(NEW YORK) — An American woman freed after being held hostage in Gaza and the families of two men killed in the Oct. 7 attack in Israel sued Binance, the leading cryptocurrency exchange, which they accused of providing a funding mechanism for Hamas.
The lawsuit, filed in Manhattan federal court Thursday, also named Iran and Syria and is the first of what could be a torrent of lawsuits over the Hamas attack against Israel that left at least 1,200 Israelis dead, according to Israeli officials.
Among the plaintiffs are members of the Raanan family. Judith Raanan and her daughter, Natalie, were kidnapped and held in Gaza before they were freed in a prisoner exchange in October. Other plaintiffs include the family and estate of Itay Glisko, the 20-year-old New Jersey native and IDF sergeant killed in action during the attack by Hamas.
The lawsuit accused Binance of processing numerous transactions for Hamas between 2017 and 2023, “providing a clandestine financing tool that Binance deliberately hid from U.S. regulators.”
Binance did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
The company and its former CEO Chengpeng Zhao pled guilty last year to violations of U.S. anti-money laundering laws while agreeing to pay more than $4 billion in fines.
The violations included processing and failing to report “transactions with cryptocurrency wallets that Binance senior executives had knowledge were linked to terrorist groups such as Hamas or Palestine Islamic Jihad,” according to a Department of Justice filing.
Zhao agreed to resign as part of his plea deal and will be sentenced in February where he faces up to 18 months in prison. The company also agreed to enter in a number of anti-money laundering and sanctions compliance programs and retain an independent monitor for the next three years.
“For years, Binance remained willfully blind to the use of its platform by illicit actors, including terrorists, by failing to do any due diligence on the vast majority of its users prior to August 2021,” the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit added, “Incredibly, Binance went out of its way to protect users associated with Hamas and other terrorist groups from regulatory scrutiny, especially if they were ‘VIP users who generated huge profits for Binance.”
The lawsuit, modeled on suits that emerged after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, accused Binance of aiding terror organizations, providing material support to terrorists and sought unspecified damages.
“This needs to be done. These crypto funds are turning a blind eye to all of this illegal activity and now it’s actually facilitating terrorism,” said plaintiff’s attorney Rob Seiden. “We’re doing this to send a message to these crypto institutions: you can’t do this stuff. You have to be more vigilant.”
More than 100 hostages are thought to still be detained in Gaza, according to Israeli officials. Israel’s military response to the Oct. 7 attack has killed at least 27,019 people in the Gaza Strip, according to Gaza’s Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health.
(NEW YORK) — More than 100 days since Hamas terrorists invaded Israel on Oct. 7, the Israeli military continues its bombardment of the neighboring Gaza Strip.
The conflict, now the deadliest between the warring sides since Israel’s founding in 1948, shows no signs of letting up soon and the brief cease-fire that allowed for over 100 hostages to be freed from Gaza remains a distant memory.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Feb 01, 1:26 PM
Some Gazans say they’re forced to use bird feed in place of flour
The possibility of a “full-fledged famine” looms large across the entire Gaza Strip, humanitarian groups have warned — especially in northern Gaza, where some people there say they’re using bird feed in place of flour to stave off starvation.
Northern Gaza has been largely cut off for months now, according to the United Nations, and aid trucks carrying flour arrive sporadically and are swarmed by hundreds of hungry people.
United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East officials also say Israel provides too few authorizations to make deliveries into some areas and that heavy fighting often makes it too dangerous for aid workers to operate. The aid arriving in northern Gaza has been particularly restricted, the U.N. says. Israel disputes the criticisms.
“For more than two months, we have not received flour due to the difficulty of aid entering and the scarcity of flour in the area,” Sami Abu Sweilem, a 55-year-old father who is sheltering in a UNRWA school in northern Gaza, told ABC News.
“Children almost died of hunger, so we thought of a way to save our children from death,” he said, explaining how he’s been using bird feed and animal fodder in place of precious flour.
Feb 01, 12:00 PM
Executive order targets four Israeli settlers involved in attacks on Palestinians in West Bank
President Joe Biden is expected to sign an executive order Thursday to sanction four Israeli settlers involved in attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank, according to the State Department. The sanctions will prohibit them from accessing the U.S. financial system and property in the U.S. and will block them from receiving financial transactions from U.S. citizens.
The move escalates U.S. posture against the hardline elements in Israeli society amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. In December, the U.S. imposed a visa ban on Israelis linked to violence and unrest in the West Bank that impacted “dozens” of settlers in the Israeli-occupied territory, according to the State Department.
Feb 01, 11:05 AM
Biden to sign executive order targeting Israeli settlers involved in attacks on Palestinians
President Joe Biden is expected to sign an executive order to sanction Israeli settlers involved in attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank, two sources familiar with the plans confirmed to ABC News. The news was first reported by Axios.
The move would escalate U.S. posture against the hardline elements in Israeli society amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
It was not immediately clear how many Israelis would be targeted by the administration’s actions. In December, the U.S. imposed a visa ban on Israelis linked to violence and unrest in the West Bank that impacted “dozens” of settlers in the Israeli-occupied territory, according to the State Department.
Feb 01, 7:40 AM
UNRWA warns operations will be shut down by end of February without funding
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East warned Thursday that it “will most likely be forced to shut down” its operations in the war-torn Gaza Strip and the wider region “by the end of February” if funding does not resume.
Sixteen donor countries, including the United States, have suspended financial support to the U.N. agency over Israel’s allegations that 13 UNRWA staff members were involved in the Hamas-led Oct. 7 terror attack. UNRWA said it is investigating the accusations and that “full accountability and transparency are expected out of this process, should the allegations be substantiated.”
“As the war in Gaza is being pursued unabated, and at the time the International Court of Justice calls for more humanitarian assistance, it is the time to reinforce and not to weaken UNRWA. The Agency remains the largest aid organization in one of the most severe and complex humanitarian crises in the world,” UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said in a statement Thursday. “I echo the call of the U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres to resume funding to UNRWA. If the funding remains suspended, we will most likely be forced to shut down our operations by end of February not only in Gaza but also across the region.”
Feb 01, 6:21 AM
What we know about the conflict
The latest outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that governs the Gaza Strip, has reached the three-month mark.
In the Gaza Strip, at least 27,019 people have been killed and 66,139 others have been wounded by Israeli forces since Oct. 7, according to Gaza’s Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health.
In Israel, at least 1,200 people have been killed and 6,900 others have been injured by Hamas and other Palestinian militants since Oct. 7, according to the Israel Defense Forces.
There has also been a surge in violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Israeli forces have killed at least 297 people in the territory since Oct. 7, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
The ongoing war began after Hamas-led militants launched an unprecedented incursion into southern Israel from neighboring Gaza via land, sea and air. Scores of people were killed while more than 200 others were taken hostage, according to Israeli authorities. The Israeli military subsequently launched retaliatory airstrikes followed by a ground invasion of Gaza, a 140-square-mile territory where more than two million Palestinians have lived under a blockade imposed by Israel and supported by Egypt since Hamas came to power in 2007. Gaza, unlike Israel, has no air raid sirens or bomb shelters.
(LONDON) — The possibility of a “full-fledged famine” looms large across the entire Gaza Strip amid the Israel-Hamas war, humanitarian groups have warned — but especially in northern Gaza, where some people there say they’re using bird feed in place of flour to stave off starvation.
Northern Gaza has been largely cut off for months now, according to the United Nations, and aid trucks carrying flour arrive sporadically and are swarmed by hundreds of hungry people.
United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) officials also say Israel provides too few authorizations to make deliveries into some areas and that heavy fighting often makes it too dangerous for aid workers to operate. The aid arriving in northern Gaza has been particularly restricted, the U.N. says. Israel disputes the criticisms.
“For more than two months, we have not received flour due to the difficulty of aid entering and the scarcity of flour in the area,” Sami Abu Sweilem, a 55-year-old father who is sheltering in a UNRWA school in northern Gaza, told ABC News.
“Children almost died of hunger, so we thought of a way to save our children from death,” he said, explaining how he’s been using bird feed and animal fodder in place of precious flour.
“I saw one of the displaced people in an area neighboring us with a bag of corn from a store and he told me that he wanted to grind it to make bread. I thought it was a good idea and we tried it,” Abu Sweilem said.
Soon others followed suit, he said, and now it’s even difficult to find animal feed to grind.
Almost all Gazans are now reliant on food aid for sustenance, according to the United Nations. The World Food Programme estimates that 26% of the population in Gaza is now facing starvation. Roughly two-thirds of Gazans relied on food aid before the start of the war, the WFP has said.
“If things continue as they are, or if things worsen, we are looking at a full-fledged famine within the next six months,” Arif Husain, the chief economist for the WFP, told ABC News.
“We were searching for flour and constantly waiting for aid,” Salwa Diab told ABC News on the phone from her refuge at the Gaza Training College in Gaza City. But when the aid never came, she said she was forced to turn her bird feed into bread.
“When I made this bread for the first time, my children thought it was like a normal loaf of bread. They were very happy with it and ate it and were forced to accept its taste,” she said, adding: “When the bread is cold, it becomes so bad that we cannot eat it, unfortunately, but when the children are hungry, they are forced to eat it in order to silence their hunger. For more than a month, I have been making this bread when we have available fodder.”
“The aid that comes very rarely, we know about it through the news,” 42-year-old Khaled Nabhan told ABC News in a phone call from Gaza City.
“People come out onto the streets, either on the coast road or Salah al-Din Street, waiting for the aid to enter,” he said, estimating that the crowds can reach the thousands and adding that people have been injured due to stampeding and gunfire.
“The question now is, when these fodders run out, how will we get flour,” Nabhan asked. “This war has been a quest to escape death, either from bombing or from hunger,” he added.
Israeli officials, who control the routes into Gaza, say they send 200 trucks of food and aid a day into the Gaza Strip. Before the war, 500 trucks were being sent to Gaza, according to UNRWA.
Israeli officials denied accusations they’re not letting enough food into Gaza and blamed the Hamas terrorist group for stealing aid. They said they conduct necessary inspections on the trucks, and also blamed the U.N. and other aid agencies for creating logistical bottlenecks.
The U.N. has disputed the Israeli officials’ claims, saying, on average, far less than 200 trucks are entering Gaza most days. U.N. officials have said excessive Israeli inspections, as well as arbitrary rejections of some aid, frequently hold up deliveries.
“We are getting the average of trucks near 80, 80 trucks per day,” UNRWA spokesman Adnan Abu Hasna told ABC News.
UNRWA has come under fire over the last week, as a dossier from the Israeli military recently revealed new allegations against some UNRWA employees who are accused of being involved in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel. The report obtained by ABC News alleges that 13 UNRWA employees participated in the Oct. 7 attack, including six employees who allegedly infiltrated Israel.
The U.N. condemned the alleged actions and said nine of those workers were fired. Two of the accused workers are reportedly dead and one has not immediately been identified, the U.N. said.
Not long after the allegations were announced Friday, several nations and other organizations, including the U.S. State Department, announced they would pause funding to UNRWA as the investigation continues.
On Monday, a coalition of 20 nongovernmental organizations, including Save the Children, sent out a letter condemning the funding pause, saying innocent Gazans will be left to suffer without aid from UNRWA.
“We are shocked by the reckless decision to cut a lifeline for an entire population by some of the very countries that had called for aid in Gaza to be stepped up and for humanitarians to be protected while doing their job,” the statement read.
UNRWA, which is the primary aid provider in Gaza and shelters about 1.4 million people, has warned that the funding suspension could impact its operations within weeks.
“If funding remains suspended, we will most likely be forced to shut down our operations by end of February,” UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini wrote Thursday on X, formerly known as Twitter.
More than 27,000 people have been killed in Gaza and over 65,000 others injured since Oct. 7, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry. Since then, in Israel, at least 1,200 people have been killed and 6,900 others injured, according to the Israeli prime minister’s office. Israeli officials say 556 Israel Defense Forces soldiers have been killed, including 221 since the ground operations in Gaza began.
(NEW YORK) — More than 100 days since Hamas terrorists invaded Israel on Oct. 7, the Israeli military continues its bombardment of the neighboring Gaza Strip.
The conflict, now the deadliest between the warring sides since Israel’s founding in 1948, shows no signs of letting up soon and the brief cease-fire that allowed for over 100 hostages to be freed from Gaza remains a distant memory.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Feb 01, 12:00 PM
Executive order targets four Israeli settlers involved in attacks on Palestinians in West Bank
President Joe Biden is expected to sign an executive order Thursday to sanction four Israeli settlers involved in attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank, according to the State Department. The sanctions will prohibit them from accessing the U.S. financial system and property in the U.S. and will block them from receiving financial transactions from U.S. citizens.
The move escalates U.S. posture against the hardline elements in Israeli society amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. In December, the U.S. imposed a visa ban on Israelis linked to violence and unrest in the West Bank that impacted “dozens” of settlers in the Israeli-occupied territory, according to the State Department.
Feb 01, 11:05 AM
Biden to sign executive order targeting Israeli settlers involved in attacks on Palestinians
President Joe Biden is expected to sign an executive order to sanction Israeli settlers involved in attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank, two sources familiar with the plans confirmed to ABC News. The news was first reported by Axios.
The move would escalate U.S. posture against the hardline elements in Israeli society amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
It was not immediately clear how many Israelis would be targeted by the administration’s actions. In December, the U.S. imposed a visa ban on Israelis linked to violence and unrest in the West Bank that impacted “dozens” of settlers in the Israeli-occupied territory, according to the State Department.
Feb 01, 7:40 AM
UNRWA warns operations will be shut down by end of February without funding
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East warned Thursday that it “will most likely be forced to shut down” its operations in the war-torn Gaza Strip and the wider region “by the end of February” if funding does not resume.
Sixteen donor countries, including the United States, have suspended financial support to the U.N. agency over Israel’s allegations that 13 UNRWA staff members were involved in the Hamas-led Oct. 7 terror attack. UNRWA said it is investigating the accusations and that “full accountability and transparency are expected out of this process, should the allegations be substantiated.”
“As the war in Gaza is being pursued unabated, and at the time the International Court of Justice calls for more humanitarian assistance, it is the time to reinforce and not to weaken UNRWA. The Agency remains the largest aid organization in one of the most severe and complex humanitarian crises in the world,” UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said in a statement Thursday. “I echo the call of the U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres to resume funding to UNRWA. If the funding remains suspended, we will most likely be forced to shut down our operations by end of February not only in Gaza but also across the region.”
Feb 01, 6:21 AM
What we know about the conflict
The latest outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that governs the Gaza Strip, has reached the three-month mark.
In the Gaza Strip, at least 27,019 people have been killed and 66,139 others have been wounded by Israeli forces since Oct. 7, according to Gaza’s Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health.
In Israel, at least 1,200 people have been killed and 6,900 others have been injured by Hamas and other Palestinian militants since Oct. 7, according to the Israel Defense Forces.
There has also been a surge in violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Israeli forces have killed at least 297 people in the territory since Oct. 7, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
The ongoing war began after Hamas-led militants launched an unprecedented incursion into southern Israel from neighboring Gaza via land, sea and air. Scores of people were killed while more than 200 others were taken hostage, according to Israeli authorities. The Israeli military subsequently launched retaliatory airstrikes followed by a ground invasion of Gaza, a 140-square-mile territory where more than two million Palestinians have lived under a blockade imposed by Israel and supported by Egypt since Hamas came to power in 2007. Gaza, unlike Israel, has no air raid sirens or bomb shelters.
People displaced by the conflict in Sudan walk with their belonging along a road in Wad Madani, the capital of al-Jazirah state, on Dec. 16, 2023. (AFP via Getty Images)
(LONDON) — Nearly eight million people have been displaced by the war in Sudan as the conflict enters its 10th month, the United Nation has announced.
The conflict, which erupted on April 15, 2023, between the Rapid Support Forces Paramilitary group (RSF) and the Sudanese Army (SAF) after weeks of tensions linked to planned civilian rule, has killed at least 12,000 people according to the U.N.
Local groups, however, say the true toll is likely much higher than that.
“I heard stories of heartbreaking loss of family, friends, homes and livelihoods in the midst of this despair,” said U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, speaking as he concluded his three-day visit to Ethiopia. “Without further donor support, it will be extremely difficult to deliver much-needed help to those who need it most.”
Since April 2023, over 1.5 million people have fled to neighboring nations, with more than 500,000 fleeing into the border country of Chad, says the U.N. — 86% of whom are women and children.
A further 100,000 people have crossed into Ethiopia and, in South Sudan, an estimated 1,500 refugees flow into it daily.
Aid organizations tell ABC News the situation is “dire,” with nearly 25 million people — almost 50% of Sudan’s total population — in need of humanitarian aid as humanitarian access remains a “major issue” and health systems “near collapse.”
U.N. Chief Fillipo Grandi has called on further “urgent” and “additional” support to meet their needs.
As the war continues, International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Karim Khan this week announced the ICC had “grounds to believe” war crimes under the Rome Statute are being committed in Darfur by both the RSF and SAF.
“I can confirm to the council that we are collecting a very significant body of material, information and evidence that is relevant to those particular crimes,” Khan said speaking at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). “The situation is dire by any metric.”
The impact of the war has been devastating as “profound” damage has ravaged “nearly every sector” of the northeast African nation. Many civilian homes continued to be occupied by militia groups, while civilian jewelry, cars and other items have been looted and often smuggled into neighboring countries.
As international demands for a cessation of hostilities continue, senior leaders from the SAF and RSF are reported to have met three times this month in Bahrain, attended by officials from Egypt and the United Arab Emirates.
“We want to see both parties return to the negotiating table, we want to see a ceasefire that is actually adhered to and we want to see both parties to this conflict stop their brutal attacks on civilians and actually take actions that are in the interests of the people of Sudan,” said U.S. State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller.
(NEW YORK) — More than 100 days since Hamas terrorists invaded Israel on Oct. 7, the Israeli military continues its bombardment of the neighboring Gaza Strip.
The conflict, now the deadliest between the warring sides since Israel’s founding in 1948, shows no signs of letting up soon and the brief cease-fire that allowed for over 100 hostages to be freed from Gaza remains a distant memory.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Feb 01, 7:40 AM
UNRWA warns operations will be shut down by end of February without funding
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East warned Thursday that it “will most likely be forced to shut down” its operations in the war-torn Gaza Strip and the wider region “by the end of February” if funding does not resume.
Sixteen donor countries, including the United States, have suspended financial support to the U.N. agency over Israel’s allegations that 13 UNRWA staff members were involved in the Hamas-led Oct. 7 terror attack. UNRWA said it is investigating the accusations and that “full accountability and transparency are expected out of this process, should the allegations be substantiated.”
“As the war in Gaza is being pursued unabated, and at the time the International Court of Justice calls for more humanitarian assistance, it is the time to reinforce and not to weaken UNRWA. The Agency remains the largest aid organization in one of the most severe and complex humanitarian crises in the world,” UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said in a statement Thursday. “I echo the call of the U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres to resume funding to UNRWA. If the funding remains suspended, we will most likely be forced to shut down our operations by end of February not only in Gaza but also across the region.”
Feb 01, 6:21 AM
What we know about the conflict
The latest outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that governs the Gaza Strip, has reached the three-month mark.
In the Gaza Strip, at least 27,019 people have been killed and 66,139 others have been wounded by Israeli forces since Oct. 7, according to Gaza’s Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health.
In Israel, at least 1,200 people have been killed and 6,900 others have been injured by Hamas and other Palestinian militants since Oct. 7, according to the Israel Defense Forces.
There has also been a surge in violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Israeli forces have killed at least 297 people in the territory since Oct. 7, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
The ongoing war began after Hamas-led militants launched an unprecedented incursion into southern Israel from neighboring Gaza via land, sea and air. Scores of people were killed while more than 200 others were taken hostage, according to Israeli authorities. The Israeli military subsequently launched retaliatory airstrikes followed by a ground invasion of Gaza, a 140-square-mile territory where more than two million Palestinians have lived under a blockade imposed by Israel and supported by Egypt since Hamas came to power in 2007. Gaza, unlike Israel, has no air raid sirens or bomb shelters.
(WASHINGTON) — U.S. military forces early Thursday morning conducted what Central Command called a “self-defense” strike against Houthi unmanned aerial vehicles and a ground control station.
According to Centcom, the U.S. had identified a UAV ground control station and a number of UAVs in the Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen. The military “determined that they presented an imminent threat to merchant vessels and the U.S. Navy ships in the region.”
As a result, Centcom said, U.S. forces hit the UAV station, destroying it. Ten one-way UAVs were struck in self-defense, it said.
“This action will protect freedom of navigation and make international waters safer and more secure for U.S. Navy vessels and merchant vessels,” Centcom said in announcing the news.
As part of efforts to stop Iran-backed Houthi militants from attacking vital Middle Eastern shipping lanes, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced earlier this month that the U.S. would once again classify the Yemeni rebel group as a terrorist organization. The State Department says the step will enable the U.S. to more effectively restrict the group’s access to financial support.
Blinken said that the restrictions and penalties linked to the designation would not take effect for 30 days and that the delay was designed to ensure the flow of aid and commercial goods to Yemeni civilians is minimally impacted.
There have been more than 150 rocket and drone attacks on U.S. bases in Iraq and Syria since mid-October carried out by Iranian-backed militias claiming they are in support of Palestinians in the Israeli-Hamas war in Gaza.
(LONDON) — London police are investigating a “corrosive substance” attack that left nine people, including two young children, injured on Wednesday, the Metropolitan Police said.
Detective Superintendent Alexander Castle said that a woman and her two young children were injured in the suspected, targeted attack. Three officers and three adult members of the public also sustained injuries after coming to the victims’ aid.
Police were called to Lessar Avenue, SW4 — near the Clapham neighborhood of South London — just before 7:30 PM local time when the woman and two children were injured by the “corrosive substance,” which is currently being tested, according to Castle.
“We will update as soon as we know more about their conditions,” Castle said in a release. “Three police officers have also been taken to hospital after they responded to the incident. Thankfully we believe their injuries to be minor.”
So far, no arrests have been made but police are investigating a man who was allegedly seen “fleeing the scene,” according to Castle.
“We are drawing on resources from across the Met to apprehend this individual and work is ongoing to determine what has led to this awful incident,” he said.
MET Police report that the National Police Air Service is assisting in the investigation. Authorities ask that any members of the public who can help provide information or material should call 999 in the United Kingdom immediately.
(LONDON) — More than three months after Israel began its siege in response to the surprise attack by the terrorist group Hamas on Oct. 7, the United Nations has been issuing major warnings of a catastrophic food crisis in Gaza, where they say more than half a million people are already starving.
Even before the war, roughly two-thirds of Gazans were reliant on food aid, according to the World Food Program.
But now the need is far higher with nearly 2 million people displaced and with Israel only allowing in roughly half the number of trucks compared to enter prior to the war, while intense fighting has made it dangerous to deliver food, according to the U.N.
The scale of the crisis is now such that roughly 577,000 Gazans, or 26% of the population, are starving, according to Arif Husain, the chief economist for WFP.
“If things continue as they are, or if things worsen, we are looking at a full-fledged famine within the next six months,” he told ABC News.
Almost all Gazans are now reliant on food aid for sustenance, according to the U.N.
Maryam al-Dahdough, a mother of four who is pregnant with another child, was one of the thousand people who line up daily at a soup kitchen in Rafah in southern Gaza.
She told ABC News that she has not eaten eggs, milk, or anything healthy for three months and it’s been worse for her other children.
“Fever, vomiting, diarrhea all day, not a single one of them is healthy,” she said.
Husain said that he has never seen a food crisis grow this dire so quickly in his 20 years of experience, saying in terms of scale, severity and speed it was “unprecedented.”
Israeli officials, who control the routes into Gaza, say they send 200 trucks of food and aid a day into the country. Before the war, 500 trucks were being sent to Gaza, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, or UNRWA.
Israeli officials denied accusations they are not letting enough food into Gaza and blamed Hamas for stealing aid. They also blamed the U.N. and other aid agencies for creating logistical bottlenecks.
The U.N. has disputed the Israeli officials’ claims, saying on average far less than two hundred trucks are entering most days. UN officials have said excessive Israeli inspections, as well as arbitrary rejections of some aid, frequently hold up deliveries.
“We are getting the average of trucks near 80, 80 trucks per day,” UNRWA spokesman Adnan Abo Hasna told ABC News.
UNRWA officials also say Israel provides too few authorizations to make deliveries into some areas and that heavy fighting often makes it too dangerous for aid workers to operate. Israel disputes the criticisms.
UNRWA has come under fire over the last week after Israeli officials accused a dozen of its workers of taking part in the Oct. 7 Hamas assault. Israeli officials claim one of those members participated in the kidnappings.
The U.N. condemned the alleged attacks and nine of those workers were fired. Two of the accused are reportedly dead and one has not immediately been identified, the U.N. said.
Not long after the allegations were announced on Friday, several nations and other organizations, including the U.S. State Department, announced that it would pause funding to the UNRWA as the investigation continues.
On Monday, a coalition of 20 non-governmental organizations, including Save the Children, sent out a letter condemning the funding pause, stressing that innocent Gazans will be left to suffer without aid from the organization.
“We are shocked by the reckless decision to cut a lifeline for an entire population by some of the very countries that had called for aid in Gaza to be stepped up and for humanitarians to be protected while doing their job,” the statement read.
UNRWA, which is the primary aid provider in Gaza and shelters around 1.4 million people, has warned that the funding suspension could impact its operations within weeks.
The worst of the situation is in northern Gaza, according to the U.N. which said Israel is granting few permissions for aid groups.
Some northern Gazan residents say deliveries are hard to reach, and those that manage to, often re-sell food for high prices.
Videos have shown stampedes breaking out, and hundreds of people crushed together scrabbling for food. A video captured in December showed shots were fired near an aid distribution point, though ABC News has not confirmed who fired the shots and IDF has said they had no known operations in the area at the time.
“I had seen people looking into the garbage of other people for food. And I felt so sad for them. But I never imagined that I would do something similar,” a northern Gazan woman who asked not to be identified over fears for her safety told ABC News.
There are also severe shortages of clean water, according to humanitarian groups.
The U.N. said 1.9 million Palestinians, roughly 85% of the country’s population, have been displaced to camps and other settlements where fresh water is hard to come by and humanitarian aid groups have warned of disease epidemics in those locations.
Ahmad Ismael, who has been living in a tent in a camp with thousands of other displaced people in Rafah with his four children, told ABC News that they have to use a small bucket for a toilet.
“You wake up to think about the situation of the tent. Is there water flowing or not,” he said.
“We receive canned food from the agency’s warehouse every two or three days. It doesn’t meet our needs, and comes incomplete, but we buy other things, and we make our food here over the fire,” Ismael added.
As Israel continues to advance in southern Gaza, more Palestinians continue to flee combat areas and there is more pressure on aid agencies to deliver needed supplies.
“We hope to God that the war will stop, we have had enough,” Ismael said. “Let us go back to our lives.”
(NEW YORK) — Israeli Forces may have violated international law in the raid they conducted inside a hospital in the West Bank that resulted in the death of three Palestinian men both Hamas and the Islamic Jihad claimed as members, several experts told ABC News.
Israeli commandos disguised themselves as doctors and patients to infiltrate the Ibn Sina Hospital in Jenin on Monday and killed three Palestinian men whom Hamas and the Islamic Jihad both claimed as members, Dr. Wisam Sebehat, general director of the Palestinian Health Ministry in Jenin, told ABC News.
One member of the Israeli group had a wheelchair, two carried a doll in a baby carrier, several wore nurses’ clothing, another wore doctors’ clothing and several others were dressed in civilian clothing, Sebehat said. Doctors and patients are granted “protected status” in armed conflict under the Geneva Convention.
An initial statement from the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) described the raid as a “joint IDF, ISA, and Israel Police counterterrorism activity.” The IDF have since clarified to ABC News that their forces were not involved in physically carrying out the operation.
The experts cautioned that ultimately the International Criminal Court is the body that can determine if international law was violated during the raid, but they pointed to elements of the Rome Statute, the governing treaty of the ICC, and the study on the rules of customary international humanitarian law the IDF may have violated in conducting the raid. The United States, along with China, India, Russia — about 40 countries total — did not sign the Rome Statute and are not party to the ICC, according to the Council on Foreign Relations.
The ICC is different from the International Court of Justice, which issued a preliminary ruling last week in a case brought by South Africa against Israel accusing Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians. The ICC can “exercise jurisdiction” in the form of preliminary examination, investigation and, at times, ultimately trials, over “genocide, crimes against humanity or war crimes,” it says.
Israel is not a member of the ICC and rejects the court’s jurisdiction, but the ICC prosecutor has investigated Israel’s actions toward Palestinians before.
It’s a violation of international law to feign protected status, in this case, by dressing up as a doctor or patient, “in order to invite the confidence of the adversary and then proceed to kill or injure them,” Aurel Sari, associate professor of public international law at the University of Exeter, told ABC News. This violates the prohibition to kill or injure the adversary by resorting to perfidy, Sari said.
“The rule is part of customary international law in both international and non-international armed conflicts, which means Israel is bound by it,” Sari said.
“Based on what has been reported, it appears that the Israeli forces involved in the operation in the Ibn Sina Hospital in Jenin did resort to perfidy in violation of the law of armed conflict,” Sari added.
It’s unclear if the IDF used disguises to gain access to the hospital or to gain the confidence of the adversaries they were targeting directly.
The other possible violation of international law the IDF may have committed in this case is violating the prohibition on attacking combatants who have been incapacitated by wounds or sickness, or attacking persons “hors de combat,” associate professor of international law Tom Dannenbaum told ABC News.
One of the Palestinian men who was killed, Basel Ghazawi, was being treated in the Ibn Sina Hospital and was paralyzed, Sebehat said. The IDF denied the reports that Ghazawi was paralyzed.
Ghazawi had been in the hospital undergoing treatment for three months. He was injured after a drone attack in Jenin in October, Sebehat said. His older brother, Muhammad Ghazawi, and their friend, Muhammed Jalamneh, were in the hospital room with Basel Ghazawi when all three were killed by the Israeli forces, according to Sebehat.
“Combatants who have been incapacitated by wounds or sickness are protected from attack as persons ‘hors de combat,'” under international law, Dannenbaum said. “Clearly, someone who is paralyzed is incapacitated in that respect, so an attack on that individual would be prohibited. Violating that prohibition would be a war crime.”
The IDF accused Jalamneh of transferring weapons and ammunition “to terrorists in order to promote shooting attacks and planned a raid attack inspired by the October 7” Hamas terror attack on Israel, the IDF said in a statement about the raid.
“Along with Jalamneh, two additional terrorists who hid inside the hospital were neutralized,” the IDF said in the statement.
The IDF did not specify why the two other men were killed but said all three men were Hamas operatives.
“For a long time, wanted suspects have been hiding in hospitals and using them as a base for planning terrorist activities and carrying out terror attacks, while they assume that the exploitation of hospitals will serve as protection against counterterrorism activities of Israeli security forces,” the IDF said.
The IDF has repeatedly claimed that Hamas uses hospitals in Gaza to mask terrorist activities. The IDF has said it is only targeting Hamas and other militants in Gaza and alleges that Hamas deliberately shelters behind civilians, which the group denies.
The ICC would ultimately be the body that could determine if a war crime was committed or if international law was violated in this raid. In March 2023, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for crimes related to the invasion of Ukraine.
“To conclude that a war crime has been committed, criminal tribunals avail themselves not rarely of years of investigations and assessments,” Robert Kolb, professor of public international law and international organization at the University of Geneva, told ABC News.
More than 26,000 people have been killed in Gaza and over 65,000 others injured since Oct. 7, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry. In Israel, at least 1,200 people have been killed and 6,900 others injured since Oct. 7, according to the Israeli prime minister’s office. Israeli officials say 556 Israel Defense Forces soldiers have been killed, including 221 since the ground operations in Gaza began.
