Photos show Gaza's deadliest day for Palestinians looking for food after more than 80 are killed
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The Guardian
2 hours ago
- The Guardian
‘It's a horrible picture': Gaza faces new threat from antibiotic-resistant disease
Gaza is facing a new threat as diseases resistant to antibiotics spread across the devastated territory, research has revealed. Medical supplies are desperately scarce and tens of thousands of people have been injured in the 22-month war, while many others have been weakened by malnutrition, so the high levels of drug-resistant bacteria will mean longer and more serious illnesses, a more rapid transmission of infectious diseases and more deaths, experts said. The findings published on Tuesday, in a peer-reviewed research comment in the Lancet Infectious Diseases, are the first since the conflict began in October 2023 to suggest a prevalence of multi-drug-resistant bacteria in Gaza. 'This will mean longer and more serious illnesses and a high risk of transmission to others. It means an increased risk of death from really common infections. It means more amputations. It's a horrible picture,' said Krystel Moussally, epidemiology adviser to Médecins Sans Frontières and a co-author of studies on drug-resistant bacteria in Gaza and other conflict zones in the Middle East, who was not involved in the research. The study is based on more 1,300 samples from at al-Ahli hospital, where one of the few microbiology laboratories that is still functional in Gaza is based. Two-thirds of the samples, taken from patients over a 10-month period last year, showed the presence of multi-drug-resistant bacteria. Bilal Irfan, one of the authors of the study, described the results as 'particularly alarming'. 'We don't even know the true scale because of the destruction of almost all the laboratories and the killing of a lot of the medical staff, so to even get a small insight into what is happening in Gaza is extremely important,' said Irfan, a bioethicist who conducts research at Harvard's Brigham and Women's hospital and the University of Michigan. Gaza has suffered for decades from high levels of multi-drug-resistant bacteria as a consequence of repeated conflicts and an Israeli blockade since 2007, when Hamas seized control. But the current context was unprecedented, experts said. Not only has Gaza's healthcare system been decimated but sanitation systems have been destroyed, the disposal of garbage and solid waste has almost stopped and hunger is widespread among the 2.3 million population, making many more vulnerable to infection. On Tuesday, the World Health Organization said Israel should let it stock medical supplies to deal with a 'catastrophic' health situation in Gaza. 'We want to stock up, and we all hear about more humanitarian supplies are allowed in – well it's not happening yet, or it's happening at a way too low a pace,' said Rik Peeperkorn, WHO's representative in the Palestinian territories. Speaking from Jerusalem, Peeperkorn said Gaza had run out of more than half of medicines and the WHO was able to bring in fewer supplies than it wanted 'due to the cumbersome procedures' and products 'still denied' entry – a topic of constant negotiation with the Israeli authorities. Peeperkorn said only 50% of hospitals and 38% of primary health care centres were functioning, and even then only partly. Bed occupancy has reached 240% capacity in the Al-Shifa hospital and 300% at Al-Ahli hospital, both in northern Gaza. 'The overall health situation remains catastrophic,' he said. 'Hunger and malnutrition continue to ravage Gaza'. Israeli Ministry of Defence officials said more than 45,000 tonnes of medical equipment had been transferred to Gaza since the beginning of the war and 13 fully equipped field hospitals established by international aid organisations. 'Israel will continue to allow the entry of medical equipment and medicines into the Gaza Strip in accordance with international law and in coordination with the international community, while taking all possible measures to prevent the terrorist organisation Hamas from seizing the aid and exploiting it for terrorist and military purposes,' the officials said. At least 89 Palestinians, 31 seeking aid, have been killed and 513 injured in Israeli attacks across Gaza in the past 24 hours, according to the territory's health ministry. Israel's offensive in Gaza has now killed a total of 61,599 Palestinians and injured 154,088 since 7 October 2023. According to health officials in Gaza, at least 60,000 people have been killed during Israel's current military campaign, launched after the Hamas-led attack on 7 October 2023 which killed nearly 1,200 people. The actual death toll is likely to be significantly higher, as the figure only includes Palestinians killed by bombs or bullets whose bodies have been recovered, leaving out thousands trapped under the rubble or killed by starvation and other indirect victims of the campaign. According to the data – which includes the deaths of militants – women, children, and elderly people account for approximately 55% of the recorded deaths. Three-quarters of the samples studied by Irfan and the other authors of the new study were taken from casualties suffering traumatic wounds inflicted by Israeli airstrikes or similar attacks. In the Lancet, the authors said the threat from drug-resistant bacteria would escalate unless there was an end to the Israeli offensive and the 'deliberate targeting of hospitals, laboratories and water desalination plants'. Moussally said that the problem had been made worse by massive contamination of water sources and 'no proper immunisation programmes' during the war. The conflict was triggered by a surprise attack by Hamas into Israel in which militants killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted about 250 hostages, of whom 50 remain in Gaza. Only 20 are believed to still be alive.
BBC News
10 hours ago
- BBC News
Israel bombards Gaza City as UK and allies urge action against 'famine unfolding'
Gaza City has come under intense air attack, the territory's Hamas-run civil defence agency has said, as Israeli forces prepare to occupy the Bassal, a spokesman, said the residential areas of Zeitoun and Sabra had for three days been hit by bombs and drone strikes that "cause massive destruction to civilian homes", with residents unable to recover the dead and the UK, EU, Australia, Canada and Japan issued a statement saying "famine is unfolding in front of our eyes" and urged action to "reverse starvation".They demanded "immediate, permanent and concrete steps" to facilitate the entry of aid to Gaza. Israel denies there is starvation in Gaza. It has accused UN agencies of not picking up aid at the borders and delivering joint statement also demanded an end to the use of lethal force near aid distribution sites and lorry convoys, where the UN says more than 1,300 Palestinians have been killed, mostly by the Israeli the World Health Organisation on Tuesday appealed to Israel to let it stock medical supplies to deal with a "catastrophic" health situation before it seizes control of Gaza City."We all hear about 'more humanitarian supplies are allowed in' - well it's not happening yet, or it's happening at a way too low a pace," said Rik Peeperkorn, the agency's representative in the Palestinian territories."We want to as quickly stock up hospitals," he added. "We currently cannot do that. We need to be able to get all essential medicines and medical supplies in."Israel's war cabinet voted on Monday to occupy Gaza City, a move condemned at an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council later that day. On Tuesday the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it was "at the beginning of a new state of combat".The Israeli government has not provided an exact timetable on when its forces would enter the area. On Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel's forces had been instructed to dismantle the "two remaining Hamas strongholds" in Gaza City and a central area around also outlined a three-step plan to increase aid in Gaza, including designating safe corridors for aid distribution, as well as more air drops by Israeli forces and other the ground, however, residents of Gaza City said they had come under unrelenting attack from the air. Majed al-Hosary, a resident in Zeitoun in Gaza City, told AFP that the attacks had been "extremely intense for two days". "With every strike, the ground shakes. There are martyrs under the rubble that no one can reach because the shelling hasn't stopped," he Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said that 100 dead had been brought to hospitals across Gaza over the past 24 hours, including 31 people who were killed at aid sites. Five more people had also died of malnutrition, it has faced mounting criticism over the 22-month-long war with Hamas, with UN-backed experts warning of widespread famine unfolding in the besieged Tuesday members of an international group of former leaders known as "The Elders" for the first time called the war in Gaza an "unfolding genocide" and blamed Israel for causing famine among its population. Following a visit to the Gaza border, Helen Clark and Mary Robinson, a former prime minister of New Zealand and a former president of Ireland, said in a joint statement: "What we saw and heard underlines our personal conviction that there is not only an unfolding, human-caused famine in Gaza. There is an unfolding genocide." The statement mirrors those of leading Israeli rights groups, including B'Tselem, which said it had reached an "unequivocal conclusion" that Israel was attempting to "destroy Palestinian society in the Gaza Strip".Israel strongly rejects the accusations, saying its forces target terrorists and never civilians, and that Hamas was responsible for the suffering in Sunday, the IDF killed five Al Jazeera journalists in a targeted attack on a media tent in Gaza City, sparking widespread international condemnation. It said it had killed well known reporter Anas al-Sharif, whom it alleged "served as the head of a terrorist cell in Hamas", and made no mention of the others. Media freedom groups said it had provided little evidence for its claims. Al Jazeera's managing editor said Israel wanted to "silence the coverage of any channel of reporting from inside Gaza".Hamas killed more than 1,200 people and took 251 hostage in its attack on Israel on 7 October 2023. Israel's response in Gaza has killed at least 61,599 Palestinians, according to the health ministry, whose toll the UN considers reliable.
BBC News
a day ago
- BBC News
Gaza is a conveyor belt of carnage, says Kettering paramedic
Warning: this article contains upsetting content A British paramedic working in Gaza said the territory felt like a "conveyor belt of carnage" as he has treated a "steady stream" of patients with blast, shrapnel and gunshot Sears, 44, from Kettering, Northamptonshire, a paramedic with East Midlands Ambulance Service, was stationed for three weeks in Gaza with the charity UK-Med. On arrival, Mr Sears said he began working in response to a mass casualty incident where two children, aged nine and 11, had died from blast injuries."I put the children in body bags and zipped them up," he said. "In the UK I've had to deal with a number of deceased children, but the difference was I'm never involved with putting them in a body bag. It's normally a very calm, slow situation, allowing parents time to grieve."It was particularly heartbreaking putting a child in a body bag, seeing their face for the last time, then moving them out the way so we could treat more people."Part of me felt guilty that there was no dignity for them because the emergency situation meant it was a case of 'they are dead, let's get them out the way to free the beds'."But there was simply no alternative because with such a high volume of casualties, we had to focus on people we might be able to save." The 44-year-old paramedic has carried out humanitarian work in other countries, but said Gaza was like other conflicts "times 1,000". The paramedic said a 16-year-old boy was left paralysed and needing an amputation after suffering blast and shrapnel wounds and the patient's 18-year-old brother wept when told he would now have to care for him Sears also told of seeing more pregnant women and newborn babies suffering severe malnutrition because the mothers lacked the nutrients to breastfeed."That first night, another child came in with shrapnel embedded in their stomach and bleeding internally. "I was personally convinced they would die, but we got him to surgery within 20 minutes," said Mr Sears, who returned to the UK on 31 July."Next day when I saw them they were recovering well and the prognosis was really good. "Gaza's the hardest thing I've ever done but moments like that that keep you going. We have saved that child's life." Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry says that in total more than 61,000 people have been killed as a result of Israel's military campaign since launched its offensive in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October that year, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage. Follow Northamptonshire news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
