world food programme

A US-based charity said a consignment of almost 200 tons of food aid had reached starving people in northern Gaza on Tuesday, a week after being dispatched via a maritime route from the Cypriot port of Larnaca.

The first day of Ramadan came and went in Gaza, with residents marking a joyless iftar against a backdrop of famine, disease and displacement as the war in the besieged territory ground on more than five months after it began.

As the Muslim world welcomed the start of the holy month on Monday, Gazans faced continued Israeli bombardments and a spiralling humanitarian crisis.

Even then, only some of the most basic needs of the population would be met.
Therefore, the United Nations has warned that famine in the Gaza Strip is "almost inevitable" without decisive action, reports Reuters.

World leaders have called for an investigation and a ceasefire nearly five months into the Gaza war after dozens of desperate Palestinians were killed rushing an aid convoy.

Israel kept up its deadly bombardment of war-torn Gaza as Washington vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution that called for a ceasefire in the Palestinian territory.

Global powers trying to navigate a way out of the spiralling crisis have so far come up short, and mediation efforts have so far failed to secure a truce to halt the fighting.

Nothing can "replace or substitute" the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency, whose staff were implicated in the Hamas attacks on Israel, the U.N.'s coordinator for Gaza aid said Tuesday even as Israel made new claims against it.

Israel kept up its heavy assault on the "encircled" Gazan city of Khan Yunis following an outpouring of grief over the army's deadliest single day since ground operations in the territory began.

Truce between Israel and Hamas enters its sixth day Wednesday after additional hostages were released in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, with mediators pushing for a more "sustainable" ceasefire.

After a 48-hour extension of an initial four-day truce, a new group of 12 hostages was freed from Gaza on Tuesday, with 30 Palestinians released by Israel.

A month after seizing Kabul, the Taliban face daunting problems as they seek to convert their lightning military victory into a durable peacetime government.

The alert level for Afghanistan has been reassessed and raised and Romanian citizens are urged to urgently leave this state's territory and to avoid any travel to Afghanistan, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE) informs on Friday in a press release sent to AGERPRES.