‘We need to stop this': U.S. nurse in Gaza warns of mass starvation
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Reuters
5 hours ago
- Reuters
Medical group urges Kennedy not to fire US care task force
WASHINGTON, July 27 (Reuters) - U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. should not fire an advisory panel that determines what cancer screenings and other preventive health measures insurers must cover, an influential doctors' group said on Sunday. The American Medical Association sent Kennedy a letter on Sunday expressing its concern after the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday he planned to remove all of the panel's members. The Department of Health and Human Services said Kennedy had not yet made a decision. "On behalf of the physician and medical student members of the American Medical Association, I am writing to express our deep concern with the recent reports of your intention to remove all of the members of the United States Preventive Services Task Force," John Whyte, the AMA chief executive officer, wrote. HHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the AMA letter. The Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter, had said Kennedy planned to dismiss all 16 panel members in what would be the latest in a series of far-reaching actions by Kennedy, a long-time vaccine skeptic, to reshape U.S. regulation of vaccines, food and medicine. In June he fired all 17 members of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, a panel of vaccine experts, replacing them with seven handpicked members, including known vaccine skeptics. "USPSTF members play in weighing the benefits and harms of preventive services such as screenings, behavioral counseling, and preventive medications, and making evidence-based recommendations for implementation in primary care settings," the AMA letter said. "We urge you to keep the previously appointed USPSTF members and continue the task force's regular meeting schedule to ensure recommendations are put forth, updated, and disseminated without delay," it said. The AMA passed an emergency resolution in June asking for a Senate investigation into the firing of ACIP members. The group also sent Kennedy a letter at the time calling for an immediate reversal of the changes.
ITV News
12 hours ago
- ITV News
Israel announces 'tactical pause' in fighting in parts of Gaza amid humanitarian crisis
The Israeli military said it would begin a 'tactical pause' in fighting in three areas of Gaza as part of steps to address the worsening humanitarian situation. Activity in Muwasi, Deir al-Balah and Gaza City will be halted from 10am to 8pm local time every day until further notice, beginning on Sunday, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said in a statement. They said they were not operating in those areas, but there has been fighting and strikes in each in recent weeks. They added it would also designate secure routes that would be to help aid agencies deliver food and other supplies to people across Gaza, and that they were prepared to expand the scale of these efforts "as required". The announcement comes after months of warnings of famine amid Israeli restrictions on aid. International criticism, including by close allies, has grown as several hundred Palestinians have been killed in recent weeks while trying to reach food distribution sites. The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warned that malnutrition in Gaza is "surging", with nearly one in three people not eating for days at a time. At least nine Palestinians have died from starvation in the past 24 hours, according to the director general of Gaza's health ministry. Two of them were children. The health ministry says 85 children have died from malnutrition in the past three weeks. On Saturday, Israel said it would begin dropping aid packages into Gaza, as well as opening humanitarian corridors for UN convoys. 'The humanitarian airdrop operation will be conducted in coordination with international aid organizations and the IDF, led by COGAT and the IAF,' the IDF said in a statement. 'The airdrops will include seven pallets of aid containing flour, sugar, and canned food to be provided by international organisations.' The UK also confirmed they are working with Jordan on plans to air drop aid into Gaza and evacuate children needing medical assistance. Prime Minister Keir Starmer held emergency talks with his European counterparts, Emmanuel Macron and Friedrich Merz, on Saturday. In a readout of the call, Number 10 said the leaders had agreed 'it would be vital to ensure robust plans are in place to turn an urgently needed ceasefire into lasting peace'. However, the Commissioner-General of UNRWA warned that aid drops are a "distraction" and they will "not reverse the deepening starvation". In a post on X, Philippe Lazzarini said: "Air drops will not reverse the deepening starvation. They are expensive, inefficient and can even kill starving civilians. "It is a distraction & screensmoke. "A manmade hunger can only be addressed by political will. "Lift the siege, open the gates and guarantee safe movements and dignified access to people in need". Judith Escribano, UK Director of Communications at Médecins Sans Frontières, also warned that air drops only tend to "benefit the strongest who can run the fastest and carry the most". "We need the UK Government to put pressure on Israel to lift the blockade so the trucks at the border can deliver aid in an efficient manner to those who need it most," she told ITV News. "Air drops are not enough to address starvation faced by people in Gaza, including our staff and patients."
South Wales Guardian
17 hours ago
- South Wales Guardian
Israel's military says airdrops of aid will begin Saturday night in Gaza
The statement late Saturday followed months of experts' warnings of famine. International criticism, including by close allies, has grown as several hundred Palestinians have been killed in recent weeks while trying to reach aid. The military's statement did not say when the humanitarian corridors for UN convoys would open, or where. It also said the military is prepared to implement humanitarian pauses in densely populated areas. The statement added that the military 'emphasises that combat operations have not ceased' in Gaza against Hamas and it said there is 'no starvation' in the territory. Witness accounts from Gaza have been grim. Some health workers are so weakened by hunger that they put themselves on IV drips to keep treating the badly malnourished. Parents have shown their limp and emaciated children. The Israeli military statement said the airdrops would be conducted in co-ordination with international aid organisations. It was not immediately clear where they would be carried out and it was not clear what role the recently created and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, meant as an alternative to the UN aid system, might play. Israeli airstrikes and gunshots killed at least 53 people in Gaza overnight and into Saturday, most of them shot dead while seeking aid, according to Palestinian health officials and the local ambulance service. Deadly Israeli gunfire was reported twice within hours close to the Zikim crossing with Israel in the north. In the first incident, at least a dozen people waiting for aid trucks were killed, said staff at Shifa hospital, where bodies were taken. Israel's military said it fired warning shots to distance a crowd 'in response to an immediate threat' and it was not aware of any casualties. A witness, Sherif Abu Aisha, said people started running when they saw a light that they thought was from aid trucks, but as they got close, they realised it was Israel's tanks. That is when the army started firing, he told The Associated Press. He said his uncle was among those killed. 'We went because there is no food and nothing was distributed,' he said. On Saturday evening, Israeli forces killed at least 11 people and wounded 120 others when they fired toward crowds who tried to get food from an entering UN convoy, Dr Mohamed Abu Selmiyah, director of Shifa hospital, told the AP. 'We are expecting the numbers to surge in the next few hours,' he said. There was no immediate Israeli military comment. Elsewhere, those killed in strikes included four people in an apartment building in Gaza City, hospital staff and the ambulance service said. Another Israeli strike killed at least eight, including four children, in the crowded tent camp of Muwasi in the southern city of Khan Younis, according to the Nasser hospital. Also in Khan Younis, Israeli forces opened fire and killed at least nine people trying to get aid entering Gaza through the Morag corridor, according to the hospital's morgue records. There was no immediate comment from Israel's military. Ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas were at a standstill after the US and Israel recalled negotiating teams on Thursday. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday his government was considering 'alternative options' to ceasefire talks. A Hamas official, however, said negotiations were expected to resume next week and called the recall of the delegations a pressure tactic. Egypt and Qatar, which mediate alongside the United States, called the pause temporary and said talks would resume. They did not say when.
