International

Frustration as Gaza aid fails to reach most needy

Published

11 months ago

August 3, 2025

Frustration as Gaza aid fails to reach most needy

PARIS: The trickle of food aid Israel allows to enter Gaza after nearly 22 months of war is seized by Palestinians risking their lives under fire, looted by gangs or diverted in chaotic circumstances rather than reaching those most in need, UN agencies, aid groups and analysts say.

After images of malnourished children stoked an international outcry, aid has started to be delivered to the territory once more but on a scale deemed woefully insufficient by international organizations.

Every day, AFP correspondents on the ground see desperate crowds rushing toward food convoys or the sites of aid drops by Arab and European air forces.

On Thursday, in Al-Zawayda in central Gaza, emaciated Palestinians rushed to pallets parachuted from a plane, jostling and tearing packages from each other in a cloud of dust.

“Hunger has driven people to turn on each other. People are fighting each other with knives,” Amir Zaqot, who came seeking aid, told AFP.

To avoid disturbances, World Food Programme (WFP) drivers have been instructed to stop before their intended destination and let people help themselves. But to no avail.

“A truck wheel almost crushed my head, and I was injured retrieving the bag,” sighed a man, carrying a bag of flour on his head, in the Zikim area, in the northern Gaza Strip.

Mohammad Abu Taha went at dawn to a distribution site near Rafah in the south to join the queue and reserve his spot. He said there were already “thousands waiting, all hungry, for a bag of flour or a little rice and lentils.”

“Suddenly, we heard gunshots….. There was no way to escape. People started running, pushing and shoving each other, children, women, the elderly,” said the 42-year-old. “The scene was truly tragic: blood everywhere, wounded, dead.”

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Nearly 1,400 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip while waiting for aid since May 27, the majority by the Israeli army, the United Nations said on Friday.

The Israeli army denies any targeting, insisting it only fires “warning shots” when people approach too close to its positions.

International organizations have for months condemned the restrictions imposed by the Israeli authorities on aid distribution in Gaza, including refusing to issue border crossing permits, slow customs clearance, limited access points, and imposing dangerous routes.

On Tuesday, in Zikim, the Israeli army “changed loading plans for WFP, mixing cargo unexpectedly. The convoy was forced to leave early, without proper security,” said a senior UN official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

In the south of Gaza, at the Kerem Shalom border crossing, “there are two possible routes to reach our warehouses (in central Gaza),” said an NGO official, who also preferred to remain anonymous. “One is fairly safe, the other is regularly the scene of fighting and looting, and that’s the one we’re forced to take.”

Some of the aid is looted by gangs — who often directly attack warehouses — and diverted to traders who resell it at exorbitant prices, according to several humanitarian sources and experts.

“It becomes this sort of Darwinian social experiment of the survival of the fittest,” said Muhammad Shehada, visiting fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR).

“People who are the most starved in the world and do not have the energy must run and chase after a truck and wait for hours and hours in the sun and try to muscle people and compete for a bag of flour,” he said.

Jean Guy Vataux, emergency coordinator for Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Gaza, added: “We’re in an ultra-capitalist system, where traders and corrupt gangs send kids to risk life and limb at distribution points or during looting. It’s become a new profession.”

This food is then resold to “those who can still afford it” in the markets of Gaza City, where the price of a 25-kilogramme bag of flour can exceed $400, he added.

Israel has repeatedly accused Hamas of looting aid supplied by the UN, which has been delivering the bulk of aid.

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The Israeli authorities have used this accusation to justify the total blockade they imposed on Gaza between March and May, and the subsequent establishment of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a private organization supported by Israel and the United States which has become the main aid distributor, sidelining UN agencies.

However, for more than two million inhabitants of Gaza the GHF has just four distribution points, which the UN describes as a “death trap.”

“Hamas… has been stealing aid from the Gaza population many times by shooting Palestinians,” said the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday.

But according to senior Israeli military officials quoted by the New York Times on July 26, Israel “never found proof” that the group had “systematically stolen aid” from the UN.

Weakened by the war with Israel which has seen most of its senior leadership killed, Hamas today is made up of “basically decentralized autonomous cells” said Shehada.

He said while Hamas militants still hunker down in each Gaza neighborhood in tunnels or destroyed buildings, they are not visible on the ground “because Israel has been systematically going after them.”

Aid workers told AFP that during the ceasefire that preceded the March blockade, the Gaza police — which includes many Hamas members — helped secure humanitarian convoys, but that the current power vacuum was fostering insecurity and looting.

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“UN agencies and humanitarian organizations have repeatedly called on Israeli authorities to facilitate and protect aid convoys and storage sites in our warehouses across the Gaza Strip,” said Bushra Khalidi, policy lead at Oxfam.

“These calls have largely been ignored,” she added.

The Israeli army is also accused of having equipped Palestinian criminal networks in its fight against Hamas and of allowing them to plunder aid.

“The real theft of aid since the beginning of the war has been carried out by criminal gangs, under the watch of Israeli forces, and they were allowed to operate in proximity to the Kerem Shalom crossing point into Gaza,” Jonathan Whittall, Palestinian territories chief of the UN humanitarian office (OCHA), told reporters in May.

According to Israeli and Palestinian media reports, an armed group called the Popular Forces, made up of members of a Bedouin tribe led by Yasser Abu Shabab, is operating in the southern region under Israeli control.

The ECFR describes Abu Shabab as leading a “criminal gang operating in the Rafah area that is widely accused of looting aid trucks.”

The Israeli authorities themselves acknowledged in June that they had armed Palestinian gangs opposed to Hamas, without directly naming the one led by Abu Shabab.

Michael Milshtein, head of the Palestinian Studies Forum at the Moshe Dayan Center of Tel Aviv University, said many of the gang’s members were implicated in “all kinds of criminal activities, drug smuggling, and things like that.”

“None of this can happen in Gaza without the approval, at least tacit, of the Israeli army,” said a humanitarian worker in Gaza, asking not to be named.

Frustration as Gaza aid fails to reach most needy

ARAB NEWS

International

‘Britain Is Not Ungovernable’ — Badenoch Attacks Starmer Following Resignation

Published

21 hours ago

June 23, 2026

Trends Admin

‘Britain Is Not Ungovernable’ — Badenoch Attacks Starmer Following Resignation

Leader of the UK Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch, has launched a blistering attack on outgoing Prime Minister Keir Starmer, describing him as “a terrible Prime Minister” following his shock resignation after less than two years in office. Starmer announced his resignation on Monday, June 22, after months of mounting political pressure, poor electoral performances, and growing public dissatisfaction. The announcement came after Labour suffered heavy losses in local council elections in May, shedding more than 1,000 seats, and following intense pressure from senior cabinet ministers urging him to set out an exit timetable. Starmer’s departure makes him the sixth UK prime minister in a decade to announce a premature departure from office.

Reacting in a post on X, Badenoch blamed Starmer’s administration for what she described as a series of policy failures, insisting Britain was “not ungovernable.” She accused the Labour government of hiking National Insurance contributions, introducing what she called the “Family Farm Tax,” abandoning meaningful welfare reforms, underfunding defence, failing to expand domestic oil and gas production, and appointing Peter Mandelson before allegedly misleading the public about the circumstances. “Hiking national insurance. The Family Farm Tax. Giving up on real welfare reform. Not funding our defence. Not drilling our own oil and gas. Appointing Peter Mandelson… then lying about what had happened,” she wrote. “Britain is not ungovernable. Keir Starmer is a terrible Prime Minister,” she declared.

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The Conservative leader argued that the problem extended beyond Starmer personally, accusing Labour lawmakers of prioritising higher taxes to fund increased welfare spending. “But the problem isn’t just Starmer. Labour MPs only want higher taxes to hand out more benefits, as the Welfare Secretary has pointed out. These are Labour’s choices and their values, regardless of who is running the party,” Badenoch added. She called for a return to Conservative leadership, saying, “We need to get Britain working again. We need the Conservatives.”

In his resignation speech outside 10 Downing Street, the outgoing prime minister said every decision he took had been motivated by putting Britain first and pledged to remain in office until Labour elects a new leader. He became emotional and broke down in tears as he finished his speech, thanking his wife, Vic, for her support and expressing his desire to spend more time with his family. “The question my party is asking now is whether I am best placed to lead us into the next general election,” Starmer said. “I have heard the answer of my parliamentary party to that question, and I accept that answer with good grace.” He revealed that nominations for the Labour leadership would open on July 9 and close before Parliament’s summer recess on July 16, with the transition expected to be completed by September.

Former Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, who was sworn in as MP for Makerfield hours after Starmer’s resignation, has already announced he will put himself forward for the leadership. His main rival, former Health Secretary Wes Streeting, has withdrawn from the race and endorsed Burnham, clearing his path to become the next Prime Minister. Burnham, 56, has pledged to focus on economic growth, the cost-of-living crisis, public services, housing, and opportunities for younger generations. If elected, he would have to resign as mayor of Greater Manchester, a post he has held since 2017, triggering an early election for that office. Britain is set to have its seventh prime minister in a decade, underlining the political instability that has characterised the country since the Brexit referendum in 2016.

‘Britain Is Not Ungovernable’ — Badenoch Attacks Starmer Following Resignation

International

Andy Burnham Declares Bid to Succeed Keir Starmer as UK Prime Minister

Published

2 days ago

June 22, 2026

Trends Admin

Andy Burnham Declares Bid to Succeed Keir Starmer as UK Prime Minister

Former Greater Manchester mayor launches leadership bid after Starmer’s resignation, with Wes Streeting backing him and a radical plan to reverse privatisation.

Andy Burnham has formally declared his candidacy to succeed Keir Starmer as Leader of the Labour Party and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, hours after being sworn into the House of Commons on Monday. In a post on X, Burnham thanked Starmer for his service and said his resignation “marks the beginning of a transition and it is important that this process is conducted in an orderly and responsible way. I will put myself forward as part of this process.” He further stated that “the country expects stability, seriousness and a continued focus on the issues that matter most,” specifically citing progress on economic growth, the cost of living, public services, housing, and opportunities for the next generation. He emphasised that political change should never distract from the responsibility to improve people’s lives.

The path to a coronation appeared to clear further on Monday after former Health Secretary Wes Streeting, until recently considered a leading contender for the leadership, announced he would back Burnham rather than mount a rival challenge. Streeting said he was convinced that Burnham “is committed to building an inclusive party that draws on the best of our political traditions and that he can win the fight of our lives against the force of nationalism.” Calling for unity, Streeting urged the party to avoid spending the summer exaggerating small differences and instead roll up their sleeves to help Burnham deliver the change the party and the country need.

Burnham, 56, secured his return to Parliament last Thursday after decisively winning the Makerfield by-election in north-western England, a seat he needed to mount a formal leadership bid. He had signalled his intentions in his victory speech, warning that Labour had a “final chance to change” and pledging to “lay out a new path for Britain.” Under Labour rules, Starmer will remain caretaker Prime Minister until the new leader is chosen, with the leadership process expected to launch in July and a successor in place by September ahead of the party’s annual autumn conference. Should Burnham prevail, he would become the United Kingdom’s seventh prime minister since the Brexit vote in 2016.

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At the heart of Burnham’s political platform is “Manchesterism,” an approach centred on local delivery, integrated public services, and a more active state. Drawing on his record as Mayor of Greater Manchester—where he introduced the Bee Network to re-regulate buses and standardise fares—Burnham argues that reasserting public control over essential services can deliver better outcomes for less money. A policy paper titled The Productive State, released on Monday by the Labour group Mainstream, provides a detailed blueprint for this agenda. It argues for a framework to reverse 40 years of privatisation, particularly in failing utilities, through measures such as special administration regimes, where the government steps in when companies like Thames Water face financial distress; bond-for-share exchanges, which would allow the state to bring healthy utility companies into public control without a massive upfront cash expense (though this would require legislation and likely face legal challenges); and establishing state competitors by setting up public corporations to compete with private providers. The essay argues that privatisation has led to a “privatisation premium”—a regressive hidden tax embedded in everyday bills that transfers wealth from households to investors. The state is then forced to subsidise inflated costs with welfare transfers, such as housing benefit or energy bill support. The paper contends that for millions of households, the basic non-negotiable expenses of life—rent, energy bills, water charges, transport fares, the cost of care—now consume so large a share of their income that insecurity has become a permanent condition. The ultimate goal, the paper states, is “an economy … in which the essentials of life are treated as rights rather than revenue streams”.

The Labour leadership contest appears increasingly likely to be uncontested, with Streeting’s endorsement removing Burnham’s most prominent rival. Reports indicate Burnham has secured the backing of over 200 MPs, with some allies suggesting the number could be closer to 300. Under Labour Party rules, a challenger needs nominations from at least 20% of the parliamentary party (currently 81 MPs) to force a contest. With Streeting withdrawing and Burnham’s support surging, a “coronation”-style transfer of power is now the most probable outcome. However, some MPs have expressed a desire for Burnham’s ideas to face “scrutiny” through a contested race.

Burnham’s policy platform can be broken down across several key areas. On utilities and privatisation, he proposes reversing 40 years of privatisation through bond-for-share exchanges and special administration regimes to bring failing utilities under public control, arguing that privatisation has created a “privatisation premium” that makes essentials unaffordable and drains public finances. On housing, he advocates a massive expansion of social housing and reform of the housing market to tackle the housing crisis and reduce the cost of housing benefit. On the economy and taxation, he proposes exploring a wealth tax, offering tax cuts for small businesses, and borrowing for investment, seeking to stimulate economic growth while addressing inequality. On devolution and governance, he champions radical devolution of powers to local governments and reform of the first-past-the-post voting system, aiming to address resentment towards the “London-centric” establishment and give more power to communities.

Looking ahead, the Labour Party’s leadership contest is expected to be formally triggered in July, with a new leader in place by September. If Burnham is the sole candidate, he could potentially take over sooner. However, the political climate remains turbulent, with Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party posing a significant challenge, particularly in the “Red Wall” seats that Labour needs to retain. Burnham’s ability to navigate the fiscal constraints of the Treasury, market concerns, and the threat from the right will be crucial to his success if he enters No 10. For now, his “Manchesterism” pitch has put him firmly in the driver’s seat to become the UK’s next Prime Minister.

Andy Burnham Declares Bid to Succeed Keir Starmer as UK Prime Minister

International

Trump Predicts Starmer’s Resignation, Blames UK PM’s Immigration, Energy Policies

Published

2 days ago

June 21, 2026

Trends Admin

United States President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer

Trump Predicts Starmer’s Resignation, Blames UK PM’s Immigration, Energy Policies

United States President Donald Trump has sparked fresh political debate in Britain after predicting that UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer will eventually resign from office, citing what he described as failures in tackling two of the country’s most pressing challenges — immigration and energy policy.

Trump made the remarks in a post published on his Truth Social platform, where he criticised Starmer’s handling of border control and the British government’s approach to energy production.

“Keir Starmer will resign as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He failed badly on two very important subjects – immigration and energy (open North Sea oil!). I wish him well!” Trump wrote.

The statement marks the latest in a series of public criticisms directed by the American president at the British leader and comes at a time when Starmer is facing growing political scrutiny at home.

Trump has repeatedly argued that Britain should increase oil and gas exploration in the North Sea, insisting that greater domestic energy production would strengthen the economy, improve energy security and reduce dependence on external energy sources.

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The US president has also been vocal in his criticism of policies aimed at accelerating the transition to renewable energy, warning that excessive reliance on green energy initiatives could weaken industrial competitiveness and drive up costs for consumers and businesses.

His latest comments reflect a broader disagreement between Washington and London over energy priorities. While the Starmer government has maintained its commitment to achieving net-zero carbon emissions and expanding clean energy infrastructure, Trump has consistently advocated for increased fossil fuel production and energy independence.

The American leader’s intervention comes as political pressure continues to mount on the Labour government.

In recent weeks, reports from British media have pointed to increasing concerns within the ruling Labour Party over the government’s performance, electoral standing and long-term political direction.

Several ministers have reportedly stepped down from government positions in recent months, while growing calls have emerged from within Labour ranks for greater clarity regarding Starmer’s future leadership plans.

The pressure intensified following a strong by-election performance by Labour figure Andy Burnham, whose political success has fuelled speculation about possible leadership changes within the party.

Supporters of Burnham argue that his electoral appeal demonstrates an ability to reconnect with voters and challenge the growing influence of rival political movements, particularly Reform UK, which has continued to gain traction among disaffected voters.

Reports in the British press have suggested that some Labour lawmakers have privately encouraged discussions about a future leadership transition, while others have urged Starmer to provide assurances regarding his political intentions ahead of future elections.

Despite the speculation, there has been no official indication from Downing Street that the Prime Minister intends to resign.

Starmer has publicly maintained that he remains committed to leading the government and continuing the implementation of Labour’s policy agenda.

Political analysts note that Trump’s remarks are unusual because they go beyond criticism of government policy and directly predict the departure of a sitting foreign leader.

The comments have also reignited debate about the future of Britain’s energy strategy, immigration policies and the political challenges facing the Labour government as it seeks to maintain public support amid economic and social pressures.

Observers say the Prime Minister’s ability to manage internal party concerns, address voter dissatisfaction and deliver on key policy promises could prove crucial in determining the stability of his leadership in the months ahead.

For now, Starmer remains in office, but Trump’s intervention has added a new international dimension to an already intense political debate over the future direction of British politics.

As discussions over immigration, energy security and economic growth continue to dominate public discourse, the exchange between the two leaders is likely to remain a major talking point on both sides of the Atlantic.