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IOL News
2 days ago
- Politics
- IOL News
'100 percent' of Gazans face risk of famine, United Nations warns
A displaced Palestinian youth ferries a bag of food aid on his shoulders after people stormed a World Food Programme warehouse in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on May 28. Image: Eyad Baba / AFP Gaza is "the hungriest place on Earth", the United Nations said on Friday, warning that the Palestinian territory's entire population was now at risk of famine. Negotiations to end nearly 20 months of war have so far failed to achieve a breakthrough, with Israel resuming operations in Gaza in March, ending a six-week truce. "Gaza is the hungriest place on Earth," said Jens Laerke, a spokesman for the UN humanitarian agency OCHA. "It's the only defined area - a country or defined territory within a country - where you have the entire population at risk of famine. 100 percent of the population at risk of famine," he said, rejecting claims to the contrary by Israeli authorities. In recent days, Israel has partially eased a total aid blockade on the Palestinian territory that it imposed on March 2, leading to severe shortages of food and medicine. Daniel Meron, Israel's ambassador in Geneva, rejected the claim, saying UN agencies "cherry pick the facts to paint an alternative version of reality and demonise Israel". "In a desperate effort to remain relevant, they lambast the best efforts of Israel and its partners to facilitate delivery of humanitarian aid to the civilian population. UN feeds Hamas, we make sure aid gets to those in need," he wrote on X. 'Catastrophic hunger' At a press briefing in Geneva, Laerke detailed the difficulties faced by the United Nations in delivering humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip. Laerke said 900 trucks of humanitarian aid had been authorised by Israel to enter the Strip since the blockade was partially lifted. But so far only 600 trucks have been offloaded on the Gaza side of the border, and a smaller number of truckloads have then been picked up, due to multiple security considerations. Laerke said the mission to deliver aid was "in an operational strait-jacket that makes it one of the most obstructed aid operations not only in the world today, but in recent history". Once truckloads enter Gaza, they are often "swarmed by desperate people", Laerke said. "I don't blame them, for one second, for taking the aid that essentially is already theirs - but it's not distributed in the way we want." 'Desperate and tragic' The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation - a new organisation backed by Israel and the United States that emerged in early May - has been distributing aid at several sites across the Strip this week. The organisation has faced accusations of helping Israel fulfil its military objectives while excluding Palestinians and failing to adhere to humanitarian principles of neutrality, impartiality and independence. Asked about the foundation's operations, Laerke said: "It's not working. It does not meet the needs of people. It creates chaos." Thousands of Palestinians rushed into a GHF centre on Tuesday, AFP journalists reported, as Israel implemented a new distribution system that bypasses the UN. Laerke said that by having people collect aid rather than delivering it to them where they are, they become a target for looters once they leave the site. "It is so desperate and tragic and frustrating and wildly unhumanitarian," he said. In a statement, GHF claimed it had delivered two million meals in four days. AFP
Middle East Eye
3 days ago
- Health
- Middle East Eye
Has Israel manufactured a famine in Gaza?
The markets are empty. The make-shift hospitals are bare. The water is contaminated. The aid trucks are nowhere in sight. Gaza is being starved, and rights groups say, deliberately. At least 57 children have starved to death since 2 March, and 71,000 children under the age of five are expected to be acutely malnourished over the next eleven months. In the ongoing war on Gaza, which genocide scholars and international human rights organisations have unanimously called a "genocide" against the Palestinian people, Israel also has been accused of implementing a policy of starvation in Gaza. The crisis has escalated to such an extent over the past 11 weeks since Israel blocked aid to the enclave - opening it just this week in a dehumanising manner - that nearly every single person in Gaza is facing prolonged food shortages, with close to a half a million people (or around one in five) are currently experiencing "catastrophic situation of hunger, acute malnutrition, starvation, illness and death". In its assessment in mid-May, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a global initiative aimed at enhancing food security and nutrition analysis to inform decisions, wrote that over the next six months, the entirety of Gaza is expected to face what is referred to by experts as "crisis, or worse acute food insecurity". New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters Around 22 percent of the population is already living in conditions akin to famine. Like Gaza, parts of Sudan have also been facing acute food insecurity, including famine, over the past year, as a result of the ongoing conflict between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. But what happens to the body when it enters "starvation" mode? What does it mean to live in conditions of famine? And when a human being is facing starvation and the body begins to waste away, is it possible to ever reverse the devastating impact on the body? Middle East Eye looks at the medical and legal dimensions of what it means to starve a population. Palestinians gather to receive a hot meal at a food distribution point in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, on 21 May 2025 (Eyad Baba/AFP) What is starvation, and how is it defined? According to health professionals, starvation occurs in several stages. The first stage can begin as quickly as a single missed meal. The second stage is activated when the body has to rely on stored fats for energy while not eating. The third phase is when the body turns to bone and muscle for energy after releasing all stored fats. When this deficit of nutrients impacts health, the body is considered malnourished. This can result in physical and psychological distress, and over a prolonged period, it can have severe impacts on the human body. Once the body uses its energy reserves, known as glycogen, it moves to fats and then to muscles to keep the heart going. It is particularly damaging for children because it can impact their developing immune systems and make them susceptible to other diseases. Over and above the agonising pain triggered by hunger, the body shrinks, bones protrude, and the cheeks become gaunt and appear hollow. This inevitably impacts the brain, with victims suffering from mood swings and immense irritability. A body struggling with malnutrition and undernutrition can result in wasting and is also likely to impact the heart's function. The body's blood pressure will drop, and the pulse will slow. At some point, the body either succumbs to an infection or the heart simply fails. What is the current level of food insecurity in Gaza? Between late April and early May, around 50 experts from 17 organisations conducted a study into the food insecurity and famine in Gaza. The group coordinated by the IPC concluded that Gaza in its entirety was in phase four of acute food insecurity. This means households across Gaza were facing huge food shortages that have either seen them suffer from high acute malnutrition and excess mortality, or resulted in them adopting desperate measures to survive. On Wednesday, Feroze Sidhwa, an American trauma surgeon who spent five weeks in Gaza, told the UN Security Council that civilians in Gaza were now dying 'not from the constant air strikes, but acute malnutrition, sepsis, exposure, and despair'. "Between my two visits to Gaza, I witnessed a sharp decline in patients' health driven not just by injury, but by worsening hunger and malnutrition that left their bodies weaker, their wounds slower to heal, and their survival far less certain,' Sidhwa said. Marina Pomares, Médecins Sans Frontières' medical coordinator in Deir al Balah, describes the level of malnutrition in Gaza as "very alarming". "We are seeing a lot of children who are coming to us who have not been eating for weeks. These children are going through [the] malnutrition process," Pomares told MEE. Pomares said there were also many adults, especially breastfeeding women, malnourished themselves, who were "giving the little food that they had to their children". Likewise, a World Health Organisation spokesperson told MEE that pregnant and breastfeeding mothers in Gaza "were also at high risk of malnutrition, with nearly 17,000 expected to require treatment for acute malnutrition over the next eleven months". Prolonged starvation can result in severe damage, including stunted growth, impaired cognitive development, and severely poor health. Pomares said that with the right treatment, malnourished children, pregnant and breastfeeding women, could experience some improvement in their health. However, she warned that if the treatment is not followed up with sufficient nutrient intake, the process would repeat itself and, potentially, as others have suggested, severely impact them for the rest of their lives. According to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, close to half a million Palestinians in Gaza are in a stage of famine (IPC) What is the difference between food insecurity and famine? Famine is a term used to describe "a societal catastrophe" that calls for an urgent and coordinated humanitarian response to avoid the mass loss of life. There is a set of technical requirements or thresholds that have to be crossed for famine to be declared. These include: at least 20 percent of the population facing extreme food shortages; acute malnutrition rates exceeding 30 percent; and two out of 10,000 people dying from starvation daily. In Gaza, UN human rights experts have sounded the alarm that certain sections of Gaza were already in a state of famine. In July 2024, the IPC said Gaza was facing a 'high risk' of famine, but wouldn't go so far as to call it famine. Likewise, in its most recent report in mid-May, it said Gaza was again on the cusp of famine. Experts argue that whereas Israel has allowed the crisis to deepen, resulting in excruciating living conditions for the people of Gaza, it has looked to let in aid just before Gaza entered the catastrophic phase of famine. "Encouraged by the United States, Israel has tried to keep the Gazans from descending into 'famine' by turning the aid tap on whenever the data indicate it is about to cross that threshold. When it does this, and the IPC reports that the deterioration has been arrested, Israeli advocates claim that the famine story was made up all along. That's wrong," Alex de Waal, an expert on famine, Sudan and the Horn of Africa, writes. "The IPC experts protest that even when the situation is an 'emergency' (level four) or 'catastrophe' (level five for food insecurity), the level of distress is unacceptable. But for international policymakers, it seems that what counts is the 'F-word'. "They won't say it out loud, but the implication is that hunger that doesn't reach the famine threshold is somehow tolerable," de Waal added. The IPC did not reply to MEE's request for comment. Meanwhile, on 20 May, Akihiro Seita, director of health at United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (Unrwa), reiterated that the crisis in Gaza could be resolved if the UN were allowed to resume its aid work there. Seita said that whereas medicine was likely to run out by the end of May, there was sufficient medicine and food in Jordan waiting to be taken into Gaza. Seita said Unrwa staff in Gaza were thinking about only two things at this point: how to survive and how to die. What are the driving factors of food insecurity in Gaza? According to the IPC, there are four key drivers of acute food insecurity in Gaza and several contributing factors adding to the crisis. These include: the ongoing Israeli bombardment of Gaza, that has so far killed over 54,000 people, injured tens of thousands and destroyed crucial infrastructure; the restrictions placed by Israel in bringing in essential food, energy, medicine and clean water; the continuous displacement of people - around 1,9 million Palestinians have been made to leave their homes - and move multiple times as a result of evacuation orders and no-go areas; and crucially, the collapse of food systems as a result of the war on Gaza. "The widespread destruction and degradation of productive assets, coupled with the ongoing blockade, have left extremely limited space for any form of domestic food production," the IPC said in its report in mid-May. Israel is starving Gaza to death, and still the world does nothing Mads Gilbert Read More » In addition, the contributing factors of critical deficiencies in the availability of clean water, sanitation, and hygiene, which bear the marks of a two-decade-long blockade, and the prolonged shortage of healthy and nutritious foods, such as fresh fruit, vegetables, meat, and dairy products, have only exacerbated the risk of disease and other health consequences. Over the past 19 months, 75 percent of Palestinians with a reliance on food aid have been eating no more than two food groups per day, hindering nutrient and protein intake. "Israel's military has simultaneously destroyed Gaza's agricultural production capacity and decimated Palestinians' livelihood reserves. Gaza's fragile food basket, bakeries, fishing boats, food storage warehouses, and emergency kitchens have all been targeted," Mads Gilbert, James Smith and Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah wrote in a joint opinion article in early May. What is the legal position on starvation as a weapon of war? Starving a population during a time of war has long been used as a tactic by warring parties to force surrender or to annihilate a population. However, International Humanitarian Law (IHL), specifically Article 54 in the Geneva Convention, is unequivocal in its prohibition of starvation as a war strategy. Article 54 also prohibits the destruction of objects or material indispensable to the survival of the civilian population, including denying access to humanitarian aid intended for civilians in need and deliberately impeding humanitarian aid. Israel has been repeatedly found in breach of Article 54 over the course of the past 19 months. It has shut down Gaza's access to electricity and water, and restricted the entry of essential energy, aid, food and medicinal supplies. It has also killed Palestinians as they assembled to receive supplies, with one of the more infamous incidents being termed the "Flour Massacre". As early as December 2023, human rights experts began accusing Israel of intentionally starving Palestinians as a part of a "genocidal" project across the Gaza Strip. By July 2024, around 33 children, mostly in northern Gaza, had died from symptoms associated with malnutrition, prompting UN experts to accuse Israel of weaponising food and aid as a form of collective punishment, which constituted starvation crimes, and therefore war crimes. Several Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, have been accused of alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed since the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel on 7 October 2023. Warrants are still out for their arrest.
Scotsman
5 days ago
- Politics
- Scotsman
Why Israeli PM is wrong about UK. We just want Gaza's children to be fed
Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... When the invitation arrived, my first thought surprised and frightened me, more than a little. 'Would I be safe if I accepted the invitation to the event at the Israeli Embassy.' It is not something that has ever crossed my mind about any of the events I have been invited to as an MP in the eight years since I was elected. But it was there, and very real. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad I felt the same anxiety a few days ago when I heard of the murder of Israeli Embassy staff in Washington DC. Is anyone now safe? It is not that this outrage was any worse or any more deplorable than what we are seeing in Gaza, or the Israeli people experienced on October 7. A girl holds a container at a food distribution point in the Nuseirat camp for refugees in central Gaza Strip (Picture: Eyad Baba) | AFP via Getty Images Retribution upon restribution It has long passed the point where sufficient adjectives are available to encapsulate the horror. But this latest murder somehow felt like a harbinger of even worse to come, that the conflict is now way beyond the control or even influence of the international community. And in the Middle East, it seems that retribution upon retribution is being sought with ever worsening tactics. Food is now a weapon of war. Humanitarian aid is being used as some sort of means of controlling people who have been left with nothing else but to fight for life. For 12 weeks, Israel blocked aid to Gaza and while our government, and indeed all political parties, recognise that country's right to defend itself against Hamas, the situation has now gone far beyond that. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Last week the UK Government, together with France and Canada, warned that they were not prepared to 'stand by while the Netanyahu government pursues these egregious actions'. And that if the renewed military action and further expansion in the West Bank did not stop, they would 'not hesitate to take further action including targeted sanctions'. No place for Hamas There will be those who will say that it is too little, too late and that too many people have died, both Israelis and Palestinians. I know that I have felt that the pursuit of peace and the two-state solution which so many of us crave has been increasingly hopeless. And my frustrations that the Israeli government is not prepared to listen even to its own citizens who want an end to this war reached new heights with Netanyahu's reaction to that joint UK, French and Canadian statement. They had, he claimed, 'effectively said that they want Hamas to remain in power'. That is so far from the truth as to be nonsense. Every political party in this country, my own Liberal Democrats included, have made it abundantly clear that there can be no place for Hamas in the future of Gaza. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad We do want peace, for both the Palestinians and Israel. We also want an end to both the resultant Islamophobia and antisemitism which has reached previously unknown levels in this country. Perhaps more than anything else, I want to see the children of Gaza fed and the families of the hostages enjoy shabbat with their loved ones again.
RNZ News
14-05-2025
- Politics
- RNZ News
Israel intensifies Gaza bombardment, kills 80 people, as Trump visits Gulf
A woman walks over a destroyed road in the aftermath of an Israeli strike in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on 14 May, 2025. Photo: AFP / Eyad Baba By Nidal al-Mughrabi , Reuters Israeli military strikes killed at least 80 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip, local health authorities said, in an intensification of the bombardment as US President Donald Trump visits the Middle East. Medics said most of the dead, including women and children, were killed in a barrage of Israeli airstrikes on houses in the Jabalia area of northern Gaza on Wednesday (local time). Later on Wednesday, the Israeli military issued new evacuation orders to people in several districts in Gaza City, forcing thousands of Palestinians to leave their shelters. The areas threatened by the evacuation warnings included several schools and the largest Shifa Hospital, according to a map published by the Israeli army. Witnesses and medics said shortly after the evacuation orders Israeli planes carried several airstrikes against targets within Gaza City. "Some victims are still on the road and under the rubble where rescue and civil emergency teams can't reach (them)," the health ministry statement said. Israel's military had no immediate comment. It said it was trying to verify the reports. Reuters television footage showed residents returning to the ruins of their homes. Some sifted through the remains of walls and furniture, looking for documents and belongings. "They fired two rockets, they told us the house of Moqbel (had been hit)," said Hadi Moqbel, who lost relatives in the attack in Jabalia. "We came running, we saw body parts on the ground, children killed, the woman killed and a baby killed - his head was exploded like a flower. He was two months old." Israeli press reports on Wednesday cited security officials as saying they believed Hamas military leader Mohammad Sinwar and other senior officials had been killed in a strike on Tuesday on what the Israeli military described as a command and control bunker under the European Hospital in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis. A man walks past a bus inside a crater in the aftermath of an Israeli strike on Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on 14 May 2025. Photo: AFP / Eyad Baba There was no confirmation by the Israeli military or Hamas. On Wednesday, witnesses and medics said an Israeli airstrike hit a bulldozer that approached the area of the strike at the European Hospital, wounding several people. Late on Tuesday, Islamic Jihad, an Iranian-backed militant group allied with Hamas, fired rockets from Gaza towards Israel. Shortly before Israel hit back, its military issued evacuation orders to residents in the area of Jabalia and nearby Beit Lahiya. Palestinians hope Trump's visit to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates will provide pressure for a reduction of violence. Hamas on Monday released Edan Alexander, the last known living American hostage it had been holding. Trump said in Riyadh on Tuesday that more hostages would follow Alexander and that the people of Gaza deserved a better future. He is not visiting Israel during his Middle East trip. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, right, and US President Donald Trump at the Royal Court in Riyadh on 13 May 2025. Photo: AFP / Brendan Smialowski Ceasefire efforts have faltered. Hamas talked to the United States and Egyptian and Qatari mediators to arrange Alexander's release, and Israel has sent a team to Doha to begin a new round of talks. On Tuesday, Trump's special envoys Steve Witkoff and Adam Boehler met hostage families in Tel Aviv and said they saw a better chance of an agreement for the hostages' release following the deal over Alexander. Hamas said on Wednesday the continued attacks indicated that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wanted to "escalate the aggression and massacres against civilians to undermine those (ceasefire) efforts". Israel has blamed Hamas for the continuing war. The US has presented a plan to reopen humanitarian aid deliveries in Gaza using private contractors. Israel, which imposed a total blockade of supplies going into Gaza from March 2, has endorsed the plan but it has been rejected by the United Nations and international aid agencies. Israel invaded Gaza in retaliation for the Hamas-led attack on southern Israeli communities on 7 October 2023, in which about 1200 people were killed and 251 were taken as hostages to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies. - Reuters
Sinar Daily
08-05-2025
- Politics
- Sinar Daily
Israeli airstrike on Gaza mosque injures several in Nuseirat camp
The airstrike completely destroyed the mosque and caused injuries to a large number of civilians. 30 Apr 2025 09:18am Palestinians inspect the damage, following overnight Israeli strikes at the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on Apr 29. Photo by Eyad Baba/AFP ISTANBUL - Several Palestinians were injured on Tuesday when Israeli warplanes bombed the Al-Faraj Mosque in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, destroying it completely, Anadolu Ajansi reported. The Israeli airstrike completely destroyed the mosque and caused injuries to a large number of civilians, eyewitnesses told Anadolu. They added that the injured were taken to Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat but did not provide any additional information. Since the beginning of the Israeli genocidal war on Gaza on Oct 7, 2023, Israel has continued to target houses of worship in the Strip, particularly mosques and churches. The Israeli army had destroyed 1,109 out of 1,244 mosques either fully or partially, the Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs in Gaza announced in February. The Israeli army renewed its assault on Gaza on March 18, shattering a Jan 19 ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement with the resistance group Hamas. More than 52,300 Palestinians, most of them women and children, have been killed in Gaza in a brutal Israeli onslaught since October 2023. - BERNAMA-ANADOLU More Like This
