��������

GENEVA: International aid groups say they have not yet been able to deliver shelter materials to Gaza despite Israeli authorities saying they have lifted restrictions on such supplies, and warn that further delays could cause more Palestinian deaths.
Aid organizations say Israel had in effect been blocking the delivery of materials for shelters for nearly six months, with tent poles previously listed among items Israeli authorities considered could have a military as well as civilian use.
With international concern over the plight of Palestinians mounting as the war in Gaza continues, Israel announced measures last month to let more aid into Gaza and said on Saturday that it would start allowing shelter materials in from the next day.
But officials from five aid groups, including UN agencies, told Reuters that shelter materials needed by large numbers of displaced Palestinians were still not reaching Gaza and blamed Israeli bureaucratic hurdles.
“The United Nations and our partners have...not been able to bring in shelter materials following the Israeli announcement,” the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), spokesperson Jens Laerke said.
“There’s a set of impediments that still needs to be addressed, including Israeli customs clearance.”
CARE International, ShelterBox and the Norwegian Refugee Council also said they had not yet received any authorization to deliver shelter materials. Another international NGO, which declined to be identified, said it had been unable to deliver such supplies but was trying to get clearance.
Over 1.3 million Gazans lack tents, the United Nations said this month, and more people are expected to be displaced by an Israeli operation to seize Gaza City.
COGAT, the Israeli military agency that coordinates aid, did not immediately respond to Reuters questions. It has previously said it invests considerable efforts to ensure aid reaches Gaza and has denied restricting supplies.
After nearly two years of war, many displaced Palestinians are living in the rubble of their homes or in tents.
“Life in the tent is no life at all...There’s no proper bathroom, not even a decent place to sit. We end up sitting in the street, suffocating in the heat,” 55-year-old Ibrahim Tabassi said in the southern Gazan city of Khan Younis.
He shares his cramped tent, made from tarpaulin sheets and scrap metal, with nine other family members. Clothes and pots hang inside.
Another Gaza resident, Sanaa Abu Jamous, said that she, like many other Gazans, had been using the same tattered tent throughout the war.
“My tent is extremely worn out,” she said.
Deliveries via Kerem Shalom crossing
Israel said on Saturday that deliveries of materials for shelters would be allowed via the Kerem Shalom Crossing with Israel but would have to undergo security inspections.
The Red Cross told Reuters it had received permission from COGAT to bring in shelter materials from what is known as the Jordanian corridor to Kerem Shalom, but that many challenges remain.
CARE International said it had received no confirmation that the change in policy had been enacted.
The Norwegian Refugee Council, a humanitarian organization, said it had applied for permission to deliver 3,000 tents across Gaza, including the north, but had not yet received a reply.
Many aid groups are resisting Israeli demands — under measures imposed in March — to register because it means disclosing personal information about Palestinian staff.
COGAT says the mechanism is a security screening intended to ensure aid goes directly to the population rather than to the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
ShelterBox’s regional director, Haroon Altaf, said granting permission to only a select number of aid groups would not meet demand for shelter materials.
“If it’s only a handful of organizations that can bring shelter aid in, it doesn’t really change much and it’s deeply concerning. People are going to die because of it,” he said.

Brussels, Belgium: NATO military chiefs were set Wednesday to discuss the details of eventual security guarantees for Ukraine, pushing ahead the flurry of global diplomacy aiming to broker an end to Russia’s war.
But even as diplomatic efforts continued Wednesday, Russian forces claimed fresh advances on the ground and Ukrainian officials reported more deaths from Moscow’s missiles.
Few details have leaked on the virtual meeting of military chiefs from NATO’s 32 member countries, which is due to start at 2:30 p.m. (1230 GMT).
But on Tuesday evening top US officer Dan Caine, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, held talks with European military chiefs on the “best options for a potential Ukraine peace deal,” a US defense official told AFP.
US President Donald Trump brought Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and European leaders to the White House Monday, three days after his landmark encounter with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska.
Trump, long a fierce critic of the billions of dollars in US support to Ukraine since Russia invaded in 2022, earlier said European nations were “willing to put people on the ground” to secure any settlement. He ruled out sending US troops but suggested it would provide air support instead.
But while Trump said Putin had agreed to meet Zelensky and accept some Western security guarantees for Ukraine, Kyiv and Western capitals have responded cautiously, as many of the details remain vague.
Russia’s defense ministry said on Telegram Wednesday that its troops had captured the villages of Sukhetske and Pankivka in the embattled Donetsk region.
They are near a section of the front where the Russian army broke through Ukrainian defenses last week, between the logistics hub of Pokrovsk and Kostiantynivka.
In the eastern Kharkiv region, the prosecutor’s office said a Russian drone strike on a civilian vehicle had killed two people, aged 70 and 71.
Russian glide bombs hit housing in the eastern Ukrainian town of Kostiantynivka overnight, trapping as many as four people under rubble, said the town’s military administration chief Sergiy Gorbunov.
And Russia aerial attacks on the northeastern town of Okhtyrka in the Sumy region wounded at least 14 people, including three children, according to regional governor Oleg Grygorov.
Zelensky said these latest strikes showed “the need to put pressure on Moscow,” including through sanctions.