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UN chief Antonio Guterres on Monday said food must not be used as a weapon of war as world leaders gathered for a food summit in Africa, where 280 million people face chronic hunger.The African Union urged donors to provide greater support for the world’s poorest continent, which is struggling with poverty, unrest and the effects of climate change.A new report co-authored by several United Nations agencies found global hunger fell slightly in 2024 thanks to progress in Asia and South America.But 8.2 percent of the world — an estimated 638 to 720 million people — still faced hunger last year, and the situation was worsening particularly in Africa, where the figure is 20.2 percent.”Hunger fuels instability and undermines peace. We must never accept hunger as a weapon of war,” Antonio Guterres told the UN Food Systems Summit in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa via video link.”Climate change is disrupting harvests, supply chains and humanitarian aid,” he said. He highlighted the worsening crises in Sudan and Gaza. The World Health Organization has warned that malnutrition in the occupied Palestinian territory has reached “alarming levels” since Israel imposed a total blockade on Gaza on March 2.In late May, Israel began allowing a trickle of aid to enter, but more than 100 NGOs have warned that “mass starvation” is spreading.- Millions going hungry -The summit takes place against the backdrop of aid cuts by the United States and other Western nations that are badly affecting much of the developing world.Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, head of the African Union’s executive commission, told the summit that food insecurity was on the rise across Africa, blaming “climate shocks, conflicts and economic disruptions”.”At this crucial moment, how many children and mothers on the continent are sleeping hungry? Millions, certainly,” he said.Youssouf said more than 280 million Africans were malnourished, with “nearly 3.4 million… on the brink of famine” and some 10 million displaced by drought, floods and cyclones.He urged AU member states to devote 10 percent of their gross domestic product to agriculture to help foster “nutritional resilience”.”But we cannot do this alone. We call on our partners to honour their commitments to finance and support African solutions,” he said.- ‘Not good news’ -The UN report made clear how far there was to go to meet its goal of ending world hunger by 2030.Current projections suggest some 512 million people will still be undernourished by the end of the decade, 60 percent of them in Africa. “Global hunger figures have slightly improved compared to 2022 and 2023,” Alvaro Lario, president of the International Fund for Agricultural Development, told AFP.”But we have not come back to the levels of five years ago. This is not very good news.”Four of the worst five countries for food security are in Africa: Nigeria, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Ethiopia. The UN report highlights “persistent inequalities”, with women and rural communities most affected, and the gap widening further over the previous year.”Despite adequate global food production, millions of people go hungry or are malnourished because safe and nutritious food is not available, not accessible or, more often, not affordable,” it said.It found the response to price spikes between 2021 and 2023 was “more coordinated, informed and restrained” than the previous inflationary shock during the 2007-08 financial crisis. Some 2.3 billion people had to occasionally skip a meal in 2024 and are considered moderately or severely food insecure — 335 million more than in 2019. 

Rights groups B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights Israel said on Monday that they had concluded the war in Gaza amounts to a “genocide” against Palestinians, a first for Israeli NGOs.Both organisations are frequent critics of Israeli government policies, but the language in their reports issued on Monday was their most stark yet.”Nothing prepares you for the realisation that you are part of a society committing genocide. This is a deeply painful moment for us,” B’Tselem executive director Yuli Novak told a news conference unveiling the two reports.”As Israelis and Palestinians who live here and witness the reality every day, we have a duty to speak the truth as clearly as possible,” she said.”Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians.”A spokesman from the Israeli prime minister’s office, David Mencer, denounced the allegation.”We have free speech here in Israel but we strongly reject the accusation,” he said. “Our defence forces target terrorists and never civilians. Hamas is responsible for the suffering in Gaza.”Israel’s war in Gaza for the past 21 months began in response to an unprecedented attack by Palestinian militant group Hamas on October 7, 2023.The Israeli assault has left much of the Gaza Strip, home to more than two million Palestinians, in ruins, and according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry has killed at least 59,921 people, most of them civilians.All Gazans have been driven from their homes at least once since the start of the war, and UN agencies warn that residents face a growing threat of famine and malnutrition.The International Court of Justice, in an interim ruling in early 2024 in a case lodged by South Africa, found it “plausible” that the Israeli offensive had violated the UN Genocide Convention.The Israeli government, backed by the United States, fiercely denies the charge and says it is fighting to defeat Hamas and to bring back Israeli hostages still held in Gaza.The reports from B’Tselem — one of Israel’s best-known rights groups — and Physicians for Human Rights Israel argue that the war’s objectives go further.B’Tselem’s report cites statements from senior politicians to illustrate that Israel “is taking coordinated action to intentionally destroy Palestinian society in the Gaza Strip”.Physicians for Human Rights Israel’s report documents what the group says is “the deliberate and systematic destruction of Gaza’s healthcare system”.

Donald Trump said a ceasefire in Gaza was “possible”, and stepped up warnings to Russia, as he met UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer at one of the US president’s Scottish golf resorts on Monday.Trump made the comments as he greeted Starmer and his wife Victoria at Turnberry, south of Glasgow, where he has spent two days playing golf.The US leader said he would “reduce” a 50-day ultimatum that he has set Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine, as he took questions from reporters before his talks with the British leader.”I’m disappointed in President Putin, very disappointed in him. So we’re going to have to look and I’m going to reduce that 50 days that I gave him to a lesser number,” Trump said.Downing Street said Starmer would press Trump on ending “the unspeakable suffering” in Gaza and urge a revival of stalled ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas as a hunger crisis deepens in the besieged Palestinian territory.Asked whether he agreed with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that there was no starvation in Gaza, Trump said: “I don’t know. I mean, based on television, I would say not particularly, because those children look very hungry.”The meeting on Trump’s third full day in Scotland came after the United States and the European Union reached a landmark deal to avert a full-blown trade war over tariffs.Starmer and Trump were to discuss implementing a recent UK-US trade deal.But Gaza was expected to be the focus as European countries express growing alarm over events. Starmer also faces domestic pressure to follow France’s lead and recognise a Palestinian state.- ‘Reject hunger’ -Trump said Sunday the United States would give more aid to Gaza but he wanted other countries to step up.”It’s not a US problem. It’s an international problem,” he said, before embarking on trade talks with EU chief Ursula von der Leyen.He accused Hamas of intercepting aid, saying “they’re stealing the food, they’re stealing a lot of things. You ship it in and they steal it, then they sell it.”Truckloads of food reached hungry Gazans on Monday after Israel promised to open secure aid routes and declared a “tactical pause” in fighting in parts of the territory.But humanitarian agencies warned vast amounts more were needed to counter starvation.United Nations chief Antonio Guterres urged international action against hunger. “Hunger fuels instability and undermines peace. We must never accept hunger as a weapon of war,” he told a UN conference.- Tariffs -Last week, the United States and Israel withdrew from Gaza truce talks, with US envoy Steve Witkoff accusing Hamas of blocking a deal — a claim rejected by the Palestinian militant group.Starmer held talks with French and German counterparts on Saturday, after which the UK government said they agreed “it would be vital to ensure robust plans are in place to turn an urgently-needed ceasefire into lasting peace”.But the Downing Street statement made no mention of Palestinian statehood, which French President Emmanuel Macron has announced his country will recognise in September.More than 220 MPs in Britain’s 650-seat parliament, including dozens from Starmer’s own Labour party, have demanded that he too recognise Palestinian statehood.Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds told ITV on Monday that “every Labour MP, was elected on a manifesto of recognition of a Palestinian state” and that it was “a case of when, not if.”The UK-US trade deal was signed on May 8 and lowered tariffs for certain UK exports but has yet to come into force.Trump said Sunday the agreement was “great” for both sides but Reynolds told the BBC that “it wasn’t job done” and cautioned not to expect any announcement of a resolution on issues such as steel and aluminium tariffs.After their meeting the two leaders will travel to Aberdeen in Scotland’s northeast, where the US president is to open a new golf course at his resort on Tuesday.Trump played golf at Turnberry on Saturday and Sunday on a five-day visit that has mixed leisure with diplomacy, and also further blurred the lines between the presidency and his business interests.

UN chief Antonio Guterres on Monday said food must not be used as a weapon of war as world leaders gathered for a food summit in Africa, where 280 million people face hunger and starvation.The African Union, for its part, urged donors to provide greater support for the world’s poorest continent, which is struggling with poverty, unrest and the effects of climate change.”Hunger fuels instability and undermines peace. We must never accept hunger as a weapon of war,” Antonio Guterres told the UN Food Systems Summit (UNFSS) in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa via video link. “Climate change is disrupting harvests, supply chains and humanitarian aid,” he said. “Conflict continues to spread hunger from Gaza to Sudan and beyond,” he warned amid a severely deteriorating crisis in Gaza, whose population of more than two million is facing famine and malnutrition.The World Health Organization has warned malnutrition in the occupied Palestinian territory has reached “alarming levels” since Israel imposed a total blockade on Gaza on March 2.In late May, it began allowing a small trickle of aid to resume but more than 100 NGOs have warned that “mass starvation” was spreading in the besieged territory.- Millions going hungry -The summit takes place against the backdrop of aid cuts by the United States and other Western nations that are badly affecting much of the developing world.Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, head of the African Union’s executive commission, said food insecurity was on the rise across Africa, blaming “climate shocks, conflicts and economic disruptions”.”At this crucial moment, how many children and mothers on the continent are sleeping hungry?” he asked.”Millions, certainly. The urgency of the situation is beyond doubt.”Youssouf said that more than 280 million Africans were malnourished, with “nearly 3.4 million… on the brink of famine”. Roughly 10 million people had been displaced due to drought, floods and cyclones, he added.Youssouf urged AU member states to devote 10 percent of their gross domestic product to agriculture to help foster “nutritional resilience”.”But we cannot do this alone. We call on our partners to honour their commitments to finance and support African solutions,” he said.Sudan is “the largest humanitarian catastrophe facing our world and also the least remembered”, Othman Belbeisi, the regional director of the UN’s migration agency, IOM, told reporters last week.Since April 2023, Sudan has been torn apart by a power struggle between army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, commander of the rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. The fighting has killed tens of thousands and displaced more than seven million people.

Israeli settlers attacked the Palestinian Christian village of Taybeh in the occupied West Bank overnight, torching cars and spray-painting threatening graffiti, a witness and the Palestinian Authority said Monday.Jeries Azar, a Taybeh resident and journalist for Palestine TV, told AFP his house and car were targeted in the pre-dawn assault.”I looked outside and saw my car on fire, and they were throwing something at the vehicle and in the direction of the house,” Azar said.The Palestinian Authority issued a statement blaming “Israeli colonial settlers” for the attack on Taybeh. Azar said he was terrified and put himself in the shoes of the Dawabsheh family, a couple who burned to death with their baby after settlers attacked their West Bank village of Duma in 2015.”My greatest fear was for my two-year-old son. After we escaped, he cried nonstop for an hour”, Azar said, adding that the Israeli army had surveyed the area after the attack.Israeli police and the military said in a joint statement that a unit was dispatched to Taybeh and reported “two burned Palestinian vehicles and graffiti”.The statement said that no suspects were apprehended but that Israeli police have launched an investigation.A photo shared by a Palestinian government agency on social media showed graffiti on a Taybeh wall that read: “Al-Mughayyir, you will regret”, referring to a nearby village that was also attacked by settlers earlier this year.The Palestinian Authority’s foreign ministry condemned the attack, calling it “settler terrorism”.Germany’s ambassador to Israel, Steffen Seibert, also condemned the action, writing on X: “These extremist settlers may claim that God gave them the land. But they are nothing but criminals abhorrent to any faith”.Taybeh and its surroundings have experienced several bouts of settler violence in recent months, including an arson attack at an ancient Byzantine church.The village — home to about 1,300 mostly Christian Palestinians, many holding US dual citizenship — is known for its brewery, the oldest in the Palestinian territories.Settlers have attacked neighbouring communities in recent months, resulting in three deaths, damage to Palestinian water wells and the displacement of at least one rural herding community.Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967. The territory is home to about three million Palestinians and around 700,000 Israeli settlers, including about 200,000 in east Jerusalem.Last week, 71 members of Israel’s 120-seat parliament, or Knesset, passed a motion calling on the government to annex the West Bank.

Truckloads of food reached hungry Gazans on Monday after Israel promised to open secure aid routes, but humanitarian agencies warned vast amounts more were needed to stave off starvation.With Gaza’s population of more than two million facing famine and malnutrition, Israel bowed to international pressure at the weekend and announced a daily “tactical pause” in fighting in some areas.”For the first time, I received about five kilos of flour, which I shared with my neighbour,” said 37-year-old Jamil Safadi, who shelters with his wife, six children and a sick father in a tent near the Al-Quds hospital in Tel al-Hawa.Safadi, who has been up before dawn for two weeks searching for food, said Monday was his first success. Other Gazans were less fortunate; some complained aid trucks had been stolen or that guards had fired at them near US-backed aid centres.”I saw injured and dead people. People have no choice but to try daily to get flour. What entered from Egypt was very limited,” said 33-year-old Amir al-Rash, still without food and living in a tent.Israel imposed a blockade on Gaza on March 2 after talks to extend a six-week ceasefire broke down. Nothing was allowed into the territory until late May, when a trickle of aid resumed.Now, the Israeli defence ministry’s civil affairs agency says the UN and aid agencies had been able to pick up 120 truckloads of aid on Sunday and distribute it inside Gaza, with more on the way Monday.- Basic supplies -Jordan and the United Arab Emirates have begun air-dropping aid packages by parachute over Gaza, while Egypt has sent trucks through its Rafah border crossing to an Israeli post just inside Gaza. The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, cautiously welcomed Israel’s “humanitarian pauses” but warned Gaza needed at least 500 to 600 trucks of basic food, medicine and hygiene supplies daily.”We hope that UNRWA will finally be allowed to bring in thousands of trucks loaded with food, medicine and hygiene supplies. They are currently in Jordan and Egypt waiting for the green light,” the agency said. “Opening all the crossings and flooding Gaza with assistance is the only way to avert further deepening of starvation among the people of Gaza.”Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has strongly denied Israel was deliberately starving civilians as part of its intense 21-month-old war to crush the Palestinian group Hamas.Military spokesmen say the UN and aid agencies should quickly make use of the lull in fighting and secure aid routes, urging them to pick up and distribute aid delivered to Gaza border crossings.”An additional 180 trucks entered Gaza and are now awaiting collection and distribution, along with hundreds of others still queued for UN pickup,” said COGAT, a defence ministry body that oversees Palestinian affairs.”More consistent collection and distribution by UN agencies and international organisations equals more aid reaching those who need it most in Gaza.”UNRWA insisted it was ready to step up distribution, with 10,000 staff inside Gaza, waiting for deliveries.”According to our latest data one in every five children is malnourished in Gaza City. More children have reportedly died of hunger; bringing the death toll of starving people to over 100,” the statement said.Over the weekend aid trucks began arriving from Egypt and Jordan and dropping their loads at distribution platforms just inside Gaza, ready to be picked up by agencies working inside the war-shattered territory.But their number still falls far short of what is needed, aid agencies warn, calling for a permanent ceasefire, the reopening of more border crossings and a long-term large-scale humanitarian operation.- Field hospital C-section -Truce talks between Israel and Hamas — mediated by Egypt, Qatar and the United States — have stumbled, and Netanyahu remains determined to push on with the campaign to destroy Hamas and recover Israeli hostages held in Gaza.Gaza’s civil defence agency said 16 people were killed by Israeli fire Monday.Agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said they included five people killed in an overnight strike on a residential building in the southern Gaza district of Al-Mawasi.A pregnant woman was among the dead, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent, which said its teams saved the woman’s foetus by performing a Caesarean section in a field hospital.The violence in Gaza came against the backdrop of a UN conference in New York where France and Saudi Arabia will lead a diplomatic effort to revive the moribund push for a two-state peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians.