World

BERLIN — The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees warned Wednesday of the risk of famine in Gaza, a day after the United States said Israel had been warned to improve aid deliveries to the territory.

UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini told a press conference in Berlin that "there is a real risk today... that we enter a situation where famine or acute malnutrition is unfortunately again a likelihood," pointing to the upcoming winter and the weakened immune systems of Gaza's population.

Vast areas of Gaza have been devastated by Israel's retaliatory assault on the territory after the October 7 attack last year by Hamas.

Israel has been intensifying operations in the north of the besieged Palestinian territory, where the UN has warned hundreds of thousands of people are trapped.

Lazzarini painted a dire picture of the humanitarian situation in Gaza, saying it had "become a kind of wasteland, which I would say is almost unliveable".

In relation to aid deliveries to Gaza he said that "over the last two to three weeks there was no convoy entering into the north except yesterday".

"We have a huge drop of convoys in the south with only an average of fifty to sixty for two million people, while we estimate the number needed much, much higher," Lazzarini said.

He pointed out that the convoys which had managed to enter had been subject to looting "because of the total breakdown of law and order". 

However, he stressed that with appropriate action a hunger crisis in Gaza "can be avoided" if convoys and food are allowed to enter.

"We have shown that we can have a polio campaign, so why can we not bring food?" he asked.

On Tuesday the US State Department said Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin sent a joint letter making "clear to the government of Israel that there are changes that they need to make again to see that the level of assistance making it into Gaza comes back up from the very, very low levels that it is at today".

COGAT, the Israeli military body supervising civilian affairs in Palestinian territories, said on Wednesday that "50 trucks carrying humanitarian aid -- including food, water, medical supplies, and shelter equipment provided by Jordan -- were transferred today to northern Gaza".

Commenting on the issue of aid flows into Gaza, Israel's ambassador to the UN Danny Danon said Wednesday that "the problem in Gaza is not lack of aid", adding: "The problem is Hamas, which hijacks the aid, stealing, storing and selling it to feed their terror machine, while civilians suffer."

Israeli foreign minister Israel Katz told Germany's Bild newspaper on Wednesday that "we are doing everything to let the international community supply humanitarian aid to Gaza."

"I think that we did, and [are] doing more than any other country ever did for their enemies," he said.

WASHINGTON — A judge in the closely watched US swing state of Georgia ruled on Tuesday that local election board members must certify vote results in a decision that could impact the upcoming presidential contest.

Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney's ruling came after a Republican appointee to the election board in Fulton County, which includes large parts of Atlanta, refused earlier this year to certify the results of Georgia's presidential primary.

Julie Adams, in a lawsuit backed by the America First Policy Institute, a group aligned with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, had sought a judgment from the court that the certification of election results was "discretionary".

McBurney rejected Adams's claim.

"If election superintendents were, as Plaintiff urges, free to play investigator, prosecutor, jury, and judge and so — because of a unilateral determination of error or fraud — refuse to certify election results, Georgia voters would be silenced," McBurney wrote.

"Our Constitution and our Election Code do not allow for that to happen."

The judge said there are "some things an election superintendent must do, either in a certain way or by a certain time, with no discretion to do otherwise."

"Certification is one of those things," he said. "Election superintendents in Georgia have a mandatory fixed obligation to certify election results."

Trump is facing racketeering charges in the southern state over his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election he lost to Democrat Joe Biden.

The certification case is one of a number of election-related cases that are being heard in courts in Georgia, which is expected to be one of seven key states that will determine the outcome of the November election between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.

Another case involves a controversial requirement passed by a pro-Trump majority on the Georgia State Election Board that counties manually hand count their ballots.

Georgia officials from both sides of the political aisle say the count is not only superfluous — machines already count the ballots — but also a potential tool to sow doubt by slowing the process and creating space for disinformation.

The state election board passed the rule by a three-to-two vote — those in favour being staunch Trump backers praised by the ex-president as "pit bulls" fighting for "victory."

The Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Party of Georgia sued to block the rule with the Harris campaign's backing.

SEOUL  —   North Korean leader Kim Jong-un convened a top national security meeting to direct a plan of “immediate military action” in a dispute with the South over drone flights, state media reported on Tuesday.

The nuclear-armed North has accused Seoul of flying drones over its capital to drop anti-regime propaganda leaflets, with Pyongyang ordering troops on its border to be prepared to fire, and South Korea saying Monday it was “fully ready” to respond.

Seoul’s military initially denied North Korea’s claim, but later declined to confirm whether it had sent drones across the border.

Last weekend the North said Seoul would face a “horrible disaster” if drones from the South reached Pyongyang again.

Monday’s meeting in the North was attended by the country’s top officials, including the army head and other military chiefs, as well as the ministers of state security and defence.

“He set forth the direction of immediate military action and indicated important tasks to be fulfilled in the operation of the war deterrent and the exercise of the right to self-defence,” the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on Tuesday.

Officials at the meeting in Pyongyang heard a report on the “enemy’s serious provocation”, KCNA reported, an apparent reference to the drone flights.

Kim “expressed a tough political and military stand” at the meeting, state media said.

The North has accused Seoul of being responsible for drones which dropped propaganda leaflets filled with “inflammatory rumours and rubbish”, and warned on Sunday that it would consider it “a declaration of war” if another drone was detected.

Local speculation in the South has been centred on activist groups in the country that have long sent anti-Kim propaganda and US currency northwards, typically by balloon.

But South Korean drone enthusiasts have previously sent homemade devices across the border, local media said, with Pyongyang within range of those with big batteries.

Unlike conventional drones made of metal, the devices they used were constructed from expanded polypropylene, similar to Styrofoam, allowing them to go undetected by both South and North Korean authorities, according to enthusiasts who spoke to local media.

Drones from North 

In 2022, five North Korean drones crossed into the South, the first such incident in five years, prompting the South Korean military to fire warning shots and deploy fighter jets.

The jets failed to shoot down any of the North Korean drones at the time.

Seoul in July said it would deploy this year drone-melting laser weapons designed to shoot down North Korean devices, saying the South’s ability to provocations “will be significantly enhanced”.

The new laser weapons — dubbed the “StarWars Project” by the South — shoot an invisible, silent beam that costs just 2,000 won ($1.45) per use, according to the Defence Acquisition Programme Administration (DAPA).

Relations between the two Koreas are at their lowest point in years, with the North’s army saying last week it would permanently shut the southern border by “completely cutting off roads and railways” connected to the South and building “strong defence structures”.

Following Kim’s meeting in Pyongyang, “attention is turning to whether North Korea will respond by sending drones into the South or take strong action if drones infiltrate its territory again”, said Cheong Seong-chang of the Sejong Institute.

“North Korea is likely to engage in strong provocations along the border if there is a recurrence of drone infiltrations,” Cheong told AFP.