More than 100 aid organisations sound alarm over famine in Gaza
In a joint statement, prominent organisations including Doctors Without Borders, Amnesty International and Oxfam said that as supplies are totally depleted and mass starvation is spreading across the enclave, adding "humanitarian organisations are witnessing their own colleagues and partners waste away before their eyes."
The humanitarian organisations point out that food, clean water, medical supplies, shelter items and fuel sit untouched just outside, or in some cases inside Gaza, in warehouses.
"The starvation of civilians as a method of warfare is a war crime," the statement added.
The organisations are demanding an immediate ceasefire, the opening of all land crossings and the free flow of humanitarian aid under the previous UN-led mechanism.
The statement comes exactly two months after the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) took over aid delivery operations and shortly after the Strip saw its deadliest day for aid-seekers, with at least 85 Palestinians killed trying to access food on Sunday.
Since May, more than 1,000 Palestinians trying to access aid have been killed by Israeli forces, mostly near aid sites run by the controversial American contractor, the UN Human Rights Office said on Tuesday.
In January, Israel banned the main UN organisation, UNRWA, from delivering aid, accusing Hamas of looting aid without providing evidence.
The head of Al-Shifa hospital announced on Tuesday that 21 children died in 72 hours due to malnutrition and starvation, in a scene the UN described as proof that "starvation is knocking on every door."
Speaking at a Security Council meeting on Tuesday, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres described the situation in Gaza as a "horror show, with a level of death and destruction without parallel in recent times."
Guterres added that he was appalled UNOPS (UN Office for Project Services) and WHO (World Health Organisation) facilities, including its main warehouse, were struck in Deir al Balah over the weekend.
"These premises are inviolable. And must be protected under international humanitarian law without exception," Guterres said.
Diplomatic efforts and stalled negotiations
Later this week, US Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff is set to travel to Europe to discuss a range of issues, including Gaza and the push for a ceasefire.
Witkoff also plans to visit the Middle East, where the US Envoy has "strong hope" that the US can deliver a ceasefire deal and the establishment of a "humanitarian corridor" to the besieged strip, Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce told reporters.
Israel is increasingly facing pressure from the international community as the humanitarian situation in Gaza continues to drastically deteriorate.
Israel's military offensive has now almost reached its 21st month and has left widespread destruction and severe shortages of food, aid and basic amenities.
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France 24
4 hours ago
- France 24
'Famine', 'starvation': the challenges in defining Gaza's plight
But the difficulty of getting to the most affected areas in the Palestinian territory, besieged by Israel, means there are huge challenges in gathering the required data. What is a famine? The internationally-agreed definition for famine is outlined by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), an initiative of 21 organisations and institutions including UN agencies and aid groups. The IPC definition has three elements. Firstly, at least 20 percent of households must have an extreme lack of food and face starvation or destitution. Second, acute malnutrition in children under five exceeds 30 percent. And third, there is an excess mortality threshold of two in 10,000 people dying per day. Once these criteria are met, governments and UN agencies can declare a famine. What is the situation in Gaza? Available indicators are alarming regarding the food situation in Gaza. "A large proportion of the population of Gaza is starving", according to the World Health Organization's chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. Food deliveries are "far below what is needed for the survival of the population", he said, calling it "man-made... mass starvation". Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said on Friday that a quarter of all young children and pregnant or breastfeeding women screened at its clinics in Gaza last week were malnourished, blaming Israel's "deliberate use of starvation as a weapon". Almost a third of people in Gaza are "not eating for days" and malnutrition is surging, the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) said Friday. The head of Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City on Tuesday said that 21 children had died across the Palestinian territory in the previous 72 hours "due to malnutrition and starvation". The very few foodstuffs in the markets are inaccessible, with a kilogramme (two pounds) of flour reaching the exorbitant price of $100, while the Gaza Strip's agricultural land has been ravaged by the war. According to NGOs, the 20 or so aid trucks that enter the territory each day -- vastly insufficient for more than two million hungry people -- are systematically looted. "It's become a technical point to explain that we're in acute food insecurity, IPC4, which affects almost the entire population. It doesn't resonate with people," said Amande Bazerolle, in charge of MSF's emergency response in Gaza. "Yet we're hurtling towards famine -- that's a certainty." What are the challenges in gathering data? NGOs and the WHO concede that gathering the evidence required for a famine declaration is extremely difficult. "Currently we are unable to conduct the surveys that would allow us to formally classify famine," said Bazerolle. She said it was "impossible" for them to screen children, take their measurements, or assess their weight-to-height ratio. Jean-Raphael Poitou, Middle East programme director for the NGO Action Against Hunger, said the "continuous displacements" of Gazans ordered by the Israeli military, along with restrictions on movement in the most affected regions; "complicate things enormously". Nabil Tabbal, incident manager at the WHO's emergency programme, said there were "challenges regarding data, regarding access to information". Can famine still be avoided? For France's foreign ministry, malnutrition and the "risk of famine" is the "result of the blockade imposed by Israel". The Israeli military denies it is blocking humanitarian aid entering Gaza. On Tuesday it claimed that 950 truckloads of aid were inside the Strip waiting for collection and distribution by international organisations. Israeli government spokesman David Mencer insisted there was "no famine caused by Israel. There is a man-made shortage engineered by Hamas." Hamas has consistently denied that. The New York Times on Saturday reported that, according to two senior Israeli military officials and two other Israelis involved, "the Israeli military never found proof" supporting the official Israeli allegation. NGOs have accused Israel of imposing drastic restrictions. More than 100 NGOs -- including MSF, Caritas, Save the Children, Amnesty International, Medecins du Monde, Christian Aid and Oxfam -- have urged Israel to open all land crossings and "restore the full flow of food" into Gaza. What does a famine declaration tell us? A fresh Gaza IPC assessment is due very soon. For some, the technical debates over a famine declaration seem futile given the urgency of the situation. "Any famine declaration... comes too late," explained Jean-Martin Bauer, the WFP's director of food security and nutrition analysis. In Somalia in 2011, when famine was formally declared, half of the total number of victims of the disaster had already died of starvation. Israel launched its military campaign in Gaza after a deadly attack by Palestinian militant group Hamas on October 7, 2023. The Israeli campaign has killed nearly 60,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory. Hamas's October 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Euronews
5 hours ago
- Euronews
At least 25 people killed by Israeli strikes in Gaza, hospitals say
Israeli airstrikes and gunshots killed at least 25 people overnight in northern Gaza as thousands of Palestinians made their way to the Zikim crossing with Israel in search for food, local hospitals said on Saturday. According to staff at the Shifa hospital, most of the victims were killed by gunfire as they waited for aid trucks close to the Zikim crossing with Israel. Israel's army did not respond to a request for comments about the latest shootings. Those killed in strikes include four people in an apartment building in Gaza City, among others, hospital staff, and the ambulance service said. The strikes come as ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas have hit a standstill after the US and Israel recalled their negotiating teams on Thursday, throwing the future of the negotiations into further uncertainty. Palestinians in desperate search for food On Saturday, thousands of Palestinians made their way to the Zikim crossing in the Gaza Strip, risking their lives in search of food. Hospital officials reported that some Palestinians were killed in recent weeks in the area near the crossing, in the north of the Palestinian territory. Some reports claim that when aid is given, criminal gangs and sizable groups of desperate people frequently overrun trucks as they enter and take the supplies. Earlier this week, Israel's military reported that it was aware of some casualties when soldiers opened fire on a group of thousands of Palestinians in northern Gaza who were posing a threat. Displaced mother Smoud Wahdan, cradling her infant son, made the journey to the crossing from a school in Gaza City where they are sheltering. She acknowledged the journey carried a lot of risk, but said that she had to face this danger in order to feed her children. 'I have come all this way, risking my life for my children. My children have not eaten for a week,' she explained. Experts have warned that Gaza is being pushed closer to famine, after months of Israel entirely blocking food or letting in only limited amounts. The number of people dying from causes related to malnutrition has accelerated this month. International outrage grows over starvation deaths According to the UN World Food Programme (WFP), nearly one in three people in Gaza has not been eating for days at a time, warning that malnutrition is rising with around 90,000 children and women now in need of urgent treatment. The warning comes just as over 100 human rights and charitable organisations, as well as more than two dozen Western-aligned nations, have called for the Gaza war to be brought to an end. Their severe criticism has been directed at Israel's new aid delivery mechanism and blockade. Israel says it has allowed in around 4,500 aid trucks since lifting a total blockade in May, and that it permits around 70 truckloads a day, one of the lowest rates during the Israel-Hamas war and far less than the several hundred the United Nations says are needed each day. Despite the growing international outrage, Israel maintains it lets in enough aid and faults UN agencies for not doing enough to retrieve and get it to those in need. The UN says its delivery of aid is being hampered by Israeli military restrictions on its movements and incidents of criminal looting. In an update on Friday, the UN's OCHA said that the starvation crisis is deepening across Gaza, with the local health authorities announcing that two more people had died from starvation the previous day.
Euronews
8 hours ago
- Euronews
25 people killed by Israeli gunshots in Gaza mostly while seeking food
Israeli airstrikes and gunshots killed at least 25 people overnight in Northern Gaza as thousands of Palestinians made their way to the Zikim crossing with Israel in a frantic search for food, local health officials and the ambulance service said on Saturday. According to staff at the Shifa hospital, most of the victims were killed by gunfire as they waited for aid trucks close to the Zikim crossing with Israel. Israel's army didn't respond to a request for comments about the latest shootings. Those killed in strikes include four people in an apartment building in Gaza City, among others, hospital staff, and the ambulance service said. The strikes come as ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas have hit a standstill after the US and Israel recalled their negotiating teams on Thursday, throwing the future of the negotiations into further uncertainty. Thousands of desperate Palestinians risk their lives On Saturday, thousands of desperate Palestinians made their way to the Zikim crossing in the Gaza Strip, risking their lives in search of food. Hospital officials reported that some Palestinians were killed in recent weeks in the area near the crossing, in the north of the Palestinian territory. Some reports claim that when aid is given, criminal gangs and sizable groups of desperate people frequently overrun trucks as they enter and remove the supplies. Earlier this week, Israel's military reported that it was aware of some casualties when soldiers opened fire on a group of thousands of Palestinians in northern Gaza who were posing a threat. Displaced mother Smoud Wahdan, cradling her infant son, made the journey to the crossing from a school in Gaza City where they are sheltering. She acknowledged the journey carried a lot of risk, but said that she had to face this danger in order to feed her children. 'I have come all this way, risking my life for my children. My children have not eaten for a week,' she explained. Experts have warned that Gaza is being pushed closer to famine, after months of Israel entirely blocking food or letting in only limited amounts. The number of people dying from causes related to malnutrition has accelerated this month. International outrage grows Over 100 human rights and charitable organisations, as well as more than two dozen Western-aligned nations, have demanded that the war be brought to an end. Their severe criticism has been directed at Israel's new aid delivery mechanism and blockade. Israel says it has allowed in around 4,500 aid trucks since it lifted a total blockade in May and that it allows in around 70 truckloads a day, one of the lowest rates of the war and far less than the several hundred the United Nations says are needed each day. Despite the growing international outrage, Israel maintains it lets in enough aid and faults UN agencies for not doing enough to retrieve and get it to those in need. The UN says its delivery of aid is being hampered by Israeli military restrictions on its movements and incidents of criminal looting.
