UNRWA Condemns Israel's Starvation Tactics in Gaza, Demands Siege Lift
UNRWA reiterated its urgent plea for an end to the ongoing Israeli siege. The agency emphasized, 'Lift the siege: allow UNRWA to bring in food and medicines.' Despite international legal obligations to protect civilians and facilitate humanitarian aid, Israel has maintained a total siege on Gaza since March 2.
Convoys have faced bombings, border crossings remain blocked, and aid distribution points have been targeted. Rights groups widely condemn these actions as collective punishment and potential war crimes. According to Gaza's Health Ministry, dozens of children have died from starvation and dehydration. Furthermore, hundreds of thousands more are at risk due to the collapse of healthcare and widespread food insecurity. Recent Casualties and Ongoing Violence
On Saturday alone, Israeli strikes reportedly killed at least 136 Palestinians. This number includes 38 individuals waiting for aid and three children who succumbed to severe malnutrition, according to Palestinian officials. Israel's offensive on Gaza, which began in October 2023, has resulted in nearly 59,000 Palestinian deaths—most of whom are women and children, according to local health authorities.
The relentless bombing has devastated the enclave, crippling medical services and creating conditions described by aid agencies as famine-like. The international community must respond urgently to alleviate the suffering of Gaza's civilians and ensure the delivery of essential aid.
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Arab News
2 hours ago
- Arab News
UNRWA says some Gaza staff starving as malnutrition soars
GAZA CITY: The UN agency for Palestinian refugees said on Monday that it was 'receiving desperate messages of starvation' from its Gaza staff, as the Palestinian territory experiences surging levels of hunger. Gaza's population of more than two million people are facing severe shortages of food and other essentials, with doctors, the civil defense agency and medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) reporting a spike in malnutrition cases in recent days. In a post on X, UNRWA said that shortages in the Palestinian territory had caused food prices to increase by 40 times, while the aid stockpiled in its warehouses outside Gaza could feed 'the entire population for over three months.' 'The suffering in Gaza is manmade and must be stopped,' it wrote. 'Lift the siege and let aid in safely and at scale.' After talks to extend a six-week ceasefire broke down, Israel imposed a full blockade on Gaza on March 2, allowing nothing in until trucks were again permitted at a trickle in late May. The civil defense agency on Sunday reported at least three infant deaths from 'severe hunger and malnutrition' in the past week. Eighteen reportedly died of starvation within 24 hours between Saturday and Sunday, the ministry said. 'Infants under one year of age suffer from a lack of milk, which leads to a significant decrease in their weight and a decrease in their immunity that makes them vulnerable to diseases,' said Mohammed Abu Salmiya, the director of Gaza's Al-Shifa Hospital. Israel on Monday said there was 'no ban or restriction on the entry of baby formula or baby food into Gaza.' COGAT, the Israeli defense ministry body that oversees civilian affairs in the Palestinian territories, said that 'over 2,000 tons of baby food and infant formula were delivered into Gaza,' without specifying the time frame. 'We urge international organizations to continue coordinating with us to ensure the entry of baby food and formula without delay. Our commitment remains firm: to support humanitarian aid for civilians — not for Hamas,' COGAT wrote on X. The war was sparked by Hamas's 2023 attack on Israel which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures. Israel's military campaign in Gaza has killed 59,029 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.
Saudi Gazette
7 hours ago
- Saudi Gazette
Four-year-old girl dies of hunger in Gaza as Israel throttles food supply
GAZA — Four-year old Razan Abu Zaher gave up her fight for life on Sunday. She died at a hospital in central Gaza from complications brought on by hunger and malnutrition, according to a medical source. Her skeletal body was laid out on a slab of stone. At least 76 children in Gaza have died of malnutrition since the conflict began in October 2023, as well as ten adults, the Palestinian health ministry says. According to the World Health Organization, most of these occurred since Israeli authorities imposed a blockade at the beginning of March. Razan was one of at least four children to succumb in the last three days, the youngest just three months. Over the past 24 hours, 18 deaths have been recorded due to famine in Gaza, the health ministry says, reflecting a deepening crisis in the territory. CNN first met Razan a month ago. She was already weak with hunger and pitifully thin. Her mother, Tahrir Abu Daher, said then that she had no money to buy milk, which was in any case rarely available. 'Her health was very good before the war, but after the war, her condition began to deteriorate due to malnutrition. There is nothing to strengthen her.' That was on June 23. Razan had already been in hospital for 12 days. She clung on to life for another 27 days. Razan died amid growing starvation in Gaza, with the flow of humanitarian aid severely reduced since the beginning of March, when Israeli authorities banned convoys from entering Gaza. That ban was partially lifted at the end of May, but aid agencies say the amounts reaching the territory are too little to sustain the population. Israel said it was halting shipments of aid into Gaza because Hamas was stealing and profiting from it - an allegation Hamas denies. Israeli agencies also say the United Nations has not picked up aid ready to move into Gaza. The UN in turn has said that Israeli forces frequently deny permission to move aid within Gaza, and that much more is waiting to be allowed in. The Israeli agency that manages the flow of aid into the Gaza strip, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), said in a statement that the IDF is 'working to allow and facilitate the transfer' of humanitarian aid, including food. 'Since the beginning of the hostilities and up to this day, approximately 67,000 food trucks have entered the Gaza Strip, delivering around 1.5 million tons of food,' COGAT said. 'Israel will continue to facilitate the entry of food' into Gaza, COGAT said, 'while taking all possible measures to prevent the terrorist organization Hamas from seizing the aid.' Gaza was heavily dependent on aid and commercial shipments of food before the conflict began in October 2023, and shortages of food, medical supplies, fuel and other necessities have only worsened since. The scarcity of food since March has sent a rapidly growing number of people to already overwhelmed hospitals. 'Gaza is witnessing the worst phase of famine, which has reached catastrophic levels amid unprecedented international silence,' said Dr. Khalil Al-Daqran, the spokesman for al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital on Sunday, where Razan died. Al-Daqran said the infants who were now dying had been robbed of their childhood twice, 'once by bombing and killing, and again by depriving them of milk and a piece of bread.' The health ministry said Saturday that an 'unprecedented number of starving citizens of all ages are arriving at emergency departments in severe states of exhaustion and fatigue.' 'Hundreds whose bodies have been severely weakened are now at risk of imminent death due to hunger and their bodies' inability to endure any longer,' the ministry added. The Palestinian Center for Human Rights – an NGO working in Gaza - reported Sunday that one of its team in Gaza had said: 'Our faces have changed and our bodies have wasted away. We no longer recognize each other from extreme emaciation, as if we are slowly fading away and dying.' Dr. Suhaib Al-Hams, director of Kuwait field hospital in Khan Younis, told CNN that people arriving there were in 'dire need of food before medicine, as their bodies have reached a point beyond endurance and are all at risk of death.' 'Today, the World Central Kitchen stopped sending meals for the medical staff, they used to send us only rice. Doctors are working 24 hours a day with no food, neither at home nor at the hospital. People are dying of hunger,' Al-Hams said Sunday. World Central Kitchen confirmed its Gaza teams had run out of ingredients to cook warm meals. 'We served 80,000 meals yesterday [Saturday], emptying the last of our replenished stocks while aid trucks remain stuck at the border. 'This is the second time lack of access to aid has forced our kitchen operations to pause,' it added. In their desperation, thousands of people risk their lives every day to find something to eat. More than 70 people were reported to have been killed Sunday in Gaza as they desperately sought food aid, according to the health ministry, which said they had been shot by Israeli troops. The Israel Defense Forces said troops in the area 'fired warning shots in order to remove an immediate threat posed to them. The IDF is aware of the claim regarding casualties in the area, and the details of the incident are still being examined.' 'An initial review suggests that the number of casualties reported does not align with the information held by the IDF,' it added. Dr. Mohammed Abu Salmiya, director of Al-Shifa Hospital where many of the casualties were taken, said that 'a significant number of civilians, and even medical staff, are arriving in a state of fainting or collapse due to severe malnutrition.' Nearly 800 Palestinians were killed while trying to access aid in Gaza between late May and July 7, according to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). During that period, OHCHR recorded the killings of 798 people, 615 of whom were killed near sites of the controversial US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). It added that 183 others were killed 'on the routes of aid convoys' without giving details on who had been running those convoys. Dozens more have been killed since, according to the health ministry, including more than 30 in southern Gaza on Saturday. Tom Fletcher, the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, told the UN Security Council on Thursday that food was running out in Gaza. 'Those seeking it risk being shot. People are dying trying to feed their families.' He said that starvation rates among children had reached their highest levels in June, with more than 5,800 girls and boys diagnosed as acutely malnourished. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Friday it was receiving 'deeply troubling reports of malnourished children and adults being admitted to hospitals with little resources available to treat them properly.' On Saturday, Sarmad Tamimy, a plastic surgeon volunteering with Medical Aid for Palestinians, told CNN: 'Honestly, I feel the lucky ones get killed immediately because [of] the horrible horrors that they're going to face with their extensive injuries, with inadequate nutrition, inadequate medical supplies, infections, maggots, [and] hospital-acquired infections.' — CNN
Leaders
8 hours ago
- Leaders
Gaza Faces Deadliest Day for Aid Seekers as Malnutrition Threatens Children
Israeli forces opened fire on Palestinians trying to reach food in Gaza on Sunday, in one of the deadliest days for aid seekers in the war-torn enclave as malnutrition is threatening Palestinian children. Meanwhile, the Israeli military issued new evacuation orders for areas crowded with displaced people and international aid organizations in central Gaza, raising alarm over a new ground operation amid the rapidly deteriorating humanitarian situation in the Strip. Largest Death Toll On Sunday, at least 85 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire while seeking aid, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. Most of the victims, were in northern Gaza, as at least 79 people died while trying to get aid entering through the Zikim crossing with Israel, the head of the Health Ministry's records department, Zaher al-Waheidi, told the Associated Press (AP). Moreover, Israeli troops killed 6 Palestinians in the Shakoush area, near the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) in the southern city of Rafah, according to al-Waheidi. However, the US-backed organization said it was not aware of any incident near its site. Another 7 Palestinians were killed in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, including a 5-year-old boy, according to the Kuwait Specialized Field Hospital. Tragic Incident The UN World Food Program (WFP) said a convoy of 25 trucks carrying vital food aid had entered into the area to help starving communities, but the convoy faced large crowds of civilians desperately waiting for needed food supplies. Hospitals said they received more than 150 casualties, some in critical condition. 'As the convoy approached, the surrounding crowd came under fire from Israeli tanks, snipers and other gunfire,' the WFP said in a statement. It voiced deep concern over this 'tragic incident' that resulted in the loss of many lives. 'These people were simply trying to access food to feed themselves and their families on the brink of starvation. This terrible incident underscores the increasingly dangerous conditions under which humanitarian operations are forced to be conducted in Gaza,' the statement added. Israel Blames Hamas The Israeli military put the blame on Hamas, accusing the Palestinian movement's elements of creating chaos. It said Israeli forces opened fire at a gathering of thousands of Palestinians who posed a threat. The Israeli military acknowledged some casualties, but said that numbers reported by officials in Gaza were far higher than the findings of its initial investigation. Malnutrition Risks The WFP warned that the hunger crisis in Gaza has reached 'new levels of desperation' due to lack of humanitarian assistance and the spread of malnutrition among women and children. 'Malnutrition is surging with 90,000 women and children in urgent need of treatment. Nearly one person in three is not eating for days,' it said. As a result, the UN agency called for an immediate ceasefire to scale up food supplies distribution. 'We urgently call on the international community and all parties to advocate for, and facilitate, the delivery of life-saving food aid to starving populations inside Gaza – safely, securely, wherever families are, and without obstruction,' the WFP said. New Evacuation Orders The Israeli military issued new evacuation orders for parts of central Gaza, one of the few areas where Israel has rarely operated with ground troops. These areas also host large crowds of displaced people and several international organizations trying to distribute humanitarian assistance. The military also reiterated evacuation orders for northern Gaza. The new evacuation orders direct residents and displaced Palestinians in Deir al-Balah to move south towards al-Mawasi, saying that the Israeli military 'continues to operate with great force to destroy the enemy's capabilities and terrorist infrastructure in the area.' In response, the UN OCHA warned that the new evacuation orders 'dealt yet another devastating blow' to humanitarian efforts in Gaza, as Deir al-Balah hosts between 50,000 and 80,000 people, including some 30,000 people sheltering in 57 displacement sites. 'The newly-designated area includes several humanitarian warehouses, four primary health clinics, four medical points, and critical water infrastructure: the Southern Gaza Desalination Plant, three water wells, one water reservoir, one solid waste dumping site and one wastewater pumping station. Any damage to this infrastructure will have life-threatening consequences,' it said in a statement. Short link : Post Views: 81
