News Post

Palestine

Collateral genocide in Nuseirat | Israel-Palestine conflict | Al Jazeera

Thousands gather at White House for pro-Palestinian protest | Protest | The Guardian

Barclays banks across UK targeted by pro-Palestine protesters (bbc.com)

Ukraine

Ukrainian Drones May Have Hit A Second Su-57 Stealth Fighter (forbes.com)

Ukraine claims to have hit Russian air defence systems in occupied Crimea – as it happened | Russia | The Guardian

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Sudan

Sudan on edge of ‘world’s largest humanitarian crisis,’ Cindy McCain warns - POLITICO

El-Fasher: Last civilian hospital in Sudan city closed after RSF attack (bbc.com)

35 children among those killed in latest Sudan civil war carnage, U.N. says - CBS News

[sayruq]

Northern Gaza is experiencing a “full-blown famine”, the head of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has said, and warned that it is “moving its way south”. In an interview with NBC News set to air on Sunday, Cindy McCain said that her remarks are based on what the WFP has seen and experienced on the ground. UN officials and aid agencies have for months warned of such a scenario. “It’s horror. It’s so hard to look at and it’s so hard to hear,” McCain told the US broadcaster’s Meet the Press programme. “What we are asking for and what we continually ask for is a ceasefire and the ability to have unfettered access, to get in safe through the various ports and gate crossings,” she said, according to a video clip of the interview. On Saturday, a delegation from Palestinian group Hamas was in Egypt to continue negotiations on a ceasefire amid an uptick in international pressure for a deal to be reached. Hamas’s spokesman Osama Hamdan said there had been “some forward steps”. Yet Israel has threatened to launch its ground invasion of Rafah in the southernmost tip of the enclave, which is home to more than 1.4 million displaced Palestinians who have fled the Israeli military’s relentless bombardment in other parts of the Gaza Strip. Israel has severely restricted the entry of critical humanitarian supplies into Gaza despite warnings from its allies and the United Nations of a looming famine in parts of the Palestinian territory. Its military has also repeatedly attacked and killed Palestinian civilians waiting to collect aid in the Strip. This week it reopened the Beit Hanoon (Erez) crossing into northern Gaza, but Israeli settlers attacked two aid convoys sent by Jordan. The UN has said the amounts remain insufficient to meet the vast and growing needs of Gaza’s starving population. The UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification has previously warned that more than 70 percent of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is facing “catastrophic hunger” any time between mid-March and May

[kp777]

By Jake Johnson

Common Dreams

Aug. 29, 2024

"This is totally unacceptable and the latest in a series of unnecessary security incidents that have endangered the lives of WFP's team in Gaza."

The World Food Program said Wednesday that it was forced to suspend the movement of its employees in Gaza after the Israeli military fired on one of the United Nations agency's teams as its clearly marked vehicle advanced toward an Israeli checkpoint in the Palestinian enclave.

The agency said in a statement that the WFP team was returning from a mission with two armored vehicles "after escorting a convoy of trucks carrying humanitarian cargo routed to Gaza's central area."

"Despite being clearly marked and receiving multiple clearances by Israeli authorities to approach, the vehicle was directly struck by gunfire as it was moving towards an Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) checkpoint," WFP said. "It sustained at least ten bullets: five on the driver's side, two on the passenger side, and three on other parts of the vehicle. None of the employees onboard were physically harmed."

While the WFP's statement doesn't explicitly attribute the gunfire to Israeli forces, U.N. spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric told reporters Wednesday that the food agency's vehicle was "struck 10 times by IDF gunfire, including with bullets targeting front windows."

Cindy McCain, WFP's executive director, said the attack was "totally unacceptable and the latest in a series of unnecessary security incidents that have endangered the lives of WFP's team in Gaza."

"As last night's events show, the current deconfliction system is failing and this cannot go on any longer," said McCain. "I call on the Israeli authorities and all parties to the conflict to act immediately to ensure the safety and security of all aid workers in Gaza."

The Israeli military's latest attack on aid workers in Gaza came as famine continued to spread across the strip, which Israel has strangled with a blockade that has restricted the flow of food and other necessities.

Kenneth Roth, the former executive director of Human Rights Watch, characterized the WFP attack as part of "Israel's starvation strategy." Israeli forces have repeatedly targeted humanitarian workers in Gaza, making the enclave the most dangerous place in the world for aid agency employees.

Chef José Andrés, the founder of a nonprofit whose Gaza team came under deadly attack by Israeli forces earlier this year, expressed solidarity with the WFP in a social media post late Wednesday.

WFP did not say how long its pause on employee movement would stay in place, but any disruption to the agency's humanitarian operations could be disastrous for starving Palestinians.

In its statement Wednesday, the U.N. food agency said that Israel's "frequent and ongoing evacuation orders continue to uproot both families and food relief operations intended to support them."

"Last week, WFP lost access to its third and last operational warehouse in Gaza's middle area, while five of WFP's operated community kitchens had to be evacuated," the agency said. "This week, on Sunday 25 August, the evacuation orders impacted the main WFP operating hub in Deir al-Balah, forcing our team to relocate for the third time since the war started."