Israel-Hamas war: UN calls for more aid to be allowed into Gaza amid ‘collective punishment’ blockade
Israel must allow more aid into Gaza amid a blockade that is being used to “collectively punish more than two million people”, a UN official has said.
A blockade on the territory has meant dwindling supplies of food, fuel, water and medicine, and both UN and Arab leaders have called for a ceasefire to allow for the entry of more humanitarian aid.
Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner-general of the UN Palestinian Refugee Agency (UNWRA), said public services have collapsed and the region is on the brink of a serious outbreak of disease.
“On a daily basis, our colleagues have to prioritise now because they have to ration the very limited fuel that they still have,” he told Sky News.
“Over the last few days, they had to decrease significantly the amount of fuel they provided to hospitals, to bakeries, to the water station. But in the coming days, if no more fuel is being made available to our colleagues, they will have to take even tougher decisions.
“And I have also warned that we are very close to almost a cessation of our operation because fuel is even needed for us to be able to move the trucks, to bring it in the warehouse, to distribute to the people being scattered in shelters.”
Israel-Gaza latest: Israel conducts ‘sea raid’
Palestinians carry an injured man out of the destruction following Israeli airstrikes on Gaza City. Pic: AP
Mr Lazzarini added: “I think we are on the brink of a serious outbreak of disease. It’s not just a question of the water, but now we have also sewage water in the street.
“People have also their immunity being weakened, people start to be hungry, also the winter is also here, the rainy season is about to arrive and we have tens if not hundreds of thousands of people in the street. This disaster will become a real nightmare and a total catastrophe.”
Earlier, he said: “The siege means that food, water and fuel, all basic commodities, are being used to collectively punish more than two million people.”
Mr Lazzarini said negotiations have only resulted in a handful of trucks making their way into Gaza.
“This will not reverse the fact that Gaza is being strangled,” he added.
Hospitals have found it difficult to source fuel to run emergency generators that power incubators and other life-saving equipment after Israel cut off all fuel deliveries to Gaza at the start of the war, forcing its only power plant to shut down.
Over the last week, Israel has allowed more than 80 trucks with aid to enter from Egypt through the Rafah crossing, the only entry point into Gaza not controlled by Israel.
But aid workers have said the convoys meet only a tiny fraction of the territory’s rising humanitarian needs.
Read more from Sky News:
Border Force teams set up in Egypt to help British citizens – if they can get out of Gaza
All civilian hostages could be freed in days, say negotiators
Satellite data shows Israel intensifying bombing of south Gaza
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‘345 killed in Gaza in last 24 hours’
Sheer scale of destruction
Some 7,300 Palestinians have died in the three weeks after Hamas staged a bloody attack into Israel, according to officials in Gaza.
On Thursday Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said more than 3,000 minors and more than 1,500 women had been killed.
Footage from Sky News showed the scale of destruction caused by Israeli strikes on Gaza, as well as a boy being pulled from the wreckage of the aftermath of an attack.
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‘There is no drinking water’
Around 1.4 million of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have fled their homes, with nearly half crowding into UN shelters.
Hundreds of thousands remain in northern Gaza despite Israel ordering them to evacuate to the south and saying those who remain might be considered “accomplices” of Hamas.
More than 1,400 people were killed in the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October, according to the Israeli government, with at least 229 hostages having been taken into Gaza.
Smoke rises after an Israeli strike on Gaza. Pic: AP
Smoke rises from a residential apartment building in Tel Aviv where a rocket hit after being fired from Gaza
Palestinian militants have fired thousands of rockets into Israel, including one that hit a residential building in Tel Aviv on Friday and injured four people.
An Israeli ground attack on Gaza is expected to cause even higher casualties on both sides as they battle each other in dense residential areas.
World
Trump criticises Putin after potentially ‘historic’ meeting with Zelenskyy before Pope’s funeral
Donald Trump has criticised Vladimir Putin and suggested a shift in his stance towards the Russian president after a meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy before the Pope’s funeral.
The Ukrainian president said the one-on-one talks could prove to be “historic” after pictures showed him sitting opposite Mr Trump, around two feet apart, in the large marble hall inside St Peter’s Basilica.
The US president said he doubted his Russian counterpart’s willingness to end the war after leaving Rome after the funeral of Pope Francis at the Vatican.
Follow live updates: 200,000 mourn at Vatican
In a post on his Truth Social platform, he said “there was no reason” for the Russian president “to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities and towns, over the last few days”.
The two leaders held talks before attending the Pope’s funeral
He added: “It makes me think that maybe he doesn’t want to stop the war, he’s just tapping me along, and has to be dealt with differently, through ‘Banking’ or ‘Secondary Sanctions?’ Too many people are dying!!!”
The meeting between the US and Ukrainian leaders was their first face-to-face encounter since a very public row in the Oval Office in February.
Mr Zelenskyy said he had a good meeting with Mr Trump in which they talked about the defence of the Ukrainian people, a full and unconditional ceasefire, and a durable and lasting peace that would prevent the war restarting.
Other images released by the Ukrainian president’s office show Sir Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron were present for part of the talks, which were described as “positive” by the French presidency.
Mr Zelenskyy‘s spokesman said the meeting lasted for around 15 minutes and he and Mr Trump had agreed to hold further discussions later on Saturday.
The world leaders shared a moment before the service
Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy meet in the Basilica
But the US president left Rome for Washington on Air Force One soon after the funeral without any other talks having taken place.
The Ukrainian president’s office said there was no second meeting in Rome because of the tight schedule of both leaders, although he had separate discussions with Mr Starmer and Mr Macron.
The French president said in a post on X “Ukraine is ready for an unconditional ceasefire” and that a so-called coalition of the willing, led by the UK and France, would continue working to achieve a lasting peace.
There was applause from some of the other world leaders in attendance at the Vatican when Mr Zelenskyy walked out of St Peter’s Basilica after stopping in front of the pontiff’s coffin to pay his respects.
Donald Trump and the Ukrainian president met for the first time since their Oval Office row. Pic: Reuters
Sir Tony Brenton, the former British ambassador to Russia, said the event presents diplomatic opportunities, including the “biggest possible meeting” between Mr Trump and the Ukrainian leader.
He told Sky News it could mark “an important step” in starting the peace process between Russia and Ukraine.
Professor Father Francesco Giordano told Sky News the meeting is being called “Pope Francis’s miracle” by members of the clergy, adding: “There’s so many things that happened today – it was just overwhelming.”
The bilateral meeting comes after Mr Trump’s peace negotiator Steve Witkoff held talks with Mr Putin at the Kremlin.
They discussed “the possibility of resuming direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine”, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said.
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Russia and Ukraine have not held direct talks since the early weeks of the war, which began in February 2022.
Mr Trump has claimed a deal to end the war is “very close” and has urged Mr Zelenskyy to “get it done” in a post on his Truth Social platform.
He has previously warned both sides his administration would walk away from its efforts to achieve a peace if the two sides do not agree a deal soon.
Meanwhile, the Polish armed forces said a Russian military helicopter violated its airspace over the Baltic Sea on Friday evening.
“The nature of the incident indicates that Russia is testing the readiness of our air defence systems,” they said in a post on X.
On an extraordinary day, remarkable pictures on the margins that capture what may be a turning point for the world.
In a corner of St Peter’s Basilica before the funeral of Pope Francis, the leaders of America and Ukraine sit facing each other in two solitary chairs.
They look like confessor and sinner except we cannot tell which one is which.
Leaning forward hands together in their laps, Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy stare at each other in one photo.
In another, the Ukrainian president seems to be remonstrating with the US president. This is their first encounter since their infamous bust-up in the Oval Office.
The two leaders held talks before attending the Pope’s funeral
Other pictures show the moment their French and British counterparts introduced the two men. There is a palpable sense of nervousness in the way the leaders engage.
We do not know what the two presidents said in their brief meeting.
But in the mind of the Ukrainian leader will be the knowledge President Trump has this week said America will reward Russia for its unprovoked brutal invasion of his country, under any peace deal.
Mr Trump has presented Ukraine and Russia with a proposal and ultimatum so one-sided it could have been written in the Kremlin.
Kyiv must surrender the land Russia has taken by force, Crimea forever, the rest at least for now. And it must submit to an act of extortion, a proposed deal that would hand over half its mineral wealth effectively to America.
The world leaders shared a moment before the service
Afterwards, Zelenskyy said it had been a good meeting that could turn out to be historic “if we reach results together”.
They had talked, he said, about the defence of Ukraine, a full and unconditional ceasefire and a durable and lasting peace that will prevent a war restarting.
The Trump peace proposal includes only unspecified security guarantees for Ukraine from countries that do not include the US. It rules out any membership of Ukraine.
Ukraine’s allies are watching closely to see if Mr Trump will apply any pressure on Vladimir Putin, let alone punish him for recent bloody attacks on Ukraine.
Or will he simply walk away if the proposal fails, blaming Ukrainian intransigence, however outrageously, before moving onto a rapprochement with Moscow.
If he does, America’s role as guarantor of international security will be seen effectively as over.
This could be the week we see the world order as we have known it since the end of the Second World War buried, as well as a pope.
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