Latest news with #Israel-backed
The National
11 hours ago
- General
- The National
Hunger and heartbreak as families struggle to survive war in Gaza
Every morning, 13-year-old Mahmoud Al Mahalawi wakes up in a tent pitched beside the rubble of his family's home in the Al Saftawi neighbourhood of Gaza. Before the war, the summer months meant school holidays and time to play. Now, he says, his days revolve around 'looking for ways to keep me and my family alive'. 'I start my day thinking where I should go first, to find some water or stand in line at the tikkia [charity kitchen] so I can bring food home for my brothers,' Mahmoud told The National. He shares the responsibility for his family's survival with his father, who works whenever he can find a job. Together, they try to scrape together enough for their basic needs amid famine-like conditions created by Israeli restrictions on the entry of aid. Desperate crowds often swarm the few aid lorries allowed to enter Gaza, while hundreds of people have been killed by Israeli forces near the few food distribution sites run by the US and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. 'I've thought more than once about chasing down the aid trucks or going to the American aid centre just to get food for my family,' Mahmoud says. 'But my parents always say no. They're afraid something will happen to me.' Gazan family's relief after receiving food aid As with most families in Gaza nowadays, anything beyond basic necessities, even fruit, is out of reach because of prices inflated by scarcity and siege. Small quantities of mangoes and bananas that appeared in the markets on Monday were being sold at 200 shekels (more than $50) for 1kg of mangoes and 17 shekels for a banana. 'Sometimes I see fruit and wish I could have some. But I'd never ask my father. He can barely afford to buy us flour, let alone fruit,' Mahmoud says. 'Sometimes I feel like I just want to die. No one really feels our pain. I'm a child, just like children anywhere in the world. I should be in a summer camp, playing football, swimming – not standing in line for water or food, not living in a tent.' Like many parents in Gaza, Mohammed Abu Asr, 41, is fighting not just hunger but heartbreak. Displaced by the war from Jabalia refugee camp, he now lives in a makeshift home with his wife and four children – two boys and two girls aged between three and 15 – in the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood. 'Yesterday, I told my kids not to leave the house, not because of danger, but because I didn't want them to see the fruit being sold outside,' he told The National. 'If they asked me to buy some, I wouldn't be able to. I can't even meet their basic needs, like bread and flour.' However, his children saw photos on Facebook of fruit arriving in Gaza and rushed to him saying, 'Dad, the fruit is here! Please buy us some', he says. 'Honestly, the feeling of helplessness was unbearable. There's no income. And even if there were, how could I justify paying such a huge amount just for fruit when we don't have food?' For Ilham Al Asi, 38, who lost her husband in an air strike last year, the burden of survival rests on her two young sons – Ibrahim, 14, and Yahya, 10. 'I have no one in this life but my children,' Ms Al Asi told The National. 'They're the ones doing everything they can to help us survive.' Each day, Ibrahim ventures out from their home in Al Tuffah to collect firewood from bombed buildings, risking injury or worse, so his mother can cook, if there is food or flour to prepare. Yahya, meanwhile, stands in line at a charity kitchen for up to five hours each day to bring home a pot of food. 'Sometimes he leaves at nine in the morning and doesn't come back until three in the afternoon,' Ms Al Asi says. 'And what he brings back isn't even enough for two people.' She says Yahya once suffered a head injury during a crush at the food kitchen. 'We had to take him to the hospital. The crowd was so desperate. Famine in Gaza has reached an unimaginable level. People can't even secure the most basic food or clean water.' Ms Al Asi is infuriated by Israel's claims that sufficient quantities of aid are reaching Gaza. 'The occupation says it's sending aid and children's supplies to protect them from hunger. That's a lie,' she says. 'The only reality here is famine. It's killing us, children, adults, the elderly. Everyone is suffering. Everyone is dying slowly, every single day.'
NBC News
a day ago
- Politics
- NBC News
'Worst-case scenario of famine' unfolding in Gaza under Israel's offensive, IPC says
The "worst-case scenario of famine" is unfolding in the Gaza Strip under Israel's deadly offensive, the world's leading body on hunger said Tuesday. "Mounting evidence shows that widespread starvation, malnutrition, and disease are driving a rise in hunger-related deaths," the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or IPC, said in an alert. The alert comes as deaths from starvation in the enclave continue to rise amid a spiraling hunger crisis spurred by Israel's military offensive and crippling aid restrictions. President Donald Trump on Monday echoed mounting global alarm at the situation, which he said amounted to 'real starvation' — a break with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. 'Immediate action must be taken to end the hostilities and allow for unimpeded, large-scale, life-saving humanitarian response,' the IPC said. 'This is the only path to stopping further deaths and catastrophic human suffering.' The IPC emphasized that its warning constituted an alert and was not a "famine classification." While the IPC considers itself the 'primary mechanism' used by the international community to conclude whether a famine is happening or projected, it typically doesn't make such a designation itself. But it said on Tuesday that with new information made available, a new IPC analysis had to be conducted 'without delay.' The report marked the most dire warning yet from the IPC on the hunger crisis unfolding in Gaza. Its findings come after weeks of warnings from humanitarian groups and health workers on the ground of starvation spreading in the enclave, with NBC News' crew witnessing parents grieving over the bodies of their malnourished babies, and frail children clinging to life as they receive hospital care. Global outrage has reached a crescendo over the spiraling humanitarian situation, with Israel accused of causing a manmade crisis after allowing only a basic amount of aid into the enclave for weeks since lifting a crippling blockade in May that barred the entry of food and other vital supplies into the territory. The World Food Programme warned Monday that a third of the population in the enclave was 'not eating for days,' with some 470,000 people enduring 'famine-like conditions' and around 90,000 women and children in need of 'urgent nutrition treatment.' Meanwhile, more than 1,000 people have been killed in recent weeks by Israeli forces during desperate attempts to reach what limited aid is being distributed in Gaza, according to the Palestinian health ministry in the enclave, largely under a widely condemned new distribution system led by the U.S. and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. In the face of mounting condemnation, the Israeli military began limited pauses in fighting over the weekend in three populated areas of Gaza for 10 hours a day to allow the entry and distribution of aid in the enclave by humanitarian groups — but aid organizations have warned the trickle of aid allowed in so far was not enough to stave off famine in the enclave. The health ministry in Gaza said Monday that nearly 150 people in Gaza had died from malnutrition since the war began, including at least 88 children. The total number of people been killed in Gaza since the war began has almost reached 60,000, including thousands of children, according to the health ministry. Israel launched its offensive in Gaza following the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attacks in which some 1,200 people were killed and around 250 taken hostage, marking a major escalation in a decadeslong conflict. Since then, Israel has faced mounting allegations of genocide over its assault on Gaza, including in an ongoing case brought by South Africa before the International Court of Justice. On Monday, two prominent Israeli rights groups, B'Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, echoed the allegation, concluding that their country was committing genocide.
Middle East Eye
2 days ago
- Politics
- Middle East Eye
Pro-Palestinian protestors campaign outside US home of GHF's executive director
Dozens of members from the Washington, DC, Maryland, and Virginia chapter of the Palestinian Youth Movement, and community members, held a protest on Sunday outside the home of John Acree, executive director of the controversial US and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which is distributing aid in Gaza. More than 1,000 Palestinians seeking aid have been killed by the Israeli military and US contractors since it launched at the end of May. Acree has been accused of committing war crimes. The protestors banged pots and pans, spray-painted GHF aid boxes and a cutout of Acree's face with red paint, and flyered his neighbourhood.
&w=3840&q=100)
First Post
2 days ago
- Politics
- First Post
'Those children look very hungry': Trump rejects Netanyahu's claim on Gaza starvation
In a rare disagreement with the Israeli leader, US President Donald Trump has rejected Benjamin Netanyahu's position on starvation in the Gaza Strip and flagged the hunger among Palestinian children there. read more US President Donald Trump (R) and UK's Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer (C) speak with members of the media prior to a bilateral meeting at the Trump Turnberry Golf Courses, in Turnberry southwest Scotland on July 28, 2025, as Victoria Starmer (R) stands by. (Photo: Christopher Furlong/Pool/AFP) In a rare disagreement with the Israeli leader, US President Donald Trump has rejected the position of Benjamin Netanyahu on starvation in the Gaza Strip. Trump on Monday said that 'those children look very hungry' about Palestinians in Gaza. As starvation is rising in Gaza by the day, more and more countries and organisations are joining in the condemnation of the Israeli policy of restricting the supply of food, medicine, and other essentials to Gaza. For months, food has been scarce in Gaza and hundreds of Palestinians have been killed —in what they say to be Israeli fire— while awaiting food at distribution site of US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD When asked in an interaction with the media during his trip to Scotland whether he agreed with Netanyahu on the situation in Gaza, Trump said, 'I don't know. I mean, based on the television, I would say not particularly. Those children look very hungry.' Speaking beside British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, Trump further said that that his 'number one position' regarding Gaza was to 'get people fed' there. 'There are a lot of starving people there,' Trump further said. Trump said that while the United States had given $60 million, other countries would need to step up. He said that European Union (EU) chief Ursula von der Leyen had assured him that European nations would raise their contribution to Gaza. Starmer said that that the situation in Gaza was an 'absolute catastrophe'. 'Nobody wants to see that. People in Britain are revolted to see that,' said Starmer, adding that his government was working with Jordan to get supplies airdropped in Gaza. Netanyahu continues to maintain there's no starvation in Gaza Even as global condemnation rises by the day, Netanyahu has continued to maintain that there is no starvation in Gaza. He has called it a 'bold faced lie'. 'There is no policy of starvation in Gaza and there is no starvation in Gaza,' Netanyahu further said on Sunday. In sharp contrast to Netanyahu, the United Nations (UN) has maintained that around one in five children in Gaza Strip are now acutely malnourished and at least 63 people have died from malnutrition in July alone. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The UN has said that the hunger crisis in Gaza is 'entirely preventable' and accused Israel of the 'deliberate blocking and delay of large-scale food, health and humanitarian aid'.
L'Orient-Le Jour
2 days ago
- Politics
- L'Orient-Le Jour
UN to use Israel's pause to try to reach Gaza's starving
The United Nations said it would try to reach as many starving people as possible in Gaza after Israel announced it would establish secure land routes for humanitarian convoys. The U.N.'s World Food Program (WFP) said it had enough food in, or on its way to, the region to feed the 2.1 million people in the Gaza Strip for almost three months. U.N. emergency relief coordinator Tom Fletcher said the United Nations would try to reach "as many starving people as we can" in the time window. Israel on Sunday began a limited "tactical pause" in military operations to allow the U.N. and aid agencies to tackle the deepening hunger crisis. "We welcome Israel's decision to support a one-week scale-up of aid, including lifting customs barriers on food, medicine and fuel from Egypt and the reported designation of secure routes for U.N. humanitarian convoys," Fletcher said in a statement. Fletcher said some movement restrictions appeared to have been eased on Sunday, citing initial reports indicating that over 100 truckloads of aid were collected. "But we need sustained action, and fast, including quicker clearances for convoys going to the crossing and dispatching into Gaza; multiple trips per day to the crossings so we and our partners can pick up the cargo; safe routes that avoid crowded areas; and no more attacks on people gathering for food." The U.N. aid chief said the world was calling out for life-saving humanitarian assistance to get through – but stressed that "vast amounts of aid are needed to stave off famine and a catastrophic health crisis." "Ultimately, of course, we don't just need a pause – we need a permanent cease-fire," he added. No shootings near convoys pledge WFP said the pauses and corridors should allow emergency food to be safely delivered. "Food aid is the only real way for most people inside Gaza to eat," it said in a statement. It said a third of the population had not been eating for days, and 470,000 people in Gaza "are enduring famine-like conditions" that were leading to deaths. WFP said more than 62,000 tons of food assistance were needed monthly to cover the entire Gaza population of two million. The agency noted that, on top of Sunday's "pause" announcement, Israel had pledged to allow more trucks to enter Gaza with quicker clearances along with "assurances of no armed forces or shootings near convoys." "Together, we hope these measures will allow for a surge in urgently needed food assistance to reach hungry people without further delays," it said. 'Dystopian landscape' U.N. rights chief Volker Turk said Israel, as the occupying power in Gaza, was obliged to ensure sufficient food was provided to the population. "Children are starving and dying in front of our eyes. Gaza is a dystopian landscape of deadly attacks and total destruction," he said in a statement. He criticised a U.S.- and Israel-backed outfit, called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), that in late May began distributing foodstuffs when U.N.-organised efforts were blocked. Turk said the GHF's "chaotic, militarised distribution sites were "failing utterly to deliver humanitarian aid at the scope and scale needed." His office says Israeli forces have killed more than 1,000 Palestinians trying to get food aid in Gaza since the GHF started operations – nearly three-quarters of them in the vicinity of GHF sites.
