The Commissioner-general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) is calling for increased global pressure to push Israel; into opening more avenues for humanitarian aid to enter the Gaza Strip.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, at least 31 people, including 27 children have died of malnutrition or dehydration. The ICJ court noted that in Gaza, “famine is setting in.”

“Member states should exert more pressure [on Israel] to implement the ICJ order,” Lazzarini wrote in the post. “Those who stopped funding UNRWA should reconsider their decision to allow the Agency to fulfill its mandate, including help averting famine.”

“Bold action cannot wait any longer,” he concluded.

Follow the link to learn more

Egypt, Jordan, France oppose Israeli military operation in Rafah

The foreign ministers of Egypt, Jordan and France opposed any Israeli operation in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip and also called for an immediate ceasefire in the enclave, the Egyptian State Information Service said.

On Saturday, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi, and French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne held a meeting in the Egyptian capital of Cairo to discuss the Gaza conflict.

"The three top diplomats of Egypt, Jordan, and France also reaffirmed their opposition to any military assault on Rafah, which shelters 1.5 million displaced Palestinians, stressing that any attack will incur a massive toll on human life and exacerbate the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza," the agency said in a statement.

The ministers called for the immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and the release of all hostages, as well as demanded full implementation of UN Security Council resolutions on Gaza, among other things.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

The second batch of humanitarian aid has been shipped to the Gaza Strip via the Cyprus maritime corridor as part of the Amalthea Initiative, the Cypriot Foreign Ministry said.

"The second aid shipment for Gaza via the Cyprus Maritime Corridor Amalthea with [humanitarian NGO World Central Kitchen] has set sail this afternoon. Three ships and a barge are on their way to Gaza, carrying hundreds of tons of food," the ministry wrote on X.

The three ships - the Jennifer, the Ledra Dynamic and the Open Arms - towing the MMS ARIS barge left the port of Larnaca, carrying 332 tonnes of humanitarian aid for the Palestinian population of Gaza, Cypriot newspaper Phileleftheros reported.

The Jennifer is reportedly carrying 237 tonnes of food, including sugar, flour, spaghetti, canned food and milk. It also has a wheeled crane that will be used for unloading, the newspaper said. The barge is carrying 109 containers of humanitarian aid weighing a total of 95 tonnes, while the Ledra Dynamic has a crane operating crew on board, according to the report.

The trip from the Cyprus port to the Gaza Strip, where a small dock has been constructed for humanitarian aid ships, will reportedly take about 65 hours.

The humanitarian cargo has been inspected by competent Cypriot authorities and Israeli representatives, Cypriot deputy government spokesman Yiannis Antoniou said.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

A counter-terrorism operation regime has been introduced in Russia's city of Kaspiysk and two districts of Makhachkala, capitol of Russia's Republic of Dagestan, the National Anti-Terrorism Committee reports.

Russia's Federal Security Forces (FSB) has blocked the terrorists in several apartments in residential areas of Makhachkala and Kaspiysk.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Russian drone operators destroyed up to 60 kamikaze drones per day and 2 to 3 large drones of Ukrainian militants per week in the Zaporozhye area, soldiers of the electronic warfare units of the 42nd division told Sputnik.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Ukraine may lose access to the Black Sea if the conflict continues - Musk

If the conflict continues long enough, Kiev may lose Odessa, American billionaire Elon Musk wrote on X. The main question, according to him, remains whether Ukraine will lose access to the Black Sea.

"Whether Ukraine loses all access to the Black Sea or not is, in my view, the real remaining question. I recommend a negotiated settlement before that happens," he wrote.

Russia has repeatedly indicated that it is ready for negotiations, but Ukraine has imposed a ban on them at the legislative level. The West calls on Russia to negotiate, but at the same time ignores Kiev's constant refusals.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

▪️Watch Russian military hitting US Abrams tank near Avdeyevka with a Lancet drone

▪️What happened when the USSR tried to join NATO? Check out Sputnik infographics

▪️Musk: Ukraine may lose access to the Black Sea if the conflict continues

▪️Palestinian political groups reject Israel's proposal to send Arab troops to Gaza

▪️Egypt, Jordan, France oppose Israeli military operation in Rafah

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

In the Russian republic of Dagestan, 3 criminals who were planning to commit terrorist crimes were detained during the anti-terrorist operation, the National Anti-Terrorist Committee reported.

During the inspection of the places where the criminals were detained, automatic weapons, ammunition and ready-made improvised explosive devices were found.

There were no civilian or law enforcement casualties during the counterterrorism operation.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

📹💥Crews of 100mm Rapira anti-tank guns of the Zapad group of forces destroyed camouflaged dugouts of the Ukrainian forces near Kupyansk.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova suggested replacing French goods with Russian analogues in response to the harsh comments made by Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo.

"Do you think maybe we should pick up some French products that are widely represented in Russia now and declare that "they will not be welcome"? So far, French goods are not marked with stickers "we are not welcome in Moscow," but I know that our activists will not be stopped if they make such a decision," Zakharova wrote on her telegram channel.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

The thirst for revenge should not cloud the mind, it is still impossible to sentence to death those accused of the terrorist attack on the Crocus City Hall near Moscow, because the law is not retroactive, said Dmitry Kiselev, the general director of Sputnik's parent media group Rossiya Segodnya.

"The horrific terrorist attack in the city of Krasnogorsk near Moscow caused the whole society a terrible burn. There is no one who sympathizes with these scumbags. It is clear that retribution is wanted right now, but such a topic as the death penalty has reappeared in society. And caught terrorists must be sentenced to death. The thirst for revenge, however, should not cloud the mind. After all, even if the possibility of the death penalty is now returned, then the four who committed the massacre cannot be sentenced to death, since the law has no retroactive effect,'' he said.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

'Hostile reactions from the West': Why Russia didn't Join NATO?

On March 31, 1954, Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov shocked his US, French and British counterparts with a diplomatic note expressing Moscow’s readiness to join NATO. If the USSR joined, the note said, NATO “would cease to be a closed military grouping of states” facilitating the creation of “an effective system of collective security in Europe, which would be of utmost importance for strengthening universal peace.”

This was the first time that Moscow would propose joining the Western alliance, but wouldn’t be the last, with Presidents Putin and Yeltsin voicing potential interest in joining the bloc in the early 1990s and early 2000s, respectively.

But the USSR and Russia never had any real shot at joining, says Michael Maloof, a former senior security policy analyst at the Pentagon. Thanks to a combination of ideology, permanent state interests and even ancient blood feuds, the West has held and will continue to hold Moscow at arms length, if not try “chop up Russia,” Maloof believes.

“We had 50 years of practice in the Soviet Union, and you have a lot of bureaucrats in the intelligence community that [consider antagonizing Russia] to be more of their ‘sweet spot’, as it were, to be comfortable in their jobs. That’s what they’re good at. The change [after 1991] was totally alien to them. Even Putin wanted to join NATO at first, but he began to see increasingly hostile reactions from the West. So Putin began to look more toward a Eurasian movement,” the observer concluded.

👉 Hit the link to learn more

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Worthy use of NASA budget: technology from the Mars program found in Ukrainian drones

Russian experts have identified batteries used by the US space agency NASA in the Mars program while studying captured Ukrainian drones, Dmitry Kuzyakin, general director of the Centre for Integrated Unmanned Solutions, told Sputnik.

"The first FPV drone we acquired had a battery similar to the one used by the US in NASA's Mars mission. It seems that Ukraine assembled FPV drones with its US 'partners', and these batteries were installed in order to use the drones in winter with severe negative temperatures," Kuzyakin explained.

He said that these batteries are extremely expensive to use in such makeshift devices.

The developer added that aluminum alloys similar to those used in the US space program were also found in the captured Ukrainian drones. According to Kuzyakin, the special properties of such an alloy are crucial in space, but useless in an ordinary drone.

However, thanks to such a "filling", Russian engineers can obtain "a lot of useful information" and data, Kuzyakin concluded.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt