One in 10 children in its clinics are malnourished, UN Palestinian refugee agency says
"Our health teams are confirming that malnutrition rates are increasing in Gaza, especially since the siege was tightened more than four months ago on the second of March,"
UNRWA
's Director of Communications, Juliette Touma, told reporters in Geneva via a video link from Amman, Jordan.
Since January 2024, UNRWA said it had screened more than 240,000 boys and girls under the age of five in its clinics, adding that before the war, acute malnutrition was rarely seen in the Gaza Strip.
"One nurse that we spoke to told us that in the past, he only saw these cases of malnutrition in textbooks and documentaries," Touma said.
"Medicine, nutrition supplies, hygiene material, fuel are all rapidly running out," Touma said.
On May 19, Israel lifted an 11-week aid blockade on Gaza, allowing limited U.N. deliveries to resume. However, UNRWA continues to be banned from bringing aid into the enclave.
COGAT, the Israeli military aid coordination agency, said that it has helped facilitate 67,000 food trucks to enter Gaza, delivering 1.5 million tons of food, including infant formula and baby food.
It said that about 2,000 tons of baby food have been brought into Gaza through the crossings in recent weeks, following requests by international aid organizations.
Israel and the United States have accused Palestinian militant group Hamas of stealing from U.N.-led aid operations - which Hamas denies. They have instead set up the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, using private U.S. security and logistics firms to transport aid to distribution hubs, which the U.N. has refused to work with.
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India Today
4 hours ago
- India Today
20 killed in stampede at Gaza aid site run by Israeli-backed US group
20 Palestinians were killed at a food distribution center run by an Israeli-backed American organization in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, mostly from being trampled, the group said. They were the first deaths reported at one of the group's sites, though hundreds have been killed by Israeli forces on the roads leading to them, according to witnesses and health strikes across Gaza killed at least 54 others, including 14 children, according to hospital Gaza Humanitarian Foundation accused the Hamas militant group of fomenting unrest at the food distribution center, causing the stampede. For the first time since its operations began in May, 'a large number' of people in the crowd were armed with pistols, GHF spokesperson Chapin Fay told reporters. He said an American medic was stabbed and wounded. GHF said the Israeli military had warned it on Wednesday that Hamas had infiltrated the crowd, but did not provide evidence for any Hamas presence, aside from a photo of a pistol that it said one of its contractors had confiscated. As law and order have broken down after months of war, Gaza has seen the rise of criminal gangs and tribal groups that carry weapons and steal and resell said GHF guards threw stun grenades and used pepper spray on people pressing to get into the site before it opened, causing a panic in the narrow, fenced-in the group's operations began in late May, hundreds of Palestinians have been killed in shootings by Israeli soldiers while on roads heading to the sites, according to witnesses and health officials. GHF's four sites are all in military-controlled zones, and the Israeli military has said its troops have only fired warning shots to control more than 2 million Palestinians are living through a catastrophic humanitarian crisis, and the territory is teetering on the edge of famine, according to food security said it believed that 19 of the dead died from trampling at its food distribution center between the southern cities of Khan Younis and Rafah and one was killed by a stabbing in the Gaza Health Ministry said 17 people suffocated at the site and three others were shot. It was not clear if the shootings took place during the crush or earlier on the road to the center. Witnesses said Israeli troops fired toward the crowds as they headed to it. GHF said a contractor fired warning shots in the air in order to rescue a child from the said that thousands of Palestinians arrived at the site early in the morning, and the American contractors guarding it did not open the gates. It was not clear if it was before the site's opening time or if it was not operating at all, since schedules often change. GHF said the gates were open. The crowd surged forward at the turnstiles in the fenced-in entranceway, said one survivor, Ahmed Abu Americans were calling out on the loudspeakers, 'Go back, go back.' But no one could turn around because it was so crowded,' he said. 'Everyone was on top of each other. We tried to pull out the people who were underneath, but we couldn't. The Americans were throwing stun grenades at us.'Other witnesses said the contractors used pepper spray as well. The Health Ministry said tear gas was used, but GHF denied that. GHF said it believed Hamas elements in the crowd fomented the unrest. It said the American medic had tried to tackle a man with a pistol before being stabbed by another HAS OFTEN BEEN CHAOTICDistribution at the GHF sites has often been chaotic. Boxes of food are left stacked on the ground inside the center and, once opened, crowds charge in to grab whatever they can, according to witnesses and videos released by GHF videos obtained recently by The Associated Press from an American contractor working with GHF, contractors are seen using tear gas and stun grenades to keep crowds back behind metal fences or to force them to disperse. Gunshots can also be United Nations human rights office said Tuesday that 875 Palestinians were killed while seeking food since May. Of those, 674 were killed while en route to GHF food sites. The rest were reportedly killed while waiting for aid trucks entering strikes killed 22 people in Gaza City, including 11 children and three women, and 19 others in Khan Younis. Strikes in central Gaza killed 13 people, including three children. The Israeli military said it has struck more than 120 targets in the past 24 hours across the Gaza Strip, including Hamas military tunnels and weapons storage Health Ministry said Wednesday that hospitals have received a total of 94 bodies over the past 24 hours, with another 252 blames Hamas for the civilian deaths because the group often operates in residential areas.- EndsMust Watch
Time of India
14 hours ago
- Time of India
One in 10 children in its clinics are malnourished, UN Palestinian refugee agency says
Geneva: One in 10 children screened in clinics run by the United Nations refugee agency in Gaza since 2024 has been malnourished, the agency said on Tuesday. "Our health teams are confirming that malnutrition rates are increasing in Gaza, especially since the siege was tightened more than four months ago on the second of March," UNRWA 's Director of Communications, Juliette Touma, told reporters in Geneva via a video link from Amman, Jordan. Since January 2024, UNRWA said it had screened more than 240,000 boys and girls under the age of five in its clinics, adding that before the war, acute malnutrition was rarely seen in the Gaza Strip. "One nurse that we spoke to told us that in the past, he only saw these cases of malnutrition in textbooks and documentaries," Touma said. "Medicine, nutrition supplies, hygiene material, fuel are all rapidly running out," Touma said. On May 19, Israel lifted an 11-week aid blockade on Gaza, allowing limited U.N. deliveries to resume. However, UNRWA continues to be banned from bringing aid into the enclave. COGAT, the Israeli military aid coordination agency, said that it has helped facilitate 67,000 food trucks to enter Gaza, delivering 1.5 million tons of food, including infant formula and baby food. It said that about 2,000 tons of baby food have been brought into Gaza through the crossings in recent weeks, following requests by international aid organizations. Israel and the United States have accused Palestinian militant group Hamas of stealing from U.N.-led aid operations - which Hamas denies. They have instead set up the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, using private U.S. security and logistics firms to transport aid to distribution hubs, which the U.N. has refused to work with.
New Indian Express
17 hours ago
- New Indian Express
20 Palestinians killed at Gaza aid distribution site, says Israeli-backed aid group
TEL AVIV, Israel: Twenty Palestinians were killed Wednesday in the crush of a crowd at a food distribution site run by an Israeli-backed American organization in the Gaza Strip, the group said, the first time it has acknowledged deadly violence at its operations. The deaths came as Israeli strikes killed 41 others, including 11 children, according to hospital officials. The Gaza Humanitarian Fund accused the Hamas militant group of fomenting panic and spreading misinformation that led to the violence, though it provided no evidence to support the claim. It said 19 people were trampled in a stampede and one person was fatally stabbed at a hub in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis. Gaza's Health Ministry and witnesses said GHF workers used tear gas against the crowd, inciting a panic. The ministry said that it was the first time people have been killed by a stampede at the aid sites. It was also the first time that GHF has confirmed deaths at one of its distribution sites, although Palestinian witnesses, health officials and U.N. agencies say hundreds of people have been killed while heading to the hubs to get food. Stun grenades and pepper spray caused chaos, witnesses say Some witnesses said the crowd panicked after receiving messages that no aid would be distributed or would only be distributed later. Others said people became trapped while attempting to move through a turnstile system, which creates a bottleneck. Omar Al-Najjar, a resident of the nearby city of Rafah, said people were gasping for air, possibly from tear gas. The injuries were 'not from gunfire, but from people clustering and pushing against each other,' Al-Najjar said as he carried, with three other men, an injured stranger to a hospital. He said the chaos at the sites is forcing Palestinians to 'march towards death.'
