Gaza's largest functioning hospital facing disaster, medics warn, as Israel widens offensive
However, it said on Friday morning that an armoured brigade was operating in Khan Younis to dismantle "terrorist infrastructure sites" and confiscate weapons> It has previously issued evacuation orders for the areas around the hospital.
A witness told the BBC that Israeli tanks accompanied by excavators and bulldozers advanced from the south of the cemetery near Nasser hospital on Thursday.The tanks fired shells and bullets as they moved into an area, which was previously farmland, and several tents belonging to displaced families were set on fire, the witness said. Video footage shared online showed a plume of dark smoke rising from the area.The witness added that Israeli quadcopter drones also fired towards tents in the Namsawi Towers and al-Mawasi areas to force residents to evacuate. Another video showed dozens of people running for cover amid as gunfire rang out.One or two civilians standing near the hospital's gates were reportedly injured by stray bullets.Medical staff inside Nasser hospital meanwhile sent messages to local journalists expressing their fear. "We are still working in the hospital. The tanks are just metres away. We are closer to death than to life," they wrote.On Friday morning, locals said the Israeli tanks and troops pulled out of the cemetery and other areas close to the hospital. Pictures shared online later in the day appeared to show deep trenches dug into the sandy ground, flattened buildings, burnt tents, and crushed vehicles piled on top of each other. Staff at Nasser hospital said they were assessing if they could resume admitting patients.
On Wednesday, they warned that the hospital was very close to a complete shutdown due to a critical fuel shortage.They said electricity generators were expected to function for one additional day despite significant efforts to reduce power consumption and restrict electricity to only the most critical departments, including the intensive care and neonatal units.If the power went out completely, dozens of patients, particularly those dependent of ventilators, would "be in immediate danger and face certain death", the hospital added.An Israeli military official told Reuters news agency on Thursday that around 160,000 litres of fuel destined for hospitals and other humanitarian facilities had entered Gaza since Wednesday, but that the fuel's distribution around the territory was not the responsibility of the army.There is a shortage of critical medical supplies, especially those related to trauma care.During a visit to Nasser hospital last week, the Gaza representative of the World Health Organization (WHO) described it as "one massive trauma ward". Dr Rik Peeperkorn said in a video that the facility, which normally has a 350-bed capacity, was treating about 700 patients, and that exhausted staff were working 24 hours a day.The director and doctors reported receiving hundreds of trauma cases over the past four weeks, the majority of them linked to incidents around aid distribution sites, he added."There's many boys, young adolescents who are dying or getting the most serious injuries because they try to get some food for their families," he said.Among them were a 13-year-old boy who was shot in the head and is now tetraplegic, and a 21-year-old man who has a bullet lodged in his neck and is also tetraplegic.On Friday, 10 people seeking aid were reportedly killed by Israeli military fire near an aid distribution site in the nearby southern city of Rafah. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has not commented.
Meanwhile, in northern Gaza, a senior Hamas commander was among eight people who were killed in an Israeli air strike on a school sheltering displaced families in Jabalia, a local source told the BBC.Iyad Nasr, who led the Jabalia al-Nazla battalion, died alongside his family, including several children, and an aide when two missiles hit a classroom at Halima al-Saadia school, according to the source.Another Hamas commander, Hassan Marii, and his aide were reportedly killed in a separate air strike on an apartment in al-Shati refugee camp, west of Gaza City.It comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that a new Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal could be just days away, after concluding his four-day trip to the US.Before flying back from Washington on Thursday night, he told Newsmax that the proposal would supposedly see Hamas release half of the 20 living hostages it is still holding and just over half of the 30 dead hostages during a 60-day truce."So, we'll have 10 living left and about 12 deceased hostages [remaining], but I'll get them out, too. I hope we can complete it in a few days," he added.However, a Palestinian official told the BBC that the indirect negotiations in Qatar were stalled, with sticking points including aid distribution and Israeli troop withdrawals.The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.At least 57,762 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.
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Sky News
30 minutes ago
- Sky News
25% of young children and pregnant women malnourished in Gaza, charity says, as PM vows to fly critical medical cases to UK
A charity has warned 25% of young children and pregnant women in Gaza are now malnourished, with Sir Keir Starmer vowing to evacuate children who need "critical medical assistance" to the UK. MSF, also known as Doctors Without Borders, said Israel's "deliberate use of starvation as a weapon" has reached unprecedented levels - with patients and healthcare workers both fighting to survive. It claimed that, at one of its clinics in Gaza City, rates of severe malnutrition in children under five have trebled over the past two weeks - and described the lack of food and water on the ground as "unconscionable". The charity also criticised the high number of fatalities seen at aid distribution sites, with one British surgeon accusing IDF soldiers of shooting civilians "almost like a game of target practice". MSF's deputy medical coordinator in Gaza, Dr Mohammed Abu Mughaisib, said: "Those who go to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation's food distributions know that they have the same chance of receiving a sack of flour as they do of leaving with a bullet in their head." The UN also estimates that Israeli forces have killed more than 1,000 people seeking food - the majority near the militarised distribution sites of the US-backed aid distribution scheme run by the GHF. 1:20 In a statement on Friday, the IDF had said it "categorically rejects the claims of intentional harm to civilians", and reports of incidents at aid distribution sites were "under examination". The GHF has also previously disputed that these deaths were connected with its organisation's operations, with director Johnnie Moore telling Sky News: "We just want to feed Gazans. That's the only thing that we want to do." Israel says it has let enough food into Gaza and has accused the UN of failing to distribute it, in what the foreign ministry has labelled as "a deliberate ploy" to defame the country. 'Humanitarian catastrophe must end' In a video message posted on X late last night, Sir Keir Starmer condemned the scenes in Gaza as "appalling" and "unrelenting" - and said "the images of starvation and desperation are utterly horrifying". The prime minister added: "The denial of aid to children and babies is completely unjustifiable, just as the continued captivity of hostages is completely unjustifiable. "Hundreds of civilians have been killed while seeking aid - children, killed, whilst collecting water. It is a humanitarian catastrophe, and it must end." 2:10 Sir Keir confirmed that the British government is now "accelerating efforts" to evacuate children from Gaza who need critical medical assistance, so they can be brought to the UK for specialist treatment. Israel has now said that foreign countries will be able to airdrop aid into Gaza. While the PM says the UK will now "do everything we can" to get supplies in via this route, he said this decision has come "far too late". Last year, the RAF dropped aid into Gaza, but humanitarian organisations warned it wasn't enough and was potentially dangerous. In March 2024, five people were killed when an aid parachute failed and supplies fell on them. For now, Sir Keir has rejected calls to follow French President Emmanuel Macron and recognise a Palestinian state - despite more than 220 MPs signing a cross-party letter to demand he takes this step. The prime minister is instead demanding a ceasefire and "lasting peace" - and says he will only consider an independent state as part of a negotiated peace deal.
Daily Mirror
6 hours ago
- Daily Mirror
Heartbreaking images of Gaza kids on brink of death can no longer be ignored
WARNING - DISTRESSING IMAGES: Severely weak Yezen Abu Ful, two, is among 70,000 children medics warn are now facing malnutrition - as a UN chief blasted the 'indifference and inaction' of global leaders over the Gaza slaughter A starving child clings to his mum in an image victims in Gaza pray the world can no longer ignore. Severely weak Yezen Abu Ful, two, is among 70,000 children medics warn are now facing malnutrition. UN chief Antonio Guterres blasted the 'indifference and inaction' of global leaders over the Gaza slaughter, as children dying from hunger hit 122 since the war began. Keir Starmer vowed the UK will 'pull every lever' to get vital aid into the Strip and added: 'This humanitarian catastrophe must end.' Pitiful cries for help ring out from the depths of despair in Gaza, calling to a world that appears to have stood by and watched the hell of slaughter and starvation unfold. And as yet more horrific images of emaciated children on the brink of death emerge, the call for action to end the suffering of Palestinians in the face of relentless Israeli attacks and blockades grows. In one haunting image, Muhammed Zakariya Ayyub al-Matouk – a tragic sight of skin and bones – clings to his desperate mum in a tent in Gaza City where there is no access to milk, food, or basic necessities. The one-and-a-half-year-old is just one of an estimated 70,000 children said by medics to be in a state of starvation – and up to 28 are believed to be dying every day. Gaza's hospitals yesterday reported nine more deaths from hunger in 24 hours, bringing the total to 122 since the war started. In another harrowing picture, Yezen Abu Ful, two, lies helpless at the Al-Shati Refugee Camp, waiting for food many know may never come until it is too late. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged the world not to ignore the crisis. He said: 'I cannot explain the level of indifference and inaction we see by too many in the international community. The lack of compassion, the lack of truth, the lack of humanity.' Gaza-based journalist Noor al-Shana told how desperate Palestinians are 'tired of empty expressions of solidarity' – as the death toll in the strip hit 59,587. She said: 'We don't want just words, we want actions. There are thousands of children dying now and no one is doing anything. The world is saying 'Free Palestine'. We don't want words, we want solutions.' World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Israel 's actions in Gaza were causing 'man-made mass starvation'. Parents are going without food themselves for days in a bid to save their stricken children. Unicef and other agencies warned Gaza will run out of the therapeutic food needed to save the lives of severely malnourished children by mid-August unless aid is restored. The disturbing scenes came as 221 cross-party MPs demanded Keir Starmer recognise Palestine as a state. But the PM resisted and, writing in the Mirror today, insisted such a move must be part of a wider 'pathway to peace'. But amid the misery, there was a tiny glimmer of hope, as triplets born in April continue to grow. Mum Alaa, 31, and 36-year-old husband Louay feared she would miscarry the tots due to the stress of Israeli airstrikes. The couple, who also have children Alma, seven, and two-year-old Ahmed, had to move three times due to the attacks or military orders – once while she was heavily pregnant. Alaa said: 'We ran in silence. I prayed my babies wouldn't slip away while I escaped death.' With help from an Islamic Relief project, their little girls Israa, Ayla and Aylol were born underweight but alive. Alaa added: 'They are my miracle. My proof that even in war, life insists on being born.' But the babies and their mother could still face problems if they need any more medical care, equipment and drugs fast running out due to the Israeli blockade. Pregnant women are now too malnourished to stand, and even doctors are facing starvation. The women are having operations without anaesthetics. Nurses have to squeeze three or four babies into a single incubator. Doctors have reported a huge increase in miscarriages. Medics at hospitals such as Al Awda in northern Gaza are risking their lives to keep services going. More than 1,500 health workers have been killed while half of all hospitals have had to shut down. Aid workers, too, are suffering from a lack of food. The UN claims at least 100,000 Palestinians are starving. President Emmanuel Macron said France will recognise Palestine as a state immediately, piling pressure on Mr Starmer. A third of MPs in the Commons signed the letter to the PM demanding he follow suit. Charities have demanded Israel allow the UN to distribute aid, which they said is sitting outside Gaza. They called for the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which is responsible for what little aid is getting through, to be shut down amid deaths at food queues. GHF insists those tragedies never happened at its site and the Israeli military said troops have not fired on civilians. Ceasefire talks appear to have stalled amid differing demands from Israel and Hamas, which sparked the war with its October 7 attack that killed 1, 200 people. The group also kidnapped 251, some of whom are still in captivity.
The Guardian
7 hours ago
- The Guardian
Gaza is starving. So are its journalists
In May, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) wrote about the desperate situation facing journalists in Gaza, who were having to report while dangerously hungry. My colleagues documented the gnawing hunger, dizziness, brain fog and sickness all experienced by an exhausted Palestinian press corps already living and working in terrifying conditions. Eight weeks later, that desperate situation is now catastrophic. Several news organizations are now warning that their journalists – those documenting what is happening inside Gaza – will die unless urgent action is taken to stop Israel's deliberate refusal to allow sufficient food into the territory. 'Since AFP was founded in August 1944, we have lost journalists in conflicts, we have had wounded and prisoners in our ranks, but none of us can recall seeing a colleague die of hunger,' an association of journalists from the Agence France-Presse wrote in a statement on Monday. 'We refuse to watch them die.' Two days later, the Qatari broadcast network Al Jazeera said its journalists – like all Palestinians in Gaza– were 'fighting for their own survival' and warned: 'If we fail to act now, we risk a future where there may be no one left to tell our stories.' Al Jazeera shared a heart-wrenching post from the Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent Anas Al Sharif in which he writes: 'I haven't stopped covering [the crisis] for a moment in 21 months, and today, I say it outright … And with indescribable pain. I am drowning in hunger, trembling in exhaustion, and resisting the fainting that follows me every moment … Gaza is dying. And we die with it.' Al Sharif's story is one we have heard over and over again from reporters inside Gaza. On Sunday, Sally Thabet, correspondent for Al-Kofiya satellite channel, fainted after a live broadcast on 20 July because she had not eaten all day. She told CPJ she regained consciousness in the hospital, where doctors gave her an intravenous drip for rehydration and nutrition. In an online video, she described how she and her three daughters are starving. The Palestinian journalist Shuruq As'ad, founder of the Palestine Journalism Hub, said Thabet was the third journalist to collapse on air from starvation that week. I have been a reporter for more than a quarter of a century. I know all too well that journalists have always faced risks in reporting in war zones. I have many journalist friends who bear the scars – both physical and mental – of covering such conflicts, and many whose colleagues have been killed in fighting from Libya to Syria, from Bosnia to Sierra Leone. Most take these risks knowingly. But this is not that situation. These are not the usual risks faced by reporters in conflict: a stray bullet, a landmine, ambush. This is something else. This is systematic silencing by Israel. Starvation is its latest and terrible manifestation, but we must be clear that the threats facing journalists in Gaza are not new – nor is the international community's abject failure to address them. More journalists and media workers were killed in 2024 than in any other year since CPJ began keeping records. Nearly two-thirds of all those killed in 2024 were Palestinians killed by Israel. There has been no accountability for any of these killings, despite evidence of numerous targeted attacks. Very few of these journalists chose to become war correspondents. They are war correspondents because war is their daily, inescapable reality. They report because there is no one else to do so as Israel continues to refuse access to journalists from outside Gaza to the territory, a refusal that is without precedent in the history of modern warfare. These restrictions on international access place an unbearable burden on those who are forced to remain and bear witness. CPJ has documented the deliberate targeting of journalists; their offices have been bombed, their homes destroyed. They have been forced to move repeatedly, finding shelter in flimsy tents. They struggle with frequent communications blackouts and damaged equipment. They are barred from leaving Gaza and evacuation is all but impossible, even with life-threatening and life-altering injuries. Unlike in other ongoing conflicts, such as Ukraine, which also has a high number of domestic reporters who now report on and from a war zone, Gaza's journalists have no colleagues who can replace them from elsewhere, who can provide them with much-needed rest and respite. Now these journalists are starving to death before our eyes. The international community has the information it needs to act to reverse this course. We know what is happening in Gaza. We know because of the journalists who have documented the attacks at aid stations, who have filmed the starving children and the bombed hospitals, and who are now recording their own demise. There is an adage in journalism circles that explains reporters' reluctance to write about themselves: No journalist wants to become the story. If we do not act now, there will be no one left in Gaza to tell anyone's story. And that silence – those deaths – will be on us. Jodie Ginsberg is CEO of the Committee to Protect Journalists
