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ISLAMABAD:&nbsp;The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse bring war, famine, pestilence and death. Afghanistan in April had all four, recast as empty markets, flooded clinics, failed harvests, and a generation of women written permanently out of public life. No single agency report captured all four aspects together. Hunger In the fourth week of April, a casual laborer could work a full day and buy 10 kilograms of wheat flour with his wages. A year ago, he could buy nearly 12. According to the World Food Programme&#39;s (WFP) weekly market report published April 30, the real purchasing power of labor-dependent households has fallen 33% below last year&#39;s levels. Meanwhile, employment itself is scarcer, with workers finding jobs only 1.9 days per week, down 20% from 2025. The year-on-year price picture is severe across the board. Wheat grain costs 19% more than a year ago. High-quality rice has risen 44% while sugar is up 21%, per WFP. For the poorest households, the staples are worse: tomatoes cost 48% more than a year ago and potatoes 64% more. The external lifeline is shrinking simultaneously. Remittance inflows stood at 17.7% of Afghanistan&#39;s GDP in 2023 and are projected to fall to 12.9% in 2025, per the World Bank. A further decline in 2026 is described as &quot;highly likely.&quot; The WFP food basket stood at 6,055 afghani ($94.70) in the fourth week of April, against a transfer value last set at 5,800 afghani ($90.70) in May 2024. Pipeline breaks are expected starting in May due to funding shortfalls, per the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Floods While aid agencies stretched their capacity, floodwaters cut through the south. Heavy rains beginning March 25 affected Parwan, Paktia, Kandahar, Zabul, Helmand and Nangarhar provinces, killing hundreds and injuring more, according to OCHA flash updates. According to the EU&#39;s emergency coordination center,&nbsp;60,000 people have been confirmed to need assistance out of the 73,300 initially affected.&nbsp; Across five provinces, 61 health facilities were also impacted. The Directorate-General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations reported that a mere 42% of identified flood-affected people had received humanitarian support. Failed harvests The food crisis visible in April&#39;s market data is a lagging indicator. The forward-looking numbers are worse. Urea fertilizer, critical during planting season, costs 40% more than last year. DAP fertilizer is up 19%, per WFP. Farmers who cannot afford inputs now will produce less food later. Afghanistan&#39;s agriculture is largely rain-fed, and the La Ni&ntilde;a phenomenon in early 2025 had already reduced snowfall and rainfall while raising temperatures, severely disrupting growing conditions, per UNICEF&#39;s Innocenti. The harvest being planted in April is already compromised. The vanishing workforce In 2024, approximately 3.8 million girls aged 7 to 18 were out of school, including more than 2.6 million adolescent girls, according to the April UNICEF Innocenti issue brief. Nearly 8 out of 10 young Afghan women are currently not in education, employment or training. The UNICEF brief noted that this is one of the highest rates globally. Each year, an additional 250,000 girls are barred from progressing beyond primary education. By 2030, more than 2 million will have been directly affected. Teaching and healthcare, the two sectors in which women are currently permitted to work, are losing staff faster than they can be replaced. These sectors face a projected loss of up to 20,000 skilled female teachers and 5,400 skilled female health workers by 2030, roughly one quarter of the 2021 workforce, according to UNICEF. The economic cost stands at a minimum of 5.3 billion afghani ($84 million) annually, equivalent to 0.5% of Afghanistan&#39;s 2023 GDP, compounding each year, per UNICEF. Stunting among children under five has already risen from 44.7% to 45.6%, an increase of an estimated 10,000 additional children. This is a direct consequence of education restrictions, UNICEF reported. The scale Approximately 21.9 million people (about 45% of Afghanistan&#39;s population) are projected to require humanitarian assistance in 2026, according to OCHA&#39;s Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan. Of those, 17.4 million face acute food insecurity and an estimated 3.5 million children are acutely malnourished. Meanwhile, the International Rescue Committee reported that approximately 5 million people are at emergency hunger levels, one step from famine-like conditions.

An Afghan man carries food aid distributed by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in the Kamdesh district in Nuristan province on April 22, 2026. (AFP)

Afghanistan

The country faces converging crises, with worsening food insecurity, damaged infrastructure, climate shocks and educational restrictions driving a deepening humanitarian emergency.

Afghanistan's four horsemen: Hunger, floods, failed harvests, vanishing women

KHAN YUNIS: As springtime temperatures rise in Gaza, a surge in rats, fleas and other pests has compounded the misery of hundreds of thousands of displaced people still living in tents after more than two years of war. With meager shelter and almost no sanitation, Palestinians told AFP the vermin are invading their makeshift homes, biting children and contaminating food, in what aid agencies warned was a growing public health threat. &quot;My children have been bitten. One of my sons was even bitten on the nose,&quot; said Muhammad al-Raqab, a displaced Palestinian man living in a tent near the southern city of Khan Yunis. &quot;I am unable to sleep through the night because I must constantly watch over the children,&quot; the 32-year-old construction worker, originally from Bani Shueila, told AFP. With shelters erected directly on soft sand by the Mediterranean Sea, rodents can easily burrow under tent walls and wreck havoc inside, where people have established makeshift pantries and kitchens. &quot;The rodents have eaten through my tent,&quot; Raqab said. Nearly all of Gaza&#39;s population was displaced by Israeli evacuation orders and airstrikes during the war on Gaza. According to the UN, 1.7 million of Gaza&#39;s 2.2 million inhabitants still live in displacement camps, unable to return home or to areas that remain under Israeli military control despite a ceasefire that began in October 2025. In these camps, &quot;living conditions are characterized by vermin and parasite infestations&quot;, the UN&#39;s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Action (OCHA) said after field visits in March. Hani al-Flait, head of pediatrics at Al-Aqsa Hospital in central Gaza, told AFP his team encounters skin infections such as scabies daily. &#39;Flooded with sewage&#39;&nbsp; &quot;The severity of these skin infections has been exacerbated by the fact that these children and their families are living in harsh conditions that lack basic public sanitation, as well as a complete absence of safe water,&quot; he told AFP. Sabreen Abu Taybeh, whose son has been suffering from a rash, blamed the conditions in the camp. &quot;We are living in tents and schools flooded with sewage,&quot; she told AFP, showing the rash covering her son&#39;s upper body. &quot;I have taken him to doctors and hospitals, but they are not helping with anything. As you see, the rash remains.&quot; &quot;The summer season has brought us rodents and fleas,&quot; Ghalia Abu Selmi told AFP after discovering mice had gnawed through clothes she had prepared for her daughter&#39;s upcoming wedding. &quot;Fleas have caused skin allergies not only for children but for adults as well,&quot; she said, sorting through garments riddled with holes inside the tent she now calls home in Khan Yunis. The 53-year-old said her family has been displaced 20 times since October 2023 and has yet to return to their home in the town of Abasan al-Kabira near the Israeli border. Despite the ceasefire, Israel continues to control all access points into Gaza, with tight inspections and frequent rejections of aid deliveries, according to NGOs and the UN.&nbsp;This has caused shortages in everything from medicine and fuel, to clothing and food. Airstrikes and firefights between Israel&#39;s military and what it claims&nbsp;are Hamas fighters still occur near-daily. According to the territory&#39;s health ministry, at&nbsp;least 777 people have been killed by Israel&#39;s military since the start of the ceasefire.

Garbage litters the ground next to makeshift shelters housing displaced Palestinians in Gaza City on April 20, 2026. (AFP)

Middle East

Rats and fleas are spreading across Gaza’s displacement camps as temperatures are rising, with displaced families reporting bites and infections amid continuing aid shortages and sanitation breakdowns.

Rats, fleas plague Gaza's displaced as temperatures rise

ISLAMABAD: Over half of Yemen&#39;s population is sliding toward life-threatening hunger in what aid agencies are calling the country&#39;s most&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/pakistan-expresses-solidarity-with-saudi-arabia-urges-regional-peace-and-stability" target="_blank" style="color:#0073e6;" rel="noopener noreferrer">dangerous</a>&nbsp;food security phase in years, with famine-like conditions expected in multiple districts by early 2026. The dire warning comes from the International Rescue Committee&#39;s (IRC) latest policy briefing published in January 2026, which reveals that 18 million people are expected to experience worsening levels of food insecurity by early 2026, with an additional one million people facing life-threatening hunger. According to the IRC report titled &quot;Starving in Silence: Surging Food Insecurity in Yemen,&quot; the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/saudiled-coalition-says-targeted-shipments-in-yemen-unloaded-from-vessels-from-uae" target="_blank" style="color:#0073e6;" rel="noopener noreferrer">crisis</a>&nbsp;is being driven not by conflict escalation, but by a collapse of household purchasing power and a sharp decrease in humanitarian assistance in 2025. By the end of 2025, the humanitarian response was less than 25% funded, with the Nutrition Cluster at less than 10% and the Food Security and Agriculture Cluster at 15%, effectively paralyzing lifesaving services. Unprecedented service collapse The IRC&#39;s assessment reveals devastating impacts on the ground. Following major donor funding withdrawals in early 2025, nutrition service reach declined by 63% within one year in IRC-supported districts in southern Yemen. Health facilities and therapeutic feeding centers closed, mobile teams were overstretched, and admissions for severe acute malnutrition fell&mdash;not because children were healthier, but because fewer who were sick could access <a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/ship-ablaze-after-projectile-strike-off-yemens-gulf-of-aden-coast" target="_blank" style="color:#0073e6;" rel="noopener noreferrer">services</a>. Nearly 80% of households assessed by IRC reported severe hunger, and half of households with children under five reported at least one malnourished child. Worst outlook since 2022 The latest IPC (Integrated Food Security Phase Classification) projections for September 2025&ndash;February 2026 show Yemen now carries the highest burden of IPC Phase 4 globally. Pockets of famine affecting over 40,000 people are expected in four districts within the next two months&mdash;the worst outlook for the country since 2022. IRC assessments conducted in Taiz, Al Dhale&#39;e, Abyan and Al Hodeidah in August 2025 revealed that half of all households with children under five had at least one malnourished child during the previous three months, while 1 in 4 households had at least one malnourished pregnant or breastfeeding woman. Nearly 97% of respondents cited food security as their number one need. Crisis drivers The IRC report identifies four key factors driving the crisis: 1. &nbsp; &nbsp;Funding collapse: The current contraction is historic in scale, with less than 25% of the Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan funded as of December 2025&mdash;the lowest levels of funding in a decade. Critical nutrition and food security pipelines have been heavily disrupted, removing the last safety net for millions. 2. &nbsp; &nbsp;Economic shock: Currency depreciation, inflation, reduced remittances, and banking disruptions have sharply eroded purchasing power in a country that imports most of its food. Even households that briefly stabilized after the 2022 truce are now resorting to crisis-level coping strategies such as skipping meals and selling productive assets. 3. &nbsp; &nbsp;Climate change: Flooding in August 2025 affected nearly half a million people, destroying homes, farmland, water systems and health facilities across 20 governorates. Yemen ranks as the world&#39;s third most climate-vulnerable country, with temperatures set to rise by up to 3.3&deg;C in the next 40 years. 4. &nbsp; &nbsp;Fragmented <a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/un-chief-strongly-condemns-houthis-detaining-nine-more-un-personnel-in-yemen" target="_blank" style="color:#0073e6;" rel="noopener noreferrer">governance</a>: The ongoing conflict has eroded state capacities to enforce laws regulating land, water and natural resource management. Yemen receives 80 to 90% less climate finance than the average for countries with the lowest climate vulnerability despite high needs. Surveillance systems collapsing The IRC warns that food security and nutrition surveillance systems are collapsing, masking the true scale of hunger. As data gaps widen, needs go undocumented, assistance is not triggered, and preventable deaths risk going unseen. In 20 districts across 7 governorates where IRC had to withdraw or severely shrink nutrition programming due to funding cuts, levels of food insecurity have climbed on average by over 7%, with over 148,000 people moving into crisis or worse levels of food insecurity in 2025 alone. Window for action closing &quot;People still remember when they didn&#39;t know where their next meal would come from. The fear is that we are returning to this dark chapter again,&quot; said Caroline Sekyewa, IRC Yemen Country Director. The IRC states that without immediate donor action to restore and scale integrated food security and nutrition assistance, famine-like conditions are expected in multiple districts by early 2026. However, the report states that timely funding in the next three to six months can still prevent mass loss of life, protect recent humanitarian gains, and stabilize the most at-risk communities. The IRC is calling on donors to restore and scale integrated food security and nutrition funding, fully fund lifesaving nutrition treatment, and re-establish joint food security and nutrition surveillance systems. The organization has also urged Yemeni authorities to facilitate safe, principled, and unhindered humanitarian access and support economic relief efforts.

Over half of Yemen’s population faces life-threatening hunger as aid funding collapses, economic shocks deepen, and climate disasters worsen, pushing millions toward famine-like conditions by early 2026.

18 million Yemenis facing starvation as humanitarian funding collapses to historic lows

ISLAMABAD: The Islam Qala reception center, Afghanistan&#39;s second-largest border crossing with Iran, has suspended all operations except basic health services after Taliban authorities banned female humanitarian workers from non-medical roles, according to the International Organization for Migration&#39;s December emergency border response report. The Taliban-imposed shutdown has left thousands stranded at the border during Afghanistan&#39;s harshest winter months. &quot;Negotiations with authorities at the Herat level is ongoing, with DfA maintaining its stance that non-health female staff cannot work at the IQ Reception Centre at this stage,&quot; IOM reported, halting services for an average of 1,224 people crossing daily. Taliban employment restrictions have created measurable disparities in humanitarian reach. Afghanistan&#39;s Eastern Region, operating with fewer Taliban-imposed constraints, achieved 122% of humanitarian targets. They were able to assist 196,831 people against a goal of 161,774, according to the Emergency Shelter and Non-Food Items Cluster&#39;s November snapshot. The Central Region, which includes the shuttered Islam Qala crossing, reached only 37% of targets. This is a 63% shortfall the cluster attributed to operational restrictions. The Central Highland Region, where Taliban authorities imposed severe limitations on humanitarian movement, recorded zero people receiving shelter assistance in November against a target of 8,963 households, according to cluster data. The complete freeze occurred as Afghanistan entered winter, when the cluster documented a 77.5% national gap in winterization assistance. This has left 779,198 people without supplies. &quot;Only 12,200 households received winterization assistance as of December 15, against an assessed need of 57,000 households,&quot; according to the shelter cluster&#39;s winterization dashboard. The 78% gap affecting approximately 400,000 people resulted from &quot;operational restrictions preventing delivery&quot; despite available resources, the dashboard noted. Organizations possess capacity to assist 22,700 households through $21.8 million in available resources, but Taliban-imposed constraints prevent delivery, the dashboard indicates. Only 22% of the $179.1 million emergency shelter requirement has been funded, with donors citing concerns about operating under Taliban restrictions, according to cluster data. Taliban restrictions on women systematically block aid access. Women comprise 51% of all returnees but face layered Taliban-imposed barriers, according to UNHCR&#39;s December 2025 Post-Return Monitoring Survey Report interviewing 1,658 households. &quot;Only 37% of women reported mobile phone access compared to 96% of men,&quot; the UNHCR survey found, a gap that &quot;continues to restrict women&#39;s ability to access information and assistance&quot; due to Taliban restrictions on women&#39;s movement and communication. Taliban employment bans devastated women&#39;s economic survival. &quot;Only 24% of women among returnees reported earning an income, compared to 66% of men,&quot; UNHCR documented. Female-headed households suffered worst: &quot;88% skip meals&quot; versus 82% generally, and &quot;74% of renters are unable to afford costs.&quot; Taliban mahram requirements (mandating male guardians for women&#39;s travel)&nbsp;created healthcare crises. &quot;Women were disproportionately represented among those with unmet care needs, reflecting the impact of movement restrictions and mahram requirements,&quot; with 34% of households unable to obtain needed medical attention, UNHCR reported. The Taliban&#39;s education ban shattered access for girls. &quot;71% of returnee households reported that no girls in the family were enrolled in school,&quot; with 37% citing the ban as the primary barrier, UNHCR found. Among Iran returnees, 44% cited Taliban &quot;policies and laws&quot; as the key obstacle versus 28% among Pakistan returnees. Taliban policies are driving re-displacement. &quot;40% of returnees cited restrictions on women&#39;s education and work as the primary reason&quot; relatives left Afghanistan again after returning, UNHCR&#39;s survey found. &quot;Among those from Iran who intend to leave, 71% reported that they would return to Iran.&quot; The Taliban&#39;s Islam Qala shutdown occurred during peak flows. In Herat&#39;s Western Region, organizations recorded a 100% gap in emergency shelter: zero households helped against a target of 182,040,&nbsp;despite 34,431 returnees from Iran, according to cluster data. Temporal data exposes how Taliban restrictions progressively strangled operations. The Central Highland Region assisted 12,104 people in March but zero by November. The Northern Region dropped 98% (from 24,675 to 385). The Southeastern Region fell 95%,&nbsp;from 7,610 to 407, according to monthly snapshots. Between January and November, 2.7 million Afghans returned to Afghanistan, UNHCR reported. &quot;UNHCR assisted over 475,000 Afghans returning from Iran and Pakistan despite significant operational and funding challenges&quot;,&nbsp;reaching only 18% due to Taliban-imposed operational constraints. &quot;Returnees continue to settle in areas with fragile conditions marked by deepening poverty and limited access to essential services,&quot; UNHCR concluded. &quot;Many cannot return to their areas of origin due to lack of shelter, land, or livelihoods&quot;&mdash;outcomes the agencies directly linked to Taliban restrictions preventing humanitarian organizations from operating at documented capacity.

Taliban restrictions on female aid workers and humanitarian operations have crippled winter assistance for 2.7 million Afghan returnees, leaving 78% without critical support.

Taliban restrictions cripple humanitarian aid as 2.7 million Afghans return to winter crisis

ISLAMABAD: Global forced displacement is projected to reach a record 139.3 million people by the end of 2025 across 136 countries, despite a brief mid-year decline, as severe funding cuts threaten humanitarian response and aid agencies warn donor fatigue has become the biggest crisis facing refugees worldwide. UNHCR forecasts that 139.3 million people will be forcibly displaced by year-end, up from 123.2 million at the end of 2024. Mid-year figures showed 117.3 million displaced, a temporary dip of 5.9 million that masked the worsening crisis. Sudan became the world&#39;s largest displacement crisis with 14.3 million refugees and internally displaced people, replacing Syria at 13.5 million, followed by Afghanistan with 10.3 million and Ukraine with 8.8 million. The modest decline masks a deepening humanitarian catastrophe. Up to 11.6 million refugees risk losing UNHCR assistance in 2025, representing one-third of those reached last year. UNHCR&#39;s funding requirements for 2025 are $10.6 billion, yet only 23% have been met by mid-year. UNHCR projects ending 2025 with $3.9 billion available, a decrease of $1.3 billion compared to 2024. High Commissioner Filippo Grandi noted the last time UNHCR had less than $4 billion was in 2015, when forcibly displaced people numbered half today&#39;s total. The consequences The funding crisis has forced brutal choices.&nbsp;The UNHCR reduced its global staffing by 30%, eliminated 3,500 permanent positions, terminated hundreds of temporary roles, and downsized or closed offices worldwide. In South Sudan, 75% of safe spaces for women and girls supported by UNHCR closed, leaving 80,000 refugee women and girls without access to medical care or psychosocial support. In Afghanistan, protection services primarily for women and girls were cut by more than half, while in Lebanon, over 83,000 refugees lost shelter assistance, according to UNHCR. In Uganda, malnutrition rates are soaring in reception centers with limited clean water and food. Education for 230,000 Rohingya refugee children in Bangladesh risks suspension, while UNHCR&#39;s entire health programme in Lebanon may shut down by year-end. Nine of the top 20 humanitarian donors announced Official Development Assistance (ODA) cuts by mid-2025, including three of the four largest donors. Germany&#39;s draft 2025 budget proposed a 53% reduction in humanitarian assistance, while the UK government plans to cut foreign assistance from 0.5% to 0.3% of Gross National Income (GNI) by 2027. UN aid coordination took in $15 billion in 2025 funding, the lowest level in a decade, reaching 25 million fewer people than in 2024. The climate crisis The decrease in displacement figures stems largely from Syrian returns. Nearly one million internally displaced Syrians returned between January and June 2025, reducing Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) by 13% to 6.5 million, while at least 526,100 Syrians returned from abroad. However, many returns happened under adverse conditions. A UNHCR report released on Nov. 10 revealed a troubling &quot;climate trap&quot;: 75% of displaced people are living in countries with high-to-extreme climate exposure. In early 2025, about 1.2 million refugees tried to return home, but half returned to climate-vulnerable drought and flood zones, risking secondary displacement. The report warns that by 2050, the world&#39;s 15 hottest refugee camps, mainly in the Sahel, will experience 200 days of dangerous heat per year, effectively making them uninhabitable. It remains unclear how sustainable current returns will be as active conflict has abated, but insecurity persists, and basic services remain inadequate. Low and middle-income countries host 73% of the world&#39;s refugees, with 67% staying in neighboring countries and 60% never leaving their own country. Looking ahead to 2026, donors pledged $1.161 billion to UNHCR, slightly above last year&#39;s all-time high and covering almost 18% of projected needs. Yet the percentage of unrestricted funding dropped to 17%, nearly half of what it was in 2023, limiting UNHCR&#39;s capacity to allocate resources where needs are greatest. UN aid chief Tom Fletcher said disease outbreaks spiked, millions went without essential food and healthcare, and programmes protecting women and girls were slashed as hundreds of aid organizations shut. Grandi warned that whether the decline in displacement continues or reverses depends largely on achieving peace in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, and Ukraine, preventing deterioration in South Sudan, improving return conditions in Afghanistan and Syria, and securing adequate funding to address displacement crises globally.

Photo from the Global Appeal 2025 report (UNHCR)

Americas

Europe

Asia

UNHCR warns global forced displacement will reach a record 139.3 million by the end of 2025, as conflicts, climate risks, and severe funding cuts deepen humanitarian crises, leaving millions of refugees without protection, aid, and basic services worldwide.

Forced displacement to reach 139M by end-2025, warns UNHCR

Reuters

About 10 countries including Australia, Belgium, Britain and Canada are expected to formally recognise an independent Palestinian state on Monday at a summit before the annual leaders&#39; gathering at the UN General Assembly.What would that mean for the Palestinians and Israel?What is the status of Palestinian statehood now?The Palestine Liberation Organization declared an independent Palestinian state in 1988, and most of the global South quickly recognized it. Today, 147 of the 193 UN member states have done so - most recently Mexico, in January.Netanyahu&rsquo;s position&nbsp;Israel&#39;s main ally, the United States, has long said it will recognize a Palestinian state, but only after the Palestinians agree with Israel on a &quot;two-state solution&quot;. Until recent weeks, the major European powers shared this position.However, no such negotiations have been held since 2014, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has now said there will never be a Palestinian state.A delegation representing the State of Palestine has observer status at the United Nations - but no voting rights.Washington&rsquo;s veto&nbsp;No matter how many countries recognize Palestinian independence, full UN membership would require approval by the Security Council, where Washington has a veto.Palestinian diplomatic missions worldwide are controlled by the Palestinian Authority, which is recognized internationally as representing the Palestinian people.The PA, led by President Mahmoud Abbas, exercises limited self-rule in parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank under agreements with Israel. It issues Palestinian passports and runs the Palestinian health and education systems.The Gaza Strip has been administered by Hamas since 2007, when it drove out Abbas&#39;s Fatah movement after a brief civil war, although the PA still funds many salaries.US embassy in Jerusalem&nbsp;Most major powers, with the exception of the US since President Donald Trump moved its embassy to Jerusalem, have their main diplomatic missions in Tel Aviv because they do not recognize Jerusalem as Israel&#39;s capital.However, about 40 have consular offices in Ramallah in the West Bank, or in East Jerusalem - an area whose annexation by Israel is not internationally recognized, which the Palestinians want as their capital.They include China, Russia, Japan, Germany, Canada, Denmark, Egypt, Jordan, Tunisia and South Africa.Countries planning to recognize a Palestinian state have not said what difference that would make to their diplomatic representation.Who is promising to recognize Palestine and why?Britain, France, Canada, Australia and Belgium have all said they will recognise a Palestinian state around the time of the UN General Assembly this month, although London said it could hold back if Israel were to take steps to ease the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and commit to a long-term peace process.The countries say these moves are intended to put pressure on Israel to end its devastating assault on Gaza, curtail the building of new Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank and recommit to a peace process with the Palestinians.French President Emmanuel Macron, the first leader of a major Western power to endorse recognition, said the move would be accompanied by a commitment by the PA to enact reforms, which would improve Palestinian governance and make it a more credible partner for the post-war administration of Gaza.What has recognition meant in practice?Those who see recognition as a mere gesture point to the limited influence in the conflict of countries such as China, Russia and many Arab states that recognized Palestinian independence decades ago.Without a full seat at the UN or control of its own borders, the Palestinian Authority has only limited ability to conduct bilateral relations. There are no formal embassies in Palestinian territory, and countries cannot freely send diplomats there.Israel restricts access to goods, investment and educational or cultural exchanges. There are no Palestinian airports. The landlocked West Bank can be reached only through Israel or through the Israeli-controlled border with Jordan, and Israel controls all access to the Gaza Strip.Still, countries planning recognition and the PA itself say it would be more than an empty gesture.&#39;An equal footing&#39;&nbsp;The Palestinian ambassador to Britain, Husam Zomlot, said it could lead to partnerships between entities on an equal footing.It might also force countries to review aspects of their relationships with Israel, said Vincent Fean, a former British consul-general in Jerusalem.In Britain&#39;s case, this might result in banning products that come from Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territories, he said, even though the practical impact on the Israeli economy would be minimal.Israeli, US reactionIsrael, facing a global outcry over its conduct in the Gaza war, says recognition would reward Hamas.After decades of being formally committed to a peace process ending in Palestinian independence, Israel is now run by its most far-right government, including parties sworn to make it impossible for the Palestinians ever to gain a state.Netanyahu says Israel will never give up ultimate security control of Gaza or the West Bank.The United States strongly opposes the recognition moves by its European allies. It has responded by imposing sanctions on Palestinian officials, including blocking Abbas and other PA figures from attending the UN General Assembly by denying and revoking visas.

About 10 countries plan to formally recognize Palestine, pressuring Israel over Gaza and settlements. Recognition remains symbolic without UN membership or control, but may equalize diplomatic relations and impact Israel politically. 

Articles tagged with "Humanitarian Crisis"

Afghanistan's four horsemen: Hunger, floods, failed harvests, vanishing women

Rats, fleas plague Gaza's displaced as temperatures rise

18 million Yemenis facing starvation as humanitarian funding collapses to historic lows

Taliban restrictions cripple humanitarian aid as 2.7 million Afghans return to winter crisis

Forced displacement to reach 139M by end-2025, warns UNHCR

What would wider recognition of Palestine mean for Palestinians and Israel?