Six more die of hunger in Gaza as trucks reach border for rare fuel delivery
The new deaths raised the toll of those dying from what international humanitarian agencies say may be an unfolding famine to 175, including 93 children, since the war began, the ministry said.
Egypt's state-affiliated Al Qahera News TV said two trucks carrying 107 tons of diesel were set to enter Gaza, months after Israel severely restricted aid access to the enclave before easing it somewhat as starvation began to spread.
Gaza's health ministry has said fuel shortages have severely impaired hospital services, forcing doctors to focus on treating only critically ill or injured patients. There was no immediate confirmation whether the fuel trucks had indeed entered Gaza.
Fuel shipments have been rare since March, when Israel restricted the flow of aid and goods into the enclave in what it said was pressure on Hamas militants to free the remaining hostages they took in their October 2023 attack on Israel.
Israel blames Hamas for the suffering in Gaza but, in response to a rising international outcry, it announced steps last week to let more aid reach the population, including pausing fighting for part of the day in some areas, approving air drops and announcing protected routes for aid convoys.
United Nations agencies have said that airdrops of food are insufficient and that Israel must let in far more aid by land and open up access to the war-devastated territory where starvation has been spreading.
COGAT, the Israeli military agency that coordinates aid, said 35 trucks have entered Gaza since June, nearly all of them in July.
The Hamas-run Gaza government media office said on Sunday that nearly 1,600 aid trucks had arrived since Israel eased restrictions late in July. However, witnesses and Hamas sources said many of those trucks have been looted by desperate displaced people and armed gangs.
More than 700 trucks of fuel entered the Gaza Strip in January and February during a ceasefire before Israel broke it in March in a dispute over terms for extending it and resumed its major offensive.
Palestinian local health authorities said at least 40 people had been killed by Israeli gunfire and airstrikes across the coastal enclave on Sunday. Deaths included persons trying to make their way to aid distribution points in southern and central areas of Gaza, Palestinian medics said.
Among those killed was a staff member of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, which said an Israeli strike at their headquarters in Khan Younis in southern Gaza ignited a fire on the first floor of the building.
The Gaza war began when Hamas killed more than 1,200 people and took 251 hostage in a cross-border attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, according to Israeli figures. Israel's air and ground war in densely populated Gaza has since killed more than 60,000 Palestinians, according to enclave health officials.
According to Israeli officials, 50 hostages now remain in Gaza, only 20 of whom are believed to be alive.
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The Guardian
3 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Clear signs of systematic starvation in the Gaza Strip
It is possible that Muhammad Zakariya Ayyoub al-Matouq has chronic medical conditions, but the picture of him that the Guardian published leaves no doubt that he is also suffering from malnutrition (We published a photo of a malnourished child in Gaza. It made an impact globally – and created controversy, 6 August). David Collier implies that cerebral palsy might be the cause of this, but for many years paediatricians have rejected the belief that malnutrition is an inevitable consequence of this condition, or indeed of many other chronic diseases affecting children. Nutritional supplementation, delivered if necessary by feeding tube, has been shown to prevent or reverse malnutrition in children with cerebral palsy when appropriate nutritional needs are met. Of course, vulnerable children with chronic conditions are likely to be the first affected by the destruction of medical services, including unavailability of 'specialist medical supplements'. This is hardly surprising given the blocking by Israel of aid shipments, including food and medical supplies, and the deliberate targeting of health infrastructure and staff. Even for those determined to find alternative explanations such as an undiagnosed genetic disorder, this picture certainly illustrates severe malnutrition. I would suggest that the most likely cause for this is now obvious to most John PuntisRetired paediatric consultant gastroenterologist, Leeds Would Muhammad Zakariya Ayyoub al-Matouq's bones be so visible if he was living anywhere other than Gaza? How about if he was living a few miles across the border in Israel? I think we all know the answer to that. But clearly there are some individuals (no doubt well-fed individuals) for whom even this needs spelling out. Yes, that's right, Gazan children with health conditions do lose weight when denied food, just as much as those born healthy. And let's not call it a man-made famine. Let's please call it as it is: an Israeli-made famine. Shirin FareedTwickenham, London Many of my wife's Jewish family and of mine were victims of the Holocaust. The world remained largely silent. We were among the few who were reluctantly given asylum in New Zealand. The Jewish cry 'Never again!' is more than justified. It has not been heeded. With the western world's complicity, the victims now are the people of Palestine, robbed of their ancestral land, massacred in the tens of thousands, tortured in Israel's prisons, threatened with expulsion, starved by design ('We are dying slowly, save us': starvation takes hold in Gaza after a week of appalling milestones, 2 August), treated as less than human – all this in defiance of international law. The belated recognition of a Palestinian state is no more than window-dressing for as long as the Palestine that was remains under cruel military occupation. The time for measured language is well past. It is time for action. Sanctions ended apartheid South Africa. Archbishop Tutu held Israel's crimes to be worse. Nato acted in Kosovo. Why not in Gaza? Is the last word to be left with the White House as children go on dying? I write as a former chair of Amnesty International UK, one of the many NGOs now naming the genocide for what it is. Peace Now is possible, with the necessary political Dr Paul Oestreicher and Prof Barbara EinhornWellington, New Zealand While I agree with much of what Hussein Agha and Robert Malley say (France and Britain's recognition of a Palestinian state won't stop Israel's onslaught, 30 July), the public intention to give symbolic recognition to Palestine by France and others, and possibly the UK, is nevertheless a positive step forward. It sends the clear message, from some of the more powerful states in international politics, that the Palestinian people do deserve the right to self-determination. The act of international recognition points to the lack of – and urgent need for – territory, government and sovereignty for Palestinians, whether in a one-state ('dignified coexistence'), federal-state or two-state model. Both Israel and Palestine deserve the right to self-determination, and that is an achievable goal, however repellent to the current Israeli Raia BrowningOxford I read your article with shock as well as horror (The mathematics of starvation: how Israel caused a famine in Gaza, 31 July). What a devastating exposure of the chillingly callous use of deliberately finely tuned starvation, behind which surely lies a cruelty that many will struggle to understand. Peter MillenHuddersfield, West Yorkshire Have an opinion on anything you've read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.
ITV News
32 minutes ago
- ITV News
Israeli cabinet to discuss expansion of military action in Gaza
The Israeli security cabinet is set to meet on Thursday evening to discuss the expansion of military activity in Gaza. The government is widely expected to approve a plan to conquer all other parts of Gaza that it currently does not occupy, according to an anonymous official. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been meeting this week with top advisers and security officials to discuss what his office said are ways to "further achieve Israel's goals in Gaza" after the breakdown of ceasefire talks last month. It comes amid warnings of starvation and famine in Gaza, with Israel attracting widespread condemnation for restricting the flow of aid into the territory. Israeli-led aid delivery sites run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) have also been the scenes of numerous mass killings of Palestinians by Israeli soldiers whilst attempting to access aid. According to the United Nations, more than 850 people have died near GHF sites in the past two months. The international aid charity Médecins Sans Frontières described the deaths as "orchestrated killing". MSF said it had treated nearly 1,400 people wounded near the sites between June 7 and July 20, including 41 children and 28 people who were dead upon arrival. On Thursday, at least 29 Palestinians were killed in airstrikes and shootings across southern Gaza, according to local hospitals. Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis said 12 of the fatalities were from people attempting to access aid from a distribution site. At least 50 people were wounded, many from gunshots, the hospital said. Neither the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation nor the Israeli military, which helps secure the group's sites, immediately commented on the strikes or shootings. The Israeli military has accused Hamas of operating in densely populated civilian areas. Expanding Israel's military operation would likely trigger more international condemnation, with pressure already on Israel to end the war. In July, Canada joined the UK and France with plans to recognise Palestinian statehood at the UN General Assembly in September unless Israel and Hamas committed to a series of conditions. Sir Keir Starmer has defended the plans and said there is a "sense of revulsion" at the images seen in Gaza. It has also drawn opposition from the families of hostages still being held by Hamas inside Gaza, who have denounced the plan and say the move could threaten their loved ones. On Monday a video released by Hamas showed two hostages, Evyatar David and Rom Braslavski, in visibly emaciated states. On Thursday almost two dozen relatives of the hostages set sail to the maritime border between Israel and Gaza to blast messages to their family members over loudspeakers. Yehuda Cohen, the father of Nimrod Cohen, an Israeli soldier held hostage in Gaza, said from the boat that Netanyahu is prolonging the war to satisfy extremists in his government and to prevent it from collapsing. 'Netanyahu is working only for himself,' he said, pleading with the international community to put pressure on Netanyahu to stop the war and save his son. Hamas still holds 50 hostages in Gaza, around 20 of whom are believed to be alive. Israel's army chief, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, warned that the plan would endanger the hostages and further strain the country's already stretched army. His comments appear to have exposed a rift between Netanyahu and his military. Demonstrations were planned across Israel on Thursday evening to protest the expected cabinet decision. Hamas-led militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251 in the October 7, 2023, attack that ignited the current war. Israel's military offensive in response has killed more than 61,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. The ministry doesn't distinguish between civilians and militants.
Reuters
an hour ago
- Reuters
Nearly 12,000 children under five in Gaza have acute malnutrition, says WHO
GENEVA, Aug 7 (Reuters) - Around 12,000 children aged under five in Gaza are suffering from acute malnutrition, and hunger-related deaths are rising, the Director General of the World Health Organization said on Thursday. "In July, nearly 12,000 children under five years were identified as having acute malnutrition in Gaza, the highest monthly figure ever recorded," Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at his organisation's headquarters in Geneva. At least 99 people have died, including 64 adults and 35 children, of whom 29 were younger than five, from the start of this year to July 29. Between June and July, the number of admissions for malnutrition almost doubled - from 6,344 to 11,877 - according to the latest UNICEF figures available. Some 2,500 of those children are suffering from severe malnutrition. Tedros called for greater volumes of sustained aid, via all possible routes. The WHO said it was supporting Gaza's four malnutrition centres, but that supplies of baby formula and nutritional foods were very low. "The overall volume of nutrition supplies remains completely insufficient to prevent further deterioration. The market needs to be flooded. There needs to be dietary diversity," said Rik Peeperkorn, WHO's representative for the occupied Palestinian Territory, via video link. A global hunger monitor has said a famine scenario is unfolding in the Gaza Strip, with starvation spreading, children dying of hunger-related causes and humanitarian access to the embattled enclave severely restricted. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said food consumption across Gaza had declined to its lowest level since the onset of the war. Eighty-one percent of households in the tiny, crowded coastal territory of 2.2 million people reported poor food consumption, up from 33% in April.
