United Nations, Oct 23: UN humanitarians have said that delivering vital support to northern Gaza remains challenging, even though the ceasefire took effect more than 10 days ago.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Wednesday that since the ceasefire took effect on October 10, the world body and its partners have made progress in scaling up response efforts, especially in central and southern areas of the Gaza Strip.

However, the continued closure of the Zikim and Erez border crossings, which provide direct access to the north, makes it extremely challenging for humanitarian aid to reach the area, OCHA added.

At the same time, UN partners monitoring population flows across Gaza have reported more than 425,000 movements from southern to northern parts of the strip since October 10, Xinhua news agency reported.

UN Population Fund Deputy Executive Director Andrew Saberton, who just returned from Gaza, told reporters that the agency was able to bring in some assistance last week through the Kerem Shalom/Karem Abu Salem crossing.

“We have been distributing medical supplies and equipment, including incubators, delivery beds and fetal monitoring machines, that were prepositioned inside Gaza, to hospitals,” he said.

“But the trickle of aid being allowed to enter Gaza after the ceasefire is nowhere near enough.”

Inside Gaza on Tuesday, out of 10 humanitarian missions coordinated with the Israeli authorities, six were facilitated, including the collection of water tanks, hygiene kits and fuel from the crossings into Gaza, OCHA said.

Abeer Etefa, senior regional communications officer and spokesperson for the World Food Programme (WFP), said that since the ceasefire began on October 11, the agency has delivered more than 6,700 metric tonnes of food, enough for nearly half a million people for two weeks.

“Daily deliveries continue and now average around 750 tonnes,” she said, noting this remains well below WFP’s target of 2,000 tonnes a day.

“Unless all border crossing points are used, reaching this target is almost impossible.”

Currently, only the Kerem Shalom and Kissufim crossings in the south are open. Severe destruction continues to block access to northern Gaza, where famine was declared in August. “We need Erez, we need Zikkim, we need these border crossing points to open,” Etefa stressed.

Reaching northern Gaza with large-scale convoys is a priority.

“We’ve cleared roads at scale into the north,” she said, “but we need these crossings open to connect to Gaza City, where conditions are especially dire.”

WFP is restoring its food distribution network, aiming for 145 distribution points across the Strip, of which 26 have reopened. “People are showing up in large numbers, grateful for the efficiency and the dignified way they can collect their rations,” Etefa said.

The aid is especially crucial for “the most vulnerable,” the women, female-headed households, and the elderly, she added.

While many are hopeful, “there is cautious optimism” about how long current conditions will last.

Many families save part of their rations because they are not confident the ceasefire will hold.

“It is a fragile peace,” she said.

Food prices remain prohibitive, and supplies are still insufficient. “People can find food in the market, but it’s out of reach because it’s extremely expensive,” Etefa warned.

WFP is also helping the most food-insecure households through digital payments, enabling about 140,000 people to buy food locally, with plans to double that number soon. But Etefa stressed that humanitarian aid alone cannot solve the crisis, and commercial supplies must enter to complement relief efforts.

Only a fully implemented and sustained ceasefire can allow WFP to operate at the scale needed, Etefa said.

Athens, Oct 23: The Greek police have arrested 37 people in a nationwide operation targeting a criminal network accused of defrauding the European Union’s (EU) agricultural subsidy system, authorities said.

According to the Hellenic Police on Wednesday, the operation was carried out by the Organised Crime Division in Thessaloniki, Pella, Ioannina, Attica, and Crete.

The suspects allegedly obtained EU farm subsidies through false declarations submitted to OPEKEPE, a public agency responsible for managing and disbursing agricultural aid schemes funded by the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy, Xinhua news agency reported.

According to the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO), in the course of the preliminary investigation, 324 individuals were identified as subsidy recipients, causing an estimated cost of more than €19.6 million to the EU budget.

Of these, 42 are believed to be involved in this case and are considered current members of the criminal group, the EPPO said.

Investigators estimate that the network illegally acquired between 5 million euros ($5.8 million) and 10 million euros out of more than 20 million euros in total subsidies.

Most suspects are not connected to farming, and the core group is believed to consist of about 10 individuals, Greek national broadcaster ERT reported.

The operation was conducted in cooperation with the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, which began investigating the case about 18 months ago, the report added. (1 euro = 1.16 US dollar)

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, under pressure due to his family’s political ties in Crete, vowed to imprison those guilty and recover the misappropriated funds.

He claimed the fraud began in 2016, before his 2019 tenure, and warned that Greece’s EU subsidies could be at risk if the issue isn’t resolved.

“Whatever the political cost, I am not backing down,” Mitsotakis told Skai radio.

Government Minister Michalis Chrysochoidis echoed the sentiment, stressing that public resources must not be embezzled for personal gain.

Several Ministers and Deputy Ministers have resigned over their alleged involvement in the scandal.

The EU has already fined Athens €400 million after finding evidence of systemic failings in the handling of farm subsidies from 2016 through to 2023.

Greece also risks losing its EU farm subsidies unless it provides an improved action plan on how it will stop funds being siphoned off into corruption.

The original deadline was October 2, but this has now been pushed back to November 4.

New Delhi, Oct 23: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to skip the upcoming ASEAN Summit in Malaysia, starting from Sunday due to scheduling issues, sources said, adding that External Affairs Minister (EAM) S. Jaishankar will represent India at the summit.

The ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) summit will be held in Kuala Lumpur from October 26 to 28.

There is no official confirmation yet on India’s level of participation at the deliberations related to the summit.

Sources said that India is reported to have conveyed to Malaysia that EAM Jaishankar will represent India at the ASEAN meetings.

There is a possibility of PM Modi’s participation through virtual mode at the ASEAN-India summit.

Since 2014, Prime Minister Modi has skipped only one East Asia Summit (EAS) — the 17th edition held in November 2022 in Cambodia’s capital Phnom Penh.

With barely a few days left for the 20th EAS in Kuala Lumpur (October 26), the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) was non-committal on Tuesday on whether the PM would attend the AEAN summit as well as the EAS.

Malaysian government representatives and its media, however, have said that PM Modi would be one of the world leaders attending the EAS, along with US President Donald Trump, Chinese Premier Li Qiang and several others.

The Prime Minister has led the Indian delegations at the ASEAN-India summit and the East Asia Summit in the last few years.

The 10-member countries of ASEAN are Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia.

The two-way relations between India and ASEAN have been on a significant upswing in the last few years with focus being on boosting cooperation in the areas of trade and investment as well as security and defence.

According to the initial plan, a visit by PM Modi to Cambodia along with Malaysia was being contemplated.

However, as PM Modi is not travelling to Malaysia, the planned trip to Cambodia stands postponed, sources said.

Malaysia has invited US President Donald Trump as well as leaders of several countries which are the dialogue partners of the ASEAN.

Trump is set to travel to Kuala Lumpur on October 26 on a two-day visit.

The ASEAN-India dialogue relations started with the establishment of a sectoral partnership in 1992. This graduated to full dialogue partnership in December 1995 and summit-level partnership in 2002.

The ties were elevated to a strategic partnership in 2012.

The PM attended the ninth EAS, his first as India’s Prime Minister, in Myanmar in November 2014. He attended the subsequent EAS in November 2015 in Malaysia, the 11th EAS in Laos in September 2016, the 12th EAS in the Philippines in November 2017, the 13th in Singapore in November 2018 and the 14th in Thailand in November 2019.

The 16th and 17th EAS were held online with Vietnam and Brunei as the host countries in 2020 and 2021, respectively.

PM Modi attended the next two summits that took place in September 2023 and October 2024, in Indonesia and Laos, respectively.