The video explores the current humanitarian crisis in Gaza, as addressed by the United Nations Security Council. Recent meetings, initiated by Britain, France, and Algeria, spotlight Israel's actions and criticisms from various countries, including the United States, over the severe living conditions in Gaza. The UN warns about the worsening humanitarian conditions, including potential famine without increased aid. Both Israeli and Palestinian representatives at the UN debate the handling and implications of humanitarian aid in the region.

The discussion emphasizes the challenges amidst the political and military actions in Gaza. The US and UK representatives explicitly demand that aid be swiftly deployed, stressing that a policy of starvation would violate international law. Meanwhile, Israel claims that Hamas forces obstruct the distribution of aid, leading to further complications. Debates continue regarding the obligations and actions of Israel and the role of international assistance.

Main takeaways from the video:

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Key Vocabularies and Common Phrases:

1. humanitarian [ˌhjuːmənɪˈtɛriən] - (adjective) - Pertaining to promoting human welfare and social reforms. - Synonyms: (compassionate, benevolent, philanthropic)

There's been more pressure now on Israel at the United Nations Security Council over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

2. wasteland [ˈweɪstˌlænd] - (noun) - A barren area of land where nothing can grow or be built. - Synonyms: (desert, barren land, uninhabitable area)

Gaza is now a kind of unlivable wasteland and the region could plunge into famine over the winter unless more aid reaches it.

3. implicate [ˈɪmplɪˌkeɪt] - (verb) - To show to be involved in, especially in a crime or fault. - Synonyms: (involve, incriminate, connect)

A quote unquote policy of starvation in northern Gaza would be horrific and unacceptable and would have implications under international law and us law.

4. famine [ˈfæmɪn] - (noun) - Extreme scarcity of food, leading to widespread hunger. - Synonyms: (hunger, starvation, food shortage)

Gaza is now a kind of unlivable wasteland and the region could plunge into famine over the winter unless more aid reaches it.

5. annexation [ˌænɪkˈseɪʃən] - (noun) - The act of adding or joining a territory to an existing one. - Synonyms: (incorporation, seizure, appropriation)

We warned since the first days of the israeli assault that its goal was forcible displacement of the palestinian people and annexation of the palestinian territory.

6. harbinger [ˈhɑːrbɪndʒər] - (noun) - A person or thing that announces or signals the approach of another. - Synonyms: (forerunner, precursor, herald)

And we heard the very sort of vocal form of that warning from Linda Thomas Greenfield, american representative to the UN just there where she said, and you played that clip where she said, quote unquote, a policy of starvation would be unacceptable against international law.

7. contradiction [ˌkɒntrəˈdɪkʃən] - (noun) - A combination of statements or ideas that are opposed to one another. - Synonyms: (discrepancy, inconsistency, conflict)

Yeah. And of course, this has been the juxtaposition or the contradiction, as some see it, throughout the course of the last year.

8. juxtaposition [ˌdʒʌkstəpəˈzɪʃn] - (noun) - The fact of two things being seen or placed close together with contrasting effect. - Synonyms: (contrast, comparison, alignment)

Yeah. And of course, this has been the juxtaposition or the contradiction, as some see it, throughout the course of the last year.

9. rapporteur [ræpɔrˈtɜːr] - (noun) - A person who is appointed to report on the proceedings of a meeting. - Synonyms: (reporter, recorder, journalist)

Well, let's cross live now and speak to Michael Fakri, who's the UN special rapporteur on the right to food.

10. consistent pattern [kənˈsɪstənt ˈpætərn] - (noun phrase) - A series of behaviors or actions that are predictable and uniform over time. - Synonyms: (regularity, steady trend, unvarying cycle)

This has been Israel's consistent pattern since it announced its starvation campaign on October 9, 2023.

More aid lorries enter Gaza after US threat to cut Israel's military support - BBC News

We start with developments in the Middle east. There's been more pressure now on Israel at the United Nations Security Council over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. The meeting, which was called by Britain, France and Algeria, follows a warning from the head of the UN agency for palestinian refugees that its operations there are nearing breaking point. Filipe Lazarini has said Gaza is now a kind of unlivable wasteland and the region could plunge into famine over the winter unless more aid reaches it. The United nations says some food aid has arrived over the last three days after Israel received a strongly worded warning from the United States about the worrying humanitarian situation.

Addressing the Security Council, the US and UK ambassadors said both countries will be watching very closely to see if Israel continues to allow Palestinians in Gaza access. Aid colleagues we know that commitments must be followed through on and that the progress we've seen since last week is insufficient and so far our part. The United States will continue to make the following clear food and supplies must be surged into Gaza immediately and there must be humanitarian pauses across Gaza to allow for vaccinations and the delivery and distribution of humanitarian aid. A quote unquote policy of starvation in northern Gaza would be horrific and unacceptable and would have implications under international law and us law.

The government of Israel has said that this is not their policy, that food and other essential supplies will not be cut off, and we will be watching to see that Israel's actions on the ground match this statement. The situation in northern Gaza is harrowing. Approximately 400,000 Gazans have been ordered to evacuate the north and move southwards to the IDF designated humanitarian zone. Many of these people will already have been displaced, some many times over and are desperately searching for refuge. But there are no safe places in Gaza. Just this week we saw horrifying images following the israeli strike on al Aqsa hospital inside the IDF designated humanitarian zone.

Well, the palestinian ambassador to the UN, Riyadh Mansour, said Israel must stop their actions. We warned since the first days of the israeli assault that its goal was forcible displacement of the palestinian people and annexation of the palestinian territory. What we are seeing in northern Gaza is exactly that. 400,000 Palestinians, besieged and bombed and starved, left with a choice to stay in the north and die in the bombings or from starvation or leave to face death elsewhere. The so called general's plan, israeli general's plan is in motion. Any palestinian that stays in the north is considered a legitimate military target. All are hostages and bargaining chips. That is not war. I repeat, this is not war. These are crimes. This is genocide. They must be stopped and they must be stopped now.

Well, the israeli ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, denies holding back aid and accused Hamas of hijacking the humanitarian supplies. Council members, Israel has flooded Gaza with as much aid as possible. humanitarian aid tracks continue to enter Gaza, and we appreciate our international partners for their assistance. With hundreds of air tracs waiting to be distributed inside Gaza, while others are hijacked and diverted by Hamas, this session has entirely missed the, the real issue at hand. The issue in Gaza is not a lack of aid. More than enough aid has entered to sustain every civilian in Gaza with over 1 million tons delivered since the war began.

Yet the challenges continue. Yes, we admit that. And it's not due to Israel's efforts or failure to deliver humanitarian assistance. The real issue is Hamas. This terrorist organization has hijacked the aid, seizing it for their own purposes. They steal, they store and even sell the aid that is intended for Gaza civilians, turning humanitarian relief into a profit machine.

Well, let's cross live now and speak to some of our correspondents who are on the ground. Wirra Davis is in Jerusalem for us. Jonathan head is in Beirut. But let's start with Tom Bateman, who is in Washington for us. We begin with you because we just heard there from the israeli ambassador to the UN, as well as the UK and us ambassadors, and with the us ambassador, at least in the us stance, Tom, it is really a question of the United States walking a tightrope between what it wants Israel to do and, of course, the arms that it continues to provide.

Yeah. And of course, this has been the juxtaposition or the contradiction, as some see it, throughout the course of the last year. And it has been a relationship really characterized by that often dysfunctional theme in that the israelis, of course, have armed the, sorry, the Americans have armed the israeli military offensive in Gaza, but have consistently exerted pressure, as theyve seen it, to try and ensure that civilians are protected. Now, its critics will say it just simply either hasnt done that effectively in that it hasnt really believed in it, or it hasnt been able to get leverage over the Israelis. The Americans, for their part, say that they have got results, that, for example, in the spring when they put pressure on the Israelis to stop blocking aid shipments, that it did allow aid flowing to a certain extent again.

And I think we're back into a kind of mode now where we're seeing the Americans once again, quite publicly now, trying to exert pressure on the Israelis. We reported yesterday on this leaked letter that was sent on Sunday in which the Americans basically told the american government, sort this out. You've got 30 days to sort out this terrible situation in the north of Gaza where people are, according to the UN humanitarian affairs representative, basically not going to be without food for much longer. That food itself is running out. There was no aid getting in for two weeks until a little bit, she said, a trickle.

In the last couple of days the Americans have said, stop this, get the aid in, or if you don't do that within 30 days, the Americans are saying they're going to, the Israelis risk having some american military assistance cut off. And we heard the very sort of vocal form of that warning from Linda Thomas Greenfield, american representative to the UN just there where she said, and you played that clip where she said, quote unquote, a policy of starvation would be unacceptable against international law. Horrific, she called it. She says, yes, the Israelis say they are not doing that. But she then went on to say, we're going to be watching you to make sure that that doesn't happen on the ground. So a very stern warning. I think some critics of us policy will say, well, in the past the Americans haven't really shown teeth when they have made these warnings and therefore the situation just deteriorates.

They will be hoping this time it's different. Tom, thank you very much indeed. TOM Bateman there in New York. While meanwhile in southern Lebanon, the mayor of Nabatiya has been killed in israeli strikes. Take a look at these pictures. They give you an idea of the scale of the damage. At least 60 people have been killed, and the local governor has told the BBC the strikes hit a meeting of the council's crisis coordination team. Well, let's cross live now and speak to our correspondent in Beirut. Jonathan had. And Jonathan, tell us a bit more about what's been happening today in Lebanon.

Well, that strike in Nabatiya was just one of what we assume will be many. I mean, the number yesterday was 141 israeli airstrikes across Lebanon, 200 the day before. The count for today still being tallied. That was a particularly devastating airstrike. The local people heard at least nine massive explosions in very quick succession, presumably all bombs or missiles fired by israeli aircraft. Nabatiya is a Hezbollah town. In fact, most of the south has got a very strong Hezbollah influence. So the mayor, Mayor Ahmed Kahil, is affiliated with Hezbollah, but in the eyes of people living there, he's a civilian.

People say he was a very popular and effective mayor. He was involved in the health department there in Nabatea. So they're questioning why was a municipal meeting targeted by the Israelis. A very high death toll there. We've seen devastating pictures from other towns. Mawaniya is another one just up the road from Nabatea where it was just absolute thunderous detonations as column after column of smoke went up and these israeli bombs went in. This is an absolutely devastating strategy by Israel, and it isn't letting up. It's quite possible it's escalating as the Israelis seek targets. Now, the israeli defense forces said in Nabatea it only hit military targets, Hezbollah targets.

That's not the way the local people see it. And we've had the prime minister of Lebanon appealing to the international community said our country is under constant assault in violation of international law. Why is the world silent? And that is something I think many lebanese themselves would ask. Jonathan, thank you very much indeed. Well, let's cross live now and speak to our correspondent in Jerusalem. We're Davis. And we're a lot of pressure on Israel from the United nations. We've heard that some aid trucks have entered, I think 50 have entered today into Gaza. What are we hearing from the israeli government? Yeah, as we heard, a very strong defense in the UN there by Danny Danone, as you might expect. But the reality on the ground perhaps is a little different when you speak to aid agencies, when you speak to the UN, they all point out the di, humanitarian consequences of this renewed israeli military operation in northern Gaza.

Since that american letter that Tom referred to, about three days of limited aid have started to get through. Today it was 50 trucks crossing through the eres, crossing between Israel and Gaza. But 50 trucks a day is way short of the minimum of about 500 trucks a day of food aid and medical aid that the aid agencies say is needed. You know, you've got 300,000 people trapped in that area where Israel has got this ongoing military operation. It says it's succeeding. It says it killed 50 Hamas fighters overnight. But, of course, many civilians are being killed as well.

The Americans have made it clear that these so called safe areas where Israel says it's directing people towards are not safe in name or in nature. People are being killed there as well. And aid agencies like medicine sans frontier said it's actually impossible for people to leave. And they've even recorded instances of where people have been leaving and they've been shot at reportedly by israeli troops. So a very dire humanitarian situation in the north that may actually force, I think, Israel to, to reassess and rethink its military strategy. It's not going to give up fighting against Hamas. Netanyahu won't stop. He's made that clear until Hamas is defeated.

But it might take a little bit longer if it's been going to be forced to reassess its military strategy to take into account the dire humanitarian situation in northern Gaza. We're. Thank you very much indeed. We're Davis there in Jerusalem.

So what is the situation regarding food aid into Gaza? Well, in a speech to the US Congress in July, the israeli prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed Israel has enabled half a million tons of food aid into Gaza. And that's more than 3000 calories for every man, woman and child in Gaza. Those were his words. We haven't been able to find any independent estimates on the number of calories people in Gaza are living on.

But back in April, Oxfam calculated that people in northern Gaza were only consuming on average around 245 calories a day, which the aid agency described as being less than a can of father beans. In a tweet on Tuesday showing these aid trucks, the IDF stated since October 1, over 9000 tons of humanitarian aid, including food, water, gas, shelter equipment and medical supplies have entered Gaza through various crossings. Well, we've taken some data about aid trucks from the United nations and we've illustrated it in this graph. Before the war, there were on average 500 lorries entering Gaza every day, while in the first ten days of this month only 30 lorries entered Gaza. The israeli military body responsible for managing crossings into the area, Khojat, said that these lorries were carrying aid from the World Food Programme and that they entered northern Gaza through the eras crossing Sundays.

Letter from the US stated that Israel must surge all forms of humanitarian assistance throughout Gaza before winter, including by enabling a minimum of 350 lorries a day to enter through all the major crossing points. It also calls on Israel to end the isolation of northern Gaza. Well, let's cross live now and speak to Michael Fakri, who's the UN special rapporteur on the right to food. Michael, thanks for joining us. Why do you think we're only seeing 50 lorries a day going in as we did today when what the UN has been saying is 350 are needed? This has been Israel's consistent pattern since it announced its starvation campaign on October 9, 2023. So Israel has announced its starvation campaign multiple times over the last year and it's been starving people in Gaza for an entire year. And it restricts humanitarian aid and sometimes denies humanitarian aid.

So it ebbs and flows. So what we see is a consistent pattern of Israel using humanitarian aid as a bargaining chip. So sometimes they entirely block all aid into northern Gaza. That's been consistent, and sometimes they'll allow a trickle in. So over the last two weeks, we saw a complete siege against northern Gaza and now they're allowing 50 trucks in. So this trickle is coming back in. But this is this consistent pattern of a starvation campaign that's over one year old now. And just to put forward what israel have been saying about this, the israeli prime minister said that accusations of Israel limiting humanitarian aid are, in his words, outrageously false.

He said, a deliberate starvation policy. You can say anything. It doesn't make it true, he said in a press conference on Wednesday. I mean, I'm quoting from israeli officials themselves when they said, we will deny all people in Gaza water, food and medicine. They started this in October 9, and we have a record of repeated statements, and then we have evidence of Israel putting that into effect. And then when you talk directly to humanitarian workers on the ground where we speak to them, they tell us Israel's rules are confusing, opaque, inconsistent, even when lauriers get through. Then we've seen time and time again israeli forces targeting humanitarian convoys, even though those convoys coordinate with israeli forces.

And then even if those convoys reach people, we have multiple instances of israeli forces attacking civilians seeking aid. And it's not just about humanitarian aid. Israel has been destroying the food system in Gaza. It's been destroying agricultural fields. It's been destroying fishing boats. It's been poisoning the land. So it's not just about humanitarian aid. Israel has been destroying the palestinian people's ability to feed themselves in Gaza. Michael Fakri, thank you very much for taking the time to answer my questions. Thanks once again.

Politics, Global, Humanitarian Aid, Middle East Conflict, Un Security Council, International Relations, Bbc News