CrossFireArarbia

Israeli Versity Heads to Netanyahu: ‘End Starvation’

CrossFireArabia
July 28, 2025

The heads of five major Israeli universities on Monday appealed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to end the starvation in Gaza, warning of catastrophic consequences for civilians, including infants.

In a letter reported by the daily Israel Hayom, the signatories – Weizmann Institute President Alon Chen, Hebrew University President Asher Cohen, Technion President Uri Sivan, Tel Aviv University President Ariel Porat, and Open University President Leo Corry – said they were “shocked” by the humanitarian toll in the Palestinian enclave.

“Like many Israelis, we are horrified by the scenes from Gaza, including infants dying every day from hunger and disease,” the letter reads according to Anadolu.

The university presidents pressed Netanyahu to address “the severe hunger overwhelming Gaza, which is taking a heavy toll on civilians uninvolved in the conflict, including children and infants.”

They voiced alarm over incendiary remarks by Israeli ministers and Knesset members calling for Gaza’s destruction.

“As a people who endured the horrors of the Holocaust, we also bear a responsibility to use every means at our disposal to prevent cruel and indiscriminate harm to innocent men, women and children,” they wrote.

The letter also criticized statements by Israeli officials suggesting the use of nuclear weapons, the complete denial of food, and the expulsion of Palestinians.

“We expect you and the government to unequivocally condemn these dangerous remarks,” they said, adding that such calls amount to “war crimes and crimes against humanity” under international law.

The university heads further warned against reported Israeli plans to build a so‑called “humanitarian city” in Rafah, likening it to World War II concentration camps. They said such a move would cause “irreparable damage” to Israel’s moral standing.

International observers have warned that the proposed camp would confine Palestinians and deprive them of food to force mass migration abroad.

Also on Monday, UN relief chief Tom Fletcher warned that one in every three Palestinians in Gaza had not eaten for days, urging the immediate delivery of aid.

The Gaza government media office said more than 40,000 infants aged under 1 face slow death due to Israel’s blockade preventing baby formula from entering for more than 150 days. It called for the unconditional opening of border crossings and held Israel and its allies fully responsible for the crisis.

According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, 147 Palestinians, including 88 children, have died from starvation and malnutrition since October 2023.

On Sunday, the Israeli army announced limited humanitarian airdrops and what it described as a “tactical pause” in certain parts of Gaza to allow deliveries. Aid agencies, however, dismissed the move as “false relief,” saying Israel continues to weaponize hunger by blocking overland aid since early March.

Rejecting international calls for a ceasefire, the Israeli army has pursued a brutal offensive on Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023, killing nearly 60,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children. The relentless bombardment has destroyed the enclave and led to food shortages.

Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.

Uncategorized

Lazzarini: ‘Constructed, Deliberate Mass Starvation’

CrossFireArabia
July 28, 2025

From Philippe Lazzarini, the UNRWA Commissioner-General as posted on his official X account (previously known as Twitter)

Download UNRWA multimedia resources on malnutrition in children here

A constructed and deliberate mass starvation. Today, more children died, their bodies emaciated by hunger.

The flawed distribution system (GHF) is not designed to address the humanitarian crisis.

It’s serving military and political objectives. It’s cruel as it takes more lives than it saves lives.

Israel controls all aspects of humanitarian access, whether outside or within Gaza.

Airdrops are the most expensive and inefficient way to deliver aid. It is a distraction to the inaction.

When bureaucratic and political hurdles are lifted, the humanitarian community has demonstrated it can deliver assistance at scale, in a dignified way, without diversion.

During the ceasefire fire in earlier this year, we succeeded to reverse the deepening hunger.

Today, UNRWA alone has the equivalent of 6,000 trucks of food and medical assistance stuck in Egypt and Jordan.

The unfolding famine can only be reversed by a political will.

Make “never again” a reality.

If we fail the Palestinians in Gaza, others are likely to be failed too in the future.

Let’s not set a dangerous and irreversible precedent.

Reliefweb

Features

Food Airdrops: Humiliating, Degrading, Dangerous

CrossFireArabia
July 28, 2025

The airdrop of aid into the Gaza Strip is yet another act of humiliation and degradation against Palestinians. It endangers civilians crowded into less than 15 per cent of the enclave and serves a graver purpose: enabling Israel’s policy of mass starvation, deliberately used as a tool of genocide in its systematic effort to eliminate Palestinians in Gaza.

The resumption of aid airdrops, following months of widespread starvation, neither meets the minimum humanitarian needs nor alleviates the catastrophe caused by Israel’s deliberate policy of starvation. Instead, it perpetuates the illusion of relief while starvation continues to be used as a weapon against civilians.

An airdrop over central and southern Gaza right now. pic.twitter.com/d8tq6ZB8As
— Eye on Palestine (@EyeonPalestine) February 27, 2024

This step, approved by Israel and implemented on Saturday evening, does not reflect a genuine shift in the humanitarian response. Rather, it aims to mislead international public opinion and downplay the severity of the crime, diverting attention from Israel’s systematic starvation policy in the Gaza Strip, which has caused an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe. This catastrophe is marked by widespread famine, denial of food, water and medicine, destruction of supply chains, obstruction of land-based aid delivery, and continued attacks on those seeking food. These actions reveal Israel’s persistent use of starvation as a primary tool to decimate the population and undermine their means of survival.

The catastrophic conditions on the ground underscore the severity of Israel’s starvation policy, especially after 55 people were officially declared dead from starvation and malnutrition in just one week. It is also estimated that around 1,200 elderly people have died in the past two months due to a lack of food and medical care, amid the total collapse of the healthcare system and the continuing blockade.

Jordan and the United Arab Emirates parachuted 25 tons of aid into the Gaza Strip on Sunday in their first airdrop in months, a Jordanian official said. The country has confirmed that it has carried out three airdrops over Gaza, including one in co-operation with the United Arab… pic.twitter.com/OpDRgoKvlE
— Buraq (@Buraq515) July 28, 2025

The airdrops do not constitute a genuine humanitarian response but rather mark a new chapter in the ongoing humiliation of civilians in the Gaza Strip, following the public degradation and repeated killings at distribution centres operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation under Israel’s direction.

Instead of opening safe and organised land corridors, residents are forced to crowd into dangerous areas under bombardment to retrieve parcels dropped randomly from the air, in conditions that compromise their dignity and endanger their lives, as has occurred repeatedly. Such practices strip relief of its humanitarian purpose and reproduce a colonial dynamic based on subjugation and control, reducing the right to survival to a humiliating favour instead of a fundamental human right.

With 2.3 million Palestinians displaced into less than 15 per cent of the Gaza Strip due to Israeli control and forced evacuation orders, airdropped aid poses a serious risk to civilian lives amid severe overcrowding and the absence of safe areas.

Euro-Med Monitor recalls that when airdrops were first introduced several months ago, even while the accessible area was relatively larger, they led to the deaths of 18 Palestinians and injuries to dozens more.

Last night’s airdrops injured at least 11 civilians, further highlighting the failure of this mechanism to ensure safe and orderly access to aid. It also reinforces serious concerns that civilians are being placed in harm’s way rather than protected, especially amid severe overcrowding and the shrinking of safe areas due to Israeli-imposed policies of forced annexation and displacement.

The reality on the ground demonstrates that airdropped aid is scarce, randomly distributed, and poses serious risks. It frequently lands in densely populated areas, on displaced people’s tents, in evacuated zones, in areas under Israeli control, or in the sea, making it an unsafe and ineffective method from a humanitarian perspective.

The extreme starvation civilians are enduring has, for weeks, driven them to seek aid along delivery routes and at distribution centres, despite knowing these places are humiliating and have become death traps. Their desperate search for aid has turned into a daily scene of collective humiliation, exposing them to immediate danger and fuelling tension and conflict among the population over access to scarce food supplies.

Addressing the famine in Gaza cannot be achieved through superficial or gaudy measures but requires an immediate end to the blockade and the opening of safe, stable land corridors to enable the regular and sufficient delivery of food, medicine, and fuel. This must be done through official UN mechanisms that previously managed aid distribution through approximately 400 centres, before Israel deliberately dismantled them. Only the restoration of this system can ensure that aid reaches all those in need fairly, safely, and transparently, without discrimination or subjugation.

Operations of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation must be halted. Established by Israeli authorities, the foundation functions as a mechanism of collective humiliation and military control over aid, operating outside any recognised legal or humanitarian framework. Rather than ensuring fair and safe access to aid, it enables Israel to manipulate distribution in line with its own objectives. Under this system, distribution centres have become sites of mass killing, managed directly under Israeli supervision.

The continued operation of this foundation obstructs any genuine humanitarian response and reinforces Israel’s full control over relief channels. This is evident in the airdrops conducted under Israeli supervision, driven by a colonial logic rooted in genocide, deliberately stripping the besieged population of both humanitarian aid and human dignity.

States must urgently push for the restoration of humanitarian access and the lifting of the illegal blockade, as this is the only way to stop the accelerating humanitarian deterioration and ensure the entry of aid, given the imminent threat of famine.

The establishment of safe humanitarian corridors under UN supervision is vital to ensure the delivery of food, medicine, and fuel to all areas of the Strip, with independent international monitors deployed to verify compliance.

All states, individually and collectively, must urgently fulfil their legal obligations to halt the genocide in the Gaza Strip in all its forms. This includes taking concrete measures to protect Palestinian civilians in the enclave, ensure Israel’s compliance with international law and the International Court of Justice rulings, and guarantee full accountability for crimes committed against Palestinians. Euro-Med Monitor also calls for the enforcement of the International Criminal Court arrest warrants issued for the Israeli Prime Minister and former Defence Minister, and for their swift surrender to international justice without regard to immunity.

The international community is urged to impose economic, diplomatic, and military sanctions on Israel and its more powerful allies, particularly the United States, for their grave and systematic breaches of international law; these sanctions should include comprehensive arms embargoes and the suspension of all forms of political, financial, military, and intelligence cooperation. In addition, Euro-Med Monitor calls for freezing the assets of responsible Israeli, US, and any complicit EU officials, banning their travel, halting their military and security companies’ access to international markets, and suspending trade privileges and bilateral agreements that facilitate Israel’s ongoing Western-backed crimes against the Palestinian people.

Culture

Hanthala Outlasts Naji Al Ali as He Predicted

CrossFireArabia
July 28, 2025

By the time he died on August 29, 1987, he had a collection of 40,000 cartoons. Naji Al Ali, the famous Palestinian cartoonist, had been in a coma for five weeks after being shot in the head by a gunman outside the London offices of Al Qabas newspaper on July 22.

Although till now nobody is certain of who killed him, Al Ali’s death was a result of decades of rebelliousness against the Arab status quo, his longing for change in Arab society, and the introduction of democracy.

As Handala, the flotilla, approaches Gaza, remember: Handala's creator, Naji Al-Ali, was assassinated in London—shot in the neck by Mossad in 1987. Margaret Thatcher subsequently expelled 'israeli' diplomats and closed Mossad's London base. Justice for Handala. Freedom for 🇵🇸 pic.twitter.com/EJkWOb8LkO
— Dr Rahmeh Aladwan (@doctor_rahmeh) July 25, 2025

He felt this would be translated into political strength to fight for the return of Palestine. Al Ali had the knack of weaving politics and culture together. His drawings had distinct messages: they were contextual, fighting against injustice and oppression in the Arab world.

Naji Al Ali was one of a kind. In few simple lines, he could depict the drama of a whole population and convey messages sometimes so sharp and rich in symbols that the viewer’s attention was effortlessly drawn to understanding the hidden meanings.

Though his messages were politically-driven, he always maintained he was apolitical and that politics did nothing for him.

This is despite the fact that his life had come to be dictated by a series of political actions. His expulsion, along with his family, to Lebanon in 1948, and ending up in Ain Al Hilweh camp, was but the first of these actions. Al Ali was only 10 or 11 when he was forced out of Shajara, a village of 400 that were destroyed by Israel.

Handala is the iconic character of the late Palestinian cartoonist Naji Al-Ali (1938-1987).

He's among the most recognizable images of Palestine solidarity across the Arab world. A shoeless refugee child, his back always faces us.

In a new viral image, Handala is starving. pic.twitter.com/eoXb2jLT7n
— Jonathan Guyer (@mideastXmidwest) July 22, 2025

Given a chance

In the 1950s, before being given the chance to go to Kuwait, his life was immersed in politics. He took part in demonstrations and served time in Lebanese jails. During this time, he started drawing on the walls of the camp and in prison.

“I felt within me a need for a different medium to express what I was going through,” he used to say. He often said he felt it was harder to censor a cartoon than an article. Al Ali’s talent was first discovered by Ghassan Kanafani, the Palestinian writer and activist killed by the Israelis in the early 1970s. He was visiting the camp at the time, came upon Al Ali’s work, took a sample and latter published them in Al Hurriya, the magazine he was working for.

This may have given Al Ali the opportunity to work in Kuwait in 1964 at the Al Talieh magazine, a now well-established weekly, representing the voice of the nationalists. There, he made his professional career as a cartoonist, though he did other things as well. In 1971 he returned to Lebanon where he worked in the well-respected Al Saffir.

It was in Lebanon he found the best and most productive years of his life, he would later write. “There, surrounded by the violence of many an army, and finally by the Israeli invasion (1982), I stood facing it all with my pen every day, I never felt fear, failure or despair, and I didn’t surrender. I faced armies with cartoons and drawings of hope and flowers, hope and bullets.”

But, contrary to this cheerful attitude, one also felt there was a degree of anger, mixed with cynicism and despair within Naji Al Ali that always prompted him in his cartoons; it was the failure of action, of ineptitude and the lack of Arab resolve.

That’s why he may have created the Hanthala cartoon that always came to appear in his sketches from the 1960s onwards. In fact, in an almost perceptive vision of his death, Ali would say Hanthala would outlast him and would live long after he was was dead.

Hanthala, whose name means bitterness in Arabic , represents the aspirations of the camp refugees and the right of return. We never see his face as he is never shown facing the reader.

Naji Al Ali described him as a bare-footed child with spiky hair, with his hands firmly clasped behind his back as a symbol of rejection to what happened to the Palestinians. He will only turn his head, when Palestine is regained. Hanthala will remain 10 years old until he returns to the homeland, when he will start growing up again.

Women For Palestine wrote two years ago today, "Today marks 36 years since the assasination of the renowned Palestinian political cartoonist Naji Al Ali in London. Al Ali drew nearly 40,000 cartoons in his life, many featuring his famous character Handala…" pic.twitter.com/D0SYPa0euH
— Pauline Park (@paulinepark) July 23, 2025

After 1982, Naji Al Ali went back to Kuwait to work in Al Qabas, but there was no let down in his political message. In 1985, he was expelled, but continued to work in the newspaper’s London office.

His cartoons continued to appear in many daily newspapers across the region in Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Tunisia and Lebanon.

Did Al Ali’s untimely death at the age of 51, mean Hanthala will never turn his head, or will he wait for someone to redraw him.

Whichever the case, and in the spirit of his creator, he will continue with his back to the audience until Palestine is liberated.

This article, written by me, is reprinted here from the archives of Gulf News.

Culture

Ziad Al Rahbani: Musical Icon

CrossFireArabia
July 28, 2025

Ziad Al Rahbani, dubbed as the soul of Lebanon dies at the age of 69.

Sondoss Al Asaad wrote:

He was a revolutionary artist who combined musical and theatrical genius, boldly addressing themes of identity, politics, and resistance. His first literary work was published at the age of 12 in the late 1970s.

Jordanian Cartoonist Nasser Al Jafari sketched out this cartoon in the honor of the late artist.

“This is what musician , researcher Louis Brehony wrote about him in the Palestine Chronicle: It is with shock at the earliness of his departure Lebanon bids farewell to Ziad al-Rahbani, a pillar of radical musicianship, at the age of 69. A committed communist who aligned himself with the Palestinian cause, Ziad left his indelible musical fingerprints on a wide region. An essential influence to generations of listeners, musicians and activists, Ziad ruffled the feathers of the wealthy, embarrassed conservatives and irritated liberals. Son of Lebanese icons Fairuz and Assi Rahbani, his musical tenacity and critique of a system in crisis demanded that others sing for its downfall.

Born into relative privilege among Maronite Christians and well-known musicians, Ziad understandably trod a creative path from an early age. His composer father Assi and uncle Mansour were the famous Rahbani brothers, writing epochal works for his mother Fairuz, to this day Lebanon’s most renowned vocalist. Ziad grew up sitting in on rehearsals and met huge figures in Arab music, including Egyptian composer Mohammed Abdel Wahab and Palestinian Sabri Sherif, who produced Fairuz’s albums dedicated to Palestine. Ziad eventually inherited the Rahbani mantle and, from the 1980s, became Fairuz’s main songwriter.

As a teenager, Ziad joined Rahbani brothers’ productions and quietly applied his skills as a composer and keyboardist. Though his approach towards his parents’ legacy was not the scorched earth policy some describe, Ziad began to forge his own path. Attracted to leftist politics at a time when the Lebanese Communist Party (LCP) allied itself to Palestinian resistance, Ziad’s empathy with the poor and downtrodden quickly expressed itself through music. He found his raison d’être in musical theatre, and works like Film Amriki Tawil (Long American Film, 1980) and Shi Fashil (Failure, 1983) broke social taboos, sharply attacking class discrimination and spotlighting characters from the working class…’