Israel sends tanks into Gaza's Deir al-Balah as health officials warn of 'mass deaths' from starvation
The area is packed with Palestinians displaced during more than 21 months of war in Gaza, hundreds of whom fled west or south after Israel issued an evacuation order, saying it sought to destroy infrastructure and capabilities of the militant group Hamas.
Tank shelling in the area hit houses and mosques, killing at least three Palestinians and wounding several others, local medics said.
To the south in Khan Younis, an Israeli airstrike killed at least five people, including a husband and wife and their two children in a tent, medics said.
In its daily update, Gaza's health ministry said at least 130 Palestinians had been killed and more than 1,000 wounded by Israeli gunfire and military strikes across the territory in the past 24 hours, one of the highest such totals in recent weeks.
There was no immediate Israeli comment on the Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis incidents.
Hunger
Meanwhile, officials are warning of potential 'mass deaths' in coming days from hunger, which has killed at least 19 people since Saturday, the Hamas-run territory's health ministry said.
Health officials say hospitals have been running out of fuel, food aid and medicine, risking a halt to vital operations.
Health ministry spokesperson Khalil Al-Deqran said medical staff have been depending on one meal a day and that hundreds of people flock to hospitals every day, suffering from fatigue and exhaustion.
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The Independent
17 minutes ago
- The Independent
Israeli forces kill 63 Palestinian in Gaza within hours of ‘humanitarian pause'
The Israeli military killed at least 63 people across Gaza just hours after declaring daily 'pauses' in operations to facilitate the passage of humanitarian aid, health officials said. The military said on Sunday it would suspend operations daily from 10am until 8pm in parts of central and northern Gaza, including al-Mawasi, Deir el-Balah and Gaza City, and promised to open aid corridors from 6am to 11pm to let in food and medical supplies. However, within hours of the so-called 'humanitarian pause' taking effect, Israeli forces resumed air raids. One reported strike targeted a bakery in an area designated as a 'safe zone', according to Al Jazeera. The humanitarian crisis continued to worsen. Health officials reported six more deaths, including of two children, from starvation in the past 24 hours, taking the total to 133. Among the latest to succumb was five-month-old Zainab Abu Haleeb, who died of malnutrition at the Nasser Hospital. 'Three months inside the hospital and this is what I get in return, that she is dead,' her mother Israa Abu Haleeb told Al Jazeera. The World Food Programme said one in three people in Gaza had gone days without food and about half a million were experiencing famine-like conditions. More than 20 per cent of pregnant and breastfeeding women were malnourished, according to the World Health Organization. Israel maintains that it is working to improve aid access and denies that famine exists in Gaza. But aid organisations say the situation is catastrophic, with a quarter of the population at risk of acute malnutrition. UN officials say the crisis won't ease unless Israel speeds up the movement of aid convoys through its checkpoints. A top UN official said last week Palestinians were beginning to resemble 'walking corpses'. Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa, said humanitarian workers were encountering children who were 'emaciated, weak and at high risk of dying' without immediate intervention. 'Families are no longer coping. They're breaking down, unable to survive,' Mr Lazzarini said. 'Their existence is threatened.' Israel has severely limited the flow of food and humanitarian aid into Gaza, allowing only a small number of trucks to enter each day after enforcing an 11-week total blockade earlier this year. UN officials warn the current level of aid is merely a drop in the ocean compared to the scale of need. The Israeli military intercepted an aid ship bound for Gaza that aimed to breach the blockade on the Palestinian territory, detaining 21 international activists and journalists and confiscating all cargo, including baby formula, food, and medicine, according to the Freedom Flotilla Coalition on Sunday. The group said Israeli forces 'violently intercepted' their vessel, Handala, in international waters around 40 nautical miles off the coast of Gaza, cutting off cameras and communication shortly before midnight on Saturday. 'All cargo was non-military, civilian and intended for direct distribution to a population facing deliberate starvation and medical collapse under Israel's illegal blockade,'' the group said in a statement. It was the second ship operated by the coalition that Israeli forces prevented in recent months from delivering aid to Gaza. It was reported on Sunday that Jordan and the UAE had begun airdropping aid into the besieged Palestinian territory. But Mr Lazzarini said 'airdrops will not reverse the deepening starvation'. 'They are expensive, inefficient and can even kill starving civilians. It is a distraction & smokescreen,' he said in an X post. 'A manmade hunger can only be addressed by political will. Lift the siege, open the gates and guarantee safe movements with dignified access to people in need. Israel's war on Gaza has killed nearly 60,000 Palestinians, injured over 144,000, and left most of the densely populated coastal territory in ruins and the majority of its 2.2 million people homeless and starving. Israel launched the war in October 2023 after nearly 1,200 Israelis were killed and 251 taken hostage during a Hamas attack.
Sky News
4 hours ago
- Sky News
Israel-Hamas war: 'Vast amounts of aid needed to stave off catastrophic health crisis in Gaza,' UN warns
Israel has agreed to support a "one-week scale-up of aid" in Gaza - but the United Nations has warned more action is needed to "stave off famine and a catastrophic health crisis". UN aid chief Tom Fletcher made the remarks as Israel began limited pauses in fighting across three areas of Gaza for 10 hours a day to address the worsening humanitarian situation. Israel cut off all supplies to Gaza's population from the start of March. It then reopened aid centres with new restrictions in May, but said the supply had to be controlled to prevent it from being stolen by Hamas militants. On Saturday, reports referencing US government data said there was no evidence Hamas had stolen aid from UN agencies. Images of emaciated Palestinian children have led to widespread criticism of Israel's actions in Gaza, including by allies who are calling for an end to the war. Mr Fletcher said one in three people in Gaza "hasn't eaten for days" and "children are wasting away". He added: "We welcome Israel's decision to support a one-week scale-up of aid, including lifting customs barriers on food, medicine and fuel from Egypt and the reported designation of secure routes for UN humanitarian convoys. "Some movement restrictions appear to have been eased today, with initial reports indicating that over 100 truckloads were collected. "This is progress, but vast amounts of aid are needed to stave off famine and a catastrophic health crisis. Across the UN agencies and humanitarian community, we are mobilised to save as many lives as we can." The Israel Defence Forces said yesterday that it is halting military operations in Muwasi, Deir al Balah and Gaza City daily from 10am to 8pm local time (8am to 6pm UK time) until further notice. Combat operations have continued outside of this 10-hour window. Health officials in Gaza said Israeli strikes killed at least 41 Palestinians overnight into Sunday morning, including 26 seeking aid. In a statement, the IDF said it would also establish secure routes to help the UN and aid agencies deliver food and other supplies. Israel's announcement of what it calls a "tactical pause" in fighting comes after it resumed airdrops of aid into Gaza. While the IDF reiterated claims there is "no starvation" in the territory, it said the airdrops would include "seven pallets of aid containing flour, sugar and canned food to be provided by international organisations". Palestinian sources confirmed that aid had begun dropping in northern parts of the territory. Sabreen Hasson, a Palestinian mother who travelled to an aid point near the Zikim crossing to collect supplies, said: "I came to get flour for my children because they have not tasted flour for more than a week, and thank God, God provided me with a kilo of rice with difficulty." But Samira Yahda, who was in Zawaida in central Gaza, said: "We saw the planes, but we didn't see what they dropped... they said trucks would pass, but we didn't see the trucks." Another Palestinian told the AP news agency that some people feared going out and having a box of aid fall on their children. 1:19 Gaza is expected to be a focus during talks Sir Keir Starmer and Donald Trump in Scotland today. Downing Street said Sir Keir will raise "what more can be done to secure the ceasefire [in the Middle East] urgently", during the meeting at the US president's Turnberry golf course in Ayrshire. Reports also suggest the prime minister is planning to interrupt the summer recess and recall his cabinet to discuss the crisis on Tuesday. Talks in Qatar over a ceasefire ended on Thursday after the US and Israel withdrew their negotiating teams. 2:02 Mr Trump blamed Hamas for the collapse of negotiations as he left the US for Scotland, saying the militant group "didn't want to make a deal... they want to die". Meanwhile the exiled head of Hamas in Gaza, Khalil al Hayya, has warned ceasefire negotiations with Israel were "meaningless under continued blockade and starvation". In a recorded speech, he added: "The immediate and dignified delivery of food and medicine to our people is the only serious and genuine indication of whether continuing the negotiations is worthwhile." 0:51 During a meeting with the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen yesterday, Mr Trump emphasised the importance of securing the release of hostages held by Palestinian militants in Gaza. He said: "They don't want to give them back, and so Israel is going to have to make a decision. 1:17 "I know what I'd do, but I don't think it's appropriate that I say it. But Israel is going to have to make a decision," he said. Mr Trump also repeated claims, without evidence, that Hamas was stealing food coming into Gaza and selling it.
ITV News
9 hours ago
- ITV News
More aid is good news, but only a ceasefire will really make a difference in Gaza
The aid that has gone into Gaza today is too little, too late and largely symbolic. Whether delivered by land or from the air, those supplies are also an indication of global horror at what is unfolding. The images of children dying from a lack of food in a region of plenty have caused enough outcry against Israel that, after 21 months of war and four months of an almost complete blockade of food and aid, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been forced into easing some of his government's draconian policies. The World Health Organisation says Gaza saw 63 malnutrition-related deaths in July, including 24 children under five. Medics on the ground say those figures are likely to be much lower than the reality. The humanitarian pause in attacks in parts of Gaza might also allow some of the 14,000 most seriously sick and injured Palestinians to leave the Strip for care elsewhere. At the Specialty Hospital in Jordan they are preparing for an evacuation mission, readying their beds to receive some of the most seriously ill patients should they be able to get out. Over the past months, they have treated just over 100 patients; now the significant change in their conditions points to the desperate consequences of being starved of food and aid. After the continued restrictions of food, aid and medical supplies by Israel, many of the patients are not just injured by bombs but dying because of a lack of food and medicine. The head of the Specialty Hospital told me today he believes most of the children in Gaza are now malnourished. As the Executive Chairman of the Gaza Health Initiative, Dr Fawzi Al-Hammouri, is also responsible for sending medical teams into Gaza. Even those doctors are so short of food they are losing significant amounts of weight in four-week missions. 'Since early March, there is almost complete blockade of the borders, so there is no humanitarian or medical aid getting into Gaza,' he told me. 'Now we notice that all the children that we receive, and their companions, have malnutrition. When we do blood tests we discover they have anaemia, low iron, low vitamin D, because even if they find something to eat, it's only flour or rice. There is no protein, so there is no meat, no chicken, no fish, no vegetables, no fruits. So this is why I believe that most of the children, now in Gaza, are malnourished.' Jordan has sent 50 medical missions into Gaza since the start of the war, part of an international humanitarian response to the war and destruction of Gaza's healthcare system. Now, even their medical teams are struggling to feed themselves and their patients. 'We have noticed that even our doctors who go there and stay for two to four weeks, when they come back, most of them, if not all of them, lose between 5 and 10 kilograms,' Dr Fawzi said. 'They don't find something to eat, and now there is difficulty finding food for their patients inside the hospitals. If those patients have surgery and aren't fed well after they will not recover.' Jordan's King Abdullah has agreed to take in 2000 of the most seriously ill children. For the medical teams who will receive them, there is now the challenge of also treating the effects of malnutrition. Simply providing food is not enough in many cases. In many of the most acute cases, the organs have been so damaged that they will not repair. Israel still controls what goes into Gaza and who comes out, and as such maintains the power to determine life and death. They may be allowing more in and more out at the moment, but in reality, only a ceasefire has the power to really ease the humanitarian crisis within Gaza's borders.
