UN warns that, without aid, 14,000 infants in Gaza may die in two days | Evening News Bulletin 21 May 2025
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TRANSCRIPT
- The UN warns 14,000 infants could die within two days if aid doesn’t reach Gaza
- Defence force steps in to help rescue teams as flooding inundates New South Wales
- West Australia’s Talia Gibson qualifies for a grand slam for the first time
Residents are being airlifted from rooftops as the defence force steps in to help more than 1600 SES volunteers carry out flood rescues in New South Wales.
More than 150 rescues have taken place on Wednesday alone, with a coastal trough bringing moderate to heavy rain through the New South Wales mid-north coast.
The SES has issued a stay-at-home warning for elevated inland parts of the mid-north coast, while some areas of the Hunter Region are being warned they may need to seek higher ground.
State Emergency Services Minister Jihad Dib says the rescue teams are well equipped and supported.
“We’ve got twenty flood rescue teams that are made up of multi agencies, so other agencies that are also trained in flood rescue, and twenty four teams of SES flood rescue capability specialists. We’ve also got more teams on there. We’ve got five helicopters in the air at the moment, with another four on their way. And what we’re seeing is a really clear example of throwing every single thing that we’ve got at this event.”
The United Nations says 14,000 infants could die of starvation in the next two days if Israel does not allow immediate and unrestricted aid into Gaza.
Israel has now announced it will allow limited aid into Gaza, after cutting off access to food, water and medical supplies for almost three months.
Israel says 93 aid trucks have been allowed in, but the UN says its trucks are being held up for several hours by Israeli officials, adding that they are not nearly enough to feed all those in need.
British surgeon Tom Potokar is working in southern Gaza, and describes the current situation in the enclave as a slaughterhouse.
“Because of the blockade, there’s so little stuff getting in. There’s no food getting in so people are starving. There’s very little medical supplies coming in but also, the other very noticeable thing is the massive extent of destruction. I mean Khan Younis looks like Stalingrad.”
The Australian Centre for International Justice is urging Australia to impose sanctions on Israeli cabinet ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich.
They say the pair have exhibited a pattern constituting incitement to violence, complicity in serious human rights violations, and responsibility for policies exacerbating illegal settlements and Palestinian displacement.
They say the need for action is reinforced by a recent statement from Canada, France and the UK, which they says shows it isn’t too late for Australia to take concrete action.
UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy says Mr Smotrich’s statements on Gaza amount to extremism.
“Yesterday, Minister Smotrich even spoke of Israeli forces cleansing Gaza. Destroying what’s left of residents, Palestinians being relocated, he said, to third countries. We must call this what it is. It is extremism. It is dangerous. It is repellent, it is monstrous and I condemn it in the strongest possible terms.”
Israel’s foreign ministry accuses the UK of having an anti-Israel obsession.
Following the threat of sanctions from the UK in October last year, both Mr Smotrich and Mr Ben-Gvir say it won’t deter them from changing their positions.
New crime data shows the New South Wales prison population is at a five-year high, with First Nations People over-represented.
New data from the state’s Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research finds that Aboriginal adults now make up 32 per cent of the state’s prison population, despite making up less than 3.5 per cent of the overall population.
That’s a 14 per cent rise in just four months, as compared to a four percent increase in non-Indigenous prisoners.
It’s understood that almost half of the Indigenous adults in custody are waiting to be sentenced.
Principal Legal Officer at the Aboriginal Legal Service Lauren Stefanou has told NITV that the disproportionate incarceration of Indigenous Australians is the result of structural discrimination.
“What we know is that the mass incarceration of Aboriginal people is driven by the same things it has been since the Royal Commission made its findings over thirty years ago, over-policing and structural discrimination at every stage in the criminal process. Instead of doubling down on things that don’t work and don’t make communities any safer, we haven’t seen any evidence in crime being reduced by these approaches. We call on the New South Wales government to invest in solutions that actually work to prevent crime in the first place.”
And in tennis, West Australia’s Talia Gibson, who has competed twice in the Australian Open, has qualified for a grand slam for the first time.
The 20-year-old defeated returning veteran Michaela Buzarnescu of Romania 6-2 6-3 in the first round of French Open qualifying.
This means that six Australians in total; Talia Gibson, Daria Saville, Bernard Tomic, Jason Kubler, Maddison Inglis and Astra Sharma, are all moving on to the second qualifying round of the French Open.
The Australians have another three rounds of qualifying before the tournament begins on the 25th of May.
