‘Hell on earth': 33 die of hunger in Gaza in 48 hours, UN says its staff also at risk
The total number of deaths from malnutrition since the Israel-Gaza war began in October 2023 now stands at 101, with 80 of them being children.
The head of the UN's Palestinian Refugee Agency (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, said that even aid workers are now collapsing from hunger and exhaustion. 'Caretakers, including UNRWA colleagues in Gaza, are also in need of care now,' Lazzarini said in a statement shared at a Geneva press briefing. 'Doctors, nurses, journalists, humanitarians, among them, UNRWA staff are hungry. Many are now fainting due to hunger and exhaustion while performing their duties.'
Describing the situation as 'hell on earth,' Lazzarini said that 'nowhere is safe' in the besieged Palestinian territory.
UNRWA estimates that 1,000 starving people have been killed while seeking food aid since the end of May, many of them gunned down or crushed in stampedes as they tried to reach supply trucks.
After ceasefire talks collapsed, Israel imposed a complete blockade on Gaza on March 2, cutting off all food and aid deliveries. Limited trucks were allowed in only from late May, and that too at a trickle.
In a post on X earlier this week, UNRWA said that aid already stockpiled in warehouses outside Gaza could feed 'the entire population for over three months,' but has not been allowed in. The agency also said food prices inside Gaza have spiked by up to 40 times.
Israel has repeatedly claimed it is allowing humanitarian aid into Gaza and blames Hamas for obstructing distribution, a claim disputed by aid organisations on the ground.
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Indian Express
an hour ago
- Indian Express
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Hindustan Times
an hour ago
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India Today
2 hours ago
- India Today
Dozens of kids and adults in Gaza die from starvation amid hunger crisis in July
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The UN counters that Israel, which has restricted aid since the war began, simply has to allow it to enter OF MALNOURISHED KIDS BROUGHT DAILYadvertisementThe Patient's Friends Hospital overflows with parents bringing in scrawny children – 200 to 300 cases a day, said Wednesday, staff laid toddlers on a desk to measure the circumference of their upper arms — the quickest way to determine malnutrition. In the summer heat, mothers huddled around specialists, asking for supplements. Babies with emaciated limbs screamed in agony. Others lay totally worst cases are kept for up to two weeks at the center's 10-bed ward, which this month has had up to 19 children at a time. It usually treats only children under 5, but began taking some as old as 11 or 12 because of worsening starvation among older gnaws at staff as well. Soboh said two nurses put themselves on IV drips to keep themselves going. 'We are exhausted. We are dead in the shape of the living,' she five children died in succession last Thursday, Saturday and of them, aged 4 months to 2 years, had suffered gastric arrest: Their stomachs shut down. The hospital no longer had the right nutrition supplies for fifth — 4 1/2-year-old Siwar — had alarmingly low potassium levels, a growing problem. She was so weak she could barely move her body. Medicine for potassium deficiency has largely run out across Gaza, Soboh said. The center had only a low-concentration potassium little girl didn't respond. After three days in the ICU, she died Saturday.'If we don't have potassium (supplies), we will see more deaths,' she said.A 2-YEAR-OLD IS WASTING AWAYIn the Shati Refugee Camp in Gaza city, 2-year-old Yazan Abu Ful's mother, Naima, pulled off his clothes to show his emaciated body. His vertebrae, ribs and shoulder-blades jutted out. His buttocks were shriveled. His face was father Mahmoud, who was also skinny, said they took him to the hospital several times. Doctors just say they should feed him. 'I tell the doctors, 'You see for yourself, there is no food,'' he said,Naima, who is pregnant, prepared a meal: Two eggplants they bought for $9 cut up and boiled in water. They will stretch out the pot of eggplant-water – not even a real soup – to last them a few days, they said. Several of Yazan's four older siblings also looked thin and him in his lap, Mahmoud Abu Ful lifted Yazan's limp arms. The boy lies on the floor most of the day, too weak to play with his brothers. 'If we leave him, he might just slip away from between our fingers, and we can't do anything.'ADULTS, TOO, ARE DYINGStarvation takes the vulnerable first, experts say: children and adults with health Thursday, the bodies of an adult man and woman with signs of starvation were brought to Gaza City's Shifa Hospital, hospital director Mohammed Abu Selmia said. 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Since then, it has allowed in around 4,500 trucks for the UN and other aid groups to distribute, including 2,500 tons of baby food and high-calorie special food for children, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said is an average of 69 trucks a day, far below the 500-600 trucks a day the UN says are needed. The UN has been unable to distribute much of the aid because hungry crowds and gangs take most of it from its trucks. Separately, Israel has also backed the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which opened four centers distributing boxes of food supplies. Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed trying to reach the Tuesday, David Mencer, spokesman for the Israeli Prime Minister's office, denied there is a 'famine created by Israel' in Gaza and blamed Hamas for creating 'man-made shortages' by looting aid UN denies Hamas siphons off significant quantities of aid. Humanitarian workers say Israel just needs to allow aid to flow in freely, saying looting stops whenever aid enters in large quantities.- Ends
