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Al Jazeera
2 days ago
- Health
- Al Jazeera
Israeli strikes kill 63 in Gaza despite ‘pauses' as hunger crisis deepens
Israeli forces killed at least 63 people across Gaza hours after the military announced it would begin 'pausing' attacks for 10 hours daily in some areas to allow humanitarian aid to pass through. On Sunday, the Israeli army said it would temporarily halt military activity each day from 10am to 8pm (07:00-17:00 GMT) in parts of central and northern Gaza, including al-Mawasi, Deir el-Balah and Gaza City. It also pledged to open designated aid corridors for food and medical convoys between 6am and 11pm. But hours into the first day of the 'humanitarian pauses' Israeli air raids resumed. 'There was an air strike on Gaza City, and this is one of the areas that was designated as a safe area and where the Israeli forces are going to halt their military operations,' Al Jazeera's Hind Khoudary reported from Deir el-Balah. 'According to Palestinians in that area a bakery was targeted.' The bombardment comes as global outcry grows over the worsening humanitarian disaster in Gaza inflicted by Israel. Famine deaths rise Gaza's Health Ministry reported six more Palestinians, including two children, died from hunger-related causes in the past 24 hours, pushing the number of starvation deaths to 133 since October 2023. Among the dead was 5-month-old Zainab Abu Haleeb who succumbed to malnutrition at Nasser Hospital. 'Three months inside the hospital and this is what I get in return, that she is dead,' said her mother Israa Abu Haleeb as the child's father cradled her small body wrapped in a white shroud. The World Food Programme (WFP) said on Sunday that one in three Gaza residents had gone days without eating, and nearly 500,000 people are suffering from 'famine-like conditions'. The World Health Organization also warned last week more than 20 percent of pregnant and breastfeeding women are malnourished. Falestine Ahmed, a mother in Gaza, told Al Jazeera she had lost one-third of her body weight due to the lack of food. 'I used to weigh 57kg, now I weigh 42kg, and both my son and I have been diagnosed with severe malnutrition,' she said. 'We barely have any food at home, and even when it's available, it's far too expensive for us to afford.' Israel has authorised new corridors for aid, and the United Arab Emirates and Jordan have airdropped supplies into the territory. However, deliveries have been fraught with danger. Al Jazeera's Hani Mahmoud reported that one aid drop turned deadly: 'Eleven people were reported with injuries, as one of these pallets fell directly on tents in that displacement site near al-Rasheed road.' Despite the mounting evidence of extreme hunger, Israel continues to deny famine exists in Gaza. The Israeli military insists it is working to improve humanitarian access. But scenes of desperation contradict official claims. 'I've come all this way, risking my life for my children. They haven't eaten for a week,' said Smoud Wahdan, a mother searching for flour speaking to Al Jazeera. 'At the very least, I've been looking for a piece of bread for my children.' Another displaced mother, Tahani, said her cancer-stricken child was among those suffering. 'I came to get flour, to look for food to feed my children. I wish God's followers would wake up and see all these people. They are dying.' Aid groups overwhelmed Liz Allcock, head of protection for Medical Aid for Palestinians, told Al Jazeera that she had never seen Gaza in such a state. 'The scale of starvation and the number of people that you see walking around who are literally skin and bones… money really has no value here when there is nothing to buy,' she said. 'All of Gazan society – no matter who they are – is suffering from critical food shortages,' she added, warning that a quarter of the population was at risk of acute malnutrition. The United Nations says aid deliveries can only succeed if Israel approves rapid movement of convoys through its checkpoints. UN aid chief Tom Fletcher noted that while some restrictions appeared to have eased, the scale of the crisis required far more action. 'This is progress, but vast amounts of aid are needed to stave off famine and a catastrophic health crisis,' he said. Diplomatic pressure builds French President Emmanuel Macron said on Sunday that he had discussed the Gaza situation with his Turkish and Egyptian counterparts and plans to co-host a conference in New York next week focused on securing a two-state solution. 'We cannot accept that people, including large numbers of children, die of hunger,' he said. Macron confirmed France would soon recognise Palestinian statehood, joining over 140 UN member states. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in an interview that Israel's blockade of aid amounts to a violation of 'humanity and morality.' 'Quite clearly, it is a breach of international law to stop food being delivered, which was a decision that Israel made in March,' he told ABC News. However, he added that Australia was not ready to recognise Palestine 'imminently'. In Washington, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said ceasefire talks led by Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff were making 'a lot of progress'. 'We're optimistic and hopeful that any day now, we will have a ceasefire agreement,' Rubio told Fox News, suggesting that half the remaining Israeli captives may be released soon. The Gaza Health Ministry said 88 Palestinians were killed and 374 injured in Israeli attacks over the past 24 hours alone. Since Israel's war on Gaza began in October, at least 59,821 Palestinians have been killed and more than 144,000 wounded. Despite talk of pauses and diplomacy, the violence continues to escalate.
Middle East Eye
2 days ago
- General
- Middle East Eye
Israel attacks so-called 'safe zone' despite military pause
The Israeli military has carried out several attacks across Gaza, killing over 53 people - including 32 aid seekers - despite announcing a "tactical suspension" of operations in three areas. According to Al Jazeera correspondent Hind Khoudary, air strikes hit an Israel-designated "safe zone" in Gaza City. A bakery was targeted in the attack, with at least five Palestinians killed - including a woman and her four children - and several others wounded, according to health officials. Early on Sunday, the Israeli army announced a 10-hour daily pause of military operations from 10am (7am GMT) to 8pm (5pm GMT) in the areas of al-Mawasi, Deir al-Balah and Gaza City. The military said this was part of a framework of "humanitarian efforts to expand the entry of aid", adding that the plan included "sustainably secured corridors" from 6am to 11pm. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters However, several areas across the besieged enclave reported shelling, including relief distribution and delivery zones. The death toll from Israel's war on Gaza has risen to 59,821, with over 144,851 wounded since 7 October 2023. Airdropped aid amid siege Despite warnings from international organisations that airdropped aid could endanger civilians, the Israeli military announced late on Saturday that it would resume aerial deliveries of humanitarian packages to Gaza. "Aerial airdrops of aid will resume. The airdrop includes 7 pallets of aid containing flour, sugar, and canned food," it said in a post on X. Several rights groups and experts have criticised this method of relief distribution, warning that it puts Palestinian lives at risk and noting that the quantity of aid is insufficient. Gaza extermination: Hasan should have turned three. Instead, he starved to death Read More » Clips online show Palestinians desperately grabbing at supplies, as overcrowding could be seen in the footage shared. "Airdrops will not reverse the deepening starvation. They are expensive, inefficient & can even kill starving civilians. It is a distraction & screensmoke," UN chief Philippe Lazzarini wrote in a post on X. "Driving aid through is much easier, more effective, faster, cheaper & safer. It's more dignified for the people of #Gaza." A Middle East Eye correspondent on the ground in Gaza said a few packages were airdropped over the Zeitoun area, east of Gaza City, and in the Tuam area, north of the Gaza Strip. The two areas have been noted as "extremely dangerous" as they fall under the Israeli-designated expulsion zones in Gaza, where Palestinians risk being directly targeted even as unarmed civilians. Meanwhile, the Israeli military announced plans to "enable safe movement" of UN convoys delivering food, essentials and medicine supplies. One MEE correspondent reported that 10 trucks entered through the Karem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) crossing, with several others passing through the Zikim crossing. He added that two trucks entered via the Morag Corridor but were looted. It remains unclear whether any of the aid deliveries have successfully reached civilians.
Middle East Eye
2 days ago
- Politics
- Middle East Eye
Israel attacks 'safe-zone' despite military pause in the area
Israel bombed an area in Gaza City it designated earlier on Sunday as a "safe-zone". According to Al Jazeera correspondent Hind Khoudary, a bakery was targeted in the attack, killing and wounding a number of Palestinians.
Morocco World
20-07-2025
- Health
- Morocco World
Israel Continues Its Starvation War on Palestinians Amid Weak International Intervention
Rabat – Hashtags, posts, and videos of people in Gaza starving and desperate for a piece of bread have been going viral for days, months, and years. Yet, the international community continues to fail to shoulder its responsibility when it comes to ending the Israeli genocidal war against the Palestinian people. As constant Israeli assaults further deepen their plight, Palestinians have seen their dreams and hopes shattered as their most inalienable rights – including the freedom of movement and the right to food and a safe home – are recklessly trampled upon by Israel while the world either looks away or issues toothless condemnations and inconclusive calls for a ceasefire. It has been decades since social media and television buzzed about news of famine in Gaza, with Palestinians being relentlessly attacked, forcibly displaced or and unsurprisingly killed by Israeli war machines. Time repeats itself as do the scenarios, with claims of ongoing dialogues to end the ordeal faced by millions of Palestinians, either those at home or others displaced or refugees across the world. Today, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, or UNRWA, repeated its multi-million-dollar appeals, warning that Israel is 'starving civilians.' This includes one million children or more amid an ongoing blockade and a siege on crucial aid deliveries into the region. Online, videos continue to go viral of hopelessly vulnerable Gazans , including children, with weak and pale faces, in a crowded queue begging for a piece of bread, a soup, a thing – a small thing to either put on their face or run with to feed their families, including the elderly, babies, or even pets. Over the past weeks, there have been waves of reports of people dying from malnutrition in an era where countries race to use AI in medical fields, where countries invest billions of dollars in non-priorities like games, movies, festivals, and so on. Al Jazeera correspondent Hind Khoudary reported today on the death of a 35-day-old baby in Gaza and a four-month-old child in Deir el-Balah due to malnutrition at al-Aqsa hospital. 'I am sorry I could not feed you. I had no other option than to see you dying in front of my eyes,' Hind Khoudary recalls the baby's devastated mother as saying. UNRWA recorded that, as of this past July 13, nearly 900 deaths of hungry Gazans as they were trying to collect food. And the death toll of Palestinians killed in the ongoing 21-month-long genocidal war exceeded 58,000, while thousands of others were wounded. 'Our Gaza teams started sending alarming photos of emaciated babies. The rates of malnutrition are rapidly increasing, spreading across the Gaza Strip,' the UN said, noting that more than 50 children have died of malnutrition since the siege began on March 2. One in 10 children in Gaza is screened as malnourished. Starvation to force surrender Starvation has become another tool in the Israeli war machine's toolkit. In addition to guns, rifles, drones, and missiles, Israel is increasingly using mass starvation to make Palestinians surrender to its project of Judaizing historical Palestine. Israel killed at least 25 people at dawn today, initiating another day of assaults and somber news of deaths and other miseries compounded by the ongoing genocidal war on Gaea. Today's fatalities included aid seekers, confirming the Israeli government's utter disregard for non-Israeli and non-White lives. And how has the world been reacting? With vague condemnations, toothless pledges, and muscle flexing from official channels representing countries across the world. Meanwhile, civilians from across the world are rallying, calling on their governments and countries to take more concrete and tangible action to stop the genocidal war still endured by millions of Palestinians who live in uncertainty. It remains to be seen when world leaders will finally heed those cries for help. Tags: free palestineIsrael and Palestine
Days of Palestine
04-07-2025
- Health
- Days of Palestine
Rotten Aid and Toxic Flour: Gaza Families Expose Contaminated Food Deliveries
DaysofPal – In Gaza, where hunger has become a daily torment and survival a test of endurance, families are now forced to sift through bags of rotting flour crawling with worms, the only food they have left. One family recently documented the contents of an aid parcel: flour infested with mold, insects, and weevils. With no other option, they sat on the floor, picking through the filth by hand, not to cook a meal, but to salvage something vaguely edible for their children. Al Jazeera correspondent Hind Khoudary, reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, described the aid packages as inadequate and deeply insufficient. 'The parcels I've seen from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation contain only a meager amount of food that will not feed a family for long and is not nutritious enough,' she said. A typical box, she noted, included just 4 kg of flour, a couple of bags of pasta, two cans of fava beans, tea bags, some biscuits, and small portions of lentils and soup. 'This is not enough,' Khoudary added. 'And it is not worth the humiliation that Palestinians are enduring just to receive these parcels. We're talking about nearly three months without chicken, without meat, without nutritious food, and that's why most people coming to the hospital now are malnourished Palestinian children.' The crisis deepened further after Gaza's government media office announced that narcotic pills were discovered inside bags of flour distributed through so-called 'American-Israeli aid centers.' Authorities described the discovery as a deliberate attempt to destabilize Palestinian society from within. 'What happened is not a mere violation, but an organized crime,' the statement read. 'This is a psychological and moral war, targeting the resilience of Gaza's population and seeking to sow addiction in a society already under siege.' The statement held Israel fully responsible for what it called a 'calculated insertion of toxic substances into humanitarian aid' and urged residents to exercise extreme caution when handling any incoming foodstuffs. Gaza's media office has called on international bodies to investigate and act, warning that the systematic degradation of aid into a tool of psychological warfare constitutes a grave breach of humanitarian norms. Shortlink for this post:
