Latest news with #AlShifaMedicalComplex
CNA
22-07-2025
- Health
- CNA
Gaza hospital says 21 children dead from starvation as aid crisis worsens
GAZA CITY: The head of Gaza's largest hospital said on Tuesday (Jul 22) that 21 children have died from malnutrition and starvation over the past three days, amid worsening humanitarian conditions and continued Israeli military operations. 'Twenty-one children have died due to malnutrition and starvation in various areas across the Gaza Strip,' said Dr Mohammed Abu Salmiya, director of Al-Shifa Medical Complex. He warned that new cases were arriving 'every moment' at the few remaining hospitals still able to function, and that the territory could soon see 'alarming numbers' of starvation deaths if conditions did not improve. Gaza, home to more than 2 million people, has experienced extreme shortages of food, water and medical supplies, with many residents killed while trying to collect aid at limited distribution points. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described Gaza as a 'horror show' in a speech on Tuesday, citing 'a level of death and destruction without parallel in recent times'. ISRAEL DEFENDS AID ACCESS Israeli military spokesman Nadav Shoshani said in a social media post on Tuesday evening that '950 trucks worth of aid' were currently waiting in Gaza 'for international organisations to pick up and distribute'. He said Israel had facilitated their entry. After the collapse of a six-week ceasefire in early March, Israel reimposed a full blockade on Gaza, cutting off all supplies. Aid deliveries resumed at a limited pace in late May, but international agencies say stocks built during the truce have since dwindled. Tensions have mounted over the role of the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which has largely sidelined the UN-led aid distribution network. The UN on Tuesday said Israeli forces had killed more than 1,000 Palestinians seeking food aid near GHF distribution points since the end of May. GROUND OPERATIONS, AIR STRIKES CONTINUE On Tuesday, Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli strikes had killed 15 people across the enclave, including 13 in the Al-Shati refugee camp west of Gaza City. More than 50 people were wounded. The camp, located along the Mediterranean coast, shelters thousands of displaced families living in tents and makeshift structures. Most of Gaza's population has been displaced at least once during the conflict. Raed Bakr, a 30-year-old father of three, described the attack as a nightmare. 'Fire, dust, smoke and body parts flying through the air,' he told AFP. 'The children were screaming.' The World Health Organization (WHO) also accused Israeli forces of targeting its personnel. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said troops had entered a WHO staff residence in central Gaza, forced women and children to evacuate, and handcuffed and interrogated male staff at gunpoint. Israeli forces expanded ground operations on Tuesday in Deir el-Balah, previously considered a relatively safe area. The Israeli military said its troops responded to gunfire in the area. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimates between 50,000 and 80,000 people are currently living in Deir el-Balah, including around 30,000 in displacement camps. OCHA also said nearly 88 per cent of Gaza's territory is now under evacuation orders or designated as militarised zones, further reducing the space available to civilians. VATICAN OFFICIAL, ISRAELI HARDLINERS RESPOND The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Pierbattista Pizzaballa, called the humanitarian situation 'morally unacceptable' after spending three days in Gaza. His visit followed an Israeli strike last week on the territory's only Catholic church, which killed three people. Meanwhile, far-right Israeli lawmakers met in Jerusalem on Tuesday to discuss a controversial redevelopment plan for Gaza, calling for a permanent Jewish presence and a 'Gaza Riviera' complete with housing, industry, agriculture and coastal tourism infrastructure. The war began after Hamas's Oct 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel, which killed 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli data. Since then, Israel's military campaign has killed 59,106 people in Gaza, the vast majority civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.
News.com.au
22-07-2025
- Health
- News.com.au
Gaza hospital says 21 children dead from malnutrition and starvation
The head of Gaza's largest hospital on Tuesday said 21 children have died due to malnutrition and starvation in the Palestinian territory in the past three days, amid a devastating assault by Israeli forces. Gaza's population of more than two million people is facing severe shortages of food and other essentials, with residents frequently killed as they try to collect humanitarian aid at a handful of distribution points. "Twenty-one children have died due to malnutrition and starvation in various areas across the Gaza Strip," Mohammed Abu Salmiya, the director of Al-Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza, told reporters. The doctor said the deaths had been recorded at multiple hospitals during the past 72 hours. The announcement came just hours after Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli strikes had killed 15 people, after the World Health Organization said Israel attacked its facilities amid expanding ground operations. Agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that Israeli strikes on the Al-Shati camp west of Gaza City killed at least 13 people and wounded more than 50. Authorities in the Hamas-run territory say more than 59,000 people have been killed during the 21-month war. Most of Gaza's population has been displaced at least once during the conflict and the Al-Shati camp -- on the Mediterranean coast -- hosts thousands of people displaced from the north in tents and makeshift shelters. Raed Bakr, 30, lives with his three children and said he heard "a massive explosion" at about 1:40 am on Tuesday (2240 GMT Monday), which blew their tent away. "I felt like I was in a nightmare. Fire, dust, smoke and body parts flying through the air, dirt everywhere. The children were screaming," Bakr, whose wife was killed last year, told AFP. Reports of the latest death toll came as the Roman Catholic church's most senior cleric in the Holy Land said the humanitarian situation in Gaza was "morally unacceptable". "We have seen men holding out in the sun for hours in the hope of a simple meal," Latin Patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa told a news conference in Jerusalem after visiting the war-torn Palestinian territory. - New ground operations - His visit came after an Israeli army strike on the only Catholic church in Gaza killed three people last week, prompting Pope Leo XIV to condemn the "barbarity" of the war and the blind "use of force". The World Health Organization too sharply criticised the Israeli military. The UN agency's chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus accused troops of entering its staff residence, and forcing women and children to evacuate, as they handcuffed, stripped and interrogated male staff at gunpoint. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Monday evening warned that "the last lifelines keeping people alive are collapsing" in Gaza, and that there were growing reports of children and adults with malnutrition. The latest criticism of Israel came as its forces expanded ground operations in Deir el-Balah following intense shelling of the area in central Gaza on Monday. The Israeli military had earlier ordered residents to leave, warning of imminent action in an area where it had not previously operated. The civil defence agency's Bassal said two people were killed in Deir el-Balah. The Israeli military said later its troops "identified shots being fired toward them in the Deir al-Balah area, and responded toward the area from which the shooting originated". "The (army) will not refrain from operating in areas where terrorist activity threatens the security of the State of Israel," it said in a statement. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimated that between 50,000 and 80,000 people were living in the area, which until now had been considered relatively safe. Some 30,000 were living in displacement sites. AFP footage from central Gaza showed a large plume of smoke rising over Deir el-Balah while a surveillance drone was heard buzzing overhead. OCHA said nearly 88 percent of the entire Gaza Strip was now either under evacuation orders or within Israeli militarised zones, forcing the population of 2.4 million into an ever-shrinking space. Israel's military campaign in Gaza has killed 59,106 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory. Hamas's 2023 attack, which sparked the war, resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
