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Surgeon shows humanitarian crisis in Gaza's hospitals

Surgeon shows humanitarian crisis in Gaza's hospitals

CNN4 days ago
Dr. Nick Maynard has been recording video diaries for CNN for over 15 years. In this report, Dr. Maynard shows what is happening inside Gaza's hospitals amid aid blockades and airstrikes. CNN's Nada Bashir reports.
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Monday Briefing: Dozens Killed in Gaza
Monday Briefing: Dozens Killed in Gaza

New York Times

time2 hours ago

  • New York Times

Monday Briefing: Dozens Killed in Gaza

Israel killed dozens of Palestinians looking for aid, Gaza officials said Israeli forces yesterday killed and wounded dozens of Palestinians who were gathered in northern Gaza to receive aid from U.N. trucks entering the territory, the Gaza health ministry and health workers said. The health ministry and a hospital director in Gaza City said that more than 60 people were killed in the attack, which took place near the Zikim crossing between the Gaza Strip and Israel. A nearby field hospital was flooded with victims, including more than 100 who were wounded. Israel's military said that its soldiers fired warning shots, and that they then opened fire to 'remove an immediate threat,' which it did not specify. It also said the reported toll from the violence did 'not align' with its review, and that it was continuing to examine the episode. The U.N. World Food Program said that its convoy of 25 trucks carrying food for Palestinians was entering northern Gaza when it 'encountered massive crowds of hungry civilians which came under gunfire.' Chaos has dominated aid distribution in Gaza, where Palestinians are facing widespread hunger. Israeli soldiers have repeatedly opened fire near huge crowds of Palestinians desperate for food and other aid. Evacuations: After the shooting, the Israeli military warned Palestinians to leave the populated areas of northern Gaza and parts of Gaza City, describing them as 'combat zones.' Want all of The Times? Subscribe.

Four-year-old girl dies of hunger in Gaza as Israel throttles food supply
Four-year-old girl dies of hunger in Gaza as Israel throttles food supply

CNN

time3 hours ago

  • CNN

Four-year-old girl dies of hunger in Gaza as Israel throttles food supply

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 far 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 northern 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.'

At least 85 Palestinians killed while trying to reach aid in Gaza, officials say
At least 85 Palestinians killed while trying to reach aid in Gaza, officials say

CBS News

time5 hours ago

  • CBS News

At least 85 Palestinians killed while trying to reach aid in Gaza, officials say

At least 85 Palestinians were killed while trying to reach aid at locations across Gaza on Sunday, the Hamas-run Health Ministry said, in one of the deadliest days yet for aid-seekers in over 21 months of war. There was new alarm as Israel's military issued evacuation orders for areas of central Gaza, one of the few areas where it has rarely operated with ground troops and where many international organizations attempting to distribute aid are located. The largest toll was in northern Gaza, where at least 67 Palestinians were killed while trying to reach aid entering through the Zikim crossing with Israel, according to the Health Ministry and local hospitals. The U.N. World Food Program said 25 trucks with aid had entered for "starving communities" when it encountered massive crowds that came under gunfire. It called violence against aid-seekers "completely unacceptable." The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a U.S.-based organization that has been distributing aid in the territory, said in a statement Sunday that its workers were "deeply saddened by reports that more than 30 people were killed while trying to access food from a U.N. convoy at the Zikim crossing in Northern Gaza as humanitarian efforts face escalating violence." The foundation said it distributed 31,968 boxes of aid throughout the day at two distribution sites. Some witnesses said Israel's military shot into the crowd at the Zikim crossing. The Israel Defense Forces said they "fired warning shots in order to remove an immediate threat." "Suddenly, tanks surrounded us and trapped us as gunshots and strikes rained down. We were trapped for around two hours," said Ehab Al-Zei, who had been waiting for flour. "I will never go back again. Let us die of hunger, it's better." Nafiz Al-Najjar, who was injured, said tanks and drones targeted people "randomly" and he saw his cousin and others shot dead. Israel's military said soldiers had shot at a gathering of thousands of Palestinians in northern Gaza who posed a threat, and it was aware of some casualties. But it said the numbers reported by officials in Gaza were far higher than its initial investigation found. The military said it was attempting to facilitate the entry of aid, and accused Hamas militants of creating chaos and endangering civilians. More than 150 people were wounded overall, with some in critical condition, hospitals said. Separately, seven Palestinians were killed while sheltering in tents in Khan Younis in the south, including a 5-year-old boy, according to the Kuwait Specialized Field Hospital, which received the casualties. The killings in northern Gaza didn't take place near aid distribution points associated with the recently created Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a U.S.- and Israel-backed group. Witnesses and health workers say hundreds of people have been killed by Israeli fire while trying to access the group's aid distribution sites. The new evacuation orders cut access between the central city of Deir al-Balah and the southern cities of Rafah and Khan Younis in the narrow territory. The military also reiterated evacuation orders for northern Gaza. The United Nations has been in contact with Israeli authorities to clarify whether U.N. facilities in the southwestern part of Deir al-Balah are included in the evacuation order, according to a U.N. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak to the media. The official said that in previous instances, U.N. facilities were spared from evacuation orders. The latest order covers an area stretching from a previously evacuated area all the way to the Mediterranean coast and will severely hamper movement for aid groups and civilians in Gaza. Military spokesman Avichay Adraee called for people to head to the Muwasi area, a desolate tent camp on Gaza's southern coast that Israel's military has designated a humanitarian zone. The announcement came as Israel and Hamas have been holding ceasefire talks in Qatar, but international mediators say there have been no breakthroughs. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly asserted that expanding Israel's military operations in Gaza will pressure Hamas in negotiations. Also on Sunday, Pope Leo XIV reiterated his call for an immediate ceasefire, urging the international community to respect international laws and protect civilians in the wake of an Israeli attack on Gaza's only Catholic church last week, which killed three people and wounded 10 others, including the priest. Earlier this month, Israel's military said it controlled more than 65% of Gaza. Gaza's population of more than 2 million Palestinians are in a catastrophic humanitarian crisis, now relying largely on the limited aid allowed into the territory. Many people have been displaced multiple times. Hamas triggered the war when militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 others hostage. Most of the hostages or their remains have been released through various deals, while 50 remain in Gaza, but fewer than half are thought to be alive. Israel's military offensive has killed more than 58,800 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Hamas-run Health Ministry, which doesn't say how many militants have been killed but says more than half of the dead have been women and children. The ministry is part of the Hamas government, but the U.N. and other international organizations see it as the most reliable source of data on casualties. The Hostages Family Forum, a grassroots organization that represents many families of hostages, condemned the new evacuation announcement and demanded that Netanyahu and Israel's military explain what they hope to accomplish in central Gaza, accusing Israel of operating without a clear plan. "Enough! The Israeli people overwhelmingly want an end to the fighting and a comprehensive agreement that will return all of the hostages," the forum said. On Saturday night, during a weekly protest, tens of thousands marched in Tel Aviv to the branch of the U.S. Embassy, demanding an end to the war. Ambulances in front of three major hospitals in Gaza sounded their alarms simultaneously Sunday morning in an urgent appeal as the hunger crisis grows. The Health Ministry posted pictures on social media of doctors holding signs about malnourished children and the lack of medication. A ministry spokesperson, Zaher al-Wahidi, said at least nine children under 5 years old have died of malnutrition since Israel imposed a blockade on the entry of aid in March. The blockade was partially eased in May. He said tracking malnutrition deaths is difficult because some people might be suffering from other medical conditions that could be compounded with severe hunger. In northern Gaza, Shifa Hospital director Abu Selmiyah said the hospital recorded 79 people who died of malnutrition in the past month.

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