'Drop in the ocean': First supply of aid in months enters Gaza as Israel orders evacuations
"Some bakeries will begin receiving flour to produce bread, and we expect the distribution of bread to begin later today," Amjad al-Shawa, director of the Palestinian Non-Governmental Organizations Network in Gaza, told the Reuters news agency. He said just 90 trucks had entered. "During the ceasefire, 600 trucks used to enter every day, which means that the current quantity is a drop in the ocean, nothing," he said.
Bakeries backed by the UN's World Food Programme would produce the bread and the agency's staff would hand it out — a more controlled system than previously when bakers sold it directly to the public at a low cost, he added. "The idea is to try and reach the most needy families, those who are desperate, as it is just the start," Shawa said. Palestinian health minister Majed Abu Ramadan said on Thursday that 29 children had died from "starvation-related deaths" in Gaza in recent days and that many more were at risk. Palestinians have been scrambling for basic supplies, with Israel's blockade leading to critical food and medicine shortages.
Umm Talal al-Masri, 53, a displaced Palestinian in Gaza City, described the situation as "unbearable". "No one is distributing anything to us. Everyone is waiting for aid, but we haven't received anything," she said. "We barely manage to prepare one meal a day." UN agencies have said that the amount of aid entering Gaza falls far short of what is required to ease the crisis.
"I am tormented for my children," Hossam Abu Aida, another resident of the Gaza Strip, told AFP. "For them, I fear hunger and disease more than I do Israeli bombardment," the 38-year-old added.
The Israeli army issued an evacuation warning on Thursday for 14 neighbourhoods of northern Gaza, as it pressed a renewed offensive that has drawn international condemnation. In an Arabic-language statement on Thursday, the military said it was "operating with intense force" in 14 areas in the northern Gaza Strip, accusing "terrorist organisations" of operating there.
As the first aid arrived since the blockade, Israeli military strikes on Gaza killed at least 52 Palestinians across the enclave on Thursday, Gaza's civil defence agency said. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the reports. It has repeatedly said it seeks to avoid civilian casualties and targets militants. In Beit Lahiya on the northern edge of the enclave, a tank shell hit a medicine warehouse inside Al-Awda Hospital and set it ablaze, the health ministry said.
Rescue workers had been trying to extinguish the fires for hours, it added. Tanks are stationed outside the hospital, medics say, effectively blocking access to the facility. The Gaza healthcare system has been barely functioning, with most of the medical facilities out of order, because of repeated Israeli military strikes, raids and the ban on the entry of medical supplies. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday that Israel would be open to a temporary ceasefire to enable the return of hostages taken by Hamas-led fighters. But if they were not returned, he said it would press ahead with a military campaign to gain total control of Gaza.
"Netanyahu continues to stall and insist on pursuing the war. There is no value to any agreement that doesn't stop the massacres in Gaza permanently," senior Hamas official Sami Ab Zuhri said in response to Netanyahu's comments. Israel launched its campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas attack in October 2023, in which some 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies. Israel's campaign has since killed more than 53,600 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities, and devastated the coastal strip, where aid groups say signs of severe malnutrition are widespread.
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ABC News
2 days ago
- ABC News
As Palestinians starve in Gaza, some are turning to social media and crowdfunding to survive
Buzzing flies and aerial bombardments have become the normal sounds Palestinian mother Haneen Al Shana wakes up to in her makeshift tent in Khan Younis. When the 23-year-old's home was destroyed amid Israel's continued siege in Gaza, her family churned through all its money before moving first into a United Nations-run school, then the Al-Mawasi refugee camp. Ms Al Shana says that within the past month her grandfather and cousins have been killed and her uncle died after not being able to receive crucial cancer treatment. While she fears potentially needing to flee once again from what she describes as "Israeli aggression", she says the more pressing threat now is starvation. To survive, she reaches out to the world to share her story and ask for financial help — using TikTok. To almost 3,000 followers, Haneen posts short videos about the challenges of hunger, day-to-day life in Gaza and her fears for her family. "Starvation is very real. These days, if we could find one meal a day, we would be very lucky," Ms Al Shana told the ABC with the assistance of an Arabic translator. "Before, we used to live a life where we used to have a house that protects us, and money and food, and now we're trying to survive. "Hunger is not just a physical ache. It is a constant feeling of helplessness, of abandonment, of knowing the world sees us… and still does nothing. "I'm trying to put that picture to the world… and if there's anyone who cares, maybe they could help us." In a trend that has increasingly generated online attention, some Gazans now say their only option is direct online fundraising campaigns capitalising on social media trends to afford feeding their families. In some cases, this means performing viral online dances or attaching frequently-shared audio clips to videos of their lives in a war zone. The war ignited on October 7 2023, when nearly 1,200 people were killed after the terrorist organisation Hamas attacked Israel and took another 250 hostage. In response, Israel launched a military offensive that has now stretched for almost two years and killed more than 60,000 Palestinians and at least 454 Israelis, according to figures compiled by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). On Friday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office announced that offensive would be expanding to include a military takeover of Gaza City as part of a multi-point plan to disarm Hamas, force the return of all Israeli hostages, demilitarise the strip and form an "alternative civilian government" there. The decision came after an earlier Israeli blockade of aid from entering Gaza in March, which saw food supplies become severely limited and the World Food Programme warn that 96 per cent of Gazans facing acute food insecurity. While Israel last month began air drops of aid, many Palestinians say food supplies remain too expensive, ineffective and dangerous to access. Air drops have recently been made as part of a multinational coordinated effort by Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Germany, Belgium and Canada, however previous drops have also been facilitated by the United Kingdom and Egypt. More than 1,000 desperate people have been killed trying to access Gaza Humanitarian Foundation aid sites, a US- and Israeli-backed private operation that has taken over distribution of critical supplies from traditional aid agencies Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has in recent weeks publicly denied there is a hunger crisis in Gaza, saying there is "no policy of starvation" in the territory. Since the partial easing of restrictions in late July hundreds of trucks carrying aid have been entering Gaza, although the overall number of vehicles remains far lower than the figures before October 2023. In a bid to raise money for her family, Ms Al Shana has amassed thousands of social media followers, who she appeals to for donations via a crowdfunding platform. She says direct financial contributions have been far more valuable to her family's survival than Israel's air drops. "The air drops are just for Israel, like a token, to show to the world that they are actually helping the starving people — but it's not actually helping," she said. "Financial assistance gives individuals the flexibility to meet their specific needs, whether it's purchasing medicine, specific types of food or covering daily essentials rather than receiving items that may not be immediately useful." Ms Al Shana told the ABC that access to cash is increasingly difficult in Gaza, and Palestinians are subject to transfer fees of up to 45 per cent for every transaction. "The funds are first transferred to Jordan, the UAE, or Egypt. Then, they are sent to Gaza through exchange offices that have direct contacts operating inside the strip," she said. "Currently, it is not possible to buy anything through banking apps in Gaza, which forces people to rely on cash transactions. "The only cash you can find right now in Gaza is in the merchants' hands … [and] everything is very expensive. That's if there is anything actually to buy." The United Nations' World Food Programme (WFP) says "the few remaining supplies are being sold at rapidly rising and increasingly unaffordable prices". "The primary challenge for many households is the lack of income/money to afford essential goods as prices sky-rocket," the WFP said in its June monthly monitor of the situation in Gaza. Representatives of the crowdfunding platforms GoFundMe and Chuffed have told the ABC that the numbers of campaigns launched to raise funds for Palestinians in Gaza have been increasing since the war started in late 2023. A spokesperson for Chuffed says that "tens of thousands of Palestinian families are now being supported" through its crowdfunding campaigns. "Campaign owners are responsible for ensuring funds reach Gaza. Generally they work with beneficiaries to transfer funds to local bank accounts or via money transfer services," a statement from Chuffed said. "Unfortunately the fees for these services can be extremely high and the cash conversion rate in Gaza is exorbitant. Accepting these fees is the only way to get life-saving funds into the hands of Palestinians families." A spokesperson for GoFundMe said that it has facilitated the raising of more than $US330 million ($510.3m) to support people in Gaza and Israel, with donations coming from people in 195 different countries. "Our platform has become a meaningful way for people to help in times of global crisis, especially as people look for ways to offer rapid support," a spokesperson said in a statement. The online crowdfunding platform JustGiving was unable to respond to a request for comment by the ABC. Multiple cybersecurity experts that the ABC has spoken with say they have not yet seen any evidence to suggest Gaza-focused crowdfunding campaigns are being targeted by online scammers. Board member at Palestine Australia Relief and Action (PARA) Reem Borrows said "the Palestinian has been dehumanised" and has no other options but to search online for direct donations. "This is what is called pure survival and desperation and hoping that the average person on the street is going to be able to help," Ms Borrows said. Muhammad Shehada, a political analyst from Gaza who is a visiting fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, shared the same view, saying "it's a dystopian Darwinist experiment, the strongest survive". "It's like a sick twisted mix of Hunger Games, Squid Game, Mad Max, Fallout and Black Mirror." The United Nations has said Israel is "intentionally using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare by depriving them of objects indispensable to their survival" and that it is a war crime. In July, two Israeli human rights groups — B'Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights Israel — said Israel was carrying out "coordinated, deliberate action to destroy Palestinian society in the Gaza Strip". After the deaths of six more Palestinians due to starvation on August 3, the Gaza Health Ministry said that the total toll of those dying from what international humanitarian agencies say may be an unfolding famine has risen to 175, including 93 children. The Israeli government argues figures from Gaza's Health Ministry are Hamas propaganda and not trustworthy. It also does not allow the ABC and other news organisations entry to Gaza to report freely. Jeremy Moses, an associate professor in political science and international relations at New Zealand's University of Canterbury, says confronting images of starvation shared online are fuelling an ongoing moral debate about how the world has allowed Gaza's hunger crisis to grow so dire. "There's always been questions about the use of images of malnourished children in order to garner sympathy of western audiences and what that does to how we think about what those places are, who those people are, what the causes are of the famine that is occurring and so on," he told the ABC. "These kinds of appeals are always morally challenging in some sense — people shouldn't be starving, they shouldn't be in the situation that they're in in the first place. Mr Moses says there is also an ethical dilemma facing global powers, who he believes are failing on the internationally agreed-upon "Responsibility to Protect". Known as R2P, the Responsibility to Protect resolution was adopted unanimously by United Nations members in 2005 and aims to prevent acts of "mass atrocity" such as genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. The resolution says that while each member state has a responsibility to prevent atrocities within their territory, if a country cannot protect its people the international community has a responsibility to intervene by using "appropriate diplomatic, humanitarian and other peaceful means". "Australia and New Zealand, European states, the United States, the United Kingdom, have for many decades now tried to represent themselves as humanitarian actors on the world stage," Mr Moses said. "They associated themselves with this idea of promoting peace, democracy and human rights around the world, and yet we've seen all of these countries really refuse to do anything serious in order to ensure that humanitarian aid is able to get to the people of Gaza since October 7, 2023.
ABC News
3 days ago
- ABC News
Satellite imagery reveals what Israel didn't show to the ABC when it granted rare access inside Gaza
Satellite imagery has revealed the catastrophic damage done to the areas surrounding an aid depot where Israel has staged tightly controlled media visits. The ABC was granted access to the Kerem Shalom aid depot by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Wednesday. It was the first time our correspondents have been able to enter Gaza since the start of the war, despite repeated requests. Israel controls the crossings into Gaza and does not allow international media outlets to independently enter the strip. The ABC's access to Kerem Shalom was tightly controlled. But satellite imagery shows what can't be seen from the site. Aid stockpile increased from May The Kerem Shalom aid depot is in Gaza's southern corner, on the border with Israel. The latest satellite imagery we have was taken on August 1, taken by satellite imagery company Planet Labs. Satellite imagery from August shows trucks lined up near aid stacked at the Kerem Shalom aid depot in Gaza. ( Planet Labs/ABC NEWS Verify ) Trucks, likely used to transport supplies inside Gaza, can be seen in the image. Further inside Gaza, videos showing aid trucks being swarmed by crowds, as they seek to deliver aid, have been posted online in recent weeks. Piles of aid can be seen at the site — these were also seen on the ground by the ABC's Middle East correspondent, Matthew Doran, who was allowed to film in the central section of the site. ABC NEWS Verify has taken one satellite image from each month this year, and stitched them together in a time-lapse. Time lapse shows aid disappearing from and reappearing in Kerem Shalom over several months. ( Planet Labs ) Boxes of aid are visible in January and February. But in March and April, after a temporary ceasefire fell apart and aid stopped entering Gaza, little can be seen at the site. By late May, aid can again be seen — corresponding with the opening of aid distribution sites by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, an Israeli-US-backed organisation that has attracted controversy and criticism. The amount of aid at the site, and the exact location of boxes, varies across the images, but more can be seen from May onwards. What can't be seen from the depot In his report from the site, our correspondent referenced the city of Rafah, which is located north of the Kerem Shalom depot. In 2024, Israel began an offensive in the city despite estimates at the time from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees that 1.4 million Palestinians — two-thirds of Gaza's population — were sheltering there. The Gazan city of Rafah, seen before the October 7 attacks in 2023. / Rafah in July, 2025. The image on the left was taken before the October 7 attacks in 2023, which killed an estimated 1,200 people in Israel, with some 250 taken hostage by terror group Hamas. The image on the right was taken last month, showing there is not much left of Gaza's southernmost city. Further north, the damage to the neighbourhood of Tel al-Sultan is clear. Tel al-Sultan before the Israel-Gaza conflict. / Tel al-Sultan in 2025. The first image was taken before October 7, and the second was taken last month. Imagery captures desperation Israel is allowing access to the Kerem Shalom depot as it pushes its argument it is letting aid into Gaza — especially since it eased aid restrictions in late July. "The humanitarian aid is sitting in the sun waiting for the UN and international organisations to come and pick it up," the Israeli military posted in a video shot in the same location. The need for aid is easy to see in this image taken above one of the aid distribution sites run by the GHF. Taken on July 18, it shows a mass of people at the site trying to secure aid. A crowd gathers at a Gaza Humanitarian Foundation aid centre. ( Planet Labs ) The reality of the conditions being faced by Palestinians in Gaza is evident in an area west of the city of Khan Younis. In the area surrounding Al-Aqsa University's Khan Younis campus, tents take up most available space — all the way to the waterline. The area around Al-Aqsa University in Gaza in 2023. / Tents fill the available space around Al-Aqsa University in 2025. The imagery shows just how Palestinians have been squeezed into a space, as other areas are deemed military zones by the IDF.
The Age
5 days ago
- The Age
How much of Gaza is left standing? True toll may be even greater than official reports suggest
From above, much of Gaza appears flattened. But the full scale of the destruction and the number of people killed remain uncertain. Daily death tolls are issued by local authorities run by Hamas, the Islamist group that still controls parts of the strip, but many doubt their accuracy. Foreign journalists are barred unless embedded with Israeli forces. In the absence of access, independent researchers have turned to satellite images, surveys and public records to estimate what has been lost. Their findings suggest the toll may be even greater than suggested by official reports. The physical damage has been assessed both by what has been destroyed and by the rubble that remains. The first method tracks changes to building outlines in satellite images over time. Loading Using this method, UNOSAT, a UN agency, identified damage to more than 190,000 buildings by early April – roughly 70 per cent of Gaza's pre-war structures. Of these, some 102,000 appear to have been completely destroyed. The World Bank reckons that translates to roughly 300,000 homes lost, including 77 per cent of all apartment buildings. The second approach models how much debris a building of a given size would leave behind if destroyed. The most recent analysis by UN Habitat, another agency, estimated that 53.5 million tonnes of rubble now lie across the strip, a 133 per cent increase in 15 months.
