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Razan clung to life for 39 days. She died of hunger aged just 4

Razan clung to life for 39 days. She died of hunger aged just 4

9 News4 days ago
Your web browser is no longer supported. To improve your experience update it here 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. Razan Abu Zaher's shrouded body is carried after she died from malnutrition. (CNN) According to the World Health Organisation, 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." Razan Abu Zaher pictured when she was still alive in hospital on June 23. (CNN) 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 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 Co-ordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), said in a statement that the IDF was "working to allow and facilitate the transfer" of humanitarian aid, including food. Palestinian children queue for a portion of hot food distributed by a charity kitchen at the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on July 15. (CNN) "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 organisation 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, where Razan died. Al-Daqran said the infants who were 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 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 Centre for Human Rights – an NGO working in Gaza - reported over the weekend that one of its team in Gaza had said: "Our faces have changed and our bodies have wasted away. We no longer recognise 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." Palestinian rescuers arrive to evacuate injured people after an Israeli drone reportedly opened fire on civilian gatherings near an aid distribution point on June 1. (CNN) "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 on 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 Defence 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 Co-ordinator, 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 starvation rates among children had reached their highest levels in June, with more than 5800 girls and boys diagnosed as acutely malnourished. The UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on 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." Israel Hamas Conflict
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Palestinians in Gaza suffering from man-made ‘mass starvation', WHO says
Palestinians in Gaza suffering from man-made ‘mass starvation', WHO says

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Twenty-one months into Israel's war in Gaza, the enclave is gripped by escalating scenes of death and hunger, with some killed while trying to reach aid, others dying of starvation and growing condemnation of Israel's conduct even among many of its closest allies. Palestinians in Gaza are suffering from man-made 'mass starvation' due to the aid blockade on the enclave, the chief of the World Health Organization warned reporters at a briefing on Wednesday. 'Parents tell us their children cry themselves to sleep from hunger,' Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. 'Food distribution sites have become places of violence.' The United Nations says more than a thousand people have been killed by Israeli forces while seeking food since late May, when a controversial new Israel- and US-backed aid group, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, began operating. Of those, hundreds have died near GHF sites, according to the UN. 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Critics have noted that there are only a small number of GHF distribution sites, in southern and central Gaza — far fewer than hundreds under the UN's previous model. This has forced massive crowds to gather at limited locations. The GHF has defended its system, saying it is a 'secure model (that) blocks the looting'. But soon after it began operating on May 27, the plan turned deadly as those seeking aid increasingly came under fire near GHF aid sites. Palestinian officials and witnesses have said Israeli troops are responsible for most of the deaths. The Israeli military acknowledged firing warning shots toward crowds in some instances, but denied responsibility for other incidents. And the deaths aren't limited to the vicinity of GHF aid sites. On Sunday, Israeli forces killed dozens waiting for aid in northern Gaza, according to the Palestinian health ministry. 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'As we see for now, Hamas has an interest: First, to put pressure on the State of Israel through the international community in order to (have) an effect in the (ceasefire) negotiation process; and second, to collapse the new mechanism that we have established that is making sure that they are not involved in the aid delivery inside Gaza.' International pressure continues to mount on Israel, including from the United States. And on Monday, the foreign ministers of 25 Western nations slammed Israel for 'drip feeding' aid into the Gaza Strip. Israel's foreign ministry said it 'rejects' the statement, calling it 'disconnected from reality'.

‘Her body grows weaker day by day': Children in Gaza starved to the brink of death
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‘Her body grows weaker day by day': Children in Gaza starved to the brink of death

'There has been no improvement at all. Even when she gains one kilogram and I take her home from the hospital, she relapses again. There is no food for her to eat, not even eggs. 'Her hair is falling out, and she has no calcium. She used to have seizures, and she can't go to the bathroom by herself, I have to carry her. She can't walk. She starts crying and asks me, 'Why can't I walk? What's wrong with me?'' On Wednesday, more than 100 aid organisations and human rights groups warned that 'mass starvation' is spreading in Gaza. The statement, signed by 111 organisations including Doctors Without Borders (MSF), Oxfam and Save the Children, said that an average of 28 truckloads of aid are being distributed daily in Gaza. The UN has previously said that a minimum of 600 trucks per day are required to feed the population of 2 million people. Israel denies blocking supplies to Gaza or that there is a famine there. 'We have not identified starvation at this current point in time, but we understand that action is required to stabilise the humanitarian situation,' an unnamed senior Israeli security official said. The Hamas-run Health Ministry said on Tuesday that 33 people, including 12 children, had died from malnutrition in the previous 48 hours. Data shared with the London Telegraph by UNICEF suggests the situation has been rapidly worsening in recent months. In January, 2846 children were diagnosed with malnutrition – a figure that has jumped month on month, to 5870 in June. Suzan Mohammad Ma'rouf, a clinical nutrition specialist stationed at the Patients Society Hospital, said her staff see nearly 250 to 300 malnutrition cases daily. 'Infants, breastfeeding mothers, and pregnant women who suffer from malnutrition, there is not enough milk and not enough food,' Ma'rouf said. 'We encourage exclusive breastfeeding for children under six months of age, but due to certain conditions the mother may be going through, whether her health is poor or she is suffering from malnutrition, she cannot breastfeed naturally. 'In that case, we turn to formula milk. But currently, formula milk is unavailable or only available in very limited quantities that do not meet the baby's needs, which leads to children suffering from malnutrition.' Randa – the mother of three-month-old Baraa – has four other young children. 'They cry out from hunger [...] every morning, asking me to knead dough and bake bread. They tell me, 'We're hungry, Mama'.' Virtually all food aid in Gaza is now only available at just four fixed distribution points along the 41-kilometre strip, run exclusively by the US and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

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