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Mint
22-05-2025
- General
- Mint
Aid deliveries do little to alleviate Gaza hunger crisis
Inside their small apartment in Gaza City this week, Marah Zant and 12 of her relatives had very little food left to eat, just some rice, lentils and a single can of fava beans that they were trying to stretch out for three days. The plan: eat one, very small meal a day. Then they heard that several trucks carrying food aid had entered Gaza for the first time in more than two months. But that news, too, turned into disappointment. 'We didn't see a single thing," said Zant, 21, who lives in the Sheikh Radwan area of the city. 'No one around us received anything either." After mounting U.S. and global pressure, Israel on Monday allowed a limited amount of food aid into war-ravaged Gaza after enforcing a humanitarian aid blockade since early March. But ordinary Palestinians and international aid agencies say not enough of it is getting in. On Tuesday, Israel permitted another 100 trucks to enter. The United Nations says at least 500 a day are needed if a worsening humanitarian disaster is to be averted. Palestinian children wait for a hot meal at a refugee camp in central Gaza. Aid groups have for weeks warned that Gaza's roughly two million residents are facing severe shortages of food, fuel, medicine and clean water as stockpiles brought in during a fragile cease-fire earlier this year run out. Nearly three in five families can't find bread or fresh food and child malnutrition is sharply rising, says the International Rescue Committee. Nearly half a million people in Gaza already face starvation, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification partnership, a global hunger watchdog, said last week. 'The decision to allow limited food aid to enter Gaza barely scratches the surface of what is needed," said Zoe Daniels, the IRC's Gaza chief. She said Gazans need 'consistent, sustained access to all essential supplies—not just food and medicine, but also water, fuel, and hygiene items. Without this, humanitarian operations cannot function." In early March, Israel banned the entry of all aid, medicines and other goods into the Gaza Strip after talks to extend the cease-fire stalled. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government says Hamas steals aid and uses it to support its war effort, which the U.S.-designated terrorist group denies. A U.S.-backed aid distribution plan, supported by Israel, is in the works to resume delivering aid from distribution sites across Gaza. Eden Bar Tal, director general of Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told reporters on Monday that those distribution sites should be operating in a matter of days. The task of getting aid to the people who need it is being complicated by Israel's latest ground and air offensive, adding pressure on Hamas and ordinary Gazans. On Monday, following airstrikes that killed scores of people, Israel ordered residents in the southern city of Khan Younis to evacuate ahead of an 'unprecedented attack." That triggered hundreds of residents to take to the streets to denounce Hamas and urge an end to the war. It was the latest sign of a grassroots movement that is defying Hamas. In other areas, many fled their shelters. Sharif al-Sheikh, a 42-year-old father of two, was displaced for the fifth time since the war began following Hamas' deadly attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Hundreds of people have been killed in airstrikes since Friday and more than 53,000 Palestinians have died since the start of the war, according to Gazan health authorities, though their figures don't say how many were combatants. On Tuesday, Sheikh and his family, which included 10 more relatives, were hungry and once again without shelter. 'My wife and I haven't eaten anything for three days," he said. 'My wife gives me bread, but I refuse to eat it. I leave it for the children." The markets have some food, but prices have soared out of his reach, he said. Israel's blockade of Gaza has also meant commercial border crossings have been closed for more than two months. This has resulted in the price of food available in markets rising dramatically—a pack of pasta, for example, is now 35 times what it was before the blockade, according to residents, at around nearly $10 each. Sheikh frequents some of the handful of soup kitchens still operating, often queuing for hours. But even those kitchens are dwindling. In late April, the U.N.'s World Food Program said its food stocks for the kitchens were nearly exhausted. Displaced Palestinians collect cooked food from a community food kitchen. Every morning, in front of Farah Elhelo's building in Gaza City's Tal Al Hawa neighborhood, hungry crowds arrive at a soup kitchen, clutching pots and plastic bags. By noon, the lentils and beans have run out, the line collapses and fights erupt. On Monday, Elhelo heard screams and rushed to her window. 'I saw the crowd pushing, and I saw a child fall head first into one of the cooking pots," she recalled. 'Each day, someone gets burned…hands, feet from the chaos." Despite their dire situation, Marah Zant felt relatively fortunate for the small stockpile of food she had. Many families in her building scrounge for food every day. 'Some houses around us are completely empty," she said. 'People are splitting pieces of bread like treasure. If someone has any, they hide it from others for fear of being envied." Children, weakened by hunger, have stopped playing in her building. She's seen mothers dipping bread in water to make their children feel sated. 'Instead of working or continuing my life, I'm counting how many meals we have left to see if we'll survive the week," she added. Write to Sudarsan Raghavan at
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Gaza's entire population faces 'critical' levels of hunger: Report
Gaza's entire population is experiencing critical levels of hunger amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war and the third month of Israel cutting off aid to the strip, according to a report published Monday. Gaza's 2.1 million residents will face a "crisis" level of food insecurity -- or worse -- from now through the end of September, according to a new report from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification partnership, whose members include the World Health Organization. "Crisis" is the third-highest level of food insecurity, out of five, according to the IPC classification system. This is when households are either struggling to access food and are seeing cases of malnutrition or "are marginally able to meet minimum food needs but only by depleting essential livelihood assets," according to the IPC. Of the entire population, three-quarters of Gaza's population are already classified at the "emergency" or "catastrophe" levels, which are the two worst stages of food insecurity, per the IPC. MORE: State of hospitals in Gaza as Israel-Hamas war hits 1-year mark The report projected that by the end of September, about 470,000 people Gaza, equivalent to about 22% of the population, will be classified as living under "catastrophe," which is equivalent to famine levels of starvation. In the previous IPC report, released in October 2024, 12% of the population was projected to be under classified as living under "catastrophe." The IPC said famine is classified when an area has 20% of households facing an extreme lack of food, 30% of children suffering from acute malnutrition, and two of every 10,000 people dying each day due to starvation or a combination of malnutrition and disease. In a press release, the WHO said the situation in Gaza is "one of the world's worst hunger crises, unfolding in real time." "We do not need to wait for a declaration of famine in Gaza to know that people are already starving, sick and dying, while food and medicines are minutes away across the border," WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement on Monday. "Today's report shows that without immediate access to food and essential supplies, the situation will continue to deteriorate, causing more deaths and descent into famine." Ingredients have started running out in Gaza, and some food relief organizations have already closed. MORE: State of hospitals in Gaza as Israel-Hamas war hits 1-year mark In late April, the United Nations' World Food Programme said it had delivered its last remaining food stocks to hot meal kitchens in Gaza, and it expected to fully run out of food in the coming days. Additionally, the nonprofit group World Central Kitchen announced on Wednesday that it had run out of supplies and ingredients needed to cook meals or bake bread in Gaza. "Families in Gaza are starving while the food they need is sitting at the border. We can't get it to them because of the renewed conflict and the total ban on humanitarian aid imposed in early March," Cindy McCain, executive director of the United Nations World Food Programme, said in a statement. "It's imperative that the international community acts urgently to get aid flowing into Gaza again. If we wait until after a famine is confirmed, it will already be too late for many people." The Israeli government said the blockade is meant to pressure Hamas to release its hostages, as well as the remains of those who have died, and to accept a new proposal to extend phase one of the ceasefire deal, which ended March 18. The WHO said that since the blockade began, 57 children have died from malnutrition, citing figures from the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health. If the current situation persists, an estimated 70,500 children between ages 6 months and just under 5 years old will experiencing acute malnutrition by March 2026, according to the IPC report. Pregnant and breastfeeding women are also at risk with nearly 17,000 expected to need treatment for acute malnutrition by March 2026. Aid workers told ABC News that malnutrition makes it harder for Gazans to heal from injuries suffered during the war, and they can also be at risk of infections or skin graft failure. An official from President Donald Trump's administration told ABC News there is a not-yet-finalized plan to administer the delivery of humanitarian aid in Gaza, starting with fewer than half a dozen distribution sites set up throughout the enclave. "Our team members inside Gaza are surviving on the cheapest staples they can find -- lentils, fava beans, dry chickpeas -- if anything is available at all," Kate Phillips-Barrasso, vice president of global policy and advocacy for the humanitarian organization Mercy Corps, said in a statement. "The people of Gaza are enduring one of the most harrowing humanitarian crises in recent history." "All barriers to food, water, and aid must be lifted now," she said, "before even more lives are lost." Gaza's entire population faces 'critical' levels of hunger: Report originally appeared on
12-05-2025
- Health
Gaza's entire population faces 'critical' levels of hunger: Report
Gaza's entire population is experiencing critical levels of hunger amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war and the third month of Israel cutting off aid to the strip, according to a report published Monday. Gaza's 2.1 million residents will face a "crisis" level of food insecurity -- or worse -- from now through the end of September, according to a new report from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification partnership, whose members include the World Health Organization. "Crisis" is the third-highest level of food insecurity, out of five, according to the IPC classification system. This is when households are either struggling to access food and are seeing cases of malnutrition or "are marginally able to meet minimum food needs but only by depleting essential livelihood assets," according to the IPC. Of the entire population, three-quarters of Gaza's population are already classified at the "emergency" or "catastrophe" levels, which are the two worst stages of food insecurity, per the IPC. The report projected that by the end of September, about 470,000 people Gaza, equivalent to about 22% of the population, will be classified as living under "catastrophe," which is equivalent to famine levels of starvation. In the previous IPC report, released in October 2024, 12% of the population was projected to be under classified as living under "catastrophe." The IPC said famine is classified when an area has 20% of households facing an extreme lack of food, 30% of children suffering from acute malnutrition, and two of every 10,000 people dying each day due to starvation or a combination of malnutrition and disease. In a press release, the WHO said the situation in Gaza is "one of the world's worst hunger crises, unfolding in real time." "We do not need to wait for a declaration of famine in Gaza to know that people are already starving, sick and dying, while food and medicines are minutes away across the border," WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement on Monday. "Today's report shows that without immediate access to food and essential supplies, the situation will continue to deteriorate, causing more deaths and descent into famine." Ingredients have started running out in Gaza, and some food relief organizations have already closed. In late April, the United Nations' World Food Programme said it had delivered its last remaining food stocks to hot meal kitchens in Gaza, and it expected to fully run out of food in the coming days. Additionally, the nonprofit group World Central Kitchen announced on Wednesday that it had run out of supplies and ingredients needed to cook meals or bake bread in Gaza. "Families in Gaza are starving while the food they need is sitting at the border. We can't get it to them because of the renewed conflict and the total ban on humanitarian aid imposed in early March," Cindy McCain, executive director of the United Nations World Food Programme, said in a statement. "It's imperative that the international community acts urgently to get aid flowing into Gaza again. If we wait until after a famine is confirmed, it will already be too late for many people." The Israeli government said the blockade is meant to pressure Hamas to release its hostages, as well as the remains of those who have died, and to accept a new proposal to extend phase one of the ceasefire deal, which ended March 18. The WHO said that since the blockade began, 57 children have died from malnutrition, citing figures from the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health. If the current situation persists, an estimated 70,500 children between ages 6 months and just under 5 years old will experiencing acute malnutrition by March 2026, according to the IPC report. Pregnant and breastfeeding women are also at risk with nearly 17,000 expected to need treatment for acute malnutrition by March 2026. Aid workers told ABC News that malnutrition makes it harder for Gazans to heal from injuries suffered during the war, and they can also be at risk of infections or skin graft failure. An official from President Donald Trump's administration told ABC News there is a not-yet-finalized plan to administer the delivery of humanitarian aid in Gaza, starting with fewer than half a dozen distribution sites set up throughout the enclave. "Our team members inside Gaza are surviving on the cheapest staples they can find -- lentils, fava beans, dry chickpeas -- if anything is available at all," Kate Phillips-Barrasso, vice president of global policy and advocacy for the humanitarian organization Mercy Corps, said in a statement. "The people of Gaza are enduring one of the most harrowing humanitarian crises in recent history."
