Ngāti Pāoa Health Service Condemns Hate-Fuelled Actions At Destiny Church Protest
E Tipu E Rea, the health and social services arm of Ngāti Pāoa, firmly condemns these actions as a harmful and disgraceful misuse of cultural identity and a blatant act of hate speech.
"We continue to speak out about this as we are extremely concerned for safety and mental wellbeing of young parents in our service who are part of the Takatāpui community and others across the motu. Our tikanga teaches us to uplift, to manaaki, and to protect the dignity of all people. What we witnessed was not a reflection of our tikanga, but a weaponisation of our culture to spread hate" said E Tipu E Rea CEO Zoe Witika Hawke.
The health service offers a range of wrap around services in the first 2,000 days including midwifery, WCTO nursing, and mātauranga Māori to help whānau to connect with their reo, culture and whakapapa. However, the organisation disagrees with the use of Māori cultural expressions to target minority communities-including LGBTQIA+, Muslim, Buddhist, and other non-Christian groups and states that it is a gross distortion of what it means to be tangata whenua.
"We do not support the divisive rhetoric or actions of Brian Tāmaki and his followers. Their protest represents a direct attack on the values of inclusion, aroha, and whakapapa that bind our diverse communities together," said Witika- Hawke.
E Tipu E Rea stands proudly alongside our LGBTQIA+ whānau, and in solidarity with Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, Sikh and all other faiths and belief systems that are part of the vibrant fabric of Aotearoa. Our kaupapa is to uplift the mana of all young parents-especially in the face of stigma and discrimination-and we reject any narrative that seeks to elevate one identity at the expense of another.
"We remind Aotearoa that Māori culture is not a tool of religious supremacy".
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The Spinoff
an hour ago
- The Spinoff
Honouring Dame Whina Cooper 50 years since the Māori land march
This year marks the 50th anniversary of Dame Whina Cooper's hikoi for Māori land rights. Stacey Morrison and David Hill talk about the experience of creating a book to commemorate it. David Hill – author of Mother of the Nation: Whina Cooper and the long walk for justice, illustrated by Story Hemi-Morehouse It's 1975. My wife Beth, four-year-old Pete and I were in the UK, on our Great Overseas Trip. We'd left New Zealand 12 months before: three people, three suitcases, three sleeping bags. Two years later, we came home, with Pete, eight-month-old daughter Helen, the suitcases and sleeping bags, about five tea-chests, and a car. News from 1975 New Zealand had reached us in little bursts. Lynne Cox became the first woman to swim Cox Strait. The Polynesian Panthers were politically active in Auckland. A National government stormed into power, headed by Rob Muldoon. And a remarkable woman called Whina Cooper led a hīkoi to Parliament, demanding protection and restitution of Māori land. Half a century later, Penguin NZ contacted me. They were planning a picture book on Whina – Dame Whina as she subsequently became. Would I like to write the text? My instant reaction was to say no. How could an elderly, sedentary, provincial Pākehā male possibly pretend to write with any competence about such a vigorous, nationally-known wahine Māori? But the book was to be published for the 50th anniversary of that great hīkoi. What an occasion to be involved in. I'd written the words for several previous picture books about eminent New Zealanders: Ed Hillary, Jean Batten, Peter Blake, Joan Wiffen the dinosaur finder. I set about this new one in the same way. I read everything I could find on Whina, especially Michael King's grand biography. I looked at old TV footage. Boring health issues meant I wasn't able to travel, but I ransacked everything New Plymouth's Puke Ariki Research Centre and its staff could provide. The more I read and watched, the more my awe for the doughty Dame grew. She was a demon gardener. She confronted Muldoon in his holiday home to get jobs for her iwi. She hated sleeping; it meant time off from all she wanted to do. She became an auctioneer and a crack clay pigeon shooter. And she was indomitable in her campaigns for Māori land rights. I always make friends of the characters in my fiction, and the same happened with Whina. I heard myself talking to her as I worked on the story. I smiled when I read about her triumphs; shook my head as I learned of the bigotry, ignorance and inertia she had to face. I wished – oh, how I wished – that I could have met her, even though my research often made me feel that I had. I assembled about 12,000 words of notes, plus images. Then came the slight problem. How was I to reduce those 12,000 to some 1,400 words of text for the book? I'd come across the same problem with the preceding picture books, of course, and I'd learned some rudimentary tricks. Above all, accept the fact that the illustrations could not just complement but replace the text in many cases. Trust the artist! And for this book, we had the skills of Story Hemi-Morehouse (Ngāti Koata, Ngāti Kuia, Ngāti Toa Rangatira). I still feel that Story's name should come first on Mother of the Nation. Look at the warmth of her colours, the magical, sometimes mythic settings, the way her images swoop from intimate portrait to a crowd of thousands. My first copy arrived in the mail, and I did my usual thing – exclaimed when I realised what it was; placed it on the dining room table and pretended to be surprised by it when I came into the room; looked at my name on the cover and tried to connect that name with the person holding the book. My dedication at the start of Mother of the Nation reads 'In honour of a great lady and a great leader'. Ngā Mihi, Dame Whina; it was an absolute privilege to write about you. Stacey Morrison (Te Arawa, Ngāi Tahu) – translator of Te Whaea o te Motu: Whina Cooper me te Hīkoi roa mō te Manatika The whānau of Dame Whina Cooper are the only reason I was privileged to translate this book: their consent and kindness to agree to me being the translator was critical and personally overwhelming for me. When I was asked to work on this project my first question was about their wishes, as they are paramount and if they'd wanted a particular translator, someone else they knew or of their iwi, that would have been what happened and rightly so. I personally also look for tohu – indications and signs – that an important job like this is in fact meant for me, which I soon saw and was comforted by. Both my Kuia (Grandmother) and Nana (who had come to Aotearoa from England) were members of the Māori Women's Welfare League at the time Dame Whina was the president. You read that right by the way, my Pākehā Nana joined the MWWL and learned to weave and make kākahu, one of which I am the whānau guardian of now. So that connection was one of the tohu that eased my mind about taking on this story about a wahine rangatira, a woman of such intuitive and powerful leadership skills that her actions and words still resonate and inspire powerfully today. When we train to be a licensed translator and interpreter through Te taura whiri i te reo Māori /Māori language Commission, we are taught some golden rules such as 'never omit, or add' text in the course of translation. Yet even though I focused on the words that David had already written, I still spent time searching through articles, footage and quotes of Dame Whina, so I could catch any turn of phrase she offered or layer to the words that I didn't want to miss. I double checked the background behind place names, locations in relation to others Dame Whina travelled to – and I looked up extra detail on events mentioned to be sure I had the sense of both languages correct. After we finish a first draft of the translation it's good practice to have it peer-reviewed, in my case I have a good peer in my husband, right there at home! It's not the first time we have nerded-out as a reo Māori-speaking couple and once I made it to the top of my husband's to-do list, I was grateful that we have this shared interest and love for te reo Māori. The translator exams may be tough but there's continued testing when you turn over your work for proofreading by another Māori language writer and translator, in my case someone I hold in huge esteem, so hang on every nuance of their feedback. Translation is an art and this book is written for tamariki so we also consider how age-appropriate the language is too. I welcomed feedback from my illustrious proof-reader and hope that we all ensured this book about the incredible Dame Whina Cooper ONZ DBE will add another feather to her korowai of influence, haere ake nei te wā – forevermore. Mother of the Nation: Whina Cooper and the long walk for justice by David Hill and illustrated by Story Hemi-Morehouse; and Te Whaea o te Motu: Whina Cooper me te hīkoi roa mō te manatika by David Hill, illustrated by Story Hemi-Morehouse and translated by Stacey Morrison are both $25 and published by Penguin NZ. They're available to purchase at Unity Books.
Newsroom
6 hours ago
- Newsroom
Given the Wayne Brown silent treatment, Leoni finds her voice
Kerrin Leoni might not get to debate the incumbent Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown this campaign, but she's not going to stay silent on what she sees as his deficiencies as a leader. Leoni, the 45-year-old first-term councillor who is challenging Brown after others around the council table declined, has some serious questions over whether he is the best Auckland can come up with. She's already proactively outed Brown as declining to attend the first candidates' debate, and his intimation that he might not participate in any. 'I mean, it's the most important job in the city and that's the least you can do as a candidate is show up, you know. I think it's shocking. As a sitting mayor, he should be attending all debates.' As a lesser-known challenger, she would say that. But Brown's indications that he might seek to deny Leoni and the other seven candidates the oxygen of his presence at campaign events would be rare for Auckland politics. His Super City predecessors Phil Goff and Len Brown engaged in debates after their first terms in office. Leoni sees the Brown tactic as representing a wider withdrawal by the mayor from the types of duties and expectations on city leaders. She alleges he removes himself regularly to his Northland home base, leaving Deputy Mayor Desley Simpson to pick up the community appearances so assiduously attended by Goff and Len Brown. 'When I've been out in places from Pukekohe to Warkworth, in so many areas, they've said they just don't see him. 'We should be providing leadership that's actually seen. The role of the mayor is not just to be making decisions up in the ivory tower.' Leoni, who represents the Whau ward based around Avondale and the inner west, says she thinks Brown is also focused on what's wrong with the city, rather than a vision for what it could become. 'I'm focused on the long-term plan of this, because I think it's easy to come in and say, 'these are all the things that are bad about what's happening with Auckland and the council. 'We need to have someone that's actually got a balance. I'm saying, 'Sort what's wrong, but what should we be doing to plan for the future of our city'.' Her campaign's initial slogan is Kerrin Leoni – 'The new energy Auckland needs'. Auckland mayoral candidate Kerrin Leoni Ngāti Pāoa, Ngāi Takoto, Ngāti Kuri Councillor, Whau ward 2022-25 Local Board member, Waitematā 2019-22 Age: 45 Mother to twins Atarangi and Kahu, aged 8 Brought up: Mt Roskill and Waiheke Island School: Waiheke High School University: AUT (MA in social services and Māori development), King's College, London (MA in economics and international politics) Worked as: social worker, property investor, own consultancy and charity organiser (UK) She also marks down Brown for his verbal treatment of councillors around the Governing Body table, his targeting of individual councillors by challenging them under his Fix Auckland banner and his suitability at age 79 to take a city like Auckland forward. Leoni questions just what Brown wants to achieve in a second term, into his 80s. 'I mean, if we were going into another term where there were clear predictions about what his policies were going to be for the next term … but I haven't seen any of his policies except for he wants to continue with reining in Auckland Transport, which, you know, I already agree with that.' In late 2024 she indicated to the mayor she might challenge him, she says, and 'he was more than happy for me to stand, not that I needed his permission. He just said 'There's a few more things that I feel I need to do'. I said 'Well, what are they that you'd need another whole term for?' But he didn't identify anything else and he hasn't.' Hat in the ring Leoni (Ngāti Paoa, Ngāi Takoto and Ngāti Kuri) served a term on the Waitematā Local Board before narrowly claiming the Ward council seat in 2022, giving her six years as an elected member of the Auckland Council set-up. She has not been a high-profile councillor regionally, is not one of the 20 who need to hear the sound of their own voices endlessly at every council meeting, and was something of a surprise when she emerged as the leading candidate for the 'left' in this election. She tells Newsroom she asked other councillors if they would stand against Brown and when none stepped up, she stepped forward. 'My focus was to make sure Aucklanders had a good candidate who they could vote for. 'I did ask other councillors whether they were interested in standing – and ones that have more experience than me – and they were not interested. But obviously, you know, I don't feel you have to be in local government for 20 years or 50 years to do a good job. I think it's really important, actually, that I'm coming in with fresh eyes.' She's not flying the Labour Party banner that got her elected by 260 votes three years ago in Whau, the ward she's standing down from by standing for the mayor's chair. 'You know, as mayor, you've got to be seen as impartial to all Aucklanders. I'm definitely standing as an independent. 'So I'm just going to do the best that we can and I don't want to be seen as just the Labour candidate, or just any candidate. I want to be seen as the candidate for all of Auckland.' She has not sought formal endorsements from a political party, unions or left-wing luminaries, but cites former Labour PM Helen Clark and the late Labour figure and mayor Cath Tizard as political inspirations. She joined Labour when she returned from the UK because 'I've always wanted to look at ways that we could help people that haven't had great opportunities.' Policy platform When the Deputy Mayor, Desley Simpson, announced she would not challenge Brown, but instead act as his Fix Auckland running mate, she revealed her team had failed to identify a political platform sufficiently different to what Brown currently occupies. Leoni thinks the vision for a future Auckland is the missing link in what Brown has delivered – and something he cannot offer. 'I'll be campaigning on a 30-year plan for the city, not just short-term fixes.' She promises to announce a couple of policies a week through the key campaign weeks (postal voting opens on Tuesday September 9 ahead of the Saturday, October 11 election date). She lived for many years in the UK and believes Auckland needs to embrace some big infrastructure projects such as a rail link all the way to the airport, beyond the current train to bus interchange at the Puhinui station in Manukau, and passenger rail to both Huapai in the west, and from south to west from Southdown to Avondale to bring communities together. Leoni is not promising a showstopper policy platform like previous mayoral candidate John Tamihere, with a second tier and rail added to the existing Auckland Harbour Bridge. 'I think I'm going to be the more realistic candidate.' She favours a second bridge, side by side with the current structure, catering for mid-term needs ahead of any plan for a cross harbour tunnel. 'I know the tunnel is very expensive and I know central government does not have the money to actually pay for that. Even the cost to do the side by side raises a question mark. But we know it's more effective to get that done first if we can.' Leoni was deputy chair of the Waitematā local board in her first stint in local government. Photo: Auckland Council Leoni says as a councillor she signed up for the council's Long-term Plan and its projected average rates increase for next year of 7.9 percent (after this year's average 5.8 percent), and to keep future rises under double digits. 'Definitely be keeping them under 10 percent. 'If there are going to be any changes in that budget probably the rates won't be affected, but we know we have to keep the rates down, the feedback we're getting is that is definitely one of the top priorities as people are just struggling.' She believes the current $50 cap on public transport fares weekly might have been set too high, and there could be scope to lower it, possibly as far as $30 to encourage people to keep using buses and trains. On debt, (which despite Brown condemning the council's indebtedness before his election of around $11 billion is set to rise towards $14b) Leoni says only that she's 'not a supporter of debt going up when it doesn't need to, and we need to continue to keep the debt as low as possible. We've got to be accountable for every dollar we spend.' She promises to implement a policy that if the council encounters an 'overspend that's going to happen, then it's going to come out of the budget somewhere else. I've got a very strong view that we've got to stop overspending as a council. We've got to be clear that's not going to happen any more.' To a suggestion she's saying the same thing as her opponent, Leoni says 'I think that there would be an assumption given that I have got a left-leaning history that I wouldn't continue that. But I'm making it clear that I would.' One personal focus for her would be council contracting costs, particularly functions out-sourced to international conglomerates. 'My understanding is that a significant amount of the tier 1 contractors are actually Australian-owned businesses. That profit is going overseas and we should be bringing that profit back into Auckland, into our circular economy.' She thinks procurement contracts at the local board should be examined for potential cost savings. 'If that means we have to scale down some of the criteria and review the whole system, we should. We need to localise some of that contracting there to save money.' The counter argument would be that large contractors across the region bring economies of scale, but Leoni, who studied economics and international politics for her second master's degree, at King's College, London, says it hasn't been so in reality. 'Why have we continued to have overspends?' Leoni with her children Atarangi and Kahu at a Blues match at Eden Park this year. Photo: Supplied Social media and women in politics As a relatively new figure in city politics, a woman, of Māori and Italian/Irish descent, Leoni perhaps surprisingly hasn't yet been a serious target of social media trolling or abuse that afflicts so many in her position. 'I'm not getting it yet. I've been waiting for it, actually, but the reality is people are probably not going to put it onto my page anyway. 'But, I'm mentally prepared for it and I'm practising my responses and not to be too reactive, because you've got to expect it is likely to happen. 'I mean, to any male who would say, well 'You can't run a city', I'm like 'Well, we're already running the city. I'm a regional councillor, I'm already making decisions,' she says. 'The only difference between our job and the mayor is that he sets a budget, which we get to sign off anyway and he's got to get a majority of the vote for. 'And he's supposed to be the leader and a visionary for the city, which I don't think he does that well.' She says she's been relatively un-targeted by the mayor in council meetings because she has been 'quite direct' with him since the start of the term. 'He probably hasn't singled me out as much as I've seen him single out others. 'But he's made inappropriate comments to me; like, I think one was that if I was going to vote for the sale of the airport shares, I'd never be an MP [Leoni stood for Labour in 2020 in the blue-riband National seat of Waikato]. And I thought, 'You don't have control over that'.' From the moment she announced her candidacy, Leoni has heard and seen comments likening her to another single Māori woman mayor, Wellington's outgoing leader Tory Whanau, who faced intense personal criticism over her private and political conduct. 'I think it is quite sad that our country and our city might think like that,' the councillor says. 'But I guess that was my frustration when I came back from living in the UK, [in 2015] it felt like I'd come back to the 1950s in terms of our thinking and those things around racism and sexism and everything else – and the expectation that you have to be an old white male to be able to make decisions for the city. I mean, it's just appalling.' She spoke to Whanau about the pressures directly. 'She admits, and I think she's said this in media elsewhere, that it would have been helpful for her to do a term first [as a councillor] before becoming mayor. We had that conversation and I said to her, well, I've done two terms in local government. It was helpful.' Five years ago Leoni took on the un-winnable National Waikato seat for Labour at the general election, narrowing National's majority from 15,000 to 5000 as part of the Labour landslide. Grander ambitions Because of her candidacy for Parliament in 2020, Leoni also faces repeated quips about her stand for the mayoralty being driven by seeking profile towards a decent spot on the Labour Party's list for the 2026 general election. She shrugs that off, focusing on Brown's job. 'I actually love local government and the experiences I've had have been very positive. Local government is where it's at for our communities. 'I mean, central government is always going to be there and I'm only 45 years old. Look at Wayne, he's 78 or 79. So I've got many years ahead of me in politics. You look at Winston Peters, and you know, Shane Jones. I'm not in any rush to get into central government. 'My concern is doing the best for Auckland and providing the best leadership.' Nine weeks to go Winning the Auckland mayoralty is a high-cost exercise, with Brown using a considerable sum from his own funds in 2022. Without union or party backing explicitly, how does Leoni see a path to increasing her name, face and vote recognition? 'The fundraising has been a bit of a challenge, and I think that's more of a cultural thing for me. In the past I've been able to fund some of it and done some fundraising.' For the mayoralty, region-wide and trying to grab profile on motorway billboards and the like, 'we do need to take it up a level. But we've got the basics of the campaign, the billboards, the people who are happy to give out the leaflets and door knock, which I think is great.' She is a confident figure, right back to her high school days winning an award from then-Auckland mayor Les Mills, through to buying her first home from age 21 and trading property ever since, studying in the UK and forming her own consultancy and charity. She's raising her eight-year-old twins while a councillor and acting as landlord for three properties. But she is not sounding over-confident of being able to knock off a well-heeled incumbent mayor. She knows, like the late Efeso Collins at the last election, she'll need votes from beyond traditional left-leaning districts. The voting-heavy districts of north and east Auckland will need special attention. Leoni says she learned during her bid for Parliament in the National stronghold of Waikato that: 'Make sure you don't assume that the people that you think aren't going to vote for you won't actually vote for you. You've got to put yourself in front of everyone.' Asked what success would look like for her in nine weeks, when the polling is done, Leoni does not mention the word 'winning'. 'Success is making sure that we do get right across the city and that we have policies that are clear for Aucklanders. 'It's about having good policies that Aucklanders see as good for them, having good leadership for every single group. 'So yeah, looking back at it at the end and saying that regardless of whatever the outcome that we've had a good campaign and that we've done a great job and I think that's all we can expect, you know. Given that I don't have $50 million.'
1News
15 hours ago
- 1News
Netanyahu defends new Gaza military offensive, says it will be wider than announced
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today defended a new military offensive in Gaza that's more sweeping than previously announced, declaring in the face of growing condemnation at home and abroad that Israel 'has no choice but to finish the job and complete the defeat of Hamas'. Even as more Israelis express concern over the 22-month war, Netanyahu said the security Cabinet last week instructed the dismantling of Hamas strongholds not only in Gaza City but also in the 'central camps' and Muwasi. A source familiar with the operation, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to talk to the media, confirmed that Israel plans it in both areas. The camps — sheltering well over a half-million displaced people, according to the UN — had not been part of Israel's announcement Friday. It was not clear why, though Netanyahu faced criticism this weekend within his ruling coalition that targeting Gaza City was not enough. Netanyahu said there would be 'safe zones," but such designated areas have been bombed in the past. Late Sunday (local time), heavy bombardment was reported in Gaza City. Shortly before midnight local time, broadcaster Al Jazeera said correspondent Anas al-Sharif was killed in a strike. Rami Mohanna, administrative director at the nearby Shifa Hospital, said the strike hit a tent for Al Jazeera journalists outside the hospital's walls. Along with al-Sharif, three other journalists and a driver were killed. Israel's military confirmed it, asserting al-Sharif had 'posed as a journalist' and alleging he was with Hamas. Al-Sharif had denied having any political affiliations. The Committee to Protect Journalists last month said it was gravely concerned for his safety and said he was a 'targeted by an Israeli military smear campaign'. ADVERTISEMENT Netanyahu spoke with Trump about plan Netanyahu's office late Sunday (local time) said he had spoken with US President Donald Trump about the plan and thanked him for his 'steadfast support'. Rejecting starvation in Gaza as well as a 'global campaign of lies," Netanyahu spoke to foreign media just before an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council, a platform for outrage but little action on the war. 'Our goal is not to occupy Gaza, our goal is to free Gaza,' Netanyahu asserted. The goals, he said, include demilitarising the territory, the Israeli military having 'overriding security control' and a non-Israeli civilian administration in charge. Israel wants to increase the number of aid distribution sites in Gaza, he said, but in a later briefing to local media, he asserted: 'There is no hunger. There was no hunger. There was a shortage, and there was certainly no policy of starvation." Netanyahu also said he has directed Israel's military to 'bring in more foreign journalists' — which would be a striking development, as they haven't been allowed into Gaza beyond military embeds during the war. He again blamed many of Gaza's problems on the Hamas militant group, including civilian deaths, destruction and aid shortages. 'Hamas still has thousands of armed terrorists," he asserted, adding that Palestinians are 'begging' to be freed from them. ADVERTISEMENT Hamas responded with a lengthy statement that summed up Netanyahu's remarks as 'blatant lies'. The morning's headlines in 90 seconds, including dire state of our heart health system, where unspent charter school money might go, and thieves make off with a pricey haul of Labubu dolls. (Source: 1News) US defends Israel at Security Council meeting The United States defended Israel, saying it has the right to decide what's best for its security. It called allegations of genocide in Gaza false. The US has veto power at the council and can block proposed actions there. Other council members, and UN officials, expressed alarm. China called the 'collective punishment' of people in Gaza unacceptable. Russia warned against a 'reckless intensification of hostilities'. 'This is no longer a looming hunger crisis; this is starvation,' said Ramesh Rajasingham with the UN humanitarian office. 'Humanitarian conditions are beyond horrific. We have frankly run out of words to describe it.' ADVERTISEMENT Israel faces growing action even by its closest allies. Netanyahu said Chancellor Friedrich Merz of Germany had 'buckled under' the growing international criticism by stopping exports of military equipment to Israel that could be used in Gaza. Merz, for his part, told public broadcaster ARD that Germany and Israel were talking 'very critically' but Berlin's overall policies of friendship haven't changed. More Palestinians killed as they seek aid At least 31 Palestinians were killed while seeking aid in Gaza, hospitals and witnesses said. The Associated Press spoke to witnesses of gunfire in the Israeli-controlled Morag and Netzarim corridors and the Teina area in the south. All accused Israeli forces of firing at crowds trying to reach food distributions or waiting for convoys. Fifteen people were killed while waiting for trucks near the Morag corridor that separates the southern cities of Rafah and Khan Younis, according to Nasser hospital. The situation is a 'death trap,' said Jamal al-Laweh, who said Israeli forces opened fire there. 'But I have no other choice to feed the kids.' Six were killed while waiting for aid in northern Gaza near the Zikim crossing, according to Gaza's Health Ministry and Shifa hospital. In central Gaza, witnesses said they heard warning shots before fire was aimed toward crowds trying to reach a distribution site operated by the Israeli-backed and US-funded Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. The AP could not independently confirm who fired. Awda hospital said four people were killed by Israeli gunfire. ADVERTISEMENT Six other aid-seekers were killed while trying to reach GHF sites in Khan Younis and Rafah, Nasser hospital said. The GHF sites opened in May as an alternative to the UN-run aid system, but operations have been marred by deaths and chaos. Responding to AP inquiries, the GHF media office said: 'There were no incidents at or near our sites today.' Israel's military said there were no incidents involving troops near central Gaza aid sites. Hunger death toll among children hits 100 Israel's air and ground offensive has displaced most Palestinians and pushed the territory toward famine. Two Palestinian children died of malnutrition-related causes on Saturday, bringing the toll among children to 100 since the war began. At least 117 adults have died of malnutrition-related causes since June, when the ministry started to count them. The hunger toll is in addition to the ministry's war toll of 61,400 Palestinians. The ministry, part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals, doesn't distinguish between fighters or civilians, but says around half of the dead have been women and children. The UN and independent experts consider it the most reliable source on war casualties.
