UN official says average Gazan living on two pieces of bread a day, scarce water
United Nations (AP): The average Gazan is living on two pieces of Arabic bread made from flour the UN had stockpiled in the region, yet the main refrain now being heard in the street is "Water, water," the Gaza director for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees said Friday.
Thomas White, who said he travelled "the length and breadth of Gaza in the last few weeks," described the place as a "scene of death and destruction." No place is safe now, he said, and people fear for their lives, their future and their ability to feed their families.
The Palestinian refugee agency, known as UNRWA, is supporting about 89 bakeries across Gaza, aiming to get bread to 1.7 million people, White told diplomats from the UN's 193 member nations in a video briefing from Gaza.
But, he said, "now people are beyond looking for bread. It's looking for water."
UN deputy Mideast coordinator Lynn Hastings, who is also the humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories, said only one of three water supply lines from Israel is operational.
"Many people are relying on brackish or saline ground water, if at all," she said.
In the briefing, UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths also said intense negotiations are taking place among authorities from Israel, Egypt, the United States and United Nations on allowing fuel to enter Gaza.
Fuel, he said, is essential for the functioning of institutions, hospitals and the distribution of water and electricity. "We must allow these supplies reliably, repetitively and dependently into Gaza."
Backup generators, which have been essential to keep hospitals, water desalination plants, food production facilities and other essential services operating "are one by one grinding to a halt as fuel supplies run out," Hastings said.
White pointed to other major problems.
Sewage is not being treated and instead is being pumped into the sea, he said. "But when you speak to municipal workers, the reality is once their fuel runs out, that sewage will flow in the streets."
In addition, he said, cooking gas that was brought into Gaza from Egypt by the private sector before the war is increasingly in short supply. Aid organisations like UNRWA "are not going to be able to step in and replicate the network of distribution by the private sector for this essential item," he said.
White said close to 600,000 people are sheltering in 149 UNRWA facilities, most of them schools, but the agency has lost contact with many in the north, where Israel is carrying intense ground and air operations following Hamas' surprise Oct. 7 attacks.
An average of 4,000 displaced Gazans are living in the schools without the resources to maintain proper sanitation, he said. "The conditions are desperate," with women and children sleeping in the classrooms" and men sleeping outside in the open, he said.
The UN can't provide them safety, White said, pointing to over 50 UNRWA facilities impacted by the conflict, including five direct hits. "At last count, 38 people have died in our shelters. I fear that with the fighting going on in the north right now, that number is going to grow significantly," he said.
Griffiths, the humanitarian chief, said 72 UNRWA staff members had been killed since Oct 7. "I think it's the highest number of UN staff lost in a conflict," he said.
The Gaza Health Ministry's total of more than 9,000 people killed in Gaza is four times as many deaths as during the 50-day conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza in 2014 when just over 2,200 Palestinians were killed, Griffiths said. He added that the real toll will only emerge once buildings are cleared and rubble is taken away.
Griffiths called for humanitarian pauses to get aid to millions of people. He also urged the immediate release of all hostages and protection of all civilians by both sides as required under international humanitarian law.
Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian UN ambassador, criticised Griffiths for talking about humanitarian pauses, something the United States is also urging.
This means "Israel continues killing the Palestinians, but gives us few hours every now and then, in order to get food and other stuff," Mansour said.
He said a ceasefire is essential to save lives, saying that "almost 50 per cent of all the structures in the Gaza Strip" have been destroyed by Israel and the situation for Palestinians "is beyond comprehension and beyond description."
"It requires from all of us to do everything that we can to stop it," he said.
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South African police arrest suspect in mass shooting that killed 12, including 3 children
Johannesburg (AP): A 32-year-old suspect has been arrested in connection with a mass shooting which claimed the lives of 12 people including three children at an unlicensed pub earlier this month, South African police said on Monday.
The man is suspected of being one of the three people who opened fire on patrons in a pub at Saulsville township, west of South Africa's capital Pretoria, killing 12 people including three children aged 3, 12 and 16.
At least 13 people were also injured during the attack, whose motive remains unknown.
According to the police, the suspect was arrested on Sunday while traveling to Botlokwa in Limpopo province, more than 340 km from where the mass shooting took place on Dec 6.
An unlicensed firearm believed to have been used during the attack was recovered from the suspect's vehicle.
“The 32-year-old suspect was intercepted by Limpopo Tracking Team on the R101 Road in Westenburg precinct. During the arrest, the team recovered an unlicensed firearm, a hand gun, believed to have been used in the commission of the multiple murders. The firearm will be taken to the Forensic Science Laboratory for ballistic analysis,” police said in statement.
The suspect was arrested on the same day that another mass shooting at a pub took place in the Bekkersdal township, west of Johannesburg, in which nine people were killed and 10 wounded when unknown gunmen opened fire on patrons.
Police have since launched a search for the suspects.
South Africa has one of the highest homicide rates in the world and recorded more than 26,000 homicides in 2024 — an average of more than 70 a day. Firearms are by far the leading cause of death in homicides.
The country of 62 million people has relatively strict gun ownership laws, but many killings are committed with illegal guns, according to authorities.
According to police, mass shootings at unlicensed bars are becoming a serious problem. Police shut down more than 11,000 illegal taverns between April and September this year and arrested more than 18,000 people for involvement in illegal liquor sales.
