
WHO condemns Israeli raid on Gaza residence and warehouse attack
The UN said on Monday it was receiving reports of malnourished people arriving at clinics and hospitals in extremely poor health, while the Hamas-run health ministry said 19 people had died from malnutrition since Saturday.
On Sunday, the Israeli military ordered the immediate evacuation of six city blocks in southern Deir al-Balah, warning that it would be operating "with great force to destroy the enemy's capabilities and terrorist infrastructure".The estimated 50,000 to 80,000 people living in the affected areas were instructed to head south towards the al-Mawasi area in the south of the territory.The UN's humanitarian office said UN staff would remain in Deir al-Balah despite the evacuation order, spread across dozens of premises whose co-ordinates had been shared with Israel, and stressed that they had to be protected.On Monday night, the WHO put out a statement saying it condemned "in the strongest terms" attacks on its facilities.It said the WHO staff residence was attacked three times, and that staff and their families, including children, were "exposed to grave danger and traumatized after air strikes caused a fire and significant damage"."Israeli military entered the premises, forcing women and children to evacuate on foot toward al-Mawasi amid active conflict. Male staff and family members were handcuffed, stripped, interrogated on the spot, and screened at gunpoint," it added."Two WHO staff and two family members were detained. Three were later released, while one staff member remains in detention."The WHO demanded the immediate release of its detained staff member and the protection of its other staff, who have been relocated with their families to its office in Deir al-Balah.
The WHO's main warehouse in the city was damaged after "an attack caused explosions and fire inside", the organisation said. The warehouse was later looted by desperate crowds, it added.The agency did not attribute blame for the attack, but said it was "part of a pattern of systematic destruction of health facilities". The WHO warned that its operational presence in Gaza was "now compromised, crippling efforts to sustain a collapsing health system and pushing survival further out of reach for more than two million people".There has been no comment yet from the Israeli military on the attacks on the WHO's premises or on the wider offensive in Deir al-Balah.But Israel's Haaretz newspaper reported on Monday that troops were operating to "establish a corridor that will cut through the city, severing it from the al-Mawasi area and preventing free movement between central Gaza refugee camps where the Israeli army has no ground presence".According to the UN, about 87.8% of Gaza is now covered by Israeli evacuation orders or is within Israeli militarized zones, leaving the 2.1 million population squeezed into about 46 sq km of land where essential services have collapsed.Israeli sources say that the possible presence of Israeli hostages held by Hamas is one reason why Deir al-Balah has so far not been the target of a ground offensive. At least 20 of the 50 hostages still in captivity are believed to be alive.Hostages' families have expressed concern that an offensive could endanger them.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 59,029 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's health ministry.
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South Wales Argus
16 minutes ago
- South Wales Argus
The latest child to starve to death in Gaza weighed less than when she was born
On a sunny street in shattered Gaza, the bundle containing Zainab Abu Halib represented the latest death from starvation after 21 months of war and Israeli restrictions on aid. The baby was taken to the paediatric department of Nasser Hospital on Friday. She was already dead. A worker at the morgue carefully removed her Mickey Mouse-printed shirt, pulling it over her sunken, open eyes. He pulled up the hems of her pants to show her knobby knees. His thumb was wider than her ankle. He could count the bones of her chest. The girl had weighed more than 3kg (6.6lbs) when she was born, her mother said. When she died, she weighed less than 2kg (4.4lbs). Palestinians pray over the body of five-month-old baby Zainab Abu Halib (Mariam Dagga/AP) A doctor said it was a case of 'severe, severe starvation'. She was wrapped in a white sheet for burial and placed on the sandy ground for prayers. The bundle was barely wider than the imam's stance. He raised his open hands and invoked Allah once more. Zainab was one of 85 children to die of malnutrition-related causes in Gaza in the past three weeks, according to the latest toll released by the territory's health ministry on Saturday. Another 42 adults died of malnutrition-related causes in the same period, it said. 'She needed a special baby formula which did not exist in Gaza,' Zainab's father, Ahmed Abu Halib, told The Associated Press as he prepared for her funeral prayers in the hospital's courtyard in the southern city of Khan Younis. Dr Ahmed al-Farah, head of the paediatric department, said the girl had needed a special type of formula that helps with babies allergic to cow's milk. He said she had not suffered from any diseases, but the lack of the formula led to chronic diarrhoea and vomiting. She was not able to swallow as her weakened immune system led to a bacterial infection and sepsis, and quickly lost more weight. Esraa Abu Halib shows to journalists a photo of her five-month-old baby, Zainab (Mariam Dagga/AP) The child's family, like many of Gaza's Palestinians, lives in a tent, displaced. Her mother, who also has suffered from malnutrition, said she breastfed the girl for only six weeks before trying to feed her formula. 'With my daughter's death, many will follow,' she said. 'Their names are on a list that no-one looks at. They are just names and numbers. We are just numbers. Our children, whom we carried for nine months and then gave birth to, have become just numbers.' Her loose robe hid her own weight loss. The arrival of children suffering from malnutrition has surged in recent weeks, Dr al-Farah said. His department, with a capacity of eight beds, has been treating about 60 cases of acute malnutrition. They have placed additional mattresses on the ground. Another malnutrition clinic, affiliated with the hospital, receives an average of 40 cases weekly, he said. 'Unless the crossings are opened and food and baby formula are allowed in for this vulnerable segment of Palestinian society, we will witness unprecedented numbers of deaths,' he warned. Doctors and aid workers in Gaza blame Israel's restrictions on the entry of aid and medical supplies. Food security experts warn of famine in the territory of more than two million people. After ending the latest ceasefire in March, Israel cut off the entry of food, medicine, fuel and other supplies completely to Gaza for two and a half months, saying it aimed to pressure Hamas to release hostages. Under international pressure, Israel slightly eased the blockade in May. Since then, it has allowed in about 4,500 trucks for the UN and other aid groups to distribute, including 2,500 tons of baby food and high-calorie special food for children, Israel's Foreign Ministry said last week. Israel says baby formula has been included, plus formula for special needs. The average of 69 trucks a day, however, is far below the 500 to 600 trucks a day the UN says are needed for Gaza. The UN says it has been unable to distribute much of the aid because hungry crowds and gangs take most of it from its arriving trucks. Separately, Israel has backed the US-registered Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which in May opened four centres distributing boxes of food supplies. More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since May while trying to get food, mostly near those new aid sites, the UN human rights office says. Much of Gaza's population now relies on aid. 'There was a shortage of everything,' the mother of Zainab said as she grieved. 'How can a girl like her recover?'

Leader Live
16 minutes ago
- Leader Live
The latest child to starve to death in Gaza weighed less than when she was born
On a sunny street in shattered Gaza, the bundle containing Zainab Abu Halib represented the latest death from starvation after 21 months of war and Israeli restrictions on aid. The baby was taken to the paediatric department of Nasser Hospital on Friday. She was already dead. A worker at the morgue carefully removed her Mickey Mouse-printed shirt, pulling it over her sunken, open eyes. He pulled up the hems of her pants to show her knobby knees. His thumb was wider than her ankle. He could count the bones of her chest. The girl had weighed more than 3kg (6.6lbs) when she was born, her mother said. When she died, she weighed less than 2kg (4.4lbs). A doctor said it was a case of 'severe, severe starvation'. She was wrapped in a white sheet for burial and placed on the sandy ground for prayers. The bundle was barely wider than the imam's stance. He raised his open hands and invoked Allah once more. Zainab was one of 85 children to die of malnutrition-related causes in Gaza in the past three weeks, according to the latest toll released by the territory's health ministry on Saturday. Another 42 adults died of malnutrition-related causes in the same period, it said. 'She needed a special baby formula which did not exist in Gaza,' Zainab's father, Ahmed Abu Halib, told The Associated Press as he prepared for her funeral prayers in the hospital's courtyard in the southern city of Khan Younis. Dr Ahmed al-Farah, head of the paediatric department, said the girl had needed a special type of formula that helps with babies allergic to cow's milk. He said she had not suffered from any diseases, but the lack of the formula led to chronic diarrhoea and vomiting. She was not able to swallow as her weakened immune system led to a bacterial infection and sepsis, and quickly lost more weight. The child's family, like many of Gaza's Palestinians, lives in a tent, displaced. Her mother, who also has suffered from malnutrition, said she breastfed the girl for only six weeks before trying to feed her formula. 'With my daughter's death, many will follow,' she said. 'Their names are on a list that no-one looks at. They are just names and numbers. We are just numbers. Our children, whom we carried for nine months and then gave birth to, have become just numbers.' Her loose robe hid her own weight loss. The arrival of children suffering from malnutrition has surged in recent weeks, Dr al-Farah said. His department, with a capacity of eight beds, has been treating about 60 cases of acute malnutrition. They have placed additional mattresses on the ground. Another malnutrition clinic, affiliated with the hospital, receives an average of 40 cases weekly, he said. 'Unless the crossings are opened and food and baby formula are allowed in for this vulnerable segment of Palestinian society, we will witness unprecedented numbers of deaths,' he warned. Doctors and aid workers in Gaza blame Israel's restrictions on the entry of aid and medical supplies. Food security experts warn of famine in the territory of more than two million people. After ending the latest ceasefire in March, Israel cut off the entry of food, medicine, fuel and other supplies completely to Gaza for two and a half months, saying it aimed to pressure Hamas to release hostages. Under international pressure, Israel slightly eased the blockade in May. Since then, it has allowed in about 4,500 trucks for the UN and other aid groups to distribute, including 2,500 tons of baby food and high-calorie special food for children, Israel's Foreign Ministry said last week. Israel says baby formula has been included, plus formula for special needs. The average of 69 trucks a day, however, is far below the 500 to 600 trucks a day the UN says are needed for Gaza. The UN says it has been unable to distribute much of the aid because hungry crowds and gangs take most of it from its arriving trucks. Separately, Israel has backed the US-registered Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which in May opened four centres distributing boxes of food supplies. More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since May while trying to get food, mostly near those new aid sites, the UN human rights office says. Much of Gaza's population now relies on aid. 'There was a shortage of everything,' the mother of Zainab said as she grieved. 'How can a girl like her recover?'


South Wales Guardian
16 minutes ago
- South Wales Guardian
Sir David Nabarro, WHO's special envoy for Covid-19, dies aged 75
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