Israel sends tanks into Gaza's Deir Al-Balah, raising concerns among hostages' families
The area is packed with Palestinians displaced during more than 21 months of war in Gaza, hundreds of whom fled west or south after Israel issued an evacuation order, saying it sought to destroy Hamas capabilities and infrastructure.
Tank shelling in the area hit houses and mosques, killing at least three Palestinians and wounding several others, local medics said.
To the south in Khan Younis, an Israeli airstrike killed at least five people, including a husband and wife and their two children in a tent, medics said.
In its daily update, Gaza's health ministry said at least 130 Palestinians had been killed and more than 1,000 wounded by Israeli gunfire and military strikes across the territory in the past 24 hours, one of the highest such totals in recent weeks.
There was no immediate Israeli comment on the Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis incidents.
Israeli sources have said the reason the army has so far stayed out of the Deir al-Balah districts is because they suspect Hamas might be holding hostages there. At least 20 of the remaining 50 hostages in captivity in Gaza are believed to be still alive.
Families of the hostages have expressed concern for their relatives and demanded an explanation from the army of how it would protect them.
Gaza health officials have meanwhile warned of potential "mass deaths" in the coming days due to worsening hunger, which has killed at least 19 people since Saturday, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry.
HUNGER
Health officials say hospitals have been running out of fuel, food aid, and medicine, risking a halt to vital operations.
Health ministry spokesperson Khalil Al-Deqran said medical staff have been depending on one meal a day, and that hundreds of people flock to hospitals every day, suffering from fatigue and exhaustion because of hunger.
In southern Gaza, the health ministry said an Israeli undercover unit had detained Marwan Al-Hams, head of Gaza's field hospitals, on Monday in a raid that killed a local journalist and wounded another outside a field medical facility run by the International Committee of the Red Cross.
An ICRC spokesperson said the ICRC had admitted and treated patients injured in the incident but would not comment further on their status in order to protect their privacy. It said it was "very concerned about the safety and security" around the field hospital.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Israel has raided and attacked hospitals across Gaza during the war, accusing Hamas of using them for military purposes, an accusation the group denies. Sending undercover forces to carry out arrests has been rare.
The incursion into Deir al-Balah and escalating number of deaths appeared to be complicating the latest push for a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel in talks mediated by Qatar and Egypt, with US backing.
A Hamas official told Reuters on Sunday that the militant group was angered over the mounting death toll and the hunger crisis, and that this could affect the talks on a 60-day truce and hostage deal.
AID WAITING
UNRWA, the UN refugee agency dedicated to Palestinians, said in a post on X on Monday that it was receiving desperate messages from Gaza warning of starvation, including from its own staff as food prices have increased 40-fold.
"Meanwhile, just outside Gaza, stockpiled in warehouses UNRWA has enough food for the entire population for over three months. Lift the siege and let aid in safely and at scale," it said.
On Sunday, the health ministry said at least 67 people were killed by Israeli fire as they waited for UN aid trucks to enter Gaza, after saying at least 36 aid seekers were killed a day earlier
Israel's military said its troops had fired warning shots to remove what it said was "an immediate threat." It said initial findings suggested reported casualty figures were inflated.
Israel's military also said it "views the transfer of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip as a matter of utmost importance, and works to enable and facilitate its entry in coordination with the international community".
The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel on Oct 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.
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Straits Times
3 hours ago
- Straits Times
On Gaza malnutrition ward, a child's arm is as wide as mother's thumb
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip - On the pink walls of Nasser hospital's child malnutrition ward, cartoon drawings show children running, smiling, and playing with flowers and balloons. Beneath the pictures, a handful of Gazan mothers watch over their babies who lie still and largely silent, mostly too exhausted by severe hunger to cry. The quiet is common in places treating the most acutely malnourished, doctors told Reuters, a sign of bodies shutting down. "She is always lethargic, lying down, like this… you do not find her responsive," said Zeina Radwan, mother of 10-month-old Maria Suhaib Radwan. She has not been able to find milk or enough food for her baby, and cannot breastfeed as she herself is underfed, surviving on one meal a day. "My children and I cannot live without nutrition." Over the last week, Reuters journalists spent five days in Nasser Medical Complex, one of only four centres left in Gaza able to treat the most dangerously hungry children. Gaza's food stocks have been running out since Israel, at war with Palestinian militant group Hamas since October 2023, cut off all supplies to the territory in March. That blockade was lifted in May but with restrictions that Israel says are needed to prevent aid being diverted to militant groups. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore Water supply issues during Toa Payoh blaze affected firefighting operations; SCDF investigating Singapore MHA to support HSA's crackdown on Kpod abusers and help in treatment of offenders: Shanmugam Singapore Tampines, Toa Payoh BTO flats most popular among first-time home buyers in July HDB launch Singapore Bukit Panjang LRT to shut on 2 Sundays to facilitate tests; some upgrading work nearing completion Singapore Jail, fine for man linked to case involving 3 bank accounts that received over $680m in total Singapore Provision shop owner who raped 11-year-old gets more than 14 years' jail Singapore School, parents on alert after vape peddlers approach primary school pupil Business S'pore's economic resilience will face headwinds in second half of 2025 from tariffs, trade conflicts: MAS As stocks ran out, the situation escalated in June and July, with the World Health Organization warning of mass starvation and images of emaciated children shocking the world. The Gaza health ministry says 151 people, including 89 children, have died of malnutrition, most in recent weeks. A global hunger monitor said on Tuesday that a famine scenario is unfolding. Israel says it has no aim to starve Gaza. This week it announced steps to allow more aid in, including pausing fighting in some locations, air dropping food and offering more secure routes. The United Nations said the scale of what is needed is vast in order to stave off famine and avert a health crisis. "We need milk for babies. We need medical supplies. We need some food, special food for nutritional department," said Dr Ahmed al-Farra, head of the paediatric and maternity department in Nasser Medical Complex. "We need everything for the hospitals." Israeli officials say many of those who died while malnourished in Gaza were suffering from pre-existing illnesses. Famine experts say this is typical in the early stages of a hunger crisis. "Children with underlying conditions are more vulnerable. They get affected earlier," said Marko Kerac, clinical associate professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, who helped draw up the WHO's treatment guidelines for severe acute malnutrition. Farra said his hospital was now dealing with malnourished children with no previous health problems, like baby Wateen Abu Amounah, born healthy nearly three months ago and now weighing 100 grams less than she weighed at birth. "During the past three months she did not gain one gram. On the contrary the child's weight decreased," the doctor said. "There is total loss of muscles. It's only skin on top of bones, which is an indication that the child has entered a severe malnutrition phase," said Farra. "Even the face of the child: she has lost fat tissues from her cheeks." The baby's mother, Yasmin Abu Sultan, gestures at the child's limbs, her arms about as wide as her mother's thumb. "Can you see? These are her legs... Look at her arms," she said. SUPPLIES RUNNING OUT, FEW SPACES IN HOSPITAL The youngest babies in particular need special therapeutic formulas made with clean water, and supplies are running low, Farra and the WHO told Reuters. "All the key supplies for the treatment of severe acute malnutrition, including medical complications, are really running out," said Marina Adrianopoli, WHO nutrition lead for the Gaza response. "It's really a critical situation." The treatment centres are also operating beyond capacity, she said. In the first two weeks of July, more than 5,000 children under five received outpatient treatment for malnutrition, with 18% suffering from the severest form. That was a surge from 6,500 in the whole of June, already the highest of the war and almost certainly an underestimate, said the WHO. Seventy-three children with malnutrition and complications were hospitalised in July, up from 39 in June. Hospital places are scarce. Baby Wateen's mother said she tried to get the girl admitted last month, but the centre was full. After ten days with no milk available and barely a meal a day for the rest of the family, she returned last week because her daughter's condition was deteriorating. Like several of the infants at Nasser, Wateen also has a recurring fever and diarrhoea, illnesses that malnourished children are more vulnerable to and which make their condition more dangerous. "If she stays like this, I'm going to lose her," her mother said. Wateen remains in hospital getting treatment, where her mother encourages her to take tiny sips from a bottle of formula milk. A side-effect of severe malnutrition is, counter-intuitively, loss of appetite, doctors told Reuters. Yasmin herself lives on the one meal a day provided by the hospital. Some of the other babies Reuters met, like 10-month-old Maria, were discharged over the weekend after gaining weight, and given formula milk to take home with them. But others, like five-month-old Zainab Abu Haleeb, did not make it. Vulnerable to infection because of her severely malnourished state, she died on Saturday of sepsis. Her parents carried her tiny body out of the hospital for burial, wrapped in a white shroud. REUTERS
AsiaOne
a day ago
- AsiaOne
Famine is 'playing out' in Gaza, warns global hunger monitor, World News
UNITED NATIONS/GENEVA — Famine is "playing out" in the Gaza Strip, a global hunger monitor said in an alert issued on Tuesday (July 29) as international criticism of Israel intensifies over rapidly worsening conditions in the Palestinian enclave. "The worst-case scenario of Famine is currently playing out in the Gaza Strip," said the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) alert. "Mounting evidence shows that widespread starvation, malnutrition, and disease are driving a rise in hunger-related deaths." The IPC alert does not formally classify Gaza as being in famine. Such a classification can only be made through an analysis, which the IPC said it would now conduct "without delay." The IPC is a global initiative that partners with 21 aid groups, international organisations, and UN agencies, and assesses the extent of hunger suffered by a population. War has raged in Gaza between Israel and Palestinian militants Hamas for the past 22 months. Facing global condemnation over the humanitarian crisis, Israel said on Sunday it would halt military operations for 10 hours a day in parts of the Palestinian enclave and allow new aid corridors. For an area to be classified as in famine, at least 20 per cent of people must be suffering extreme food shortages, with one in three children acutely malnourished and two people out of every 10,000 dying daily from starvation or malnutrition and disease. "Immediate action must be taken to end the hostilities and allow unimpeded, large-scale, life-saving humanitarian response. This is the only path to stopping further deaths and catastrophic human suffering," the IPC alert said. The latest data indicated that famine thresholds have been reached for food consumption in most of the war-torn Palestinian enclave — where some 2.1 million people remain — and for acute malnutrition in Gaza City, the alert said. "Formal famine declarations always lag reality," David Miliband, head of the International Rescue Committee aid group, said in a statement ahead of the IPC alert. "By the time that famine was declared in Somalia in 2011, 250,000 people — half of them children under five — had already died of hunger. By the time famine is declared, it will already be too late," he said. Starvation, malnutrition 'rapidly accelerating' The IPC has classified areas as being in famine four times: Somalia in 2011, South Sudan in 2017 and 2020, and Sudan in 2024. The IPC says it does not declare famine, but instead provides an analysis to allow governments and others to do so. The IPC's independent Famine Review Committee — which vets and verifies IPC findings that warn of or identify a famine — endorsed the Gaza alert on Tuesday. The last IPC analysis on Gaza, issued on May 12, forecast that the entire population would likely experience high levels of acute food insecurity by the end of September, with 469,500 people projected to likely hit "catastrophic" levels. "Many of the risk factors identified in that report have continued to deteriorate," the Famine Review Committee said in the alert on Tuesday. "Although the extreme lack of humanitarian access hinders comprehensive data collection, it is clear from available evidence that starvation, malnutrition, and mortality are rapidly accelerating." Israel controls all access to Gaza. After an 11-week blockade, limited UN-led aid operations resumed on May 19 and a week later the obscure new US-based Gaza Humanitarian Foundation — backed by Israel and the United States — began distributing food aid. The rival aid efforts have sparked a war of words — pitting Israel, the US and the GHF against the UN, international aid groups and dozens of governments from around the world. Israel and the US accuse Hamas of stealing aid — which the militants deny — and the UN of failing to prevent it. The UN says it has not seen evidence of mass aid diversion in Gaza by Hamas. The IPC alert said 88 per cent of Gaza is under evacuation orders or within militarised areas. "People's access to food across Gaza is now alarmingly erratic and extremely perilous," it said. The IPC and the Famine Review Committee were both critical of the GHF efforts in the alert issued on Tuesday. The IPC said most of the GHF "food items are not ready-to-eat and require water and fuel to cook, which are largely unavailable." The Famine Review Committee said: "Our analysis of the food packages supplied by the GHF shows that their distribution plan would lead to mass starvation." The GHF says it has been able to transport aid into Gaza without any being stolen by Hamas and that it has so far distributed more than 96 million meals. The IPC alert said an estimated minimum of 62,000 metric tonnes of staple food is required every month to cover the basic food needs of the Gazan population. But it said that according to Cogat, the Israeli military aid coordination agency, only 19,900 MT of food entered Gaza in May and 37,800 MT in June. The war in Gaza was triggered on Oct 7, 2023, when Hamas killed 1,200 people in southern Israel and took some 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Since then, Israel's military campaign has killed nearly 60,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities. [[nid:720671]]
Straits Times
a day ago
- Straits Times
Famine is ‘playing out' in Gaza, warns global hunger monitor
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox GENEVA – Famine is 'playing out' in the Gaza Strip, a global hunger monitor said in an alert issued on July 29, as international criticism of Israel intensifies over rapidly worsening conditions in the Palestinian enclave. 'The worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out in the Gaza Strip,' said the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) alert. 'Mounting evidence shows that widespread starvation, malnutrition and disease are driving a rise in hunger-related deaths.' The IPC alert does not formally classify Gaza as being in famine. Such a classification can only be made through an analysis, which the IPC said it would now conduct 'without delay'. The IPC is a global initiative that partners with 21 aid groups, international organisations and UN agencies, and assesses the extent of hunger suffered by a population. War has raged in Gaza between Israel and Palestinian militants Hamas for the past 22 months. Facing global condemnation over the humanitarian crisis, Israel said on July 27 it would halt military operations for 10 hours a day in parts of the Palestinian enclave and allow new aid corridors. For an area to be classified as in famine, at least 20 per cent of people must be suffering extreme food shortages, with one in three children acutely malnourished and two people out of every 10,000 dying daily from starvation or malnutrition and disease. 'Immediate action must be taken to end the hostilities and allow unimpeded, large-scale, life-saving humanitarian response. This is the only path to stopping further deaths and catastrophic human suffering,' the IPC alert said. The latest data indicated that famine thresholds have been reached for food consumption in most of Gaza, where some 2.1 million people remain, and for acute malnutrition in Gaza City, the alert said. 'Formal famine declarations always lag reality,' Mr David Miliband, head of the International Rescue Committee aid group, said in a statement ahead of the IPC alert. 'By the time that famine was declared in Somalia in 2011, 250,000 people – half of them children under five – had already died of hunger. By the time famine is declared, it will already be too late,' he said. Starvation 'rapidly accelerating' The IPC has classified areas as being in famine four times: Somalia in 2011, South Sudan in 2017 and 2020, and Sudan in 2024. The IPC says it does not declare famine but instead provides an analysis to allow governments and others to do so. The IPC's independent Famine Review Committee, which vets and verifies IPC findings that warn of or identify a famine, endorsed the Gaza alert on July 29. The last IPC analysis on Gaza, issued on May 12, forecast that the entire population would likely experience high levels of acute food insecurity by the end of September, with 469,500 people projected to likely hit 'catastrophic' levels. 'Many of the risk factors identified in that report have continued to deteriorate,' the Famine Review Committee said in the alert. 'Although the extreme lack of humanitarian access hinders comprehensive data collection, it is clear from available evidence that starvation, malnutrition and mortality are rapidly accelerating.' Israel controls all access to Gaza. After an 11-week blockade, limited UN-led aid operations resumed on May 19 and a week later the obscure, new US-based Gaza Humanitarian Foundation – backed by Israel and the United States – began distributing food aid. The rival aid efforts have sparked a war of words, pitting Israel, the US and GHF against the UN, international aid groups and dozens of governments from around the world. Israel and the US accuse Hamas of stealing aid, which the militants deny, and the UN of failing to prevent it. The UN says it has not seen evidence of mass aid diversion in Gaza by Hamas. The IPC alert said 88 per cent of Gaza is under evacuation orders or within militarised areas. 'People's access to food across Gaza is now alarmingly erratic and extremely perilous,' it said. The IPC and the Famine Review Committee were both critical of the GHF efforts. The IPC said most of the GHF 'food items are not ready-to-eat and require water and fuel to cook, which are largely unavailable'. The Famine Review Committee said: 'Our analysis of the food packages supplied by GHF shows that their distribution plan would lead to mass starvation.' GHF says it has been able to transport aid into Gaza without any being stolen by Hamas, and that it has so far distributed more than 96 million meals. The IPC alert said an estimated minimum of 62,000 tonnes of staple food is required every month to cover the basic food needs of the Gazan population. But it said that, according to Cogat, the Israeli military aid coordination agency, only 19,900 tonnes of food entered Gaza in May and 37,800 tonnes in June. The war in Gaza was triggered on Oct 7, 2023, when Hamas killed 1,200 people in southern Israel and took some 250 hostages. Since then, Israel's military campaign has killed nearly 60,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities. REUTERS
