Israel claims 120 lorries of aid have entered famine-stricken Gaza
However, UN agencies did not confirm the amount of aid, while residents reported that most of the trucks were looted by unknown groups before reaching the warehouses.
According to the World Food Programme calculations, Gaza requires about 500 to 600 aid trucks a day − or 1,000 to 1,500 daily at peak need − to prevent famine.
'Over 120 trucks were collected and distributed yesterday by the UN and international organisations,' COGAT, an Israeli Defence Ministry agency, said in a post on X on Monday.
The World Health Organisation warned on Sunday that malnutrition was reaching 'alarming levels' in Gaza. It said that of the 74 recorded malnutrition-related deaths in 2025, 63 had occurred in July − including 24 children aged under five, one child older than five and 38 adults.
Despite that, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denied starvation in the Palestinian territory that has been under constant Israeli bombardment for more than 21 months.
'There is no policy of starvation in Gaza, and there is no starvation in Gaza,' he claimed in a speech.
On Sunday, Israel declared a 'tactical' pause in military operations in part of Gaza and promised to open secure routes for aid.
The WFP said a third of the population of Gaza had not eaten for days, and 470,000 were 'enduring famine-like conditions'.
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Khaleej Times
2 hours ago
- Khaleej Times
Gaza famine warning as Israel resists ceasefire calls
Gaza is slipping into famine, UN-backed experts warned on Tuesday, as the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory said the death toll in the nearly 22-month war had surpassed 60,000. The health ministry figure excludes deaths from hunger in the Palestinian territory gripped by dire humanitarian conditions made worse by Israel's total blockade of aid from March to May. This week, Israel launched a daily pause in fighting and opened secure routes to enable UN and non-governmental agencies to distribute food on Gaza's devastated streets. Hundreds of truckloads of aid have begun to arrive. But Israeli strikes continued overnight, killing 30 people in the Nuseirat refugee camp, according to Gaza's civil defence agency and experts warn a humanitarian catastrophe of historic proportions is imminent. "The worst-case scenario of famine is now unfolding in the Gaza Strip," said the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification Initiative (IPC), a coalition of monitors tasked by the UN to warn of impending crises. The World Food Programme's emergency director, Ross Smith, likened the situation to some of the worst famines of the past century. "This is unlike anything we have seen in this century. It reminds us of previous disasters in Ethiopia or Biafra," Smith said via video-link from Rome. "We need urgent action now." In a statement released ahead of the IPC report, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office accused Hamas of distorting casualty figures and accused the group of looting food aid destined for Palestinian civilians. "While the situation in Gaza is difficult and Israel has been working to ensure aid delivery, Hamas benefits from attempting to fuel the perception of a humanitarian crisis," the statement said. "We already allow significant amounts of humanitarian aid into Gaza every single day, including food, water and medicine. Unfortunately, Hamas... has been stealing aid from the Gaza population, many times by shooting Palestinians." As late as Sunday, Netanyahu had been insisting there was "no starvation in Gaza" but even his close international ally, US President Donald Trump, has now warned the situation appears to be "real starvation". Israel imposed a total blockade on Gaza on March 2 after ceasefire talks broke down. In late May, it began allowing a small trickle of aid to resume, amid warnings of a wave of starvation. Then on Sunday, faced with a mounting international chorus of alarm, Israel began a series of "tactical pauses" while allowed aid trucks to cross two border crossings into Gaza, and Jordanian and Emirati planes to airdrop aid. Shipments have ramped up, but for the IPC this effort will not prove enough unless aid agencies are granted "immediate, unimpeded" humanitarian access. "Failure to act now will result in widespread death in much of the Strip," it said, warning that 16 children under the age of five had died of hunger since July 17. "Mounting evidence shows that widespread starvation, malnutrition and disease are driving a rise in hunger-related deaths," it said. According to Netanyahu's office, the pause in military operations covers "key populated areas" between 10:00 am (0700 GMT) and 8:00 pm every day. Designated aid convoy routes will be secure from 6:00 am to 11:00 pm. COGAT, an Israeli defence ministry body in charge of civil affairs in the Palestinian territories, said more than 200 truckloads of aid were distributed by the UN and aid agencies on Monday. Another 260 trucks were permitted to cross into Gaza to deposit aid at collection points, four UN tankers brought in fuel and 20 pallets of aid were airdropped from Jordanian and Emirati planes, COGAT said. Overnight, however, strikes continued. Gaza's civil defence agency said on Tuesday that Israeli air strikes killed at least 30 Palestinians, including women and children, in the central Nuseirat district. Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said the strikes were carried out overnight and into the morning and "targeted a number of citizens' homes" in the Nuseirat refugee camp. The local Al-Awda hospital said it had received "the bodies of 30 martyrs, including 14 women and 12 children". An Israeli military spokesman told AFP that he would need more information to enable him to look into the strikes. With aid experts pushing for a ceasefire to enable a large-scale humanitarian operation, Israel's foreign minister addressed reporters in Jerusalem to denounce what he called a "distorted campaign" of international pressure. Gideon Saar told reporters that if Israel was to halt the conflict while Hamas is still in power in Gaza and still holding hostages it would be a "tragedy for both Israelis and Palestinians". "It ain't gonna happen, no matter how much pressure is put on Israel," he said.
Middle East Eye
3 hours ago
- Middle East Eye
Gaza death toll tops 60,000 as Israel levels homes in Nuseirat camp
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The National
3 hours ago
- The National
Recipients of 2025-26 UAE mental health journalism fellowships announced
Nour Ibrahim, a social media journalist at The National, and Ghenwa Yehia, a regular contributor to Khaleej Times wknd magazine, have been awarded Rosalynn Carter Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism in the UAE. The fellowship programme seeks to improve the quality of mental health reporting in the media and is named after the late Rosalynn Carter, co-founder of the Carter Centre, who was an influential voice in the field of mental health for decades. The National administers the scheme in the UAE for the Carter Centre, a US-based non-profit, non-governmental organisation. Yehia and Ibrahim will begin their year-long, non-residential fellowship later this year. They will receive intensive training from experts and mentors in the US and support from advisers in the UAE to help them accurately report on mental health. During her fellowship year, Ibrahim plans to document how young people in the UAE are turning to artificial intelligence for emotional support, including chatbots, journaling apps and AI companions. She will explore the mental health implications of relying on these tools and what that may reveal about the future of care in the region. Her reporting will be published by The National. Yehia writes a column for Khaleej Times wknd magazine, where she covers mental health issues and how they intersect with everyday life. Her fellowship project work will be a multi-part series exploring the emotional and ethical impact of 'grief tech'. She will investigate how AI-powered simulations of the deceased are reshaping the way we grieve and what that means for mental health. They will succeed Saeed Saeed, a features writer for The National, as UAE mental health journalism fellows. His fellowship reporting project looked at the Arabic music scene and attitudes towards mental health within the industry. His work over the past year has documented a movement towards what he describes as an increased 'emotional transparency' among artists and musicians. Previous UAE fellows have contributed stories across a wide variety of mental health subjects, including documenting the lived realities of expatriate fathers in the region, reporting on conflict and trauma and examining mental health provision in education. More than 200 journalists from around the world have been awarded fellowships since the programme's inception in the 1990s. With this year's appointments, 12 journalists have been awarded fellowships in the UAE since The National became custodian of the country programme in 2018. Applications for the next UAE round of Rosalynn Carter Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism are expected to open early in 2026. Full details of the programme can be found by following the link marked Rosalynn Carter Fellowship at the foot of The National 's homepage.
