Middle East latest: Gaza aid airdrops a ‘smokescreen’ and ‘distraction’, says UN agency chief

Gaza latest

Quarter of young children and pregnant women ‘malnourished’As pressure grows on UK leader to recognise Palestinian stateWith MP leading calls warning ‘time is running out’Explained: What recognising Palestinian state actually meansIsrael approves airdrops of aid into GazaBut UN agency chief says move is ‘smokescreen’Watch: British surgeon claims IDF shooting civiliansLive updates by Jake Levison

18:57:06 Watch: Bob Geldof accuses Israeli authorities of ‘lying’ about starvation in Gaza

Bob Geldof has accused the Israeli authorities of “lying” about starvation in Gaza – after Israel’s government spokesperson claimed there was “no famine caused by Israel”.

Earlier this week, David Mencer claimed that Hamas “starves its own people” while on The News Hour with Mark Austin, denying that Israel was responsible for mass hunger in Gaza.

Appearing on Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips, Geldof said the claims are false.

He said: “They’re lying. [Benjamin] Netanyahu lies, is a liar. The IDF are lying. They’re dangling food in front of starving, panicked, exhausted mothers.

“And while they arrive to accept the tiny amount of food that this sort of set up pantomime outfit, the Gaza Humanitarian Front, I would call it, as they dangle it, then they’re shot wantonly.”

You can read more on the story by clicking on the link below…

18:15:33 Latest child to starve to death weighed less than when she was born

The mother of the latest child to starve to death in Gaza says she weighed less than when she was born.

Zainab Abu Halib weighed under 4.4 pounds when her mum brought her to the paediatric department of Nasser Hospital yesterday.

She had already died of what a doctor said was a case of “severe, severe starvation”.

Her mother, Esraa Abu Halib, said she weighed over 6.6 pounds when she was born.

Zainab is one of at least 85 children to have died of malnutrition-related causes in Gaza in the past three weeks, according to the territory’s health ministry.

Dr Ahmed al-Farah, head of the paediatric department, said the girl had needed a special type of formula that helps with babies allergic to cow’s milk.

The child’s family live in a tent, having been displaced during the 21-month war.

Ms Abu Halib, who has also suffered from malnutrition, said she breastfed the girl for only six weeks before trying to feed her formula.

“With my daughter’s death, many will follow,” she said. “Their names are on a list that no one looks at. They are just names and numbers. We are just numbers. Our children, whom we carried for nine months and then gave birth to, have become just numbers.”

17:40:48 Watch: Inside Gaza hospital where there’s virtually no food for malnourished children

Huda, 12, is a patient at Nasser Hospital. But with almost no food left, medics are struggling to treat the children and toddlers.

Watch our international correspondent John Sparks’s report detailing the conditions there…

17:06:29 ‘Stop Trump, free Gaza’: Protesters in Scotland hold pro-Palestinian signs

Donald Trump’s visit to Scotland this weekend has sparked protests in Edinburgh and Aberdeen.

Demonstrators have spoken out against the US president while he’s been playing golf on his Turnberry course.

They have been holding signs about many of their concerns regarding Trump, from his immigration policies to his links to disgraced paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

And many of them have been seen holding signs reading “Stop Trump, free Gaza”.

Protester Gabriele Negro, an Italian who works at the University of Edinburgh, told the PA news agency he was there to send a signal that he, like others, did not agree with Trump’s immigration policies and stance on Gaza.

Similarly fellow protester Cat Cutmore, 31, said it was her deep concerns over Gaza and what she sees as the US president’s attacks on democratic principles which led her to join the demonstrations.

16:36:56 Priority must be aid to innocent civilians, says Priti Patel

We’ve just had some reaction from the other side of the political divide in the UK.

While Sir Keir Starmer has so far resisted calls to recognise Palestinian statehood, the opposition is focusing on aid deliveries.

Priti Patel, the shadow foreign secretary, said the government needs to be “leveraging its influence” and “considerable aid expertise” for “practical solutions that alleviate the dire and deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza”.

“The priority must be to get as much aid in as possible, delivered safely and exclusively to innocent civilians,” she said.

“Diplomacy is about finding solutions, not just issuing condemnations.”

She added she has “repeatedly” pressed the foreign secretary to “ask him what specific and deliverable solutions he is trying to advance on aid”, and what “interventions he is making to help secure the release of hostages”.

16:02:24 Starmer says Israel ‘must allow aid’ into Gaza

Sir Keir Starmer has given an update on X, saying Israel “must allow aid in over land to end the starvation unfolding in Gaza”.

It comes after he spoke to his counterparts in France and Germany this morning about plans over support in Gaza (see our 13:28 post).

“The situation is desperate,” his tweet continued. “We are working with Jordan to get aid into Gaza. 

“We are urgently accelerating efforts to evacuate children who need critical medical assistance to the UK for treatment. 

“I am determined to find a pathway to peace.”

Starmer earlier said the UK would be working with partners such as Jordan to airdrop aid to Gaza and evacuate children requiring medical assistance.

15:56:01 What we know about the airdrops – and what we don’t

Our correspondent Lisa Holland is in Jerusalem now, where she broke down what’s been gathered from airdrop plans.

While we don’t have a sense of how much will be parachuted into Gaza, we know two countries are expected to be involved – Jordan and the UAE.

In the past, the UK has also been involved – last year, the RAF dropped 10 tonnes.

We haven’t yet been given any information about exactly when they’re going to take place, but, clearly, every day counts.

“Now, what we do know is the UN has said – and has been saying for some days – that it has three months’ worth of aid stockpiled on the ground in Egypt and Jordan,” Holland said.

“It has enough to feed Palestinians for three months. But, obviously, the breakdown is getting that aid into the country now.”

Airdrops are extremely dangerous, even if they are a quick way of getting aid into Gaza.

“These big parachuted drops can be incredibly dangerous – when people know that they’re coming, they gather in their thousands,” Holland said.

“And that clamour to get at that aid can be very dangerous and also cost lives.”

Sir Keir Starmer says the UK will help to drop aid in Gaza

15:33:01 Syria and Israel hold talks amid shaky ceasefire

We’re moving away from the war in Gaza for a moment to bring you the latest on developments between Israel and Syria.

Syrian and Israeli officials have held talks mediated by the US in Paris about containing any escalation in southern Syria, according to Syria’s state-run Ekhbariya TV.

The TV station reported that a diplomatic source said the meeting did not result in any final agreements, but they agreed to continue talks and evaluate steps aimed at maintaining stability in southern Syria.

Hostilities escalated in the southern city of Sweida last week between local fighters, government authorities and Bedouin tribes.

Our special correspondent Alex Crawford reported from inside the city this week – tap below to read more.

Tribal fighting between the Druze minority community and Bedouins has seen more than 1,000 people killed and many more injured.

The Israeli prime minister has declared himself protector of the Druze across the region, partly because a large portion of the community live in the occupied Golan Heights, and some of the Druze also serve in the IDF.

Israel subsequently launched airstrikes last week, including attacks on the Syrian military headquarters in Damascus, before the countries agreed to a shaky ceasefire.

15:07:01 Watch: ‘My children have not eaten for a week’

One mother in Gaza said she “can’t even find bread” for her children, who haven’t eaten in a week.

She said she uses water and salt to sustain them, while another mother said her child has cancer and people are dying while trying to get aid.

Here’s what some Gazans have been saying…

14:44:01 Israeli officials say there is no proof Hamas routinely stole UN aid – report

Israel has never found proof Hamas has systematically stolen aid from the UN, according to a new report.

Citing two senior Israeli officials, The New York Times reports the original UN aid operation was said to be “relatively reliable and less vulnerable to Hamas interference”.

Hamas did steal from some of the smaller organisations donating aid, the report added, but they said there was no evidence the militants regularly stole from the UN.

Reuters news agency ran a similar report based on analysis in the US government – see our 13.06 post for more on that.

The IDF’s international spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani said the Times’s report is “fake news” and that Hamas theft is “well documented”.

Israel has criticised the UN’s aid delivery, and this week government spokesperson David Mencer told Sky News there is “no famine” in Gaza – other than a “famine of truth”.

Watch that exchange in the clip below…

For context: The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is at the heart of the new aid system, which took distribution away from aid groups led by the UN.

Most humanitarian groups opposed the move, which limits distribution to a small number of hubs under guard of armed contractors.

Israel demanded an alternative plan because it accuses Hamas of siphoning off aid, but the UN and aid groups deny there is significant diversion.

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