At least 51 Palestinians killed while waiting for aid trucks in Gaza, health officials say
KHAN YUNIS, Gaza Strip — At least 51 Palestinians were killed and more than 200 wounded in the Gaza Strip while waiting for United Nations and commercial trucks to enter the territory with desperately needed food, according to Gaza's Health Ministry and a local hospital.
Palestinian witnesses told the Associated Press that Israeli forces carried out an airstrike on a nearby home before opening fire toward the crowd in the southern city of Khan Yunis.
The Israeli military said soldiers had spotted a gathering near an aid truck that was stuck in Khan Yunis, near where Israeli forces were operating. It acknowledged 'several casualties' as Israelis opened fire on the approaching crowd and said authorities would investigate what happened.
The shooting did not appear to be related to a new Israeli- and U.S.-supported aid delivery network that rolled out last month and has been marred by controversy and violence.
The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian affairs, or OCHA, said the people killed were waiting for food rations arriving in U.N. convoys.
Also on Tuesday, the main Palestinian telecommunications regulatory agency based in the West Bank city of Ramallah reported that Israeli strikes had cut off fixed-line phone service and internet access in central and southern Gaza.
One witness, Yousef Nofal, said he saw many people motionless and bleeding on the ground after Israeli forces opened fire. 'It was a massacre,' he said, adding that the soldiers continued firing on people as they fled from the area.
Mohammed Abu Qeshfa reported hearing a loud explosion followed by heavy gunfire and tank shelling. 'I survived by a miracle,' he said.
The dead and wounded were taken to the city's Nasser Hospital, which confirmed 51 people had been killed. Later Tuesday, medical charity MSF raised the death toll to 59, saying that an additional 200 had been wounded while trying to receive flour rations in Khan Yunis.
Samaher Meqdad was at the hospital looking for her two brothers and a nephew who had been in the crowd.
'We don't want flour. We don't want food. We don't want anything,' she said. 'Why did they fire at the young people? Why? Aren't we human beings?'
Palestinians say Israeli forces have repeatedly opened fire on crowds trying to reach food distribution points run by a separate U.S.- and Israeli-backed aid group since the centers opened last month. Local health officials say scores have been killed and hundreds wounded.
In those instances, the Israeli military has acknowledged firing warning shots at people it said had approached its forces in a suspicious manner.
Deadly Israeli airstrikes continued elsewhere in the enclave on Tuesday. Al-Awda Hospital, a major medical center in northern Gaza, reported that it received the bodies of eight Palestinians killed in an Israeli strike on a house in the central Bureij refugee camp.
Israel says the new system operated by a private contractor, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, is designed to prevent the militant group Hamas from siphoning off aid to fund its activities.
U.N. agencies and major aid groups deny there is any major diversion of aid and have rejected the new system, saying that it can't meet the mounting needs in Gaza and that it violates humanitarian principles by allowing Israel to control who has access to aid.
Experts have warned of famine in the territory that is home to about 2 million Palestinians.
The U.N.-run network has delivered aid across Gaza throughout the 20-month Israel-Hamas war, but has faced major obstacles after Israel loosened a total blockade it had imposed from early March until mid-May.
U.N. officials say Israeli military restrictions, a breakdown of law and order, and widespread looting make it difficult to deliver the aid that Israel has allowed in.
Olga Cherevko, a spokesperson for OCHA, said Tuesday that the aid Israeli authorities have allowed into Gaza since late May has been 'woefully insufficient.'
Fuel has not entered Gaza for over 100 days, she said. 'The only way to address it is by sufficient volumes and over sustained periods of time. A trickle of aid here, a trickle of aid there is not going to make a difference.'
Israel's military campaign since October 2023 has killed over 55,300 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. Its count doesn't distinguish between civilians and combatants.
Israel launched its campaign aiming to destroy Hamas after the group's Oct. 7, 2023, attack in southern Israel, in which militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took about 250 others hostage.
The militants still hold 53 hostages, fewer than half of them alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals.
Jahjouh, Magdy and Krauss write for the Associated Press. Magdy reported from Cairo and Krauss from Dubai. AP writer Sally Abou AlJoud in Beirut contributed to this report.
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Argentines reel from health care cutbacks as President Milei's state overhaul mirrors Trump's
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina -- To outsiders, the Facebook group chat reads like a snarl of nonsensical emojis and letters. To uninsured Argentine cancer patients, it's a lifeline. The surreptitious network connects advocates who have spare drugs to Argentines with cancer who lost access to their treatment in March 2024 when President Javier Milei suspended a federal agency, known as DADSE, that paid for their expensive medications. Whenever Facebook cracks the coded pleas and removes the group for violating its rules on drug sales, another appears, swelling with Argentines who say they've grown sicker since the radical libertarian president took a chainsaw to health care. 'All I need for my body to function is this medication, and Milei is saying, 'There's no money,'' said Ariel Wagener, a 47-year-old pizza chef with leukemia who was hospitalized this year with failing kidneys after losing access to his medication. Without DADSE, a month's worth of his leukemia drug costs $21,000. Wagener's condition stabilized after he got leftover medication via Facebook, donated by a family whose loved one had died of cancer. The halting of millions of dollars of free cancer drugs is just one way Milei's austerity drive has torn through the public health system that once set Argentina apart in Latin America, ensuring that health care was free for pretty much everyone who couldn't afford private insurance. Since taking office in December 2023, Milei has slashed Argentina's health care budget by 48% in real terms. His administration fired over 2,000 Health Ministry employees, including 1,400 over just a few days in January. As part of Milei's plan to remake Argentina's troubled economy and cut waste and bureaucracy, officials gutted the National Cancer Institute, suspending early detection programs for breast and cervical cancer. They froze federal funds for immunization campaigns, hobbling vaccine access as Argentina confronts a measles outbreak for the first time in decades. 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Milei campaigned on a promise to shrink the state two years before President Donald Trump and Elon Musk took up their own chainsaws. The Argentine has become a close ally of the Trump administration, including on health policy. Argentina has followed the U.S. out of the World Health Organization, and last month received a visit from U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Meeting Kennedy in Buenos Aires, Argentine Health Minister Mario Lugones announced a review of Argentina's health system to align it with Kennedy's Make America Healthy Again movement. 'We have similar visions about the path forward,' Lugones said of Kennedy. Milei has not yet attempted to replace universal coverage with an insurance-based system, as he vowed on the campaign trail. But in stripping Argentines of coverage and increasing premiums and out-of-pocket expenses, he is moving Argentina closer to the U.S. model, said Macarena Sabin Paz, health team coordinator at Argentina's Center for Legal and Social Studies. 'We are beginning to see the idea ... where if you lose your job, or become seriously ill, you may have to sell your car, whatever you have, to pay for health care," she said. Milei's staffing cuts have eviscerated agencies tasked with planning, financing and tracking immunization campaigns, disrupting data collection and jeopardizing the country's respected childhood vaccine program. The cuts have coincided with a measles outbreak that in April led to Argentina's first measles death in two decades. 'Argentina has been one of the most advanced South American countries and here we see it abandoning public health,' said Dr. Stanley Plotkin, an American physician who helped develop the measles vaccine in the 1960s. 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San Francisco Chronicle
2 hours ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Argentines reel from health care cutbacks as President Milei's state overhaul mirrors Trump's
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — To outsiders, the Facebook group chat reads like a snarl of nonsensical emojis and letters. To uninsured Argentine cancer patients, it's a lifeline. The surreptitious network connects advocates who have spare drugs to Argentines with cancer who lost access to their treatment in March 2024 when President Javier Milei suspended a federal agency, known as DADSE, that paid for their expensive medications. Whenever Facebook cracks the coded pleas and removes the group for violating its rules on drug sales, another appears, swelling with Argentines who say they've grown sicker since the radical libertarian president took a chainsaw to health care. 'All I need for my body to function is this medication, and Milei is saying, 'There's no money,'' said Ariel Wagener, a 47-year-old pizza chef with leukemia who was hospitalized this year with failing kidneys after losing access to his medication. Without DADSE, a month's worth of his leukemia drug costs $21,000. Wagener's condition stabilized after he got leftover medication via Facebook, donated by a family whose loved one had died of cancer. The halting of millions of dollars of free cancer drugs is just one way Milei's austerity drive has torn through the public health system that once set Argentina apart in Latin America, ensuring that health care was free for pretty much everyone who couldn't afford private insurance. Since taking office in December 2023, Milei has slashed Argentina's health care budget by 48% in real terms. His administration fired over 2,000 Health Ministry employees, including 1,400 over just a few days in January. As part of Milei's plan to remake Argentina's troubled economy and cut waste and bureaucracy, officials gutted the National Cancer Institute, suspending early detection programs for breast and cervical cancer. They froze federal funds for immunization campaigns, hobbling vaccine access as Argentina confronts a measles outbreak for the first time in decades. They dismantled the National Directorate for HIV, Hepatitis and Tuberculosis, leading to testing and treatment delays. They defunded emergency contraception and stopped distributing abortion pills. 'We're seeing setbacks we haven't seen in decades,' said María Fernanda Boriotti, president of Argentina's Federation of Health Professionals. "HIV patients without treatment, cancer patients dying for lack of medication, hospitals without resources, health professionals pushed out of the system." The government curtailed medical coverage for retirees and lifted price controls on prescription medication and private health plans, causing prices to spike by 250% and 118% respectively, official data shows. 'We've stopped buying milk, yogurt, anything that's not absolutely essential,' said Susana Pecora, 71, who lost the insurance plan that covered her husband's antipsychotic drugs when the price jumped 40% last year. Milei and Trump see eye-to-eye Milei campaigned on a promise to shrink the state two years before President Donald Trump and Elon Musk took up their own chainsaws. The Argentine has become a close ally of the Trump administration, including on health policy. Argentina has followed the U.S. out of the World Health Organization, and last month received a visit from U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Meeting Kennedy in Buenos Aires, Argentine Health Minister Mario Lugones announced a review of Argentina's health system to align it with Kennedy's Make America Healthy Again movement. 'We have similar visions about the path forward,' Lugones said of Kennedy. Milei has not yet attempted to replace universal coverage with an insurance-based system, as he vowed on the campaign trail. But in stripping Argentines of coverage and increasing premiums and out-of-pocket expenses, he is moving Argentina closer to the U.S. model, said Macarena Sabin Paz, health team coordinator at Argentina's Center for Legal and Social Studies. 'We are beginning to see the idea ... where if you lose your job, or become seriously ill, you may have to sell your car, whatever you have, to pay for health care," she said. Milei's staffing cuts have eviscerated agencies tasked with planning, financing and tracking immunization campaigns, disrupting data collection and jeopardizing the country's respected childhood vaccine program. The cuts have coincided with a measles outbreak that in April led to Argentina's first measles death in two decades. 'Argentina has been one of the most advanced South American countries and here we see it abandoning public health,' said Dr. Stanley Plotkin, an American physician who helped develop the measles vaccine in the 1960s. Milei's spokesperson, Manuel Adorni, did not respond to requests for comment. Lugones also did not respond to questions on the impact of policy changes. A tidal wave of cuts After decades of unbridled spending by left-wing populist governments that brought Argentina infamy for defaulting on its debts, Milei delivered on his campaign promises of taming extreme inflation and notching a fiscal surplus. But even experts who agree Argentina's health care system needed reform say the cutbacks have been so deep and fast that they've hit like a tidal wave. 'In terms of the destruction of the state, we've never experienced anything like this, not even during the military dictatorship,' said Fabio Nuñez, ex-coordinator of the National Directorate for HIV, Hepatitis and Tuberculosis who was among hundreds fired from the agency. Charged with leading prevention efforts and treatments for infectious diseases, the agency has lost 40% of its staff and 76% of its annual budget. Hospitals now face shortages of everything from virus testing supplies to medications to condoms. The cuts have coincided with a surge in sexually transmitted infections. Last year HIV cases spiked by 20% and syphilis by 50%. 'They're avoiding the expense now but will pay for it later as people seek emergency care,' said Cristian Pizzuti, a 31-year-old with HIV who documented 103 cases of patients deprived of their daily antiretroviral pills for weeks at a time last year. Pizzuti said he recently received expired medication and suffered a severe allergic reaction after being switched to a cheaper drug. Tuberculosis cases also climbed by 25% last year. TB clinics report delays in obtaining test results. 'As people go about their lives, waiting for results, they are spreading the disease to others,' said Dr. Santiago Jimenez, who treats HIV and TB patients in an impoverished Buenos Aires neighborhood. "It's an epidemiological disaster.' Hospitals under strain Free public hospitals have become flooded with Argentines who dropped their private insurance due to increased premiums or who lost their job — and with it, their social security plans funded through payroll contributions. Buenos Aires facilities reported a 20%-30% increase in demand in the first quarter of 2025 compared to the same period last year. The strain was visible at the free public Rodolfo Rossi Hospital in La Plata last month, where crowds jostled in the outpatient clinic and long lines spilled from the pharmacy. Pharmacists have reported drug shortages as mass layoffs caused administrative chaos and the government froze a program that provided basic medications to Argentine public health centers. Silvana Mansilla, 43, spent half the day waiting to pick up her monthly supply of thyroid medication — which has doubled in price to $22 — only to find the hospital had run out. 'Where's the government? What are they doing about this?' she asked. With hiring frozen, doctors said they're handling double the patient load. Overwhelmed by ever-increasing workloads, Argentina's leading public Garrahan Pediatric Hospital in Buenos Aires has hemorrhaged 200 medical professionals since Milei took office. As annual inflation neared 200% last fall, their salaries lost half of their purchasing power. Doctors left for jobs abroad or better-paying work in private clinics. None were replaced. Medical residents ran a weeklong strike in May, displaying their pay slips for a month of 70-hour work weeks: $700. Waiting for treatment A lawsuit filed by patient advocacy groups said more than 60 cancer patients have died due to the government's suspension of the DADSE medication program, and over 1,500 patients were waiting for their drugs. A federal judge ordered the government to reinstate the drug deliveries, but it appealed, arguing that DADSE no longer exists. It said it had created a new, more efficient program to fulfill outstanding requests. But the timeline varies and sometimes the drugs don't come at all. Timing was everything for patients like Alexis Almirón. His medical records show the government drug bank received his request for an expensive medication to shrink his malignant tumor on Dec. 11, 2023, the day after Milei's inauguration. His doctor told the agency immediate treatment was urgently needed for the aggressive cancer. Months passed. His mother, Claudia Caballero, bombarded DADSE with desperate calls asking what was taking so long as Almirón's lymphoma spread from his neck to his brain and stomach. He vomited blood. He lost his eyesight. Caballero tried to crowd-source the $20,000 for a month's supply of the drug but couldn't raise enough. On March 12 last year, Almirón died at 22. 'They didn't give him the chance to choose to live,' Caballero said, her voice breaking.
San Francisco Chronicle
2 hours ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Takeaways from AP report on President Javier Milei's dramatic cuts to Argentine health care
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Argentina used to have an extensive, free public health system that pretty much ensured that everybody who couldn't afford private insurance was covered for everything. But in the year-and-a-half since President Javier Milei rode to power on a promise to eliminate the nation's sky-high inflation and huge budget deficits, the radical economist's austerity program has taken a brutal toll on the nation's public hospitals and its population of poor, retired and unemployed patients who have lost access to vital treatment. In gutting key federal health agencies, Milei's sweeping layoffs and deep spending cuts have mirrored moves taken by the administration of his close ally, U.S. President Donald Trump. Here are takeaways from an Associated Press report about how a libertarian revolution cheered by the global far-right is affecting the health of Argentines. Life-or-death stakes for cancer patients President Milei's suspension of a government agency, known as DADSE, that provided prohibitively expensive medication to uninsured cancer patients and others with rare diseases has left thousands of Argentines without lifesaving treatment. The changes forced patients to seek help outside the traditional health care system. Some surreptitiously manage to secure spare drug donations via Facebook groups. Others are not so lucky. A lawsuit filed by patient advocacy groups said at least 60 cancer patients died last year due to the government's suspension of the DADSE medication program. The AP spoke with four families whose loved ones died while waiting for the agency to pay for cancer drugs that it had covered and delivered before Milei took office. A federal judge ordered the government to resume drug deliveries, but the state has appealed, saying DADSE no longer exists. Milei's spokesperson, Manuel Adorni, did not respond to requests for comment. Health Minister Mario Lugones did not respond to questions on the impact of policy changes. Officials have also gutted the National Cancer Institute, suspending early detection programs for breast and cervical cancer. Progress against infectious diseases upended Since taking office in December 2023, Milei has slashed Argentina's health care budget by 48% in real terms. His administration fired over 2,000 Health Ministry employees — nearly a quarter of its workforce — including 1,400 over just a few days in January. Employees describe the worst funding crunch in the ministry's recent history and say the layoffs have allowed an upsurge of diseases once under control. The National Directorate for HIV, Hepatitis and Tuberculosis has lost 40% of its staff and 76% of its annual budget. Hospitals now face shortages of everything from virus testing supplies to medications to condoms. Patients who have the near-totally drug-resistant form of HIV say they're not being treated. The cuts have coincided with a surge in sexually transmitted infections. Last year HIV cases spiked by 20% and syphilis by 50%. Tuberculosis cases also climbed by 25% last year. TB clinics report delays in obtaining test results and say that family members of infected people are not being put on preventive therapy. Overwhelmed hospitals The government has curtailed medical coverage for retirees and lifted price controls on prescription medication and private health plans, causing prices to spike by 250% and 118% respectively, official data shows. Free public hospitals have been flooded with Argentines who dropped their private plans due to increased premiums or who lost their jobs — and with it, social security plans funded through payroll contributions. Buenos Aires facilities reported a 20%-30% increase in demand in the first quarter of 2025 compared to the same period last year. Pharmacists have reported drug shortages as mass layoffs caused administrative chaos and the government froze a program that provided basic medications to Argentine public health centers. With hiring frozen, doctors said they're handling double the patients they did a couple years ago. Besieged by staff burnout and ever-increasing workloads, Argentina's leading public Garrahan Pediatric Hospital in Buenos Aires has hemorrhaged 200 medical professionals since Milei took office. As annual inflation neared 200% last fall, their salaries lost half of their purchasing power. Doctors left for jobs abroad or better-paying work in private clinics. None were replaced. Mass protests and strikes by low-paid medical residents paralyzed Buenos Aires last month. Vaccines on the chopping block Milei froze federal funds for immunization campaigns, hobbling vaccine access as Argentina confronts a measles outbreak that in April led to its first measles death in two decades. Authorities did not renew national contracts with vaccine suppliers, in some cases disrupting deliveries to provinces. Last month Argentine officials welcomed Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., the Trump administration's Health and Human Services secretary and a longtime vaccine skeptic, for meetings on health policy in Buenos Aires. Health Minister Lugones, vowed to refocus the ministry's functions on holistic health rather than infectious disease, in line with Kennedy's Make America Healthy Again movement. Milei finalized Argentina's decision to follow the U.S. in withdrawing from the World Health Organization, which had provided the nation with discounts on vaccines and medications and helped it track outbreaks. 'Argentina has been one of the most advanced South American countries and here we see it abandoning public health,' said Dr. Stanley Plotkin, an American physician who helped develop the measles vaccine in the 1960s.
