Israel bombards Gaza City as UK and allies urge action against 'famine unfolding'
It has accused UN agencies of not picking up aid at the borders and delivering it.The joint statement also demanded an end to the use of lethal force near aid distribution sites and lorry convoys, where the UN says more than 1,300 Palestinians have been killed, mostly by the Israeli military.Separately, the World Health Organisation on Tuesday appealed to Israel to let it stock medical supplies to deal with a "catastrophic" health situation before it seizes control of Gaza City."We all hear about 'more humanitarian supplies are allowed in' - well it's not happening yet, or it's happening at a way too low a pace," said Rik Peeperkorn, the agency's representative in the Palestinian territories."We want to as quickly stock up hospitals," he added. "We currently cannot do that. We need to be able to get all essential medicines and medical supplies in."Israel's war cabinet voted on Monday to occupy Gaza City, a move condemned at an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council later that day. On Tuesday the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it was "at the beginning of a new state of combat".The Israeli government has not provided an exact timetable on when its forces would enter the area. On Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel's forces had been instructed to dismantle the "two remaining Hamas strongholds" in Gaza City and a central area around al-Mawasi.He also outlined a three-step plan to increase aid in Gaza, including designating safe corridors for aid distribution, as well as more air drops by Israeli forces and other partners.On the ground, however, residents of Gaza City said they had come under unrelenting attack from the air. Majed al-Hosary, a resident in Zeitoun in Gaza City, told AFP that the attacks had been "extremely intense for two days". "With every strike, the ground shakes. There are martyrs under the rubble that no one can reach because the shelling hasn't stopped," he said.The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said that 100 dead had been brought to hospitals across Gaza over the past 24 hours, including 31 people who were killed at aid sites. Five more people had also died of malnutrition, it added.Israel has faced mounting criticism over the 22-month-long war with Hamas, with UN-backed experts warning of widespread famine unfolding in the besieged territory.On Tuesday members of an international group of former leaders known as "The Elders" for the first time called the war in Gaza an "unfolding genocide" and blamed Israel for causing famine among its population. Following a visit to the Gaza border, Helen Clark and Mary Robinson, a former prime minister of New Zealand and a former president of Ireland, said in a joint statement: "What we saw and heard underlines our personal conviction that there is not only an unfolding, human-caused famine in Gaza. There is an unfolding genocide."
The statement mirrors those of leading Israeli rights groups, including B'Tselem, which said it had reached an "unequivocal conclusion" that Israel was attempting to "destroy Palestinian society in the Gaza Strip".Israel strongly rejects the accusations, saying its forces target terrorists and never civilians, and that Hamas was responsible for the suffering in Gaza.On Sunday, the IDF killed five Al Jazeera journalists in a targeted attack on a media tent in Gaza City, sparking widespread international condemnation. It said it had killed well known reporter Anas al-Sharif, whom it alleged "served as the head of a terrorist cell in Hamas", and made no mention of the others. Media freedom groups said it had provided little evidence for its claims. Al Jazeera's managing editor said Israel wanted to "silence the coverage of any channel of reporting from inside Gaza".Hamas killed more than 1,200 people and took 251 hostage in its attack on Israel on 7 October 2023. Israel's response in Gaza has killed at least 61,599 Palestinians, according to the health ministry, whose toll the UN considers reliable.
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The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Gaza's sick children wait in torturous limbo for medical evacuations
Abdel Karim Wahdan no longer has the energy to speak. When visitors arrive, the eight-year-old pretends to be sleeping so that no one looks at him. Between his frequent dialysis sessions, he cries. His bones hurt, he says. Abdel Karim is dying. His death should be preventable but because he lives in Gaza he cannot access the treatment that would save his life. What started as acute kidney failure is now chronic: his small body has begun to swell and he spends his days between hospital beds and injections that he hates. 'My son suffers greatly. The hospital has become his home. The doctors stand helpless and I can only watch and pray,' said his mother, Najwa Wahdan. As the sickness progressed, Abdel Karim was also diagnosed with malnutrition as food began to disappear from Gaza's markets. His only hope is to be evacuated from Gaza to receive medical treatment abroad. Wahdan filed a medical referral four months ago but is still waiting. Abdel Karim is one of thousands of people in Gaza waiting for treatment abroad. Getting approved for a medical evacuation is a long, arduous process that can take years. Zahir al-Wehadi, the head of the information department at the Gaza ministry of health, said: 'We have more than 16,000 patients [in Gaza] who need treatment abroad. We have already lost more than 600 patients who died while still waiting to travel.' Tens of thousands of people in Gaza have been wounded by Israeli strikes and gunfire over the past 22 months of a war that has killed more than 61,000 people. Disease and sickness, much of which were not present in Gaza prior to the war, are rife in the territory as solid waste accumulates and people live tightly packed together with limited access to clean water or hygiene products. Repeated Israeli attacks on Gaza's hospitals and Israel's blockade of basic goods into the territory have left the medical sector devastated. Doctors in Gaza say that often they do not have the supplies to treat patients. In those cases they write a referral for the patients to be evacuated abroad. Israel controls who enters and leaves Gaza. People who need medical treatment abroad must have their exit approved by Cogat, the Israeli military agency in charge of humanitarian affairs for Palestinians. In December, the World Health Organization said the pace of medical evacuations out of Gaza was so slow that it would take five to 10 years to clear the backlog. Cogat has been approached for comment. Waiting for medical evacuation is torturous. Patients and their families have no ability to speed up the process and can do nothing but hope that approval comes before death does. During their long wait, Abdel Karim's physical and mental state has deteriorated. He has lost the ability to walk and when his blood pressure drops too low he temporarily goes blind and has seizures. 'What I loved most about Abdel Karim was his calmness; he never caused trouble like other children,' his mother said. 'He loved studying Arabic and English. He once wanted to become a doctor.' But the months of sickness have taken its toll on the once happy child. 'For the last three months he has been withdrawn, irritable, yelling often and not speaking to anyone – this is not the calm son I knew before,' Wahdan said. Many children have died while waiting for their evacuation approval. Amina al-Jourani was not too worried when in January 2024 her 15-year-old son, Nidal, came home with a foot injury. Israel had bombed a nearby house and Nidal had gone to the scene to help transport wounded people to the hospital on his bicycle. When he returned to his home he had a small gash on his foot. 'At first we didn't pay it much attention. It seemed like a simple, ordinary wound,' Jourani said. But in the following days Nidal developed a fever. He began to lose weight and his skin was covered with red spots. It was a year and a half before doctors approved a request to transfer Nidal abroad, as his condition, though persistent, did not seem to be life-threatening. The hospital he was staying in, the European hospital, was bombed and he was sent home. His fever spiked and his foot turned blue. Nidal went to another hospital where they diagnosed him with kidney failure. He died two days later, on 2 June 2025. Doctors say it is impossible to deal with the caseload, particularly as the humanitarian situation has worsened since Israel instituted a harsh blockade of aid on Gaza in March. Aid groups have said a worst-case famine scenario is unfolding in Gaza. Israel denies there is a starvation crisis in Gaza and says the UN is to blame for poor distribution of aid – a claim that aid bodies uniformly reject. Ragheb Warsh Agha, the head of the gastroenterology department at al-Rantisi children's hospital, said: 'Many children die because of the lack of resources or the lack of response to transfer requests. In many cases the child's treatment is simple – for example, we may need basic medicines, specific treatments that are unavailable, or to conduct tests for which the necessary equipment does not exist.' Agha said the overcrowded hospital often had to place three children in a single bed, which encouraged the spread of disease. Gaza's starvation crisis has also meant disease spreads more easily. Lack of food weakens people's immune systems and makes them more susceptible to sickness. Recovery is more difficult when the body does not have food. For parents waiting for the mechanisms of bureaucracy to give them the slip of paper that means life for their children, the helplessness is agonising. Jourani said: 'At the height of his illness, Nidal gave me 100 shekel he had saved and he told me: 'Mom, keep this for me so I can buy lots of sweets, chocolate and snacks when the [border] crossing opens.' Two and a half months after Nidal's death, his mother received a message: his referral had been approved, his request to be evacuated granted. 'Nidal died and the money is still in my purse,' she said through tears. 'He died waiting for the crossings to open.'
North Wales Chronicle
2 hours ago
- North Wales Chronicle
At least 25 killed by Israeli gunfire while seeking aid, say health officials
Mr Netanyahu wants to realise US President Donald Trump's vision of relocating much of Gaza's population of more than two million people through what the prime minister refers to as 'voluntary migration' – and what critics have warned could be ethnic cleansing. 'Give them the opportunity to leave! First, from combat zones, and also from the Strip if they want,' Mr Netanyahu said in an interview aired on Tuesday with i24, an Israeli TV station, to discuss the planned offensive in some of the territory's most populated areas including Gaza City. 'We are not pushing them out but allowing them to leave.' Witnesses and staff at Nasser and Awda hospitals, which received the bodies, said people were killed on their way to aid distribution sites and while awaiting convoys entering the Gaza Strip. Israel did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Efforts to revive ceasefire talks have resumed after apparently breaking down last month. Hamas and Egyptian officials met on Wednesday in Cairo, according to Hamas official Taher al-Nounou. Israel has no plans to send its negotiating team to talks in Cairo, the prime minister's office said. Israel has said it will widen its military offensive against Hamas to the areas of Gaza that it does not yet control, where most of the territory's residents have sought refuge. Those plans have sparked international condemnation and criticism within Israel, and could be intended to raise pressure on Hamas to reach a ceasefire. The militants still hold 50 hostages taken in the October 7 2023 attack that sparked the war. Israel believes around 20 of them are alive. Mr Netanyahu was asked by i24 News if the window had closed on a partial ceasefire deal and he responded that he wanted all of the hostages back, alive and dead. Egyptian foreign minister Badr Abdelatty told reporters that Cairo is still trying to advance an earlier proposal for an initial 60-day ceasefire, the release of some hostages and an influx of humanitarian aid before further talks on a lasting truce. Hamas has long called for a comprehensive deal but says it will only release the remaining hostages in return for the release of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel, a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. The militant group has refused to lay down its arms as Israel has demanded. Israel and South Sudan are in talks about relocating Palestinians to the war-torn East African nation, The Associated Press (AP) reported on Tuesday. The office of Israel's deputy foreign minister Sharren Haskel said on Wednesday that she was arriving in South Sudan for a series of meetings in the first visit by a senior government official to the country, but she did not plan to broach the subject of moving Palestinians. In a statement on Wednesday, South Sudan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs called reports that it was engaging in discussions with Israel about resettling Palestinians baseless. The AP previously reported that US and Israel have reached out to officials of three East African governments to discuss using their territories as potential destinations for moving Palestinians uprooted from Gaza. Among those killed while seeking aid on Wednesday were 14 Palestinians in the Teina area approximately 3km away from a food distribution site run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), according to staff at Nasser hospital. Hashim Shamalah, who was trying to reach the sites, said Israeli troops fired towards them as people tried to get through. Many were shot and fell while fleeing, he said. Five other Palestinians were killed by Israeli gunfire while trying to reach another GHF distribution site in the Netzarim corridor area, according to Awda hospital and witnesses. The US and Israel support the GHF, an American contractor, as an alternative to the United Nations, which they say allows Hamas to siphon off aid. The UN, which has delivered aid throughout Gaza for decades when conditions allow, denies the allegations. The GHF said there were no incidents at or near its sites on Wednesday. There are aid convoys from other groups that travel within 100 metres (328ft) of GHF sites and draw large crowds attempting to loot them. An overwhelming majority of violent incidents over the past few weeks have been related to those other aid convoys, the organisation said, noting it has provided more than one million meals to aid seekers. At least six other people were killed by Israeli fire waiting for aid trucks close to the Morag corridor, which separates parts of southern Gaza, Nasser hospital said. The UN and food security experts have warned starvation and malnutrition in Gaza are at the highest levels since the war began. UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric on Tuesday reported the warning from the World Food Programme and said the Gaza Health Ministry told UN staff in Gaza that five people died over the previous 24 hours from malnutrition and starvation. Gaza's Health Ministry says 106 children have died of malnutrition-related causes during the war and 129 adults have died since late June when the ministry started to count deaths among this age group. The UN and its humanitarian partners are doing everything possible to bring aid into Gaza, Mr Dujarric said, but still face significant delays and impediments from Israeli authorities who prevent the delivery of food and other essentials at the scale needed. Hamas-led militants abducted 251 people and killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in the 2023 attack. Most of the hostages have been released in ceasefires or other deals. Israel's air and ground offensive has since displaced most of Gaza's population, destroyed vast areas and pushed the territory towards famine. The offensive has killed more than 61,700 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not say how many were fighters or civilians but says around half were women and children. The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals. The UN and independent experts consider it the most reliable source on war casualties. Israel disputes its figures but has not provided its own.
Rhyl Journal
2 hours ago
- Rhyl Journal
At least 25 killed by Israeli gunfire while seeking aid, say health officials
Mr Netanyahu wants to realise US President Donald Trump's vision of relocating much of Gaza's population of more than two million people through what the prime minister refers to as 'voluntary migration' – and what critics have warned could be ethnic cleansing. 'Give them the opportunity to leave! First, from combat zones, and also from the Strip if they want,' Mr Netanyahu said in an interview aired on Tuesday with i24, an Israeli TV station, to discuss the planned offensive in some of the territory's most populated areas including Gaza City. 'We are not pushing them out but allowing them to leave.' Witnesses and staff at Nasser and Awda hospitals, which received the bodies, said people were killed on their way to aid distribution sites and while awaiting convoys entering the Gaza Strip. Israel did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Efforts to revive ceasefire talks have resumed after apparently breaking down last month. Hamas and Egyptian officials met on Wednesday in Cairo, according to Hamas official Taher al-Nounou. Israel has no plans to send its negotiating team to talks in Cairo, the prime minister's office said. Israel has said it will widen its military offensive against Hamas to the areas of Gaza that it does not yet control, where most of the territory's residents have sought refuge. Those plans have sparked international condemnation and criticism within Israel, and could be intended to raise pressure on Hamas to reach a ceasefire. The militants still hold 50 hostages taken in the October 7 2023 attack that sparked the war. Israel believes around 20 of them are alive. Mr Netanyahu was asked by i24 News if the window had closed on a partial ceasefire deal and he responded that he wanted all of the hostages back, alive and dead. Egyptian foreign minister Badr Abdelatty told reporters that Cairo is still trying to advance an earlier proposal for an initial 60-day ceasefire, the release of some hostages and an influx of humanitarian aid before further talks on a lasting truce. Hamas has long called for a comprehensive deal but says it will only release the remaining hostages in return for the release of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel, a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. The militant group has refused to lay down its arms as Israel has demanded. Israel and South Sudan are in talks about relocating Palestinians to the war-torn East African nation, The Associated Press (AP) reported on Tuesday. The office of Israel's deputy foreign minister Sharren Haskel said on Wednesday that she was arriving in South Sudan for a series of meetings in the first visit by a senior government official to the country, but she did not plan to broach the subject of moving Palestinians. In a statement on Wednesday, South Sudan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs called reports that it was engaging in discussions with Israel about resettling Palestinians baseless. The AP previously reported that US and Israel have reached out to officials of three East African governments to discuss using their territories as potential destinations for moving Palestinians uprooted from Gaza. Among those killed while seeking aid on Wednesday were 14 Palestinians in the Teina area approximately 3km away from a food distribution site run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), according to staff at Nasser hospital. Hashim Shamalah, who was trying to reach the sites, said Israeli troops fired towards them as people tried to get through. Many were shot and fell while fleeing, he said. Five other Palestinians were killed by Israeli gunfire while trying to reach another GHF distribution site in the Netzarim corridor area, according to Awda hospital and witnesses. The US and Israel support the GHF, an American contractor, as an alternative to the United Nations, which they say allows Hamas to siphon off aid. The UN, which has delivered aid throughout Gaza for decades when conditions allow, denies the allegations. The GHF said there were no incidents at or near its sites on Wednesday. There are aid convoys from other groups that travel within 100 metres (328ft) of GHF sites and draw large crowds attempting to loot them. An overwhelming majority of violent incidents over the past few weeks have been related to those other aid convoys, the organisation said, noting it has provided more than one million meals to aid seekers. At least six other people were killed by Israeli fire waiting for aid trucks close to the Morag corridor, which separates parts of southern Gaza, Nasser hospital said. The UN and food security experts have warned starvation and malnutrition in Gaza are at the highest levels since the war began. UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric on Tuesday reported the warning from the World Food Programme and said the Gaza Health Ministry told UN staff in Gaza that five people died over the previous 24 hours from malnutrition and starvation. Gaza's Health Ministry says 106 children have died of malnutrition-related causes during the war and 129 adults have died since late June when the ministry started to count deaths among this age group. The UN and its humanitarian partners are doing everything possible to bring aid into Gaza, Mr Dujarric said, but still face significant delays and impediments from Israeli authorities who prevent the delivery of food and other essentials at the scale needed. Hamas-led militants abducted 251 people and killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in the 2023 attack. Most of the hostages have been released in ceasefires or other deals. Israel's air and ground offensive has since displaced most of Gaza's population, destroyed vast areas and pushed the territory towards famine. The offensive has killed more than 61,700 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not say how many were fighters or civilians but says around half were women and children. The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals. The UN and independent experts consider it the most reliable source on war casualties. Israel disputes its figures but has not provided its own.
