WEF panel discusses crises beyond Gaza, Ukraine, questions the ‘crisis of crisis management’

WEF panel discusses crises beyond Gaza, Ukraine, questions the ‘crisis of crisis management’
Conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine have dominated international attention, while other crises — such as those in Sudan, Myanmar and Venezuela — continue to affect millions. (WEF)
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Updated 23 January 2025
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WEF panel discusses crises beyond Gaza, Ukraine, questions the ‘crisis of crisis management’

WEF panel discusses crises beyond Gaza, Ukraine, questions the ‘crisis of crisis management’
  • WEF draws attention to world’s flashpoints

DUBAI: More than 300 million people around the world will need humanitarian assistance and protection in 2025, according to the Global Humanitarian Overview.

The conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine have dominated international attention, while other crises — such as those in Sudan, Myanmar and Venezuela — continue to affect millions.

The World Economic Forum in Davos drew attention to these crises, bringing together Comfort Ero, the president and CEO of International Crisis Group; Catherine Russell, the executive director of UNICEF; and Ricardo Hausmann, founder and director of the Growth Lab at Harvard University. The panel they attended was titled “Crises Beneath the Headlines” and moderated by Ishaan Tharoor, the foreign affairs columnist at The Washington Post.

Ero said that it was the first time in the group’s 30 years of operations where its work was dominated by “big power rivalry and major power competition,” which “infects” and influences many conflicts.

Although there are fewer conflicts, particularly in Africa, it does not mean there are not any conflicts, she added.

Ero said: “I do not necessarily think that these conflicts are off the radar; they have been deprioritized because of the bandwidth and the capacity, and because there’s just an inordinate amount of conflicts on the rise at the same time.”

Russell said that UNICEF, too, was struggling to respond to the sheer number and scale of crises.

She said: “We estimate that more than 213 million children live in 146 countries and territories and will need humanitarian assistance. The numbers are just overwhelming.”

Crises in Haiti, Myanmar, Sudan and Syria are also on UNICEF’s agenda, but the organization faces funding issues with 50 percent of the humanitarian funding it receives going to only five emergencies, Russell said.

She spoke about the massive numbers of children affected in Haiti and Sudan.

Some 700,000 people, including 365,000 children, are displaced because of violence perpetrated by armed gangs, and 6 million people need humanitarian assistance, with serious food insecurity an added issue in Haiti.

In Sudan, 19 million children are school-aged and 17 million of them are out of school and have been for more than a year.

While Syria has had a recent moment of triumph, its infrastructure has completely collapsed and millions of children are out of school and living in areas with landmines, which have become a leading cause of death and injury, she added. 

“Attention draws resources, and so not having a lot of attention (drawn to these issues) is a problem,” Russell said.

Latin America is not free of issues either, with Venezuela being in the midst of a political and humanitarian crisis exacerbated by Nicolas Maduro, its president, remaining in office despite a six-month-long election dispute, international calls for him to stand aside, and an increase in the US reward offered for his capture.

Hausmann described the country’s downfall as “poetic in some dark sense.”

Despite Venezuela sitting on top of the largest oil reserves in the world, its gross domestic product has collapsed by 75 percent — “that’s three Great Depressions” — and 8 million people have left the country, he said.

Hausmann added that “Venezuela’s biggest obstacle is the government,” which has become an “international criminal organization” involved in “narco trafficking, money laundering, (and) the finance of terrorism.”

He said: “We have a situation where you have a government that has a deep internal sense of illegitimacy, and in the process of trying to survive it has destroyed the legitimacy of all other organizations (such as) the National Assembly, the Supreme Court, the attorney general, the army, etc.”

Looking to the future, he said, Venezuela was receiving mixed messages from the US with some people, like Secretary of State Marco Rubio and National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, “showing a willingness to be helpful in re-establishing democratic order,” while others, like Ohio Sen. Bernie Moreno, were “more or less normalizing Maduro.”

Tharoor asked the panel how the work of international groups had been affected at a time when countries were shaping their messaging for a “Trumpist world” and becoming more “nation-first.”

Ero said that we “can’t divorce ourselves” from the nation-first approach or from “national interest.”

But, she added: “There is a serious question mark about the crisis of the crisis management system itself, where it’s very hard now to see who the key mediators are that have the influence and leverage to change the dynamics in a country like Sudan. We are in a crisis of peacemaking.”

Organizations like UNICEF and other humanitarian aid agencies are doing what they can but Russell described them as a “band-aid” that arrives due to political failures.

She said: “We save millions and millions of lives, but we’re not the answer. The answer is to stop the conflict in the first place. We have no power to do that, and so we are at the mercy of this really dysfunctional political system.”

She added that the countries that make up the UN Security Council “have to come together and decide that they’re going to put their own interests aside, hopefully, and try to look out for what’s best for their countries and their regions and the world at large.”


Israel’s Netanyahu says Trump plan for Gaza ‘revolutionary’

Israel’s Netanyahu says Trump plan for Gaza ‘revolutionary’
Updated 18 sec ago
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Israel’s Netanyahu says Trump plan for Gaza ‘revolutionary’

Israel’s Netanyahu says Trump plan for Gaza ‘revolutionary’
  • Washington on Friday announced the approval of the sale of more than $7.4 billion in bombs, missiles and related equipment to Israel

JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday praised a proposal from President Donald Trump for US control of Gaza and the displacement of its population as “revolutionary,” following his return to Israel from Washington.
Trump sparked global outrage by suggesting on Tuesday, during a week-long visit by the Israeli premier to the United States, that Washington should take control of the Gaza Strip and clear out its inhabitants.
On his return to Israel, addressing his cabinet, Netanyahu said the two allies agreed on war aims set out by Israel at the start of its 15-month war against Hamas including “ensuring Gaza no longer poses a threat to Israel.”
“President Trump came with a completely different, much better vision for Israel — a revolutionary, creative approach that we are currently discussing” the Israeli prime minister said, referring to the president’s Gaza plan.
“He is very determined to implement it and I believe it opens up many, many possibilities for us,” Netanyahu added.
Despite criticisms from international allies and Arab states in particular, Trump on Thursday doubled down on the plan, saying the “Gaza Strip would be turned over to the United States by Israel at the conclusion of fighting.”
“No soldiers by the US would be needed! Stability for the region would reign!!!” he wrote in social media post.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz later on Thursday ordered the army to prepare for “voluntary” departures from Gaza.
“This visit, and the discussions we had with President Trump, carry with them tremendous achievements that could ensure Israel’s security for generations,” Netanyahu said.
Washington on Friday announced the approval of the sale of more than $7.4 billion in bombs, missiles and related equipment to Israel.
The State Department signed off on the sale of $6.75 billion in bombs, guidance kits and fuses, in addition to $660 million in Hellfire missiles, according to the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA).
Israel launched a hugely destructive offensive against Hamas in Gaza in October 2023 in response to the Palestinian militant groups October 7 attack.
The war has devastated much of the Gaza Strip — a narrow coastal territory on the eastern Mediterranean — but a ceasefire has been in effect since last month that has brought a halt to the deadly conflict and provides for the release of hostages seized by Hamas.


UN chief welcomes formation of new Lebanon government

UN chief welcomes formation of new Lebanon government
Updated 14 min ago
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UN chief welcomes formation of new Lebanon government

UN chief welcomes formation of new Lebanon government
  • New Prime Minister Nawaf Salam now faces the daunting task of overseeing the fragile Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire and rebuilding the country

UNITED NATIONS, United States: UN chief Antonio Guterres has welcomed the formation of a new government in Lebanon, affirming the international body’s commitment to that country’s “territorial integrity, sovereignty and political independence,” a spokesman said Sunday.
“The United Nations looks forward to working in close partnership with the new government on its priorities, including the consolidation of the cessation of hostilities,” said a statement from spokesman Stephane Dujarric.
Dujarric was referring to a ceasefire agreement between Lebanon and Israel signed on November 27, with Beirut’s military due to deploy in the country’s south alongside UN peacekeepers as Israel withdraws from those areas over 60 days.
Fighting between Israeli forces and long-dominant Hezbollah since October 2023 has weakened the group, helping bring a new Lebanese government to power after almost two years of caretaker authorities being in charge.
New Prime Minister Nawaf Salam now faces the daunting task of overseeing the fragile Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire and rebuilding the country.
Salam said Saturday that he hoped to head a “government of reform and salvation,” pledging to rebuild trust with the international community after years of economic collapse blamed on corruption and mismanagement.
Long the dominant force in Lebanese politics, Hezbollah suffered staggering losses in a war with Israel that saw its leader Hassan Nasrallah killed in a massive air strike in September.
Hezbollah suffered another seismic blow with the ouster on December 8 of Bashar Assad in Syria, which it had long used as its weapons lifeline from Iran.
After more than two years of political stalemate, the weakening of Hezbollah allowed former army chief Joseph Aoun, widely believed to be Washington’s preferred candidate, to be elected president and Salam approved as his premier.
 

 


Brother says freed Israeli hostage suffered ‘hardest blow’ learning wife killed

Brother says freed Israeli hostage suffered ‘hardest blow’ learning wife killed
Updated 20 min 17 sec ago
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Brother says freed Israeli hostage suffered ‘hardest blow’ learning wife killed

Brother says freed Israeli hostage suffered ‘hardest blow’ learning wife killed
  • “Einav, his beloved wife, was murdered on that cursed day

JERUSALEM: Freed Israeli hostage Or Levy suffered the “hardest blow” upon his release from Gaza when he learned that his wife was killed by Hamas militants in the 2023 attack in which he was abducted, his brother said Sunday.
On Saturday, Hamas militants released Levy along with two other hostages, Eli Sharabi and Ohad Ben Ami, as part of an ongoing ceasefire in Gaza.
“The hardest blow awaited Or when he was freed — his greatest fear was confirmed,” Michael Levy told journalists at a hospital where his brother is being treated.
“Einav, his beloved wife, was murdered on that cursed day. For 491 days, he held on to the hope that he would return to her. For 491 days, he didn’t know she was no longer alive,” Michael Levy added.
Or and Einav Levy had attended the Nova music festival when Hamas militants stormed it during their October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
They had left their son Almog, two years old at the time, with his grandparents.
The usually inseparable couple, who met at school, tried to hide from the attackers along Route 232, the only path away from the festival.
According to the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, an Israeli campaign group, Einav was killed in the attack while Or was abducted along with other young men.
Until now, it had been unclear whether Or knew of his wife’s fate.
“He only found out yesterday,” said Michael Levy.
“Or is alive. He is here. But this happiness is mixed with an immense sadness, a pain that cannot be described.”
“After everything he went through, he finally met Mogi, his little son. A three-year-old boy who hadn’t seen his father for 16 months!” the brother added.
 

 


Palestinians say Israeli forces kill 3 in West Bank raid

Israeli soldiers conduct a raid in the Nur Shams camp for Palestinian refugees near Tulkarem in the occupied West Bank.
Israeli soldiers conduct a raid in the Nur Shams camp for Palestinian refugees near Tulkarem in the occupied West Bank.
Updated 10 February 2025
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Palestinians say Israeli forces kill 3 in West Bank raid

Israeli soldiers conduct a raid in the Nur Shams camp for Palestinian refugees near Tulkarem in the occupied West Bank.
  • A pregnant woman was dead when she arrived at a local hospital
  • At least 70 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank in 2025

TULKAREM: The Palestinian health ministry reported that Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank shot dead three people on Sunday, including a woman who was eight months pregnant.
Israeli forces launched an operation in the Nur Shams refugee camp, on the outskirts of Tulkarem in the northern West Bank, at dawn on Sunday, as part of an ongoing offensive in nearby camps, the military said.
The Palestinian health ministry said 23-year-old Sundus Jamal Muhammad Shalabi was killed in a pre-dawn incident, with her husband Yazan Abu Shola critically injured.
The mother-to-be was dead when she arrived at a local hospital, the ministry said.
“Medical teams were unable to save the baby’s life due to the (Israeli) occupation preventing the transfer of the injured to the hospital,” it added.
When asked by AFP about the shooting of the pregnant woman in Nur Shams, the Israeli military said “following the incident an investigation was opened by the Military Police Criminal Investigation Division."
Murad Alyan, a member of the popular committee in the Nur Shams camp, told AFP that the couple was “trying to leave the camp before the occupation forces advanced into it. They were shot while they were inside their car.”
The Palestinian foreign ministry condemned what it described as “a crime of execution committed by the occupation forces,” accusing Israeli forces of “deliberately targeting defenseless civilians.”
The health ministry later said a second woman, 21-year-old Rahaf Fouad Abdullah Al-Ashqar was killed in a separate incident in Nur Shams.
A source in the camp’s popular committee said she was killed and her father wounded when the “Israeli forces used explosives to open the door of their family house.”
And late on Sunday the health ministry announced that a third Palestinian, Iyas Adli Fakhri Al-Akhras, 20, had been killed “after being shot by Israeli forces” in the camp.
AFP footage from Nur Shams showed army bulldozers clearing a path in front of buildings in the densely packed camp, which is home to about 13,000 people.
The Israeli military earlier said its forces were “expanding the operation in northern Samaria,” using the biblical term for the north of the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967.
“The combat team of the Ephraim Brigade began operations in Nur Shams,” the military said in a statement, adding that soldiers had “targeted several terrorists and arrested additional individuals in the area.”
The Palestinian health ministry has said at least 70 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank this year.
Violence there has escalated since the October 2023 outbreak of war in the Gaza Strip.
According to the Palestinian health ministry, at least 887 Palestinians including militants have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers in the West Bank since the Gaza war began.
At least 32 Israelis, including some soldiers, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or confrontations during Israeli operations in the West Bank over the same period, according to official Israeli figures.


UN humanitarian chief says Gaza ceasefire has averted famine but any truce collapse brings danger

UN humanitarian chief says Gaza ceasefire has averted famine but any truce collapse brings danger
Updated 10 February 2025
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UN humanitarian chief says Gaza ceasefire has averted famine but any truce collapse brings danger

UN humanitarian chief says Gaza ceasefire has averted famine but any truce collapse brings danger
  • Fletcher urged both Hamas, which quickly reasserted its control of the territory in the hours after the ceasefire took effect, and Israel to stick to the deal that has “saved so many lives”

CAIRO: Famine has been mostly averted in Gaza as a surge of aid enters the territory during a fragile ceasefire, the United Nations humanitarian chief said Sunday. But he warned the threat could return quickly if the truce collapses.
Tom Fletcher spoke to The Associated Press after a two-day visit to Gaza, where hundreds of trucks carrying humanitarian aid have arrived each day since the ceasefire began on Jan. 19.
“The threat of famine, I think, is largely averted,” Fletcher said in Cairo. “Those starvation levels are down from where they were before the ceasefire.”
He spoke as concerns grow over whether the ceasefire can be extended and talks are meant to begin on its more difficult second phase. The six-week first phase is halfway through.
As part of the agreement, Israel said it would allow 600 aid trucks into Gaza each day, a major increase after months of aid officials expressing frustration about delays and insecurity hampering both the entry and distribution of food, medicines and other badly needed items.
The UN humanitarian office has said more than 12,600 aid trucks have entered Gaza since the ceasefire took effect.
Fletcher urged both Hamas, which quickly reasserted its control of the territory in the hours after the ceasefire took effect, and Israel to stick to the deal that has “saved so many lives.”
“The conditions are still terrible, and people are still hungry,” he said. “If the ceasefire falls, if the ceasefire breaks, then very quickly those (famine-like) conditions will come back again.”
The internationally recognized mortality threshold for famine is two or more deaths a day per 10,000 people.
For months before the current ceasefire, food security monitors, UN officials and others had been warning of possible famine in parts of devastated Gaza, especially the north, which had been largely isolated since the earliest weeks of the 16-month war. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been able to return to the north under the ceasefire.
“We can’t ... sit by and just allow these people to starve to death,” Cindy McCain, the American head of the UN World Food Program, told CBS in December. The Biden administration repeatedly urged Israel to allow more aid deliveries and warned that failing to do so could trigger US restrictions on military support.
Fletcher said more food and medical supplies are crucially needed for the territory of more than 2 million people, most of them displaced, and he expressed concerns about disease outbreaks due to the lack of basic health supplies. He also called for scaling up the delivery of tents and other shelters to those who have returned to their home areas, as winter continues.
“We must get tens of thousands of tents very rapidly in, so that people who are moving back, particularly moving back into the north, are able to take shelter from those conditions,” he said.
Fletcher entered the Palestinian territory through the Erez crossing between Israel and northern Gaza, where he said he drove through “bombed-out, flattened and pulverized” areas.
“You can’t see the difference between a school or a hospital or a home,” he said of the north.
He said he saw people trying to find where their homes had been and collecting the bodies of loved ones from the rubble. He saw dogs looking for corpses in the rubble, too.
“It is a horror movie. It’s a horror show,” he said. “It breaks your heart again and again and again. You drive for miles and miles and miles, and this is all you see.”
Fletcher acknowledged that some Palestinians have been angry at the international community over the war and its response.
“There was despair and anger. And I can understand the anger at the world that this has happened to them,” he said. “But there was also a sense of defiance as well. People were saying, ‘We will go back to our homes. We will go back to the places that we have lived for generations, and we will rebuild.’”