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A6 WORLD NEWS
Monday 10 February 2025
U.N. humanitarian chief says Gaza ceasefire has averted famine

but any truce collapse brings danger

By SAMY MAGDY sands of tents very rapidly
Associated Press in, so that people who are
CAIRO (AP) — Famine has moving back, particularly
been mostly averted in Gaza moving back into the north,
as a surge of aid enters the are able to take shelter from
territory during a fragile those conditions," he said.
ceasefire, the United Na- Fletcher entered the Palestin-
tions humanitarian chief said ian territory through the Erez
Sunday. But he warned the crossing between Israel and
threat could return quickly if northern Gaza, where he said
the truce collapses. he drove through "bombed-
Tom Fletcher spoke to The out, flattened and pulverized"
Associated Press after a two- areas.
day visit to Gaza, where hun- "You can't see the difference
dreds of trucks carrying hu- between a school or a hos-
manitarian aid have arrived pital or a home," he said of
each day since the ceasefire the north.
began on Jan. 19. He said he saw people try-
"The threat of famine, I think, ing to find where their homes
is largely averted," Fletcher had been and collecting the
said in Cairo. "Those starva- bodies of loved ones from the
tion levels are down from rubble. He saw dogs looking
where they were before the for corpses in the rubble, too.
ceasefire." U.N. humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher speaks during an interview in Cairo, Egypt, Sunday, Feb. 9, "It is a horror movie. It's a hor-
He spoke as concerns grow 2025. ror show," he said. "It breaks
over whether the ceasefire Associated Press your heart again and again
can be extended and talks fect. For months before the cur- ministration repeatedly urged and again. You drive for miles
are meant to begin on its Fletcher urged both Hamas, rent ceasefire, food security Israel to allow more aid deliv- and miles and miles, and this
more difficult second phase. which quickly reasserted its monitors, U.N. officials and eries and warned that failing is all you see."
The six-week first phase is half- control of the territory in the others had been warning of to do so could trigger U.S. Fletcher acknowledged that
way through. hours after the ceasefire took possible famine in parts of restrictions on military support. some Palestinians have been
As part of the agreement, effect, and Israel to stick to devastated Gaza, especially Fletcher said more food and angry at the international
Israel said it would allow 600 the deal that has "saved so the north, which had been medical supplies are crucially community over the war and
aid trucks into Gaza each many lives." largely isolated since the ear- needed for the territory of its response.
day, a major increase after "The conditions are still ter- liest weeks of the 16-month more than 2 million people, "There was despair and an-
months of aid officials ex- rible, and people are still hun- war. Hundreds of thousands most of them displaced, and ger. And I can understand
pressing frustration about de- gry," he said. "If the ceasefire of Palestinians have been he expressed concerns about the anger at the world that
lays and insecurity hampering falls, if the ceasefire breaks, able to return to the north disease outbreaks due to the this has happened to them,"
both the entry and distribu- then very quickly those (fam- under the ceasefire. lack of basic health supplies. he said. "But there was also
tion of food, medicines and ine-like) conditions will come "We can't ... sit by and just He also called for scaling up a sense of defiance as well.
other badly needed items. back again." allow these people to starve the delivery of tents and other People were saying, 'We will
The U.N. humanitarian office The internationally recog- to death," Cindy McCain, the shelters to those who have go back to our homes. We will
has said more than 12,600 nized mortality threshold for American head of the U.N. returned to their home areas, go back to the places that
aid trucks have entered Gaza famine is two or more deaths World Food Program, told CBS as winter continues. we have lived for genera-
since the ceasefire took ef- a day per 10,000 people. in December. The Biden ad- "We must get tens of thou- tions, and we will rebuild.'"q

Aga Khan, the leader of Ismaili Muslims, laid to rest in Egypt during

private burial ceremony

Associated Press the Ismaili community center Muhammad Shah, and his
ASWAN, Egypt (AP) — The Aga in Lisbon attended by Ca- grandmother, Om Habiba,"
Khan IV was laid to rest on nadian Prime Minister Justin said Maj. Gen. Ismail Kamal.
Sunday at a private ceremony Trudeau, Spain's King Emeritus Ismaili mourners marched as
in Aswan, Egypt. Juan Carlos and Portugal's bells rang during the burial
The death of Prince Karim President Marcelo Rebelo ceremony in the country's
- the 49th hereditary imam de Sousa. The Aga Khan is southern Aswan province,
of the Shiite Ismaili Muslims considered by his followers as Prince Karim's body was
- was announced Tuesday to be a direct descendant taken in a van. They carried
by the Aga Khan Develop- of the Prophet Muhammad his body, draped in a white
ment Network and the Ismaili and is treated as a head of shroud, and placed it on a
religious community. His son, state. yacht on the Nile River.
53-year-old Rahim Al-Hussaini, The governor of Aswan wel- Prince Karim, 88, was given
has been named as the Aga comed Prince Karim's fam- the title of "His Highness" by
Khan V, the spiritual leader of ily at the southern Egyptian's Queen Elizabeth in July 1957,
Relatives of Prince Karim Al-Hussaini, the Aga Khan IV and 49th the world's millions of Ismaili provinces airport on Saturday. two weeks after his grandfather,
hereditary imam of the Shiite Ismaili Muslims, who died Tuesday Muslims, in according with his "When his will was opened, the Aga Khan III, unexpectedly
in Portugal, walk during a funeral ceremony at the Aga Khan father's will. it was found that he had re- made him heir to the family's
mausoleum, in Aswan, Egypt, Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025. On Saturday, a private fu- quested to be buried in Aswan 1,300-year dynasty as leader
Associated Press
neral service took place at near his grandfather, Sultan of the Ismaili Muslim sect. q