Save the Children

Aid Groups Warn Excluding Lebanon From Ceasefire ‘Risks Prolonging the Crisis’

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Original article by Jake Johnson republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

First responders and residents gather at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Beirut’s Tallet al-Khayyat neighborhood on April 8, 2026. (Photo by Fadel Itani/AFP via Getty Images)

“Until there is an end to all hostilities, across the entire region, no one will feel truly safe.”

Humanitarian aid organizations warned Wednesday that the Iran ceasefire touted by US President Donald Trump as a monumental step toward peace is at risk of collapsing entirely if it doesn’t halt Israel’s bombardment of Lebanon, which reached its most intense phase yet in the hours after the two-week truce was announced.

David Miliband, president and CEO of the International Rescue Committee, said the ceasefire announcement late Tuesday was a “welcome step” but warned it was “partial, fragile, and incomplete,” pointing to Trump and Israel’s claim that Lebanon was not included in the deal’s terms. Pakistan, the key mediator of the truce, has said Lebanon was part of the agreed-upon ceasefire, and a halt to Israeli attacks on the country was included in a widely circulated 10-point Iranian plan that Trump characterized as “a workable basis on which to negotiate.”

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Miliband said Wednesday that leaving “one front of the conflict burning risks prolonging the crisis, not resolving it.”

Ahmad Alhendawi, Save the Children’s regional director for the Middle East, North Africa, and Eastern Europe, similarly warned that the current ceasefire deal, as implemented, “is not enough.”

“We’re urgently calling for a definitive ceasefire for the wider region, which includes Lebanon, to protect children from further harm,” said Alhendawi. “A whole generation of children bears the brunt of this conflict. A definitive ceasefire for the entire regional conflict, including Lebanon, is the only way to truly protect children’s lives and futures and end the suffering. The violence must end before more children suffer irreparable harm.”

Iranian officials have responded with outrage to Israel’s intensified assault on Lebanon, which has killed hundreds of people on Wednesday alone and wounded many more. Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, said the Trump administration “must choose—ceasefire or continued war via Israel.”

“It cannot have both,” he added. “The world sees the massacres in Lebanon. The ball is in the US court, and the world is watching whether it will act on its commitments.”

The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that Iran has informed regional mediators that its participation in planned in-person talks in Pakistan’s capital “is conditional on a ceasefire in Lebanon” as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to “continue to strike” the country.

“Sounds like somebody needs to rein in Israel ASAP,” Brian Finucane, senior adviser to the US Program at the International Crisis Group, wrote on social media.

“The American people want this war to end and bombing downtown Beirut is not a path to peace.”

Trump insisted to a PBS reporter on Wednesday that Lebanon was “not included in the deal,” claiming the Israeli assault on the country is “a separate skirmish.”

But top Iranian officials, aid organizations, and US lawmakers who support a lasting peace agreement view the conflicts across the region as interconnected.

“Aggression towards Lebanon is aggression towards Iran,” Gen. Seyed Majid Mousavi, aerospace commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, said Wednesday.

US Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) urged the Trump administration “must immediately make clear to Israel that the ceasefire agreement is not and cannot be functional without a ceasefire in Lebanon.”

“The American people want this war to end,” Beyer added, “and bombing downtown Beirut is not a path to peace.”

Amitabh Behar, executive director of Oxfam International, said in a statement that “until there is an end to all hostilities, across the entire region, no one will feel truly safe.”

“Israel’s ongoing invasion in Lebanon, its destructive occupation of Palestinian territory, ground incursion and airstrikes in Syria, its continued attacks in Gaza, and violent attacks and territorial expansion in the West Bank are still continuing despite the provisional cessation of violence with Iran,” said Behar. “This deadly toll across the Middle East is intolerable and must stop.”

Original article by Jake Johnson republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

Keir Starmer explains that UK is actively supporting Israel's genocidal expansion and repeats his previous quotation that he supports Zionism "without qualification". Keir Starmer said “I said it loud and clear – and meant it – that I support Zionism without qualification.” here: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/keir-starmer-interview-i-will-work-to-eradicate-antisemitism-from-day-one/
Keir Starmer explains that UK is actively supporting Israel’s genocidal expansion and repeats his previous quotation that he supports Zionism “without qualification”. Keir Starmer said “I said it loud and clear – and meant it – that I support Zionism without qualification.” here: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/keir-starmer-interview-i-will-work-to-eradicate-antisemitism-from-day-one/
Donald Trump calls for help from NATO allies in securing the Straight of Hormuz despite saying on 7 March 2026 that they don't need people to join wars after they've already won. He's challenged with the claim that he lies as much as the IDF.
Donald Trump calls for help from NATO allies in securing the Straight of Hormuz despite saying on 7 March 2026 that they don’t need people to join wars after they’ve already won. He’s challenged with the claim that he lies as much as the IDF.
Orcas discuss rotting brain. Front Orca says "Wish someone would lock him up".
Orcas discuss rotting brain. Front Orca says “Wish someone would lock him up”.
Continue ReadingAid Groups Warn Excluding Lebanon From Ceasefire ‘Risks Prolonging the Crisis’

‘Where Is the Ceasefire?’: Israel’s Bombing of Gaza Kills 23, Mostly Women and Children

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Original article by Stephen Prager republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

Mourners react following the death of Palestinians killed by an Israeli strike at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, on February 4, 2026. (Photo by Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

It comes as nearly 20,000 Palestinians are being denied the ability to leave Gaza for medical treatment, in what activist Muhammad Shehada called “a slow-motion massacre.”

Israeli bombings across Gaza have killed at least 23 Palestinians since dawn on Wednesday, including at least two infants, according to hospital officials and other health authorities.

“Where is the ceasefire? Where are the mediators?” asked Dr. Mohamed Abu Salmiya, director of Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital, which received the bodies of 11 people—mostly from the same family—who were killed after Israeli soldiers fired upon a building in northern Gaza.

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Israel said the attack was in retaliation after Hamas militants fired at an Israeli soldier, badly wounding him. The Associated Press reports that among the Palestinians killed were “two parents, their 10-day-old girl Wateen Khabbaz, her 5-month-old cousin, Mira Khabbaz, and the children’s grandmother.”

Another attack on a tent in the southern city of Khan Younis killed three more people: Nasser Hospital, which received the bodies, said they included a 12-year-old boy. Another strike killed five more people, including a paramedic named Hussein Hassan Hussein al-Semieri, who was on duty at the time.

A total of 38 Palestinians were wounded in the series of attacks, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

Since a “ceasefire” agreement went into effect on October 10 last year, the Gaza Government Media Office says Israel has committed at least 1,520 violations, killing at least 556 people—including 288 children, women, and elderly people—and wounding 1,500 others.

In comments to Al Jazeera, the Palestinian human rights advocate Muhammad Shehada said a ceasefire that is violated so consistently “is no ceasefire at all”.

“At most, [the deal] can be just described as some sort of mild diplomatic restraint,” Shehada said. “Whenever the world’s attention is elsewhere, Israel escalates dramatically.”

Since its genocidal war in Gaza began in October 2023, nearly 72,000 Palestinians have been killed and 171,000 injured, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, whose figures the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) recently conceded are accurate after more than two years of denial. Independent estimates suggest the true death toll is much higher.

Wednesday’s onslaught came as Israel began to slowly open the Rafah crossing—the main point of entry and exit from the strip—for those in severe need of medical attention to leave.

Gaza’s hospitals have been rendered largely inoperable by two years of relentless bombing and a lengthy blockade on medical supplies entering the strip, which has left more than half the population without medical treatment.

The World Health Organization said last week that 18,500 Palestinians are in need of medical treatment abroad, including hundreds in need of immediate treatment.

According to Egyptian officials, 50 patients were expected to enter through the crossing each day. However, on Monday, just five Palestinians were allowed to leave Gaza for treatment, followed by 16 on Tuesday, according to Al Jazeera reporters on the ground.

Around 4,000 of those awaiting treatment are children. According to health officials, one of them, 7-year-old Anwar al-Ashi, died of kidney failure on Wednesday while on a waitlist.

Meanwhile, those attempting to cross have been met with treatment described as “humiliating” by reporters who witnessed it. Israeli troops have subjected patients to strip searches and interrogations—some were blindfolded and had their hands tied.

“The Rafah crossing continues to be a cruel and severely restricted ‘passage’ of pain and humiliation,” said the Palestinian politician and activist Hana Ashrawi. “This continues to be a multifaceted war of aggression, based on the deliberate manipulation of the pain of a captive people.”

Salmiya said that at the rate Israel is allowing them to leave, “it will take about five years on average for all patients to be discharged.” He referred to Israel’s actions as “crisis management, not a solution to the crisis.”

On Tuesday, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres called for “the facilitation of rapid and unimpeded passage of humanitarian relief at scale—including through the Rafah crossing.”

He added that Israel’s recent suspension of dozens of aid organizations—including Doctors Without Borders, Oxfam, and Save the Children—defies humanitarian principles, undermines fragile progress, and worsens the suffering of civilians.“

Shehada, who said he and his family were eagerly awaiting the end of travel restrictions, told Al Jazeera that “Israel hollowed [it] out of any substance or meaning.” Instead, he said, “it’s basically a slow-motion massacre.”

Experiencing issues with this image not appearing. I suspect because it's so critical of Zionist Keir Starmer's support of and complicity in Israel's genocides.
Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpA
Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza's hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.
Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.
Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.

Original article by Stephen Prager republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

Continue Reading‘Where Is the Ceasefire?’: Israel’s Bombing of Gaza Kills 23, Mostly Women and Children

Over 100 Children Have Died of Severe Hunger Amid Israeli Siege: Gaza Health Ministry

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Original article by Brad Reed republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

Palestinians are seen on street following the Israeli attack on ez-Zeytun neighborhood in Gaza City, Gaza on August 8, 2025. 
(Photo: Mahmoud Issa/Anadolu via Getty Images)

“People are being starved, children are being killed, families have lost everything,” said the United Nations agency for Palestinian Refugees.

The Gaza Health Ministry announced on Monday that more than 100 children in Gaza have died of severe hunger during Israel’s siege of the territory.

As Al Jazeera reported, the Hamas-run Health Ministry said that a total of 222 Palestinians have died from hunger during the siege, including 101 children. The vast majority of these deaths have come in just the last three weeks when the hunger crisis in Gaza started to garner international media attention, the ministry said.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East on Monday emphasized the direness of the situation in a statement calling for a cease-fire to allow more aid into Gaza.

“People are being starved, children are being killed,” the agency said. “Families have lost everything. Political will and leadership can stop an escalation and end the war. Every heartbeat counts.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has claimed that there is no starvation crisis in Gaza and has said such reports are part of a “fake” propaganda campaign waged by Israel’s enemies.

However, it isn’t just the Gaza Health Ministry warning of a hunger crisis in the region, as international charity Save the Children last week said that 43% of pregnant and breastfeeding women who showed up to its clinics in Gaza last month were malnourished, which represented a threefold increase since March, when the Israeli military imposed a total siege on the area.

The latest numbers about starvation in Gaza come as the Israeli government is pushing forward with a plan to fully invade and occupy Gaza, which experts have warned will only exacerbate the humanitarian crisis among its people.

“If these plans are implemented, they will likely trigger another calamity in Gaza, reverberating across the region and causing further forced displacement, killings, and destruction,” said Miroslav Jenca, the United Nations assistant secretary general, over the weekend.

Continue ReadingOver 100 Children Have Died of Severe Hunger Amid Israeli Siege: Gaza Health Ministry

100+ Aid Groups Decry Global Inaction as Israeli Siege Starves Gaza

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Original article by Jake Johnson republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

Palestinians queue to receive hot meals at a charity kitchen in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on July 22, 2025. (Photo: AFP via Getty Images)

“States can and must save lives before there are none left to save.”

A coalition of more than 100 aid organizations issued a dire warning Wednesday about worsening humanitarian conditions on the ground in the Gaza Strip, where starvation continues to spread under the Israeli government’s suffocating blockade.

The groups, including Save the Children and Oxfam, called on the international community to pressure Israel to “open all land crossings; restore the full flow of food, clean water, medical supplies, shelter items, and fuel through a principled, U.N.-led mechanism; end the siege, and agree to a cease-fire now.”

“Just outside Gaza, in warehouses—and even within Gaza itself—tons of food, clean water, medical supplies, shelter items, and fuel sit untouched with humanitarian organizations blocked from accessing or delivering them,” the groups said in a joint statement. “The government of Israel’s restrictions, delays, and fragmentation under its total siege have created chaos, starvation, and death.”

The aid groups said their colleagues in Gaza are among those impacted. “With supplies now totally depleted,” they said, “humanitarian organizations are witnessing their own colleagues and partners waste away before their eyes.”

The statement was released amid harrowing evidence that the manufactured hunger emergency in Gaza is rapidly intensifying, with at least 21 Palestinian children dying of starvation over just the past several days. Since May, more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed while seeking food aid, mostly near hubs run by the U.S.- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). A spokesperson for the Trump State Department declared Tuesday that GHF operations have “been a tremendous success” despite the repeated massacres at its sites and still-spreading famine across the enclave.

“Palestinians are trapped in a cycle of hope and heartbreak, waiting for assistance and cease-fires, only to wake up to worsening conditions,” the aid coalition said Wednesday. “It is not just physical torment, but psychological. Survival is dangled like a mirage. The humanitarian system cannot run on false promises. Humanitarians cannot operate on shifting timelines or wait for political commitments that fail to deliver access.”

The groups decried inadequate deals—such as the European Union’s recent agreement with Israel to increase the flow of humanitarian assistance into Gaza—and “symbolic gestures” like food airdrops as “a smokescreen for inaction.”

In the absence of “real change on the ground,” the groups said, “children starve while waiting for promises that never arrive.”

“They cannot replace states’ legal and moral obligations to protect Palestinian civilians and ensure meaningful access at scale,” the coalition said. “States can and must save lives before there are none left to save.”

The aid groups’ warnings echoed those of U.N. officials such as World Food Program emergency director Ross Smith, who said Tuesday that the hunger crisis in Gaza “has reached new and astonishing levels of desperation.

“We have a third of the population who are not eating for multiple days in a row—this includes women and children,” said Smith. “We see severe, acute malnutrition surging. Almost 100,000 women and children are suffering from severe, acute malnutrition and need treatment as soon as possible.”

“People are dying from lack of humanitarian assistance every day,” Smith added. “And we are seeing this escalate, day by day.”

Original article by Jake Johnson republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

Experiencing issues with this image not appearing. I suspect because it's so critical of Zionist Keir Starmer's support of and complicity in Israel's genocides.
Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpA
Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone obect to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza's hospitals and universities,mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.
Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone obect to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities,mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.
UK Labour Party government ministers Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves explain that they are partners complicit in Israel's Gaza genocide. The UK has provided Israel with arms, military and air force support. They explain that they don't do gas chambers but do do forced marches, starvation, destroy hospitals, mass-murders of journalists and healthcare workers.
UK Labour Party government ministers Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves explain that they are partners complicit in Israel’s Gaza genocide. The UK has provided Israel with arms, military and air force support. They explain that they don’t do gas chambers but do do forced marches, starvation, destroy hospitals, mass-murders of journalists and healthcare workers.

Continue Reading100+ Aid Groups Decry Global Inaction as Israeli Siege Starves Gaza

Hundreds of Thousands Form ‘Red Line’ Around The Hague

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Original article by Common Dreams Staff republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

Tens of thousands of people dressed in red marched through the streets of The Hague on June 15, 2025 to demand more action from the Dutch government against what they termed a “genocide” in Gaza. Rights groups such as Amnesty International and Oxfam organized the demonstration through the city to the International Court of Justice, creating a so-called “red line”. Many waving Palestinian flags and some chanting “Stop the Genocide”, the demonstrators turned a central park in the city into a sea of red on a sunny afternoon. Photo by Koen van Weel / ANP / AFP

The red line the government has failed to set.

Hundreds of thousands of people dressed in red marched through the streets of The Hague on Sunday to demand more action against the “genocide” in Gaza.

NGOs such as Amnesty International, Save the Children, Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders), and Oxfam organized the demonstration, which ran through the city to the International Court of Justice. The protesters were all dressed in red, creating a “red line”.

Organisers described it as the country’s largest demonstration in two decades. Many waving Palestinian flags and some chanting “Stop the Genocide”, the demonstrators turned a central park in the city into a sea of red on a sunny afternoon.

“The Dutch cabinet still refuses to draw a red line. That is why we do it, for as long as necessary,” Marjon Rozema of Amnesty International Netherlands said in a statement.

Protesters walked a 5-kilometer loop around the city center of The Hague to symbolically create the red line that the government has failed to set.

Original article by Common Dreams Staff republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

Experiencing issues with this image not appearing. I suspect because it's so critical of Zionist Keir Starmer's support of and complicity in Israel's genocides.
Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpA
UK Labour Party government ministers Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves explain that they are partners complicit in Israel's Gaza genocide. The UK has provided Israel with arms, military and air force support. They explain that they don't do gas chambers but do do forced marches, starvation, destroy hospitals, mass-murders of journalists and healthcare workers.
UK Labour Party government ministers Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves explain that they are partners complicit in Israel’s Gaza genocide. The UK has provided Israel with arms, military and air force support. They explain that they don’t do gas chambers but do do forced marches, starvation, destroy hospitals, mass-murders of journalists and healthcare workers.
Vote Labour for Genocide.
Vote Labour for Genocide.

Continue ReadingHundreds of Thousands Form ‘Red Line’ Around The Hague