Photos of Gaza's worsening food crisis
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Los Angeles Times
15 minutes ago
- Los Angeles Times
Over 60,000 Palestinians killed in the 21-month Israel-Hamas war, Gaza's Health Ministry says
DEIR AL BALAH, Gaza Strip — Over 60,000 Palestinians have been killed in the 21-month Israel-Hamas war, Gaza's Health Ministry said Tuesday. At least 77 were killed over the past 24 hours, most while seeking food. Israel's offensive, launched in response to Hamas' Oct. 7 attack, has destroyed vast areas of Gaza, displaced around 90% of the population and fueled a catastrophic humanitarian crisis. Experts warned Tuesday that the territory of some 2 million Palestinians is on the brink of famine, as Israeli restrictions and a breakdown of security have made it nearly impossible to safely deliver aid. The ministry, part of the Hamas-run government, said the death toll has climbed to 60,034, with 145,870 others wounded since the war started. The deaths include 18,592 children and 9,782 women. Together, they make up nearly half the dead. The ministry is staffed by medical professionals. The United Nations and other independent experts view its figures as the most reliable count of casualties. Israel has disputed its figures but has not provided its own account of casualties. Israeli strikes overnight and into Tuesday killed at least 77 Palestinians, according to local hospitals. More than half were killed while attempting to access aid, health officials said. Hospitals said they received the bodies of an additional 33 people who were killed by gunfire around an aid convoy in southern Gaza on Monday, bringing the toll to 58. Witnesses said Israeli forces fired toward the crowd. The Israeli military did not comment on the shooting. Over 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire while seeking aid since May, according to witnesses, health officials and the U.N. human rights office. Israel, which controls large areas of Gaza where aid is distributed, says it has only fired warning shots at those who approach its forces. An additional 14 Palestinians were killed while attempting to access aid near an American and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Fund site in central Gaza, according to local hospitals. GHF said there were no violent incidents near its sites on Tuesday. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the shooting. Air strikes also targeted tents housing displaced people in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp, killing 30 people, including 12 children and 14 women, according to Al-Awda hospital. The military said it targeted Hamas military infrastructure over the past day, including rocket launchers, weapons storage facilities and tunnels. Israel says it only targets militants and tries to avoid harming civilians, and blames civilian deaths on Hamas, saying the militants operate in populated areas The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or IPC, the foremost international authority on food crises, said Gaza has teetered on the brink of famine for two years. But it said recent developments, including strict Israeli restrictions, have 'dramatically worsened' the situation. Under mounting international pressure, Israel announced a series of measures over the weekend to increase the flow of aid, including expanded humanitarian corridors and international aid drops. U.N. officials say there has so far been little change on the ground and far more is needed. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar on Tuesday denied Israel was deliberately starving Gaza and said the focus on hunger was part of a 'distorted campaign of international pressure.' 'This pressure is directly sabotaging the chances for a ceasefire and hostage deal. It is only pushing towards military escalation by hardening Hamas's stance,' he said. The U.S. and Israel have both recalled their negotiating teams over the past week as long-running negotiations over a ceasefire and hostage release seem to have stalled. Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in the attack that sparked the war, and abducted another 251. They are still holding 50 captives, around 20 believed to be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefires or other deals. The war took a major turn in early March when Israel imposed a complete 2 ½ month blockade, barring the entry of all food, medicine, fuel and other goods. Weeks later, Israel ended a ceasefire with a surprise bombardment and began seizing large areas of Gaza, measures it said were aimed at pressuring Hamas to release more hostages. At least 8,867 Palestinians have been killed since then. Israel eased the blockade in May, but U.N. agencies say it hasn't allowed nearly enough aid to enter and that they have struggled to deliver it because of Israeli restrictions and the breakdown of law and order. An alternative Israeli-backed system run by the foundation has been marred by violence and controversy. The World Health Organization says more than 60 people have died this month from malnutrition-related causes, including 24 children under five. Overall, 88 children died of causes related to malnutrition since the start of the war, while 58 adults died this month from malnutrition-related causes, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. During hunger crises, people can die from malnutrition or from common illnesses or injuries that the body is not strong enough to fight. The ministry doesn't include hunger-related deaths in its overall toll. Shurafa and Magdy write for the Associated Press. Magdy reported from Cairo.
UPI
an hour ago
- UPI
Global hunger body says 'worst case' famine scenario emerging in Gaza
Thousands of Palestinians on the move in northern Gaza on Sunday in search of increasingly scarce food as supplies of humanitarian assistance entering the Palestinian territory dwindled to what the United Nations and aid agencies have described as a trickle. Photo by Mahmoud Issa/UPI | License Photo July 29 (UPI) -- The humanitarian crisis unfolding in Gaza is "the worst-case scenario of famine," amid widespread starvation, malnutrition and disease driving a surge in hunger-related deaths, a global hunger monitoring group said Tuesday. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification said in a bulletin that the latest food consumption data indicated famine thresholds had been reached in most of Gaza and for acute malnutrition in Gaza City -- but stopped short of issuing a formal famine notice. "The worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out in the Gaza Strip. Conflict and displacement have intensified, and access to food and other essential items and services has plummeted to unprecedented levels," said IPC, which is backed by the United Nations, European Commission, World Health Organization and global NGO's. The IPC said that since its last analysis in May, access to food across Gaza was now "alarmingly erratic and extremely perilous" due to a "devastating" intensification of bombing and ground operations that had displaced an additional 325,000 people, killed 6,700 people and razed critical infrastructure. The group's Famine Review Committee said that despite the negative impact on the data caused by severely restricted humanitarian access, the evidence clearly showed a sharp jump in the rate of increase in "starvation, malnutrition and mortality." "Many nutritional programs have run out of nutrition supplies and the number of sites able to provide health and nutrition services has greatly decreased. Shipments of medical supplies are also severely constrained, leading to increased human suffering and elevated morbidity. Deprivation of adequate, clean drinkable water is causing extreme suffering and has greatly increased the risk of morbidity and mortality," it said. Between April and the middle of July, more than 20,000 children were hospitalized with acute malnutrition, 3,000 of them severely malnourished, with hospitals reporting a sharp rise in hunger-related illness among under-fives. The committee expressed horror at the deteriorating situation, in particular killings of civilians attempting to access aid, and reiterated its call for the resumption of humanitarian assistance at scale and a cease-fire, warning that failure to act made famine a certainty. "This is not a surprise. This is what we've been seeing for quite some time," CARE Gaza response director Beckie Ryan told NBC News. The IPC alert came as the Hamas-run Health Ministry said the number of Palestinians killed since Israel began its offensive on Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attacks of Oct. 7, 2023, breached the 60,000 mark. Amid mounting international condemnation of the unfolding hunger crisis in Gaza -- and a determination to do something about it -- Israel has instituted a series of "tactical pauses" in military activity to allow aid to be distributed, and on Monday vowed to work with international partners. "Israel will continue to work with international agencies as well as the United States and European nations to ensure that large amounts of humanitarian aid flows into the Gaza Strip," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. As recently as Sunday, Netanyahu continued to insist there was no hunger crisis in Gaza. "Israel is presented as though we are applying a campaign of starvation in Gaza. What a bold-faced lie. There is no policy of starvation in Gaza, and there is no starvation in Gaza," he said. In a break that presaged the opening of a gap with Washington, U.S. President Donald Trump said he wasn't convinced by Netanyahu's denials, saying the TV images that he had seen looked like "real starvation," and that the scenes couldn't be "faked." Israel acknowledges it has imposed aid restrictions and replaced much of a decades-old system run by the United Nations and international aid charities with its Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, but says it was necessary to prevent Hamas from stealing aid and reselling it to fund military operations.
CNN
2 hours ago
- CNN
‘Worst-case scenario of famine' is unfolding in Gaza, UN-backed food security initiative says
The 'worst-case scenario of famine' is currently taking place in the Gaza Strip, according to an alert issued by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a United Nations-backed initiative. 'Conflict and displacement have intensified, and access to food and other essential items and services has plummeted to unprecedented levels,' the IPC said, adding that 'mounting evidence shows that widespread starvation, malnutrition, and disease are driving a rise in hunger-related deaths.' The IPC said that the alert is intended to 'draw urgent attention to the rapidly deteriorating humanitarian situation' but doesn't constitute a formal classification of famine. 'Given the most recent information and data made available, a new IPC analysis is to be conducted without delay,' it added. More than 20,000 children were admitted for treatment for acute malnutrition between April and mid-July, the IPC said, with more than 3,000 severely malnourished. 'Latest data indicates that famine thresholds have been reached for food consumption in most of the Gaza Strip and for acute malnutrition in Gaza City,' the alert said, calling for 'immediate action' to end the hostilities and allow for 'unimpeded, large-scale, life-saving humanitarian response.' In May, the IPC reported that the enclave's entire population is experiencing 'high levels of acute food security' and the territory is at 'high risk' of famine, the most severe type of hunger crisis. Israel has come under mounting pressure by the international community to break its blockade, allow aid into Gaza and end the war. In some of his strongest remarks on the crisis, US President Donald Trump on Monday said there is 'real starvation' in Gaza, contradicting earlier statements by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who insists there is no starvation. President Donald Trump contradicted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's assessment on starvation in Gaza and announced a plan for new "food centers" in the enclave. CNN's Nic Robertson reports from Jerusalem. 'That's real starvation stuff,' Trump told reporters in Turnberry, Scotland. 'I see it, and you can't fake that. So, we're going to be even more involved.' Trump added that the United States will set up 'food centers' in Gaza to address the crisis. Vice President JD Vance also lamented images coming out of the besieged territory. 'I don't know if you've all seen these images. You have got some really, really heartbreaking cases. You've got little kids who are clearly starving to death,' Vance told reporters Monday during a visit to Canton, Ohio. 'Israel's got to do more to let that aid in,' he said, adding that 'we've also got to wage war on Hamas so that those folks stop preventing food from coming into this territory.' Over the weekend, Israel announced a daily 'tactical pause in military activity' in three areas of Gaza to enable more aid to reach people. The military said the move would 'refute the false claim of deliberate starvation in the Gaza Strip.' Israel has also allowed foreign countries to airdrop aid into the territory, but the practice has in the past been deemed by the UN and other aid groups as costly, dangerous and insufficient. Meanwhile, the health ministry in Gaza said on Tuesday that more than 60,000 Palestinians have been killed in the territory since Israel's war on Hamas began nearly two years ago. The ministry reported that 113 people were killed in the past 24 hours, bringing the death toll to 60,034. The announcement comes as hopes dim for a ceasefire anytime soon, after talks broke up last week without an agreement. The war began after Hamas' October 7, 2023 attack on Israel killed around 1,200 people and saw another roughly 250 people taken hostage. Authorities in Gaza do not distinguish between civilians and Hamas fighters when reporting casualty figures, but the health ministry and the UN say the majority of deaths are women and children. And the true toll could be much higher, with many thousands still believed to be buried under rubble. Israel does not dispute that a significant number of Palestinian civilians have been killed in its war in Gaza. But it has long argued that figures from the Hamas-controlled health ministry are exaggerated, and that Hamas embeds itself between civilians, using them as 'human shields.' On Monday, a pair of leading Israeli human rights groups accused Israel of 'committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza,' becoming the first such organizations to make the claim. B'Tselem said it came to that 'unequivocal conclusion' after an 'examination of Israel's policy in the Gaza Strip and its horrific outcomes, together with statements by senior Israeli politicians and military commanders about the goals of the attack.' A second Israeli group, Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI), announced it was joining B'Tselem in calling Israel's actions in Gaza genocide. It published a separate legal and medical analysis documenting what it called 'deliberate and systematic extermination of the health system in Gaza.' Israeli government spokesman David Mencer dismissed the report. 'We have free speech in this country but we strongly reject this claim,' he told reporters, adding that Israel has allowed aid into Gaza. CNN's Eyad Kourdi, DJ Judd and Ivana Kottasová contributed reporting.
