Good morning.
As conflict spreads through the Middle East and as far as Pakistan, the humanitarian crisis in Gaza continues to get worse. Even though Israel has allowed more aid trucks to cross the border, food and fuel distribution is nowhere near sufficient.
Lack of food has led to widespread hunger, with UN agencies warning that there are pockets of famine in the war-ravaged territory. Of Gaza’s 2.2 million people, more than 1.9 million have been displaced. At least 24,600 have been killed, according to the territory’s health ministry, and 61,800 have been injured. The conflict has also started extending into the West Bank, with the Israeli military launching a series of major raids in a new spate of violence. Critical civilian infrastructure has been levelled – two-thirds of Gaza’s hospitals have ceased functioning, leaving people with life-threatening injuries in pain and at risk of infection. Nasser hospital, the biggest hospital in southern Gaza that recieves hundreds of Palestinians a day, is also at high risk of closure because of Israeli strikes and evacuation orders.
As the war continues, aid agencies have desperately been trying to get medicine, food, clothes and water to the population stranded inside Gaza. I spoke with Unicef’s Tess Ingram, who was in Gaza earlier this week, about the difficulties of delivering aid into the beleaguered territory and the fast deteriorating living conditions for those who remain there. That’s right after the headlines.
Five big stories
Middle East | Israel’s prime minister has told the White House that he rejects any moves to establish a Palestinian state when Israel ends its offensive against Gaza, and that all territory west of the Jordan River would be under Israeli security control.
Brexit | The Home Office has made a significant U-turn on the rights of EU citizens who were in the UK before it left. They will be able to apply for permanent residency even if they missed the deadline.
Brazil | Police have arrested another suspect over the murders of British journalist Dom Phillips and Brazilian Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira, the Brazilian justice and public security minister, Flávio Dino, has announced.
Police | The police watchdog has said it will investigate whether officers missed any opportunities to intervene before Bronson Battersby, two, and his father, Kenneth, 60, were found dead at a flat in Skegness, Lincolnshire.
Davos | In his first public comments on his March budget strategy, Jeremy Hunt has dangled the prospect of substantial tax cuts, in what is seen as one of the last opportunities for the Conservatives to claw back Labour’s huge opinion poll lead.
In depth: ‘Everybody I talk to just wants to know when this is going to end’
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‘Absolute chaos’
Expressing his dismay at the ongoing conflict, António Guterres, the secretary general of the UN, told reporters this week that “nowhere and no one in Gaza is safe”. This message has been reiterated by the heads of the aid agencies that have been trying to get basic necessities into the territory.
“The area in and around Rafah is absolute chaos,” Ingram says. There are now more than a million people in a town that used to have a population of around 300,000. She describes an alarming level of overcrowding, even outdoors, “and because 50% of the population in Gaza are children, they are everywhere, roaming the streets and in the shelters”.
The shelling has meant that a lot of infrastructure crucial to water, sanitation and health services has been damaged or totally destroyed, leading to widespread malnutrition and disease. Ingram describes the living conditions, particularly for recently displaced people, as “appalling”. As most UNRWA shelters are full, many are forced to live in tents and makeshift shelters using whatever materials are available, generally tarps and blankets held up by bits of wood and rope. “There is no sanitation, it has been raining and it’s really cold so you can imagine the visuals. There’s so much mud and waste moving through open areas where people are living,” Ingram says. One family she met comprised 21 people living in “what was maybe a three by three square metre shelter that they assembled”.
Basic necessities like fresh food have become a luxury, as Gaza can no longer import or grow food at all. Food inflation has rocketed since the war began, Ingram says: “25kg of wheat used to be 70 shekels and now in the south it’s almost doubled to 120 shekels – and in the north it’s 700 shekels.” Those who could afford these inflated prices have difficulty even getting cash out of their bank accounts, with reports of people queueing up all day to get to an ATM. The WHO issued a report confirming that the entire population of Gaza are “in crisis or worse levels of acute food insecurity”, with virtually all Palestinians in the territory skipping meals.
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‘Insurmountable challenges’
From the start of the conflict, aid agencies have struggled to get resources to the population in Gaza. There are the obstacles to get aid into Gaza in the first place, and then there are the barriers that hinder distribution.
More trucks are getting into Gaza now – the number has risen from 68 a day in November to roughly 130 – but humanitarian organisations say the daily average before the escalation in October was about 500. “Now the needs are obviously far higher but we’re still not even back to the baseline,” Ingram says. Though vehicles carrying aid are at the border trying to get in, the screening process conducted by Israeli authorities is exhaustive and the rules are unclear. Ingram adds that because they lose visibility of the trucks as they get screened, other issues arise: “Say we have 10 trucks of winter clothes and 10 trucks of medicine coming through, we do not know the order in which they will come out. We might receive two trucks of winter clothes and one truck of medicine one day and then four trucks of medicine the next, which makes it really difficult to plan for distribution.”
Israeli officials have denied claims there is not enough food and safe water in Gaza, insisting that it is in fact the UN and other aid organisations that are to blame for any failures or problems with aid delivery.
These problems are compounded with issues like telecommunication blackouts, fuel shortages and roads that are not safe to travel on. Aid is not evenly distributed, even within the towns, let alone across rural areas. According to a report by Guardian journalist Kaamil Ahmed, those not living in shelters are receiving little to no aid.
The director general of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has said that the challenges faced by the WHO delivering aid into Gaza are “near insurmountable”. Despite this, aid workers are still trying to deliver as much as they can to those they can reach.
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No end in sight
The increasingly desperate situation faced by Palestinians in Gaza has led to looting from warehouses and people buying aid from markets, instead of receiving it from aid agencies. Video footage has shown famished Palestinians jumping on to aid trucks to grab whatever supplies they could get their hands on and eating then and there.
“Everybody that I have talked to just wanted to know when this was going to end and when they were going to be able to return to what is left of their homes,” Ingram says. As people cling on for survival, Israel has said that the war will stretch on this year, further destroying a place that has already been described as “apocalyptic”.
What else we’ve been reading
Why has it taken a TV drama to impel the nation into action on the Post Office scandal? As Charlotte Higgins explains, the heart of this story is the stuff of great tragedy: “humans caught in the web of higher powers who may arbitrarily push a life of happiness and prosperity overnight into one of anguish and misery”. Clare Longrigg, acting head of newsletters
Margaret Sullivan laments the decline of local news in the US: “Democracy suffers as citizens become less engaged and more polarised, and as government corruption flourishes because the watchdog has gone silent.” Nimo
What is the future for Gazans driven out of their homeland? Ghaith Abdul Ahad speaks to second and third generation Palestinians in desperate conditions in Shatila refugee camp in Beirut. Clare
Managers have said younger applicants are performing poorly in job interviews. Alaina Demopoulos asks whether this is a problem with Gen Z or if the issue is employers relying on outdated and flawed practices. Nimo
Fantasia Barrino entered American Idol in 2004 as a struggling young single mother, and won over audiences with her powerful voice and personality. Now she is starring in her first film, The Color Purple. She discusses poverty, violence and gratitude with Zoe Williams. Clare
Sport
Australian Open | Emma Raducanu said she was departing Melbourne upbeat about her return to tennis despite a second-round defeat 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 to Wang Yafan of China. The third seed Daniil Medvedev came from two sets down to beat Emil Ruusuvuori 3-6, 6-7 (1-7), 6-4, 7-6 (7-1), 6-0 in a match that finished at 3.40am Melbourne time.
Football | The Egypt captain, Mohamed Salah, was forced off with a hamstring injury before his side twice came from behind to draw 2-2 with Ghana in the Africa Cup of Nations. Equatorial Guinea roared to a 4-2 win over Guinea-Bissau; while Nigeria clinched a 1-0 victory over hosts Ivory Coast.
Cycling | Luke Plapp is out of the Tour Down Under with the Australian cycling star failing to recover from injuries sustained in a nasty crash. The three-time reigning Australian road champion suffered severe road rash, from the back of his left shoulder down to the hip, when he crashed near the end of stage three.
The front pages
The Guardian’s splash this Friday morning is “Netanyahu: we will not accept a Palestinian state after Gaza war”. Our basement story is on the same theme as the Daily Express’s lead: “Hunt plots big tax cuts in budget”. The Financial Times builds that headline out somewhat: “Hunt signals wish to cut taxes and hold two budgets before next election”. The Daily Mail gets all constitutional over the Rwanda bill: “Don’t defy will of the people, Rishi warns Lords”. “Government orders inquiry into second Post Office IT scandal claims” – that’s the i while the Daily Telegraph carries a dire prediction: “Nato warns of war with Russia in the next 20 years”. “Teachers locked in for their own safety” – the Times has interviewed the new Ofsted chief. “Left to rot” – there is an NHS “dental health crisis” upon the young, says the Daily Mirror. Lighter news in the Metro: “NHS ice advice: be a penguin”.
Something for the weekend
Our critics’ roundup of the best things to watch, read and listen to right now
TV
Big Boys (Channel 4)
New British comedies are so rarely afforded the time or space to find their feet these days, but every now and then a sitcom comes along fully formed and feels like a dead cert from the off. Big Boys was one of the unicorns, landing with its own voice, its own style and, crucially, a huge amount of warmth and pathos that set it apart as something special. There is a wider focus on the friendship group for series two, but it’s Jack and Danny at the core. They are different kinds of men; yet they adore each other, and learn from each other, and work out how to exist, together. Rebecca Nicholson
Music
The Smile: Wall of Eyes
Three songs into the second album by the Smile, Thom Yorke informs us that he’s had it. “It takes away, it takes the fun out,” he keens, to Read the Room’s vinegary guitar riff. “Maybe I can’t be arsed.” Long-term observers of Yorke’s songwriting might also greet this with a shrug. For decades, his lyrics have mapped out an overcast emotional territory bordered by fear, anger, despair and ennui. So it is on Wall of Eyes. Alexis Petridis
Film
The Holdovers (in cinemas Friday)
Has Payne punched harder than this in the past? Maybe. But the sympathy, richness and gentleness of this picture are still a marvel: a grownup drama for intelligent people. And what a unique talent Paul Giamatti is; it’s a pleasure to see him play a movie lead, his first for a while, and his prominence in this really good film is a signal that the cinema could be moving back to a more approachable world of authentic drama and analogue talent. Peter Bradshaw
Podcast
Making Sense of Social Housing (Tortoise Media, episodes weekly)
In this enraging miniseries, one housing association spokesman says that a person on a low income applying for an affordable home can spend eight to 10 years on a waiting list with 800 others. Jeevan Vasagar speaks to people who rely on social housing, and those who work in the system, to show exactly how bad the situation is. Hollie Richardson
Today in Focus
Race for the moon
The space race of the 20th century put the first person on the moon. Now a new race to the lunar surface – with new global players – is just getting going. Robin McKie reports
Cartoon of the day | Ben Jennings
The Upside
A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad
Kobe the husky saved his neighbourhood in Philadelphia from a potentially explosive gas leak days before Christmas. According to a video published on Instagram by his owner, Chanell Bell, she noticed her four-year-old dog digging in a hole in her front yard. She decided to investigate because there had been a gas leak in her home in the previous weeks, and she was having problems with her heater.
Bell said she used a gas level reader to check around the hole, and it detected the presence of gas. By raising the alarm Kobe prevented a potential explosion. His owner quickly penned a children’s book. Film rights may still be available.
Sign up here for a weekly roundup of The Upside, sent to you every Sunday
Bored at work?
And finally, the Guardian’s puzzles are here to keep you entertained throughout the day – with plenty more on the Guardian’s Puzzles app for iOS and Android. Until tomorrow.
