Middle East: Gaza soup kitchens shutter as supplies dwindle

The Palestinian militant group Hamas distanced itself on Thursday from attacks on Israel launched from Lebanon, saying it was committed to a Hezbollah-Israel ceasefire.

"The rocket launching incident was an individual act carried out by a number of young people," Hamas representative in Lebanon Ahmad Abdulhadi said. "Hamas did not know about this in advance and did not decide to do this."

The statement added that Hamas is "fully committed to the ceasefire agreement in Lebanon, and the movement's leadership has informed all Lebanese authorities of this."

Abdulhadi also said Hamas responded to Beirut's request to hand over four wanted individuals. Three were handed over, he said, adding that coordination was ongoing "to complete the remaining steps."

Rockets were fired from Lebanon at Israel on March 22 and 28, despite a November ceasefire. Israel responded by bombing south Lebanon and Beirut's southern suburbs.

Earlier on Thursday, Israel struck southern Lebanon, saying it was targeting Hezbollah infrastructure.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on Thursday said the latest Israeli blockade of aid deliveries to Gaza was "unacceptable."

"It is unacceptable that humanitarian aid is not allowed into the Gaza Strip," said ICRC Director General Pierre Krahenbuhl, speaking in Geneva, Switzerland.

Krahenbuhl said Israel's policies stand in fundamental opposition to "anything that international humanitarian law provides." He added that it is absolutely crucial that aid be delivered immediately, saying the situation in Gaza is balanced on a "razor's edge." 

"I think everybody should feel deep indignation about what is happening in Gaza. I can't reconcile myself with the human cost of this conflict," said Krahenbuhl. 

"Frankly, if this is the future of warfare, we should all be terrified, and we should all be aware that this questions the very foundations of our humanity," he said. 

Dozens of Columbia University students were arrested in New York late on Wednesday, following large protests on the university campus and an attempt to take over a reading room in Columbia's library.

Columbia's administration called the New York Police Department (NYPD) for support, saying the protesters were engaged in trespassing.

At least 40 students were seen loaded into police vans and buses outside Butler Library, their hands cuffed with plastic zip-ties. Police swept up the building to round up protesters who refused to leave.

The protest was among the biggest since US President Donald Trump came to power in January and began cracking down on pro-Palestinian protests at university campuses.

In March, the Trump administration announced cancelling hundreds of millions of dollars in grants for scientific research to Columbia.

The university administration is striving to strike a balance between Trump accusations that it allows antisemitism on its campus and civil rights groups' accusations that it is giving in to government intrusions on academic freedom.

The Trump administration has also targeted several pro-Palestinian student protest leaders with deportation orders.

Israel has warned Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels against any further attacks on its territory.

In a statement on X on Thursday, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz threatened the Houthi rebels with heavy blows should they continue to fire at Israel.

"Israel must be able to defend itself on its own against any threat and any enemy," Katz said. "The Houthis will suffer heavy blows from Israel if they continue to fire at us. The IDF [Israel Defence Forces] is prepared for any mission."

This comes after the Houthis vowed to continue to strike Israeli ships in the Red Sea, despite reaching an agreement with the US  to stop firing at US ships in the vital waterway.

Announced on Tuesday, the Oman-mediated ceasefire stipulates that the United States would stop bombing the Houthis in Yemen.

After the agreement, the Houthis claimed on Wednesday to have targeted Israel with drones.

Israeli Defense Minister Katz also extended his warning on Thursday to Iran.

"I warn... Iranian leaders who finance, arm and exploit the Houthi terrorist organisation: the proxy system is terminated and the axis of evil has collapsed," he said.

"You are directly responsible. What we have done to Hezbollah in Beirut, to Hamas in Gaza, to [now ousted Syrian president Bashar] Assad in Damascus, we will do to you in Tehran, too."

Israel's military said it struck southern Lebanon on Thursday, in what was described as one of the heaviest bombardments since a ceasefire came into effect last November.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the strike targeted infrastructure that belonged to the Hezbollah militant group and its defense network.

The attack killed at least one person and injured eight others, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.

Hezbollah says it has largely disarmed south of the Litani River, in accordance with the terms of the November ceasefire agreement with Israel. Despite the agreement, Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon have continued, with Israel insisting that the militants are rearming.

Recently, Lebanese authorities have announced the arrest of Palestinian militants, including members of Hamas, whom they blame for firing at Israel from Lebanon.

Israel has shuttered at least three United Nations (UN) schools in east Jerusalem on Thursday, the UN's Palestinian refugees agency UNRWA said.

The Associated Press reported six schools had been shut. 

Palestinian students were forced to leave early, with the education of more than 800 thrown into question.

Israeli police and Education Ministry officials ordered last month the six UNRWA-run schools to close within 30 days. The closure followed the Israeli ban of the UN agency from operating on its soil, which came into effect earlier this year.

Israel claims the shuttered schools teach antisemitic and anti-Israel content. UNRWA, the main provider of education and health care to Palestinian refugees in east Jerusalem, denies these accusations.

The Palestinian Authority condemned the move in a statement to the French AFP news agency, calling it a "violation of children's right to education."

The Israeli Education Ministry said it will place the affected students into other Jerusalem schools. Parents, teachers and administrators are concerned that the children will need to go through crowded and dangerous checkpoints every day and that the kids may not have the correct permits to cross at the checkpoints.

Israel captured Jerusalem in 1967 and claims the entirety of the city as its capital. The UN considers the Israeli annexation of its eastern sector illegal. The Palestinians see east Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state.

Dozens of soup kitchens shuttered their doors in Gaza on Thursday as supplies ran out in the enclave, devastated by 19 months of war and a two-month total Israeli blockade.

The US-based World Central Kitchen (WCK) announced that it had run out of the ingredients necessary to provide its free meals, adding that Israel had prevented it from bringing in much-needed aid.

"Our trucks — loaded with food and supplies — are waiting in Egypt, Jordan and Israel, ready to enter Gaza," said Jose Andres, the celebrity chef who founded the organization. "But they cannot move without permission. Humanitarian aid must be allowed to flow."

Amjad al-Shawa, director of the Palestinian Non-Governmental Organizations Network (PNGO) in Gaza, told the Reuters news agency that most of the enclave's 170 soup kitchens had shut down after running out of stock due to Israel's continued blockade.

"Everyone in Gaza today is hungry. The world must act now to save the people here," Shawa told news agency Reuters over the phone.

He estimated that the closure of soup kitchens would lead to a drop of some 400,000 to 500,000 desperately needed free meals per day. "The remaining kitchens will be closing soon. The hunger catastrophe is beyond words. People are losing their lone source of food."

UN humanitarian agency OCHA said more than 2 million people, most of Gaza's population of roughly 2.3 million, face severe food shortages.

Israel imposed its total blockade on Gaza in March, saying it aimed to pressure the militant group Hamas to release the remaining Israeli hostages.

Hamas, which is designated as a terrorist group in several countries, took some 250 hostages when it carried out the October 7, 2023, attacks on southern Israel, which killed 1,200 people.

Israel's consequent war on Gaza has killed more than 52,600 Palestinians, according to figures from the health authorities in the Hamas-run enclave regarded as reliable by international organizations. 

Already battered first response in the devastated Gaza Strip is coming to a near standstill due to a total Israeli blockade, with several soup kitchens closing operations due to a lack of supplies.

Meanwhile in the region, Israel is intensifying its strikes on southern Lebanon, while also threatening the Iran-backed Houthi rebels should they continue to mount attacks on it.

This blog will bring you the latest in the Middle East region, as the Gaza war enters its 20th month.