Guterres decries 'continued violations' of Gaza truce

DOHA, Nov 04 (AFP): United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday warned against violations of the ceasefire in Gaza that halted two years of devastating war in the Palestinian territory.

Addressing reporters on the sidelines of the Second World Summit for Social Development in Doha, Guterres said he was "deeply concerned about the continued violations of the ceasefire in Gaza. They must stop and all parties must abide by the decisions of the first phase of the peace agreement."

Meanwhile, the United Nations said Tuesday it had distributed food parcels to one million people in Gaza since the ceasefire, but warned it was still in a race to save lives.

The UN's World Food Programme stressed all crossing points into the Gaza Strip should be opened to flood the famine-hit Palestinian territory with aid, adding that no reason was given why the northern crossings with Israel remained closed.

"Three and a half weeks into the ceasefire in Gaza, we have distributed food parcels to around one million people across the Gaza Strip," said the WFP's Middle East spokeswoman Abeer Etefa.

"That's part of the broad operation to push back hunger in Gaza," she told reporters in Geneva, speaking from Cairo.

WFP aims to reach 1.6 million people in the territory with parcels, which provide enough food for a family for 10 days.

However, to get operations running at the level required, "we really need more access, more border crossings to be opened and more access to key roads inside Gaza," said Etefa.

The US-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas came into effect on October 10.

Etefa described how the WFP was scaling up operations in Gaza and opened 44 of the 145 food distribution points it hopes to run.

Oscar-winning Palestinian films

'Israeli impunity' in West Bank

Armed with his camera, Oscar-winning Palestinian filmmaker Basel Adra has spent years in the occupied West Bank documenting what he describes as the impunity Israelis enjoy in their mistreatment of Palestinians.

From his terrace, he points to the nearby Israeli settlement of Maon, just a short distance away. The view appears calm, but he said incidents involving settlers and Israeli soldiers take place almost daily.

The situation has only worsened since the start of the war in Gaza in October 2023, said Adra, the co-director of "No Other Land," a documentary he made with Israeli filmmaker Yuval Abraham that this year won an Academy award.

"The world allows Israelis-and gives them the impunity-to commit crimes," the 29-year-old filmmaker told AFP at his home in the village of At Tuwani.

In the nine months after accepting his Oscar in Hollywood, Adra has given score of interviews and captured hundreds of videos capturing settler violence allegedly carried out under army protection.

"Dozens of Palestinian communities, villagers fled from their homes in this time due to the settler and occupation forces violence and attacks and killings," Adra said.