The 83 security personnel included an advance team of eight soldiers from El Salvador and the first 75 of 150 military police officers from Guatemala.
While the Salvadorans will be providing casualty and medical evacuations in support of the Kenya-led Multinational Security Support mission, the Guatemalans will be joining operations to take down Haiti’s gangs.
(December 24, 2024)
If you have read this far, then you will know why I am here in Gaza. You will understand why my life has been on hold, to do what I can to spend time with my friends, and report on the continued horrors that have engulfed their lives. Report on the families who scream at us in despair, desperate for information on loved ones who have been detained for months. Report on the bodies we see of people around checkpoints, left to be eaten by packs of dogs. Report on toddlers in hospitals with missing limbs after strikes in “humanitarian zones”. Mona’s brother, killed. Hussein’s daughter, killed. Rajaa’s cousin, killed. Are you keeping up with the death? Because we’re not. Here, you’re considered lucky if you actually know if your family are alive.
The journalists on the ground – risking life and limb every day to show the world the horrors consuming their friends, their families, their neighbours. Is the world still looking?
Israeli forces on Friday arrested Ahmed al-Kahlout, who serves as the director of Gaza‘s civil defence in the northern part of the enclave, according to Al Jazeera.
Local officials in the French territory Mayotte fear as many as 1,000 people have died after Tropical Cyclone Chido hit the island off the coast of Mozambique on Saturday. Aerial footage released by the Gendarmerie Nationale shows entire neighborhoods flattened. (Source: Gendarmerie Nationale via Associated Press)
Authorities in Mayotte were racing on Tuesday to get food and water to residents stricken by the weekend‘s devastating cyclone and fighting to stop hunger, disease and lawlessness spreading in the French overseas territory, officials said.
Hundreds or even thousands could be dead in the wreckage of Cyclone Chido, they said. The storm laid waste to large parts of the archipelago off east Africa, which is France‘s poorest overseas territory.
“This is really purely ethnic cleansing. They’re just killing everybody. This is not a targeted operation,” Hani told CNN. “There is nothing left for them. They’re just destroying homes and kicking people out.”
“This is really reliving the Nakba,” Hani added, referring to “the catastrophe” of 1948 – when at least 700,000 Palestinians fled or were forcibly expelled from their homes in historic Palestine, during the creation of Israel.
“Mahmoud, and people like him, were doing God’s work. And that was good enough to put a target on his back,” he said. “He was punished because he was helping people fight the famine.”
– The council condemned Israel‘s aggression in Gaza, and said it reaffirmed its stance demanding an „immediate and permanent cessation of Israeli military operations“ and lifting the blockade on Gaza.
– The council said Israel bears „full responsibility“ for its targeting and assault on civilians in Gaza, and said these attacks were war crimes and crimes against humanity.
– The council welcomed the International Criminal Court‘s decision to issue arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant.
– The council said Israel‘s ongoing war on Gaza is a part of „a genocide and ethnic cleansing agenda“, and condemned Israel‘s attacks on hospitals and on aid workers in Gaza.
The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) leaders convened in Kuwait on Sunday, issuing a unified call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza amid „Israel‘s“ ongoing genocidal campaign.
The summit‘s final statement urged a complete halt to military operations, the delivery of humanitarian aid, and the establishment of safe corridors for civilians in the beleaguered Palestinian territory.
We are heartbroken to share that a vehicle carrying World Central Kitchen colleagues was hit by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza.
At this time, we are working with incomplete information and are urgently seeking more details.
GAZA, 30 November 2024 – It is with profound sadness that we confirm that a staff member of Save the Children was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Khan Younis today, the second Save the Children colleague killed in Gaza since the war began.
Ahmad Faisal Isleem Al-Qadi, 39, had worked for the administrative team in Gaza since May 2024. He was killed early Saturday afternoon as he was returning home to his wife and three-year-old daughter from the mosque. Up to 17 people were reported killed in at least two separate attacks in Khan Younis on Saturday.
GAZA, 25 November 2024 – About 130,000 children aged under 10 have been trapped for 50 days in areas in northern Gaza that are almost entirely inaccessible to aid workers and not receiving food or medical supplies despite warnings of famine, said Save the Children [1].
Children living in North Gaza and Gaza governates have been almost completely cut off from supplies of food, water, and medicine since 6 October 2024 when Israeli forces declared the area to be a closed military zone, with the independent Famine Review Committee (FRC) saying that famine is either imminent or likely already occurring in the area [2].
The UN also warned nearly a month ago that the entire population of North Gaza governorate was at risk of dying yet attempts by aid groups to access the area have been repeatedly denied by Israeli forces.
(September 27, 2024)
The day is dark, the forces arrayed are tenacious, but as the late Nation editorial board member Toni Morrison wrote “No! This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.”
I urge you to stand with The Nation and donate today.
Onwards,
Katrina vanden Heuvel
Editorial Director and Publisher, The Nation
(November 16, 2024)
“Secretary Blinken has continued to lie to Congress and should resign,” she said. “U.S. law is very clear. No nation blocking U.S. humanitarian assistance can receive U.S. weapons. The Biden administration cannot pick and choose when they comply with our own laws.”
“Children are forced to eat pet food and bug infested flour,” she went on. “But Blinken says there is no need to change our own policy. Shameful.”
(October 30, 2024)
The defence ministry told Middle East Eye: “As a matter of principle, we only provide intelligence to our allies where we are satisfied that it will be used in accordance with International Humanitarian Law, and in this instance, only information relating to hostage rescue is passed to the Israeli authorities.”
(…)
Brendan O’Hara, the Scottish National Party’s spokesperson for the Middle East, told MEE it was “inconceivable”, given the scale of the destruction and death in Gaza, that the flights “do not contain footage which would be of significant interest to the investigators from the International Criminal Court”.
(…)
Labour MP Rachael Maskell told MEE: “It is crucial that any intelligence of breaches of international law are shared with the courts so they can assess the evidence and secure justice.”
“I trust that the UK government is working with the international courts to aid them in their work.”
(May 8, 2024)
British spy planes have recorded up to 1,000 hours of footage over Gaza, including from the day Israel assassinated three UK aid workers.
Baalbek-Al-Hermel Governor Bashir Al-Khodr confirmed that rescuers pulled 12 bodies from the rubble, all for paramedics, after an Israeli airstrike hit a civil defense center in Baalbek, where over 20 people were sheltering.
The Lebanese Health Ministry reported that an airstrike on the Shaab neighborhood in Baalbek killed eight people, including five women, and left 27 others wounded.
The ministry added that four other people were killed in attacks on several locations in eastern Lebanon.
The death toll from Israel‘s strike on Baalbek, eastern Lebanon has risen to 15 civil defence members, Baalbek governor Bachir Khodr said on X.
Khodr adds that 10 bodies were identified, while the remaining five were recovered in pieces, requiring DNA testing.
„Mercy to the heroic martyrs and patience to their families,“ he said.
The present report contains information regarding the efforts of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories to implement its mandate and documents human rights concerns in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and the occupied Syrian Golan from October 2023 to July 2024. The Special Committee was not able to conduct visits to the occupied territories, but did conduct its annual consultations in Geneva and undertook a visit to Amman, and met with government officials, United Nations organizations and mechanisms, representatives of civil society organizations, youth representatives, human rights defenders, and Palestinian families.
The report raises serious concerns of breaches of international humanitarian and human rights laws in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including starvation as a weapon of war, the possibility of genocide in Gaza and an apartheid system in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. It documents the impact of the conflict escalation since 7 October 2023 on Palestinians’ rights to food; to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment; to physical integrity, liberty and security of persons; as well as the disproportionate effects on the rights of women, children, and future generations more broadly. The report also highlights the ongoing attacks against the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and refers to developments in the occupied Syrian Golan. The report provides recommendations to the General Assembly and Member States; to the State of Israel; and to businesses operating with Israel, that in any way contribute to maintaining Israel’s unlawful presence in the occupied territories.
(…)
IX. Conclusions
69. The developments in this report lead the Special Committee to conclude that the policies and practices of Israel during the reporting period are consistent with the characteristics of genocide. The targeting of Palestinians as a group; the life-threatening conditions imposed on Palestinians in Gaza through warfare and restrictions on humanitarian aid – resulting in physical destruction, increased miscarriages and stillbirths – and the killing of and serious bodily or mental harm caused to Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, are violations under international law. Civilians have been indiscriminately and disproportionally killed en masse in Gaza, while in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, Israeli colonial settlers, military and security personnel have continued to violate human rights and humanitarian law with impunity. Senior Israeli government and military officials must be held accountable, including for using dehumanizing language and inciting violence.
Less than 48 hours after the Biden administration said it does not believe Israel is unlawfully obstructing humanitarian assistance in Gaza, a United Nations special committee issued a report Thursday arguing that the Israeli military‘s actions in the Palestinian enclave bear „the characteristics of genocide.“
(November 12, 2024)
Last month, the Biden administration—which has approved tens of billions of dollars in military aid for Israel and provided nearly unconditional diplomatic support since October 2023—sent a letter to the Israeli government threatening to cut off U.S. arms transfers if it failed to take „urgent and sustained actions“ to improve humanitarian conditions in Gaza within 30 days.
Asked during a Tuesday press conference if the Israeli government has met the letter‘s demands, State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel said that „we have not made an assessment that they are in violation of U.S. law.“
Victims from airstrikes in Lebanon “overwhelmed the hospital”, the WHO official explained, insisting that it was critical to continue supporting “the only burns centre that’s available in the country. Off the 40 burns patients treated so far “25 per cent of them are children”, he said.
Initially equipped with 10 beds, the Geitaoui Hospital burns centre has had to expand to 25 beds, providing critical care to severely injured patients.
There are enough new trauma kits to treat 50 patients twice; each kit has two modules, one containing medications and other supplies, the other specialist burns treatments and dressings.
Expressing solidarity with Lebanon’s health professionals, the top UN aid coordinator in the country condemned ongoing military targeting of medical personnel and infrastructure, including ambulances which are “very much under attack”.
“We need to be supporting them with supplies, we need to be supporting them also need with advocacy,” said Imran Riza, UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Lebanon. “There have been great violations of international humanitarian law that we are seeing. So, we need to make sure these are not happening, that health care workers can do what they‘re there for, helping people and saving lives.”
(archive entries)
No food has entered northern Gaza since the start of October, putting 1 million people at risk of going hungry, the World Food Programme told CNN on Friday.
Thousands of Lebanese and Syrian people are fleeing Lebanon for Syria in desperation as Israeli airstrikes continue to devastate civilian lives. UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is scaling up its support to the growing number of displaced people.
Hundreds of vehicles are backed up in queues at the Syrian border. Many people are also arriving on foot, carrying what they can. Large crowds, including women, young children and babies are waiting in line after spending the night outdoors in falling temperatures. Some carry fresh injuries from the recent bombardments.
The U.S. government’s handling of USAID’s memo led to internal conflict, with one official in the State Department, Stacy Gilbert, resigning in May over Blinken’s statement to Congress.
“There is abundant evidence showing Israel is responsible for blocking aid,” Gilbert wrote in a statement at the time. “To deny this is absurd and shameful. That report and its flagrant untruths will haunt us.” (mehr …)
Blinken’s decision allowed the U.S. to keep sending arms to Israel. Under U.S. law, the government is required to cut off weapons shipments to countries preventing the delivery of U.S.-backed aid.
Blinken told Congress, “We do not currently assess that the Israeli government is prohibiting or otherwise restricting” aid, even though the U.S. Agency for International Development and others had determined that Israel had broken the law.
Shortly after departing Kerem Shalom, initial reports indicate that four community members with experience in previous missions and engagement in community security with Move One stepped forward and requested to take command of the leading vehicle, citing concern that the route was unsafe and at risk of being looted.
The four community members were neither vetted nor coordinated in advance, and Israeli authorities allege that the lead car was carrying numerous weapons. The Israeli airstrike was carried out without any prior warning or communication.
“According to all the information we have, this is a case of partners on the ground endeavoring to deliver aid successfully,” says Anera President and CEO Sean Carroll. “This should not come at the cost of people’s lives.”
No Anera staff were harmed, though one Anera employee, who was in the second vehicle, witnessed the incident at close range.
The Anera convoy was carrying medical supplies and fuel to a hospital in Rafah, and its route was coordinated in advance with the IDF.
The World Food Program said it is suspending deliveries of aid in Gaza after one of its humanitarian teams was hit by gunfire this week as it approached an Israeli military checkpoint.
In a statement, the United Nations agency said none of its employees were injured during the shooting on Tuesday night, which occurred after a convoy of its trucks had delivered assistance to central Gaza. The agency said one of its vehicles had been hit by 10 bullets — five on the driver’s side — a few yards from the Israeli security post at the Wadi Gaza bridge.
The plight of Gaza’s people continues to worsen in the enclave where humanitarian operations are “ongoing where feasible” amid repeated evacuation orders from the Israeli military, the UN aid coordination office, OCHA, warned on Tuesday.
In an update, OCHA spokesperson Jens Laerke rejected any suggestion of stopping the lifesaving aid operation, despite the multiple challenges linked to the war and ongoing fighting, sparked by Hamas-led terror attacks in Israel on 7 October.
“There’s been no decision to halt, there never has been, we’ve been there for 10 months, so [it is] ongoing where feasible. I want to remind you that only 11 per cent of the territory of the Gaza Strip is not under evacuation orders…so we’re trying to work with that number and keep the operation going.”
„We‘re unable to deliver today with the conditions that we‘re in,“ a senior UN official told Reuters. „As of this morning, we‘re not operating in Gaza.“
„Where do we move now?“ the official said, adding that staff were forced to move so quickly that equipment was left behind.
“I can’t explain these feelings,” Mr. al-Qadi’s brother said in a video shared by Israel’s official account on X, taken before he saw him again. “It’s better than being born again.”
The 52-year-old, a Muslim and member of Israel’s Bedouin community, is from a village near Rahat, in southern Israel. He was working as a security guard in a small Israeli kibbutz, called Magen, near the Gaza border, when he was abducted, according to Israel officials.
Hagari denied rumors that al-Qadi managed to escape the tunnel in which he was held, saying that troops “rescued Farhan from underground, he met our forces underground.”
Al-Qadi was not discovered by Israeli special forces “by chance” as some reports described, although there was no pre-planned operation to specifically rescue him, military sources said.
Israel is in violation of a White House directive requiring recipients of American military assistance to comply with international humanitarian law and permit the unimpeded delivery of U.S.-funded humanitarian support, USAID officials concluded in a confidential United States paper reviewed by Devex.
The findings earlier this month follow the Feb. 8 issuance of a national security memo from the White House instructing U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to “obtain credible and reliable written assurances” from U.S. weapons recipients that they will abide by international humanitarian law, and report those findings to the White House and Congress. In Israel’s case, it would only apply to offensive weapons.
(two hours ago)
Tess Ingram, a UNICEF spokesperson, was in a convoy hit by Israeli gunfire as it tried to deliver aid to northern Gaza.
She said the vehicles were at a “holding point” – a designated area where cars have to wait until a checkpoint is ready to receive them.
“We were waiting there when gunfire broke out in the vicinity. The gunfire came from the direction of the checkpoint towards civilians who then ran away from the checkpoint and the gunfire hit us,” Ingram told Al Jazeera.
“We were really lucky,” she said, adding three rounds hit the car where she was sitting.
Biden forderte, dass Israel zu einem Waffenstillstand aufrufe, um den vollständigen Zugang zu Nahrungsmitteln und Medikamenten im Gazastreifen zu ermöglichen.
Derweil treibt Israel sein Vorhaben für eine Bodenoffensive in der Stadt Rafah im Süden Gazas offenbar voran.
“What I’m calling for is for the Israelis to just call for a ceasefire, allow for the next six, eight weeks total access to all food and medicine going into the country. I’ve spoken with everyone from the Saudis to the Jordanians to the Egyptians. They’re prepared to move in. They’re prepared to move this food in. And I think there’s no excuse to not provide for the medical and the food needs of those people. It should be done now,” Biden said in the interview.
The comments came in the lead up to ..
In a resolution (A/HRC/55/L.30) on the Human rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, and the obligation to ensure accountability and justice, adopted by a vote of 28 in favour, 6 against and 13 abstentions (as orally revised), the Council demands that Israel, the occupying power, end its occupation of the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem; also demands that Israel immediately lift its blockade on the Gaza Strip and all other forms of collective punishment; calls for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, for immediate emergency humanitarian access and assistance, and for the urgent restoration of basic necessities to the Palestinian population in Gaza; calls upon all States to take immediate action to prevent the continued forcible transfer of Palestinians within or from Gaza; calls upon all States to cease the sale, transfer and diversion of arms, munitions and other military equipment to Israel; urges all States to continue to provide emergency assistance to the Palestinian people and calls upon all States to ensure that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East receives predictable sustained and sufficient funding to fulfil its mandate; invites the General Assembly to recommend that the Government of Switzerland promptly convene the Conference of High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Convention on measures to enforce the Convention in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem; requests the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel to report on both the direct and indirect transfer or sale of arms, munitions, parts, components and dual use items to Israel, the occupying power, and to analyse the legal consequences of these transfers, and to present its report to the Council at its fifty-ninth session; requests the Secretary-General to ensure the availability of all additional resources, including through voluntary resources, necessary to enable the Commission of Inquiry to carry out its mandate; requests the Office of the High Commissioner to deploy the additional necessary personnel, expertise and logistics to the occupied Palestinian territory country office to document and pursue accountability for violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law committed in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem; and requests the High Commissioner for Human Rights to report on the implementation of the present resolution to the Council at its fifty-eighth session, to be followed by an interactive dialogue; and decides to remain seized of the matter.
The results of the vote are as follows:
In favour (28): Algeria, Bangladesh, Belgium, Brazil, Burundi, Chile, China, Cote d’Ivoire, Cuba, Eritrea, Finland, Gambia, Ghana, Honduras, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Maldives, Morocco, Qatar, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, United Arab Emirates, and Viet Nam.
Against(6): Argentina, Bulgaria, Germany, Malawi, Paraguay and United States.
Abstentions (13): Albania, Benin, Cameroon, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, France, Georgia, India, Japan, Lithuania, Montenegro, Netherlands, and Romania.
(05.04.2024)
The UN’s top human rights body adopted a resolution on Friday condemning the alleged “use of starvation of civilians as a method of warfare in Gaza”, while also calling for an arms embargo on Israel.
(03.04.2024)
Calling Israel “an extension of European colonialism”, Ahmed Abofoul, a Legal Expert at Al-Haq, said that South Africa’s case before the International Court of Justice represents the Global South’s impatience with Western hypocrisy. He criticized the West’s relentless campaign of distorting international law to support their stance — an example is the right to self-defence. There is no doubt that an occupying Power does not have the right to self-defence against the people it is occupying, as those people, according to international humanitarian law, have the right to self-defence. The West’s complicity has made Gaza “not only a graveyard of children but a graveyard of international law”, he asserted. On the UNRWA accusations, he observed that Western democracies moved fast to suspend funding without waiting for evidence, only to discover later that Israel was lying.
„Your – your question presumes, at this very early hour, that it was a deliberate strike, that they knew exactly what they were hitting, that they were hitting aid workers and did it on purpose. And there’s no evidence of that,“ Kirby told the reporter.
„I would also remind you, sir, that we continue to look at incidents as they occur. The State Department has a process in place. And to date, as you and I are speaking, they have not found any incidents where the Israelis have violated international humanitarian law.“
(04.04.2024)
This was not just a bad luck situation where, ‚Oops, we dropped a bomb in the wrong place,'“ Andrés told the Reuters news agency, stressing that his team‘s vehicles were clearly marked and „it‘s very clear who we are and what we do.“
„They were targeting us in a deconflicting zone, in an area controlled by IDF. They, knowing that it was our teams moving on that road… with three cars,“ he said, adding that he believed the seven aid workers killed by the strike in Gaza were targeted „systematically, car by car.“
(03.04.2024)
„For her it was the perfect job, she got to serve hot meals to people who were having maybe the lowest point of their lives,“ her friend Bryan Weaver told Reuters.
„She made you feel like you were the only person in the room.
In a statement, her family said Zomi left behind a legacy of compassion, bravery and love.
(02.04.2024)
Despite coordinating movements with the IDF, the convoy was hit as it was leaving the Deir al-Balah warehouse, where the team had unloaded more than 100 tons of humanitarian food aid brought to Gaza on the maritime route.
“This is not only an attack against WCK, this is an attack on humanitarian organizations showing up in the most dire of situations where food is being used as a weapon of war. This is unforgivable,” said World Central Kitchen CEO Erin Gore.
The seven killed are from Australia, Poland, United Kingdom, a dual citizen of the U.S. and Canada, and Palestine.
“IDF soldiers too often delay or deny convoys from crossing checkpoints, with rejected requests for safe passage, searches, detentions and sometimes violence against aid convoys and awaiting crowds,” it added.
The aid missions included: food distributions, fuel, emergency medical teams movement and delivery of supplies to hospitals; and support for water, sanitation, and hygiene activities, the UN agency said
– Since 1 March, 30 per cent of humanitarian aid missions to northern Gaza and 10 per cent of missions to southern Gaza were denied access by the Israeli authorities.
– Nearly 40 per cent of school buildings in Gaza have been directly hit, according to an updated assessment of satellite imagery by the Education Cluster.
Tens of thousands of pro-Palestine demonstrators have taken to the streets in several European cities on Saturday, including London, Paris, Berlin, Copenhagen and Amsterdam, as well as elsewhere.
Marches called for allowing aid into the besieged Gaza Strip and demanded a ceasefire, as they also commemorated the 48th anniversary of Land Day.
Israeli jets on Sunday launched several strikes near the Shifa Hospital, which largely stopped functioning following the November raid. After claiming that Hamas maintained an elaborate command center there, Israeli forces months ago exposed a single tunnel leading to a few underground rooms.
Hardly any aid has been delivered in recent weeks to northern Gaza and Gaza City, where Shifa is located.
In a post on social media platform X, Philippe Lazzarini said Israeli authorities informed the UN of the decision, which he called „outrageous“.
„As of today, Unrwa, the main lifeline for Palestine Refugees, is denied from providing lifesaving assistance to northern Gaza,“ Lazzarini said.
„At least nine martyrs and dozens injured by Israeli occupation army tank fire and shells. They were waiting for aid trucks at the Kuwait roundabout“ on the outskirts of Gaza City, a health ministry statement said.
Israel‘s military said it was looking into the report.
North Sinai‘s governor, Mohamed Shousha, said 7,000 aid trucks are waiting to deliver aid into Gaza.
Shousha said in a statement that Israel‘s inspection rules had delayed the flow of aid into Gaza.
“Here from this crossing, we see the heartbreak and heartlessness of it all,” he said, pointing to a long line of blocked relief trucks on one side of the gates and the “long shadow of starvation on the other”.
“That is more than tragic; moral outrage,” he said, adding that “any further onslaught will make everything worse” for Palestinian civilians, hostages and all people of the region.
All this demonstrates that it’s more than time for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire and for “an ironclad commitment by Israel for total, unfettered access for humanitarian goods throughout Gaza”, he said, emphasizing that in the Ramadan spirit of compassion, it’s time for the immediate release of all hostages.
He also urged all UN Member States to support the “lifesaving work led by the backbone of all Gaza relief operations, UNRWA”, the UN relief agency for Palestine refugees.
Pledging to continue working with Egypt to streamline the flow of aid, he had a message for Palestinians in Gaza: “you are not alone.”