Israel fire kills dozens more aid seekers in Gaza, medics say, as hunger worsens
The ministry said dozens of people were also wounded in the incident in northern Gaza, in one of the highest reported tolls among repeated recent cases in which aid seekers have been killed, including 36 on July 19. Six other people were killed near another aid site in the south, it said.
The Israeli military said its troops had fired warning shots towards a crowd of thousands in northern Gaza on July 20 to remove what it said was "an immediate threat".
It said initial findings suggested reported casualty figures were inflated, and it "certainly does not intentionally target humanitarian aid trucks".
It did not immediately comment on the incident in the south.
In total, health authorities said 88 people had been killed by Israeli gunfire and airstrikes across Gaza on July 20.
After Israel's military dropped leaflets urging people to evacuate from neighbourhoods in central Gaza's Deir al-Balah, residents said Israeli planes struck three houses in the area.
Dozens of families began leaving their homes, carrying some of their belongings. Hundreds of thousands of displaced Gazans have been sheltering in the Deir al-Balah area.
Israel's military said it had not entered the districts subject to the evacuation order during the current conflict and that it was continuing "to operate with great force to destroy the enemy's capabilities and terrorist infrastructure in the area".
Hostage families demanded an explanation from the army.
"Can anyone (promise) to us that this decision will not come at the cost of losing our loved ones?" the families said in a statement.
Starvation
Much of Gaza has been reduced to a wasteland during more than 21 months of war and there are fears of accelerating starvation.
Palestinian health officials said hundreds of people could soon die as hospitals were inundated with patients suffering from dizziness and exhaustion due to the scarcity of food and a collapse in aid deliveries.
"We warn that hundreds of people whose bodies have wasted away are at risk of imminent death due to hunger," the health ministry, which is controlled by Hamas, said.
The United Nations also said on July 20 that civilians were starving and needed an urgent influx of aid.
Residents said it was becoming impossible to find essential food such as flour. The Gaza health ministry said at least 71 children had died of malnutrition during the war, and 60,000 others were suffering from symptoms of malnutrition.
Later, it said 18 people have died of hunger in the past 24 hours.
Food prices have increased well beyond what most of the population of more than two million can afford.
Several people who spoke to Reuters via chat apps said they either had one meal or no meal in the past 24 hours.
"As a father, I wake up in the early morning to look for food, for even a loaf of bread for my five children, but all in vain," said Ziad, a nurse.
"People who didn't die of bombs will die of hunger. We want an end to this war now, a truce, even for two months," he told Reuters.
Others said they felt dizzy walking in the streets and that many fainted as they walked. Fathers leave tents to avoid questions by their children about what to eat.
UNRWA, the U.N. refugee agency dedicated to Palestinians, demanded Israel allow more aid trucks into Gaza, saying it had enough food for the entire population for over three months which was not allowed in.
Israel's military said that 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."
Truce talks
Some Palestinians suggested the move on Deir al-Balah might be an attempt to put pressure on Hamas to make more concessions in long-running ceasefire negotiations.
Israel and Hamas are engaged in indirect talks in Doha aimed at reaching a 60-day truce and hostage deal, although there has been no sign of breakthrough.
The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages back to Gaza.
The Israeli military campaign against Hamas in Gaza has since killed more than 58,000 Palestinians according to health officials, displaced almost the entire population and plunged the enclave into a humanitarian crisis.
(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi; Editing by Crispian Balmer and Aidan Lewis)
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Times
an hour ago
- New York Times
The Starvation Spreading in Gaza
For nearly two years, people in Gaza have faced death by airstrikes, tanks and bullets. Now, many are facing a slower, quieter end: They are dying from starvation. It's a crisis that Gaza's few remaining functional hospitals can't treat. 'There is no one in Gaza now outside the scope of famine, not even myself,' Dr. Ahmed al-Farra, who leads the pediatric ward at Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza, told my colleagues. 'I am speaking to you as a health official, but I, too, am searching for flour to feed my family.' As Gaza faces a looming famine, its social order is breaking down. Looting is rampant. Chaos surrounds the enclave's few aid delivery sites. Israeli troops have opened fire on civilians waiting for food, again and again. The United Nations says that more than 1,000 people trying to get food have been killed since May. After 21 months of devastating war in Gaza, it can be difficult to discern when conditions there have meaningfully shifted. But Times correspondents are clear: Gaza is descending into anarchy. It's a crisis that appears unlikely to abate soon, as Israel and the U.S. said yesterday that they would withdraw from cease-fire talks with Hamas. Below, we explain what is happening. An ongoing crisis Hunger in Gaza is not new. Israel's blockade — its ability to control what is allowed into the enclave — has been a source of tension for nearly two decades. Throughout the war, international aid agencies have accused Israel of not allowing enough food into Gaza. Israel says Hamas diverts supplies for its own purposes and aid groups mismanage shipments. The Times has been unable to verify Israel's claims that Hamas is diverting large amounts of aid to itself. The claims are difficult to confirm because Israel does not allow foreign journalists into Gaza unaccompanied. And Gaza-based journalists are themselves struggling to find food. But our reporters have heard from Gazans in recent weeks that they are at risk of starving to death. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
3 hours ago
'They're losing hope': What doctors, aid workers are seeing in Gaza amid hunger crisis
Doctors and aid workers inside Gaza are reporting grim and heartbreaking details of widespread malnutrition, particularly in children, as the hunger crisis reportedly continues to worsen amid the Israel -Hamas war. The Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health said on Thursday that 27 people have died of hunger over the last three days, bringing the total to 113 since the war began on Oct. 7, 2023. Of the total deaths due to hunger, 81 have been children, according to the Health Ministry. MercyCorps, an aid organization that provides humanitarian services as well as a hotline for psychosocial support in Gaza, said it has received testimony from parents struggling to provide food for their children. "This is one: 'Last night, I was thinking about killing my children because I can't take proper care of them or raise them in a good way,'" the group relayed to ABC News. "'I can't even provide food. I had to send them to neighboring tents to beg for bread to feed. I truly don't know what to do anymore.'" Abdulwhhab Abu Alamrain -- a volunteer at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza and a worker with the medical data department at Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), or Doctors Without Borders -- said there are only four stabilization centers for malnutrition in Gaza and the admission capacity is severely limited due to the overcrowding of facilities. He said the emergency departments of hospitals in Gaza have been overwhelmed with injuries since the war began. However, over the last two weeks, they have been overwhelmed with people reportedly injured while trying to get aid, along with people collapsing from hunger. "A kid came to our house like two days ago begging for something to eat, a piece of bread," Alamrain told ABC News. "We don't have any. We gave him from our lunch, [a] cup of chickpeas. … Life feels dystopian recently." On Thursday, MSF said 25% of children and pregnant or breastfeeding women screened at clinics in Gaza are malnourished, and cases of severe malnutrition in children under the age of 5 have tripled in just two weeks. Caroline Willemen, MSF project coordinator in Gaza City, said that on July 19 and 20 at Al-Helou Hospital in northern Gaza, MSF medical teams could not provide food to women and children in the pediatric and maternity wards and there wasn't enough baby formula for the 23 babies in the neonatal intensive care unit. On July 20 and July 21 at Nasser Hospital in central Gaza, 168 patients admitted to the pediatric and maternity wards could not access food, she said. Additionally, Edouard Beigbede, the UNICEF regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, said on Thursday that over two weeks in July, 5,000 children were admitted to their clinics with acute malnutrition and, in Gaza City alone, the number of children screened and detected with acute malnutrition is four times higher than what it was in February. Dr. Zaher Sahloul, president of MedGlobal, told ABC News that 19 children have recently been admitted to the non-profit's clinics in Gaza suffering from severe acute malnutrition, which is a number the organization has never seen. Five of those children, between three months and 4.5 years old, died over the last 72 hours, as of Wednesday, Sahloul said. "This is an emergency because up to 50% of children with severe acute malnutrition can die," Sahloul told ABC News. "Without a dramatic increase in the amount of aid entering, more children will die." Kate Phillips-Barasso, vice president of global policy and advocacy at MercyCorps, said her team on the ground in Gaza is reporting many people going days at a time without eating at all. "Everyone is spending their day in pursuit of how they're going to feed themselves," she told ABC News. "They're losing hope. They're wondering if they or their families will come on the other side alive." MercyCorps was one of more than 100 aid groups that put out a joint statement this week warning of "mass starvation" in Gaza. "We feel like we're tipping over that precipice where more people are going to die," Phillips-Barasso continued. "We're already starting to hear reports of more children dying. That is coming, and when it tips over, it is really hard to put that in reverse. It's getting to a point where they need therapeutic feeding and treatment, not just more food supplies. This is going to start to snowball and be very hard to walk that back." Aid organizations said their workers and medical staff are also struggling to get food. MSF said its staff is treating patients for hunger while struggling to feed themselves and their families as they enroll 25 new malnutrition cases every day in Gaza City alone. Alamrain told ABC News he has lost 27 kilograms (59.5 pounds) since the war began in October 2023, and eight kilograms (17.6 pounds) in the last two months. Recently, his family baked its last 0.5 kilograms (1 pound) of flour to make seven pieces of bread, he said. Although his family does have money to spend, the markets have run out of food. Over the last week, Alamrain said he has consumed between 700 and 1,400 calories per day, even though his recommended number of calories per day sits at 2,500. "These days are like the worst of the whole war in terms of food insecurity. We are not hungry [because] we are poor. We are hungry because there is not food to buy, or if there is, it is like [a] crazy price," he said. "There is like mass feeling of dizziness of people due to hunger." The Israeli government has denied that it is limiting the amount of aid entering Gaza and has claimed Hamas steals aid meant for civilians. Hamas has denied these claims. An Israeli security official said this week that 950 humanitarian aid trucks are waiting at crossings, pending collection and distribution by United Nations agencies. David Mencer, a government spokesperson, told ABC News on Thursday that there is "no famine caused by Israel, but there is a man-made shortage which has been engineered by Hamas." Similarly, on Thursday, State Department deputy spokesperson Tommy Pigott denied that Israel -- or the U.S. by extension -- is weaponizing humanitarian aid. "This humanitarian conflict lies at the feet of Hamas, who could end this conflict today by releasing the hostages and laying down their arms," he said.
Yahoo
8 hours ago
- Yahoo
Palestinians are ‘walking corpses' says UN, as Starmer calls starvation ‘unspeakable and indefensible'
Palestinians are beginning to resemble 'walking corpses', a United Nations official said on Thursday as Sir Keir Starmer called the starvation unfolding in Gaza 'unspeakable and indefensible'. Humanitarian workers in the territory are seeing children who are 'emaciated, weak and at high risk of dying' without urgent treatment, said Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UNRWA relief agency. The prime minister is due to hold an emergency call with France and Germany on Friday to push for aid – and a ceasefire. 'We are witnessing a humanitarian catastrophe,' he said. 'The suffering and starvation unfolding in Gaza is unspeakable and indefensible. While the situation has been grave for some time, it has reached new depths and continues to worsen.' Sir Keir's comments came just hours before French president Emmanuel Macron announced that France will recognise Palestinian statehood in September at the United Nations General Assembly. The number of people starving in Gaza is reported to have increased dramatically in recent days; most of the 113 hunger-related deaths recorded there so far have occurred in recent weeks, and 82 of those who have died were children, according to Palestinian health officials. Israel has imposed heavy restrictions on the amount of food and aid allowed to enter the territory, limiting aid to a handful of trucks each day following an 11-week total blockade earlier this year. UN officials say the aid delivered into the strip is a drop in the ocean compared to what is needed. 'We all agree on the pressing need for Israel to change course and allow the aid that is desperately needed to enter Gaza without delay,' Sir Keir said. Mr Lazzarini said a UNRWA worker had described people in Gaza as 'neither dead nor alive – they are walking corpses'. He said the agency has the equivalent of 6,000 loaded trucks of food and medical supplies in Jordan and Egypt, which have not yet been allowed into the territory. 'Families are no longer coping: they are breaking down, unable to survive. Their existence is threatened,' he said. Israeli forces have killed hundreds of Palestinians who were attempting to secure food from a limited number of aid trucks. The killings have drawn widespread condemnation, including from many of Israel's own allies. As more than 100 human rights groups and charities demanded in a letter on Wednesday that more aid be allowed in, Palestinians living in Gaza said they had been forced to trade personal items, such as gold jewellery, for flour. 'We are living in hunger and daily suffering, as prices have risen in an insane way that no Gazan citizen, whether employed or unemployed, can bear, in a way that is beyond comprehension,' said Wajih al-Najjar, 70, from Gaza City, the breadwinner for a family of 13. 'People are forced to go to death in search of some aid,' he told The Independent, lamenting the exorbitant price of flour, which he says has shot up from 35 shekels (£7.74) to up to 180 shekels (£39.80) per kilo. Mr Najjar, who has lost one quarter of his bodyweight – dropping from 85kg to 62kg – said he cannot get a full meal for himself. 'So what about children who need food more than three times a day?' he said. Meanwhile, major broadcasters and news agencies, including the BBC and Reuters, issued a joint statement to say that their journalists on the ground in Gaza are also facing the 'threat of starvation'. 'We are desperately concerned for our journalists in Gaza, who are increasingly unable to feed themselves and their families,' it read. 'For many months, these independent journalists have been the world's eyes and ears on the ground in Gaza. They are now facing the same dire circumstances as those they are covering. 'Journalists endure many deprivations and hardships in war zones. We are deeply alarmed that the threat of starvation is now one of them.' Prices continue to rise beyond control, and food scarcity has soared to an unprecedented level in the Gaza Strip, in the 21st month of a destructive Israeli invasion and bombardment that Palestinian health officials say has killed more than 60,000 people. The war and invasion began on 7 October 2023 in response to attacks perpetrated on Israel by Hamas militants, who killed 1,200 people and captured at least 250 hostages. Ihab Abdullah, a 43-year-old university lecturer who is the breadwinner for nine family members, said that every night before he goes to sleep, he asks: 'How will I provide for my children today? I can bear the hunger, but what about my children?' 'We have become unable to buy or find food in the markets. We live in daily hunger, because the most needed commodity, flour, is not available in sufficient quantities. We are in a situation where we cannot buy food, even if we have money. Those who have money and those who do not have money are the same. Purchasing value has disappeared.' Younis Abu Odeh, a 32-year-old who is displaced in Gaza, says he feels as if Palestinians have been 'put on a chicken farm and starved'. 'We are living through a war of extermination, famine, and psychological warfare,' Mr Odeh told The Independent. 'A war of displacement, a war of tents, a war of heat and sun.' The Israeli government insists it is not causing a famine. Spokesperson David Mencer said that the 'manmade shortage' of food has been 'engineered by Hamas'. Mr Mencer said on Wednesday that more than 4,400 aid trucks had entered Gaza between 19 and 22 July, containing food, flour and baby food. The deepening crisis came as Israel brought its delegation home from the Gaza ceasefire talks on Thursday after Hamas delivered a new response to a proposal for a truce and a hostages deal. The Israeli prime minister's office thanked mediators for their efforts and said the negotiators were returning home for 'further consultations'. Earlier it said Israel was reviewing the response from Hamas. In his statement, Sir Keir said: 'It is hard to see a hopeful future in such dark times. But I must reiterate my call for all sides to engage in good faith, and at pace, to bring about an immediate ceasefire, and for Hamas to unconditionally release all hostages. We strongly support the efforts of the US, Qatar and Egypt to secure this. 'We are clear that statehood is the inalienable right of the Palestinian people. A ceasefire will put us on a path to the recognition of a Palestinian state and a two-state solution, which guarantees peace and security for Palestinians and Israelis.'
