
Scale of Gaza hunger is seen from space as satellite pics show crowd surround aid trucks after UN declares famine
Thousands of starving Palestinians can be seen crowding around aid trucks begging for food in the war-torn Strip.
8
8
8
The pictures were taken before the United Nations warned of a serious famine being created in Hamas territory.
Images from the south of the Strip show civilians gathering around 15 lorries which were all sent into Gaza filled with food.
Away from the surging crowds sits evidence of the gruelling conditions in which Palestinians have been living in for just under two years now.
Makeshift tents and crumbling buildings are spread across the Strip with a ceasefire deal with Hamas thugs and Israeli forces yet to be agreed.
Global leaders, including UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and US President Donald Trump, have said a peace deal must be made to save those living under the awful conditions.
The calls for a ceasefire have been amplified in recent days after the global body responsible for monitoring hunger warned Gazans are now experiencing the "worst-case scenario of famine".
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), an initiative made up of 21 aid groups, governments and UN agencies, announced: "Mounting evidence shows that widespread starvation, malnutrition, and disease are driving a rise in hunger-related deaths."
Famine has not yet been confirmed in the region with the IPC still trying to ascertain all the facts on the ground.
They will need to prove at least 20 per cent of Gaza's 2.1 million population - 420,000 people - are experiencing an "extreme" lack of food.
More than 30 per cent of children under five also have to be suffering from acute malnutrition with at least two people per 10,000 dying from starvation per day.
Israel to allow foreign aid to parachute into Gaza but continues bombardment despite growing global pleas for ceasefire
In July, at least 63 people, including 24 children under five, died from hunger, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Hamas' health ministry claims 127 people have died from a lack of food since Israel launched a counter attack inside Gaza following October 7.
It alleges at least a third of them are children.
The scale of hunger comes after Israel accused Hamas of treating civilians in the Strip as pawns and human shields.
Israel has also claimed the terrorists are stealing food from aid trucks.
Earlier this month, 20 people were killed at an aid distribution site in Gaza after a "chaotic and dangerous" crowd surge.
The US and Israel-backed GHF said it believed the harrowing push was "driven by agitators in the crowd" who were affiliated to Hamas.
Harrowing scenes also saw Palestinian people overrun food trucks carrying aid into Gaza.
Distressing footage shared by Turkish news site TRT shows a sea of starving Gazans desperately climbing onto vehicles to reach food.
8
8
8
Some individuals appear to manage to grab boxes of aid, while other malnourished people seem to scramble to safety due to the heaving crowds.
Israel announced a pause in fighting over the weekend and have started to allow food to be air dropped into Gaza.
They are also working on opening up new supply corridors for aid workers to safely deliver food.
Military operations will be halted for 10 hours each day as officials look to establish the new designated humanitarian aid corridors.
It comes as Trump has revealed he has a mystery plan with Israel to end the war in Gaza and announced a mission to get aid to starving Palestinians.
The US President vowed to set up food centres across Gaza - insisting: "We want to get the children fed."
He described the scenes as "terrible" - adding: "We have to help on a humanitarian basis.
He also distanced himself from comments made by Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who insisted there was no starvation in Gaza.
Netanyahu had said on Sunday: "There is no policy of starvation in Gaza and there is no starvation in Gaza."
Asked if he agreed with the Israeli PM, Trump said: "I don't know. I mean, based on television, I would say not, particularly because those children look very hungry."
8
8
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


ITV News
an hour ago
- ITV News
Gaza is 'on the brink' but what does it take for famine to be declared?
The United Nations has warned that the "worst-case scenario of famine" is "playing out" in Gaza and the situation had reached a deadly point. The Secretary General António Guterres said Gaza was "on the brink of famine" but stopped short of formally declaring famine in the region. "Palestinians in Gaza are enduring a humanitarian catastrophe of epic proportions," he said. "This is not a warning. "It is a reality unfolding before our eyes. "This nightmare must end." The latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) alert showed two out of three famine thresholds had been breached in Gaza and the situation had drastically worsened over the past few months. It has warned that failing to act would result in "widespread death". So why hasn't a famine officially been declared? When is a famine declared? Declarations are generally made by the UN using data and analysis from the IPC. Famine is defined as a severe, widespread shortage of food leading to malnutrition, starvation and death. For a region to be classified as in famine, it must meet these three conditions: 1) One in five households have an extreme lack of food 2) At least 30 per cent of the population is acutely malnourished 3) At least two people - or four children under the age of five - in every 10,000 die from starvation daily What is the situation in Gaza? Two out of three famine thresholds have been breached in Gaza, according to the IPC. Its data showed more than one in three people - 39 per cent - of the Gaza population had an extreme lack of food and were going days without eating. The IPC said more than 500,000 people – that is nearly a quarter of Gaza's population – were enduring famine-like conditions, while the rest of the population faced 'emergency levels of hunger'. According to the UN World Food Programme, every child under the age of five in Gaza - more than 320,000 children - was at risk of acute malnutrition. In June, 6,500 children were admitted for treatment for malnutrition, the highest number since the conflict began. "This signals a critical deterioration in nutritional status and a sharp rise in the risk of death from hunger and malnutrition," the IPC said. But the threshold not yet met, according to the IPC, was the number of deaths from starvation. Gaza's Hamas-run Health Ministry said 89 children had died showing signs of hunger and malnutrition since the war began and that 65 adults had also died from malnutrition-related causes since June. But the IPC said collecting robust data under the current circumstances in Gaza remained very difficult, as health systems, already decimated by nearly three years of conflict, were collapsing. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said no-one was starving in Gaza and that Israel has supplied enough aid during the war. How important is a formal declaration of famine? According to the WFP Executive Director Cindy McCain, waiting for a formal declaration of famine would be too late. "Waiting for official confirmation of famine to provide life-saving food aid they desperately need is unconscionable," she said. "We need to flood Gaza with large-scale food aid, immediately and without obstruction and keep it flowing each and every day to prevent mass starvation. "People are already dying of malnutrition, and the longer we wait to act, the higher the death toll will rise." The humanitarian director for Save the Children International Rachael Cummings agreed. 'If we don't have the conditions to react to this mass starvation, we will see this exponential rise,' she said. 'So we will see thousands and potentially tens of thousands of people die in Gaza. "That is preventable.' How can the risk of famine in Gaza be reversed? The Gaza population relies on aid and it needs more than 62,000 tons every month to cover basic humanitarian food and nutrition assistance, according to UN agencies. Following international pressure, Israel promised new measures at the weekend to help allow aid into Gaza, including pauses in fighting and designated humanitarian corridors. But organisations operating in the territory said "barely a trickle" of what was required had managed to get through. COGAT, the Israeli military body that facilitates the entry of aid, said more than 220 trucks entered Gaza on Tuesday. But UN agencies say that is far below the 500 to 600 trucks a day that are needed. Food is one thing but WFP and UNICEF have warned that the lack of fuel, water and other vital aid was also undermining their efforts to prevent famine and deaths. The aid agencies said allowing commercial food imports into the region was also critical to provide dietary needs, like fresh fruit, vegetables, dairy products and protein. Along with restoring essential services, such as health, water and sewage infrastructure. How many famines have been declared in the world? Famine declarations are rare. The IPC declared a famine in Somalia in 2011, South Sudan in 2017 and 2020 and parts of Sudan's western Darfur region in 2024.


The Herald Scotland
8 hours ago
- The Herald Scotland
Trump will bring back push up, mile run test for school kids
Counting push ups in the gym. On July 31, President Donald Trump will sign an executive order that reestablishes the Presidential Fitness Test for teens and preteens in America's public schools, said White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt. The fitness test requires students to complete a range of physical challenges ranging from sit-ups to pull-ups. "MAKE AMERICA FIT AGAIN!" Leavitt wrote in a post on X. The Presidential Fitness Test was a part of American physical education classes from the time it was first initiated by President Dwight Eisenhower in 1956 to the 2012-2013 school year. That's when President Barack Obama replaced it with a program designed to focus on long-term student health over physical performance. Donald Trump invites athletes To White House as he reinstates Presidential Fitness Test What does Trump's order say? The executive order says the Trump administration is reintroducing the test in the nation's public schools because of the high rates of obesity and chronic disease in the United States. Trump directed Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to renew the test. The president also reestablished the President's Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition, formerly known as the President's Council on Youth Fitness, created by Eisenhower in 1956. The White House called the move an attempt "to develop bold and innovative fitness goals for young Americans with the aim of fostering a new generation of healthy, active citizens." Trump directed the reestablished council to create school-based programs that "reward excellence in physical education and develop criteria for a Presidential Fitness Award" in his order. "This Order ensures American youth will have opportunities at the global, national, State, and local levels that emphasize the importance of an active lifestyle, good nutrition, American sports, and military readiness," the White House said in a statement to USA TODAY. Why did the Presidential Fitness Test go away? The Obama administration replaced the Presidential Fitness Test with the Presidential Youth Fitness Program to shift the focus on physical fitness in schools away from student performance and toward students' overall health as they grow into adulthood. "The program minimizes comparisons between children and instead supports students as they pursue personal fitness goals for lifelong health," reads a previous description of the program from the Department of Health and Human Services website. Paul Roetert, former chief executive officer of the Society of Health and Physical Educators, said at the time that it was implemented "to keep fitness in a positive mode," Education Week reported in 2012."Children's individual fitness scores will not be used as a criteria for grading in physical education class and will be confidential between the teacher, student and parent," Roetert said. Nancy Brown, chief executive officer of the American Heart Association, also supported the change when it was implemented more than a decade ago, the news outlet reported. "This assessment will be a great way to evaluate the health impact of physical education programs in schools and allow for a standardized comparison of fitness levels of children across the country," Brown said. Contact Kayla Jimenez at kjimenez@ Follow her on X at @kaylajjimenez.


The Guardian
12 hours ago
- The Guardian
Trump revives presidential fitness test – will US students run a mile?
Donald Trump announced on Thursday that he is re-establishing the presidential fitness test, a way of assessing the fitness level of American students. The test was administered in public middle and high schools in the United States from 1966 to 2013, when the Obama administration replaced it with the presidential youth fitness program – a similar physical assessment program, but with more focus on health education. The health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr – vaccine skeptic and key figure in the 'Make America Healthy Again' movement – will be in charge of administering the test. In a statement reported by the AP, the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said the president 'wants to ensure America's future generations are strong, healthy, and successful' and that young Americans 'have the opportunity to emphasize health, active lifestyles – creating a culture of strength and excellence for years to come'. Below, what you need to know about the presidential fitness test. Initiated by Dwight D Eisenhower in 1956, the test changed over the years, but generally consisted of five parts: a one-mile run, a shuttle run (moving as quickly as possible back and forth between two points), pull-ups or push-ups, sit-ups and the sit-and-reach (sitting on the ground with your legs outstretched and seeing how far down your legs your hands can reach). According to the Harvard Health blog, the aim of the test was to 'assess cardiovascular fitness, upper-body and core strength, endurance, flexibility, and agility'. The test derives from the Kraus-Weber test for muscular fitness, an assessment developed by Dr Hans Kraus and Dr Sonja Weber. The test was administered to thousands of students across the US and Europe. Researchers found that European students performed significantly better than their American counterparts: 59.7% of US students failed at least one of the test's six exercises, compared with only 8.7% of European students. According to a 1955 Sports Illustrated article, when Kraus presented his findings at the White House, President Eisenhower declared the problem 'a serious one'. The president seemed less worried about children's health and wellbeing than he did their combat preparedness. According to the Department of Health and Human Service's 50th anniversary booklet about the test, 'his chief concern seemed to be the vulnerability to the red army'. 'Our growing softness, our increasing lack of physical fitness, is a menace to our security,' Eisenhower said. It doesn't seem so. A 2025 report in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that from 2007 to 2023, trends had 'significantly worsened' for 'child mortality; chronic physical, developmental and mental health conditions; obesity; sleep health; early puberty; limitations in activity; and physical and emotional symptoms'. And when it comes to competition with Europe, the US is faring even worse than it did before. Dr Christopher Forrest, one of the study's authors, told NPR that back in the 1960s, 'the chance that a child was going to die in the United States was the same as European nations'. But from 2010 to 2023, 'kids in the United States were 80% more likely to die', than those in Europe.