UN reports uptick in preventable diseases in Gaza due to Israeli blockade
The United Nations humanitarian agency (OCHA) has warned that preventable diseases in Gaza are on the rise and killing civilians due to the lack of desperately needed medicine and clean water.
OCHA in a statement on Thursday said that in the past two weeks, 'more than 19,000 cases of acute watery diarrhoea have been recorded, alongside over 200 cases each of acute jaundice syndrome and bloody diarrhoea '.
'These outbreaks are directly linked to the lack of clean water and sanitation in Gaza, underscoring the urgent need for fuel, medical supplies, and water, sanitation and hygiene items to prevent further collapse of the public health system,' the agency added.
Israel's blockade on fuel entry into Gaza has paralysed the territory's desalination plants and water system.
The Israeli military has destroyed much of Gaza, displaced nearly the entire population of the territory and placed a suffocating siege on the enclave. Besides the dire humanitarian conditions, the Israeli military continues to kill dozens of Palestinians in Gaza daily.
Leading rights groups and UN experts have described the Israeli campaign as a genocide.
OCHA said on Thursday that more than 20 people were killed and about 70 others were injured after a strike on Deir el-Balah, central Gaza.
Medical sources told Al Jazeera Arabic that Israeli attacks killed at least 71 people across Gaza on Thursday.Since Israel's war on Gaza began in October 2023, at least 56,259 people have been killed, and 132,458 others have been wounded, according to Gaza's Health Ministry.
After a more than two-month blockade of essential goods entering Gaza, the Israeli government announced it was allowing aid to re-enter the enclave in May.
However, due to Israeli restrictions, the amount of aid entering has been minimal, with aid agencies referring to it as a 'drop in the ocean'.
Much of the aid allowed in has been through the United States and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which has been condemned by aid agencies as a 'weaponisation' of humanitarian goods.
On Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Defence Minister Israel Katz said in a video message that the army was being asked to draft a new plan to deliver aid to Gaza after unverified footage showed masked men on top of aid trucks in northern Gaza.
While Israel has claimed the men were Hamas members, Palestinian clan leaders with no affiliation with the group said the masked men were protecting the truck from being looted.
Multiple UN officials have refuted Israel's claims that Hamas steals humanitarian aid. Last month, Israeli officials acknowledged arming criminal gangs linked to looting the assistance in order to rival Hamas.
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News24
an hour ago
- News24
Doctors without borders slams Gaza relief effort as ‘slaughter masquerading as aid'
Medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) called on Friday for a controversial Israel- and US-backed relief effort in Gaza to be halted, branding it "slaughter masquerading as humanitarian aid". The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which began operating last month, "is degrading Palestinians by design, forcing them to choose between starvation or risking their lives for minimal supplies", MSF said in a statement. It said more than 500 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip while seeking food in recent weeks. Starting in March, Israel blocked deliveries of food and other crucial supplies into Gaza for more than two months, leading to warnings of that the entire population of the occupied Palestinian territory is at risk of famine. The United Nations says Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza is illegal under international law. READ | 'Dramatic escalation in violence': MSF slams Israel over military action on West Bank healthcare The densely populated Gaza Strip has been largely flattened by Israeli bombing since the 7 October attack on Israel by Hamas. Israel began allowing food supplies to trickle in at the end of May, using GHF - backed by armed US contractors, with Israeli troops on the perimeter - to run operations. The latter have been marred by chaotic scenes and near-daily reports of Israeli forces firing on people desperate to get food. There are also concerns about the neutrality of GHF, officially a private group with opaque funding. The UN and major aid groups have refused to work with it, citing concerns it serves Israeli military goals and that it violates basic humanitarian principles. READ | More than 20 000 wounded people still in Gaza after initial evacuations, says MSF The Gaza health ministry says that since late May, nearly 550 people have been killed near aid centres while seeking scarce food supplies. "With over 500 people killed and nearly 4 000 wounded while seeking food, this scheme is slaughter masquerading as humanitarian aid and must be immediately dismantled," MSF said. Surge in gunshot wounds GHF has denied that fatal shootings have occurred in the immediate vicinity of its aid points. On Tuesday, the UN condemned what it said was Israel's "weaponisation of food" in Gaza and called it a war crime. MSF said the way GHF distributes food aid supplies "forces thousands of Palestinians, who have been starved by an over 100 day-long Israeli siege, to walk long distances to reach the four distribution sites and fight for scraps of food supplies". Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto via Getty Images "These sites hinder women, children, the elderly and people with disabilities from accessing aid, and people are killed and wounded in the chaotic process," it said. Aitor Zabalgogeazkoa, MSF's emergency coordinator in Gaza, said the four sites were all under the full control of Israeli forces, surrounded by watch points and barbed wire. "If people arrive early and approach the checkpoints, they get shot. If they arrive on time but there is an overflow and they jump over the mounds and the wires, they get shot," he said in the statement. "If they arrive late, they shouldn't be there because it is an 'evacuated zone' - they get shot." MSF said that its teams in Gaza were seeing patients every day who had been killed or wounded trying to get food at one of the sites. It pointed to "a stark increase in the number of patients with gunshot wounds". MSF urged "the Israeli authorities and their allies to lift the siege on food, fuel, medical and humanitarian supplies and to revert to the pre-existing principled humanitarian system coordinated by the UN".
CBS News
2 hours ago
- CBS News
Trump administration announces $30 million in funding for Gaza aid group called a "death trap" by U.N.
The U.S. State Department announced Thursday that the Trump administration had approved $30 million in funding for the controversial, opaquely run private food distribution organization known as the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which has been criticized by a United Nations agency as "a death trap" for hungry Palestinians in the war-torn enclave. It is the first U.S. government funding for the GHF confirmed by the Trump administration. Since it began operating in May, the GHF says it has distributed more than 46 million meals to Gazans, but its record has been marred by almost daily reports of civilians being killed trying to access its four "distribution hubs." The Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health said that as of Wednesday, 549 people had been killed near GHF hubs trying to access aid, and more than 4,066 others wounded. The United Nations has reported a lower death toll, saying that 410 people have been killed near the aid hubs. The GHF dismisses the Ministry of Health's figures as disinformation, and it says daily that nobody has been killed inside any of its hubs, while acknowledging incidents of violence outside the sites and referring to Israel's military for further information. Palestinians carry relief supplies from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a private U.S.-backed aid group that has bypassed the longstanding U.N.-led system in the territory, near a food distribution center in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip June 1, 2025. AFP via Getty "We call on other countries to also support the GHF," State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said during a media briefing on Thursday, adding that the U.S. support, "is simply the latest iteration of President Trump's and Secretary Rubio's pursuit of peace in the region." Pigott said he couldn't say whether the U.S. funds had already been handed over to the GHF. Asked about the pattern of near-daily reports of fatal shootings by Israeli forces around GHF distribution hubs, which the Israeli military says it is investigating, Pigott referred the reporter to the IDF to comment on its investigations, and added: "Many of these reports are based on Hamas propaganda." Given his emphasis on the Trump administration's priority being the provision of more aid in Gaza, Pigott was asked repeatedly whether the U.S. would push Israel to allow other, well established humanitarian organizations to operate more freely inside the strip. He responded to that question multiple times by repeating his call for other countries to support the GHF. After being pushed by multiple reporters on the accusations that the GHF hubs are "traps" for Israeli forces to fire on civilians, Pigott said it was "important to realize that Hamas bears sole responsibility for this conflict." Other humanitarian organizations, including U.N. agencies, have refused to work with the GHF, saying it operates in a way that dehumanizes Palestinians by forcing them to venture long distances for food, and citing repeated instances of violence around its distribution sites. People, some carrying aid parcels, walk along the Salah al-Din road near the Nusseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, used by Palestinians to reach an aid distribution point set up by the privately-run Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, June 25, 2025. EYAD BABA/AFP/Getty "Now is the time for unity and collaboration," the GHF said Friday. "We look forward to other aid and humanitarian organizations joining us so we can feed even more Gazans, together." CBS News has requested in-person, on-camera interviews with GHF representatives repeatedly since the organization's creation was announced. GHF has yet to grant an interview. Criticism of GFH mounts, as it's labelled "a death trap" and a "U.S. proxy" The head of the U.N.'s agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, called the operation "a death trap" in a scathing statement earlier this week. There were new reports Friday of Palestinians being fired on near a GHF hub in southern Gaza, near the city of Rafah. An amateur video shared online by local Palestinian news organizations — which CBS News was not immediately able to independently verify — showed people laying on the ground for cover as bullets can be heard whizzing past. The video was shared with the caption: "We are besieged by hunger from behind and death from ahead." The international charity Doctors Without Borders added its voice on Friday to the list of non-governmental organizations decrying the GHF, calling the group a "Israeli-U.S. proxy" and a "slaughter masquerading as humanitarian aid." "The four distribution sites, all located in areas under the full control of Israeli forces after people had been forcibly displaced from there, are the size of football fields surrounded by watch points, mounds of earth and barbed wire. The fenced entrance gives only one access point in or out," MSF emergency coordinator in Gaza, Aitor Zabalgogeazkoa, said in the statement. "If people arrive early and approach the checkpoints, they get shot. If they arrive on time, but there is an overflow and they jump over the mounds and the wires, they get shot. If they arrive late, they shouldn't be there because it is an 'evacuated zone', they get shot." "It's unfortunate that MSF has joined the misinformation smear campaign by the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry," a GHF spokesperson told CBS News on Friday. "Many of these alleged incidents were falsely linked to GHF sites when in fact they occurred near other humanitarian convoys or distribution locations." The spokesperson did not reply to a CBS News' question about whether the GHF was created or operates in direct conjunction with the U.S. or Israeli governments. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz added further weight to the accusations about violence around GHF hubs in an article published Friday, saying it had been told by some anonymous IDF personnel of a deliberate policy to shoot at crowds near GHF distribution sites. One soldier was quoted as saying he had been deployed near a GHF hub, and he described the situation as "a killing field." "Where I was stationed, between one and five people were killed every day," the soldier told Haaretz, which has long been critical of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government. "They're treated like a hostile force — no crowd-control measures, no tear gas — just live fire with everything imaginable: heavy machine guns, grenade launchers, mortars. Then, once the center opens, the shooting stops, and they know they can approach. Our form of communication is gunfire." "We strongly reject the accusation raised in the article," the IDF told CBS News in a statement on Friday. "The IDF did not instruct the forces to deliberately shoot at civilians, including those approaching the distribution centers. To be clear, IDF directives prohibit deliberate attacks on civilians." The military said it was "operating to allow and facilitate the distribution of humanitarian aid by the American 'Gaza Humanitarian Foundation' (GHF), and to secure the routes leading to the distribution centers, in order to allow the aid to reach the civilians rather than Hamas." The IDF added that its forces were "conducting systematic learning processes aimed at improving the operational response in the area (around GHF hubs) and minimizing, as much as possible, potential friction between the civilian population and IDF forces. As part of this effort, IDF forces have recently taken steps to reorganize the area, including the installation of new fencing, signage, the opening of additional routes, and more." It said recent reports of civilians being harmed approaching GHF hubs were "being examined by the relevant IDF authorities" and that "any allegation of a deviation from the law or IDF directives will be thoroughly examined, and further action will be taken as necessary." In a joint statement on Friday, Netanyahu and Israel's Defense Minister Israel Katz also said the "State of Israel strongly rejects the despicable blood libels published in the newspaper 'Haaretz.' In response to the Haaretz article, a GHF spokesperson told CBS News on Friday that there had "been no incidents or fatalities at or in the immediate vicinity of any of our distribution sites. However, IDF is tasked with providing safe passage for aid-seekers to all humanitarian organizations operating in Gaza, including GHF. GHF is not aware of any of these incidents but these allegations are too grave to ignore and we therefore call on Israel to investigate them and transparently publish the results in a timely manner." GHF boss dismisses criticism as "disinformation" GHF executive chairman Johnnie Moore, an evangelical preacher twice appointed by President Trump as a White House adviser on religious freedoms, told Britain's Sky News on Friday that there was a "disinformation campaign" that is "meant to shut down our efforts" in the Gaza Strip. "Hamas is intentionally harming people for the purpose of defaming what we're doing," he said, adding that the "U.S. endorsement of the effort is Exhibit A that it is actually working, despite the disinformation campaign that is very, very deliberate, meant to shut down our efforts." Rev. Johnnie Moore, then the spokesman for the Trump evangelical advisory board, is seen in front of the Trump International Hotel, Dec. 4, 2017, in Washington, D.C. Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post via Getty Moore suggested that violence could not be avoided around its hubs in Gaza, as the small, densely populated Palestinian territory remains an active warzone. Sky cited a U.N. figure of 410 people killed near aid hubs in Gaza, slightly lower than the figure provided by the health ministry. In a social media post after his interview with Sky, Moore said that "some associated with the UN (& others) are knowingly sharing info that cannot be independently verified, & they're doing so solely for political purposes… while claiming impartiality. GHF is not political. It just has one mission: feed Gaza." "The key piece of disinformation is, every single day, some figure comes out from the Gaza Health Ministry. It's normally shared with a network like Al-Jazeera, and it sort of like, goes around the world," he told Sky, when asked specifically what disinformation he was referring to. Moore drew a distinction between the GHF's operations and those of the Israel military. "The difference between, you know, what happens when the IDF is involved in an incident — and we're not denying that there have been those incidents, there have been those incidents — but we're able to talk to the IDF, the IDF does an investigation, and the IDF is a professionalized military," Moore said. "Hamas is intentionally harming people for the purpose of defaming what we're doing." The IDF has issued repeated statements after reports of troops firing on unarmed Palestinian civilians seeking aid, saying it has launched investigations. The results of any investigations related to incidents near GHF hubs have yet to be made public by the IDF. "They go to get food, but end up being killed." A number of Palestinians have told CBS News' team in Gaza about experiences of violence near GHF distribution sites. In early June, the family of Reem Akhras, a mother of eight, told CBS News' team in Gaza at her funeral that she was shot on her way to retrieve an aid parcel from a GHF hub. "You went to get us food, Mom," Akhras' young daughter cried, sobbing over her body. "We will never forgive them." "They go to get food, but end up being killed," a man at Gaza's Nasser Hospital — where many of the injured were taken after an incident near a GHF hub in southern Gaza this week — told CBS News. "They come with empty bags, and the American security company along with the Israeli army, they shoot these young men." Mourners stand near the bodies of Palestinians killed by what the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said was Israeli fire near an aid distribution site in Rafah, at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, June 3, 2025. Hatem Khaled/REUTERS The man said 30 people were killed on that day trying to reach the GHF hub. "I tell everybody: Don't go. I send a message to all those young men: Do not go. Families should not send their children. Those who go will die. It's a trap. Stop going there. And if your son insists on going, break his legs. Do not go there." Another man at the hospital told CBS News that people have died "in every family. They were just going to get food. They are hungry, grieving. They've got nothing to eat. Nothing to drink. There's no life. No safety. There's none of that in Gaza." The man said he wished the rest of the world could understand the suffering of people in Gaza. "Young men in their prime are dying. What brings these youngsters to go to the aid sites? It's hunger. The fire of hunger has ravaged the people." GHF declines to reveal other backers Asked why the GHF was not being more transparent about its funding, organization and management, Moore declined to give further information about those matters, instead noting the group's daily press release to news organizations that lists the number of meals it says it has distributed and other "operations on the ground." The GHF has been surrounded by controversy from the moment it commenced operations in mid-May. Just days after it launched its operation in Gaza, the group's first executive director, American Jake Wood, announced his resignation, saying it had become clear the foundation would not be allowed to operate independently. GHF then said it was winding down its operation in Switzerland after Swiss authorities said it was breaching rules for foundations registered in that country. GHF told CBS News at the time that henceforth, its only operations would be based out of the United States. "We're saying everything we can, every single day, and by the way, we promise to do more of that," Moore said on Friday when pressed by Sky News about where the organization's funding comes from and what other entities it works with directly. "One of the reasons we haven't released some pieces of information is because of this amazing, amazing opposition to any effort whatsoever to do this differently." Moore repeated the GHF's insistence that only its method of aid distribution in Gaza was viable, as the only other way meant that "virtually every piece of aid that comes into the Gaza Strip is immediately taken by armed gangs, by Hamas." Other aid agencies, and officials in the Hamas-run enclave, acknowledge that looting does happen, but they refute claims of large-scale aid theft or diversion, saying the primary challenge to distributing food in Gaza is Israeli forces not permitting those operations. On June 11, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee was asked by CBS News' partner network BBC News if the State Department was funding GHF. "It is not currently being funded largely by the U.S.," he said at the time. "There are other countries, there are NGOs, there are humanitarian funds, and there are private individuals who have funded it, all of which have requested to remain anonymous. I think they don't want to become the targets of the hate that has befitted those who have tried to do something positive in what is a very difficult situation." contributed to this report.
Forbes
4 hours ago
- Forbes
The Prototype: King Tut's Curse Might Kill Leukemia
In this week's edition of The Prototype, we look at cancer-killing fungi, robots that perform surgery on your eyeballs, genetically modified bacteria that turn plastic into Tylenol and more. You can sign up to get The Prototype in your inbox here . Getty Images W hen I was a kid, I was obsessed with King Tut's tomb–and the legends of the curse put upon the team that discovered it. Of course, the stories were false and many of the tomb's discoverers lived long lives after finding it. But King Tut may have claimed at least one victim, Lord Carnarvon, thanks to a toxic fungus called aspergillus that had lain dormant for centuries. Now that 'curse' may be hitting a different target–leukemia. A new study published this week found that chemical compounds in aspergillus, when purified, show anti-cancer properties. And if a fatty molecule is added to the purified fungus the resulting compound demonstrates cancer-fighting activity similar to that of drugs currently used to treat leukemia. Next up, the scientists plan to take the most promising chemical candidates and test them on cancer in animals. If successful there, the chemicals could one day be used to treat human cancer patients. Forsight Robotics C ataract surgery is one of the world's most common medical procedures, with more than 4 million of them done each year in the United States alone, but there simply aren't enough doctors available to meet the demand for everyone who needs the surgery. An Israeli startup is betting that robots can someday easy that demand by doing the procedure better and cheaper than human doctors. ForSight Robotics on Tuesday said it had raised $125 million led by Eclipse Ventures to expand Oryom, its robotic surgery platform for cataracts and other eye diseases . The funding is the second-largest Series B investment in a surgical robotics startup, and brings ForSight's total investment to $195 million. The new money values the company at an estimated $500 million—a substantial increase since it last raised funds in 2022 at a $162 million valuation, according to VC database PitchBook. Additional investors include Fred Moll, the cofounder of Intuitive Surgical and pioneer of robotic surgery, who has joined the company's strategic advisory board. ForSight has been testing its robot on pig eyes, and plans to complete its first full robotic surgery on a human patient later this year. It's targeting the U.S. market and is in early conversations with the FDA. While ForSight's robots would be the first for cataracts, robotic surgery has become increasingly commonplace since $185 billion (market cap) Intuitive Surgical received FDA approval for its Da Vinci robots, which enable precision procedures, 25 years ago. 'At first people were intimidated by robotics' advancement,' Dr. Joseph Nathan, ForSight's cofounder, president and chief medical officer, told Forbes. 'Now they are seeing robotics as the thing that will get them the best outcomes.' Read the whole story at Forbes DISCOVERY OF THE WEEK: TURNING PLASTIC INTO PAINKILLERS Researchers at the University of Edinburgh have genetically engineered a bacteria that can take waste plastic and turn it into an ingredient used in acetaminophen (aka Tylenol). To make this work, they chemically broke down PET, a common plastic used in food packaging, into a simpler molecule and added it to a cell culture. The bacteria then produced special enzymes that interacted with the plastic molecule, transforming it into the painkiller ingredient. The researchers found that over 90% of the plastic was transformed into the drug, and the process used less energy than the conventional way to produce it from crude oil. The team's next step is to develop a way to scale the process to provide a more sustainable way to manufacture acetaminophen, with the backing of pharmaceutical companies like AstraZeneca. 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Evidently areas of the brain developed during unstructured activities can help expedite the completion of specific tasks. If that holds true in humans, it may be a good idea to stay productive by making sure you take the time to be unproductive. WHAT'S ENTERTAINING ME THIS WEEK I recently finished the novel The Book Censor's Library by Bothayna Al-Essa. It's set in a dystopian future where censorship is the norm. The story follows the titular censor, who in his ambition to be good in his new job finds himself falling in love with reading. That leads him to a resistance movement, where he struggles to protect both books and his own daughter, who displays far more imagination than society will allow. MORE FROM FORBES Forbes Elon Musk Has Fired One Of His Top Tesla Lieutenants By Alan Ohnsman Forbes Why The U.S. Should Copy Canada To Fix Its Broken Air Traffic Control System By Jeremy Bogaisky Forbes The 36 Colleges Most At Risk From Pell Grant Cuts By Fiona Riley
