Palestinian woman evacuated to Italy in a severely emaciated state dies in hospital
The woman was flown to Italy with her mother on one of three Italian air force flights that arrived this week in Rome, Milan and Pisa, carrying a total of 31 patients and their companions.
The Italian humanitarian convoy included three special flights provided by the Italian Air Force and transported dozens of patients from Gaza. Source: AFP / Andreas Solaro All the patients suffered from serious congenital diseases, wounds or amputations, the Italian foreign ministry said at the time. So far more than 180 children and young people from Gaza have been brought to Italy since the war began between Israel and Hamas. The head of the Tuscany region, Eugenio Giani, offered his condolences to the woman's family. The hospital did not elaborate on what caused her condition, but Italian news agencies reported that she was suffering from severe malnutrition. US stops issuing visitor visas for people from Gaza The US State Department on Sunday AEST said it was halting all visitor visas for individuals from Gaza while it conducts "a full and thorough" review. The move has been condemned by pro-Palestinian groups. The department said "a small number" of temporary medical-humanitarian visas had been issued in recent days but did not provide a figure. The US issued more than 3,800 B1/B2 visitor visas, which permit foreigners to seek medical treatment in the United States, to holders of the Palestinian Authority travel document so far in 2025, according to an analysis of monthly figures provided on the department's website. That figure includes 640 visas issued in May.
The PA issues such travel documents to residents of the Israeli-occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The department's website did not include a breakdown for the two territories.
Loomer's statement sparked outrage among some Republicans, with US representative Chip Roy saying he would inquire about the matter and representative Randy Fine describing it as a "national security risk". The Council on American-Islamic Relations condemned the move, saying it was the latest sign of the "intentional cruelty" of the Trump administration. The Palestine Children's Relief Fund said the decision to halt visas would deny access to medical care to wounded and sick children in Gaza . "This policy will have a devastating and irreversible impact on our ability to bring injured and critically ill children from Gaza to the United States for lifesaving medical treatment — a mission that has defined our work for more than 30 years," it said in a statement.
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SBS Australia
18 hours ago
- SBS Australia
Palestinian woman evacuated to Italy in a severely emaciated state dies in hospital
A young Palestinian woman who was flown from Gaza to an Italian hospital in a severely emaciated state for treatment has died, the hospital said. The 20-year-old, identified by Italian media reports as Marah Abu Zuhri, arrived in Pisa on an Italian government humanitarian flight overnight Wednesday-Thursday. The University Hospital of Pisa said she had a "very complex clinical picture" and serious wasting, which is when a person has significant weight and muscle loss. On Friday, after undergoing tests and starting treatment, she died after a sudden respiratory crisis and cardiac arrest, the hospital said. The woman was flown to Italy with her mother on one of three Italian air force flights that arrived this week in Rome, Milan and Pisa, carrying a total of 31 patients and their companions. The Italian humanitarian convoy included three special flights provided by the Italian Air Force and transported dozens of patients from Gaza. Source: AFP / Andreas Solaro All the patients suffered from serious congenital diseases, wounds or amputations, the Italian foreign ministry said at the time. So far more than 180 children and young people from Gaza have been brought to Italy since the war began between Israel and Hamas. The head of the Tuscany region, Eugenio Giani, offered his condolences to the woman's family. The hospital did not elaborate on what caused her condition, but Italian news agencies reported that she was suffering from severe malnutrition. US stops issuing visitor visas for people from Gaza The US State Department on Sunday AEST said it was halting all visitor visas for individuals from Gaza while it conducts "a full and thorough" review. The move has been condemned by pro-Palestinian groups. The department said "a small number" of temporary medical-humanitarian visas had been issued in recent days but did not provide a figure. The US issued more than 3,800 B1/B2 visitor visas, which permit foreigners to seek medical treatment in the United States, to holders of the Palestinian Authority travel document so far in 2025, according to an analysis of monthly figures provided on the department's website. That figure includes 640 visas issued in May. The PA issues such travel documents to residents of the Israeli-occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The department's website did not include a breakdown for the two territories. Loomer's statement sparked outrage among some Republicans, with US representative Chip Roy saying he would inquire about the matter and representative Randy Fine describing it as a "national security risk". The Council on American-Islamic Relations condemned the move, saying it was the latest sign of the "intentional cruelty" of the Trump administration. The Palestine Children's Relief Fund said the decision to halt visas would deny access to medical care to wounded and sick children in Gaza . "This policy will have a devastating and irreversible impact on our ability to bring injured and critically ill children from Gaza to the United States for lifesaving medical treatment — a mission that has defined our work for more than 30 years," it said in a statement.
SBS Australia
a day ago
- SBS Australia
The forgotten casualties of the war in Gaza
Amongst the rubble on the streets of war-torn Gaza City, life isn't easy for any living creature. Essentials like food, taken for granted in many places on Earth, are, more or less, luxuries here now. It's something 42 year-old Raneya Murad feels most acutely. "The starvation affected my personal life, just like it did for the rest of the people of Gaza. There is no flour, there are no sources of protein, we're missing everything. But maybe we, as cat carers, were a little more affected because we are responsible for souls other than our children and the people we are responsible for. We are responsible for other souls, souls that can't ask or complain." Ms Murad cares for cats - many cats - in her small Gaza City apartment. And Ms Murad says things have worsened as the war has gone on - for her family, and for her cats. Now, whatever humans can scrounge together to eat, her cats eat too. "At the beginning of the crisis I used to feed the cats two meals per day, these two meals consisted of canned food; peas, beans. At first it was challenging for them to eat - but later with the hunger they accepted this and ate it. After we no longer had access to the canned food, I fed them whatever I cooked for myself and the children. I would take a part of it and feed them." A diet of lentils is generally far from ideal for a feline, and the cats are very gaunt and sick as a result. "The health situation of the cats is very bad as you can see, they are always affected by diseases, infections in the gums and the teeth, fungus on their skin, hair thinning and hair loss. Their weight decreases every day to the point where you can count the vertebrae on their backs." She says not all her cats have survived. Ms Murad says the silent suffering of animals is being ignored in this war. "Throughout the whole war, nobody asked what the animals are eating. I got exhausted while looking for institutions that take care of them, asking them to allow in a small portion of animal food along with the aid for humans - whether for my cats or the cats of the street, or the cats that are in town. Unfortunately, I could not provide anything." Her concerns are backed up when her son takes one of her cats to a pet store for the store's owner, Mohammed Abu Salmieh, to inspect. He acts as a kind of vet. Mr Abu Salmieh says thousands of cats in the enclave are suffering. "We suffer from a big problem which is finding food for cats, pets and birds. This cat is among thousands of cats that suffer from malnutrition in Gaza Strip. It became so thin, its hair is thinning because of the malnutrition and lack of food, as its food is not available in the Gaza Strip."
ABC News
4 days ago
- ABC News
Deaths in Gaza from airdrops as countries try to deliver more aid
Israel was repeatedly warned that allowing aid to be airdropped would have deadly consequences in Gaza. For 14-year-old Muhannad Eid, that warning became a deadly reality when he was crushed by a pallet of aid on the weekend in the enclave. "He was my sweetheart, the love of my life," his mother, Nai'ila Eid said. "He is gone and there is no point in my life. Now I am waiting to die." Faced with growing and significant international condemnation over starvation in Gaza, Israel chose to allow countries to parachute aid into Gaza several weeks ago. Although international aid agencies repeatedly stressed that airdrops are ineffective and dangerous, they've been carried out by countries like Jordan, the UAE and European nations in a bid to deliver a paltry lifeline into the strip. On Saturday, one such aid drop was carried out near Nuseirat in Central Gaza. Footage from the scene showed several pallets parachuting down from the sky and hitting the ground with significant force. Some of these pallets can weigh up to 1 tonne. Hundreds of people, many of them children and teenagers, raced toward the packages of aid. Next to one of the pallets, being pulled apart by the hungry and desperate Palestinians, Muhannad's motionless body could be seen lying in the dirt. He was carried to hospital, where his distraught family mourned him. "The food is scarce, he said that he would get something, a can of sardines or sauce," Muhannad's father Zakaria Eid said. "The aid package fell on him, directly on his head. His skull and neck were fractured, he had a brain laceration. Airdrops are currently one of the only three aid delivery mechanisms in Gaza. The second is through the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). The United Nations has said more than 1,000 people have been killed trying to receive aid in Gaza since the GHF began operating, most shot by Israeli forces operating near GHF sites. The GHF denies there have been deadly incidents inside its sites and says the deadliest have been near other aid convoys. Israel also rejects the figures, but does not provide its own data on deaths. Organisations like the World Food Programme also deliver some aid, but say their missions along two aid corridors still face considerable obstructions, even after the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced it would create "secure corridors" to help convoys travel to depots. On Wednesday, the IDF said it was continuing a "series of actions aimed at improving the humanitarian response in the Gaza Strip". "Over the past few hours, 119 aid packages containing food for the residents of the Gaza Strip were airdropped by six different countries." Most observers say that the amount of aid that is entering Gaza is not enough to reverse the course of what the UN has described as mounting evidence of "widespread starvation, malnutrition and disease". Eight more people, including three children, have died of starvation and malnutrition in Gaza in the past 24 hours, the territory's health ministry said. That took the total to 235, including 106 children, since the war began. On Tuesday, Australia joined 23 other countries in calling for a "flood" of aid into Gaza, saying the crisis had reached "unimaginable levels". The hunger crisis comes as Israel continues to prepare its offensive to occupy Gaza City, which would displace hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. More than 120 Palestinians were killed in a "bloody night" of Israeli bombardments, in an assault that could forecast what's soon to come. Gaza City's second largest hospital, Al-Ahli, said 12 people were killed in an air strike on a home in the neighbourhood of Zeitoun. "Last night was a bloody night," the hospital's Issam Abu Ajwa told Reuters. On Wednesday, the IDF said it had approved a framework for the operational plan in the Gaza Strip. In an appearance on Israeli television on Wednesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suggested that Palestinians should leave the enclave altogether. "They're not being pushed out, they'll be allowed to exit," he said. "All those who are concerned for the Palestinians and say they want to help the Palestinians should open their gates and stop lecturing us." The suggestion — one which has previously been raised by US President Donald Trump — has been described by Palestinians as reminiscent of the "Nakba", or "catastrophe" — when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were forced from their land during the 1948 war. Israel's plans to occupy Gaza City, which it has done so before in this war, are expected to be carried out next month or in October. That leaves several weeks for possible ceasefire negotiations, with Hamas currently holding talks with Egyptian mediators. ABC/wires
