Latest news with #JamesElder
RTÉ News
a day ago
- Health
- RTÉ News
Aid will be too late when famine hits Gaza, warns UNICEF
Famine is so close in Gaza that when it does hit it will be too late for aid to arrive and there will be mass death, UNICEF's Global spokesperson James Elder has warned. He described what is happening in the Palestinian territory as "abhorrent" and said that when the killing so many children ceases to shock, "then we've gone beyond living in a tragedy. We're complicit in it". The United Nations has warned that most of Gaza's 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli blockade of the enclave, with the rate of young children suffering from acute malnutrition nearly tripling. Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Mr Elder said that while the global focus is on malnutrition, there are so many children who have been killed and injured that the situation is becoming "normalised". He said humanitarian aid is more than food. "It's hygiene kits. It's obstetric kits. It's incubators, it's wheelchairs, it's blankets, it's vaccines." Mr Elder said people do not know where to go now, describing the whole of Gaza as a combat zone. He added that he has never before seen the suffering that he has witnessed in Gaza. He said: "There's no exaggeration, every single child in this place needs mental health support. It's night after night of bombardment. There's not a child here who doesn't know someone who's been killed, who hasn't seen the most ghastly ghastly wounds." In relation to the Israeli aid blockade, Mr Elder said that every time the world's most reputable body on nutrition says how close the population is to famine, "then authorities just loosen the noose a little bit and a bit of aid is allowed to come in. "And then when international attention dissipates, it's tightened once more. When famine hits, it will be too late. Famine is a statistical definition that means mass death. "Starvation, starvation is different. Starvation is when the body starts eating itself, when you get cognitive decline. Starvation's happening here right now, children's bodies are not waiting for some global declaration," he said. Mr Elder said the focus now is on is on malnutrition and "suddenly the daily killing ... of girls and boys seems to be something that people don't dwell on."
Times
2 days ago
- Health
- Times
Gaza in survival mode: Unicef decries ‘horrendous' hunger levels
Despite having visited Gaza several times since the war started in October 2023, James Elder's past experience did not prepare him for what he witnessed last week. He was met by a bleak wasteland of rubble, filled with hungry young civilians gesturing at their mouths with their empty hands, and the screams of wounded children in hospitals. 'Horrendous. Horrendous levels of hunger,' said Elder, a spokesman for Unicef. He found 'levels of hunger I've not seen' and a society in 'survival mode'. Israel has now begun letting a trickle of aid into the strip after a three-month blockade that drove the population to the brink of famine, according to the UN's World Food Programme, which estimates that nearly half a million Gazans are facing catastrophic hunger. • Hadley Freeman: A conversation every Jew I know is having Elder said: 'You drive through and there are thousands of people on the streets obviously thinking maybe [our convoy is] an aid distribution, who knows, we were just a convoy of armed vehicles. People knocking on the windows, teenage boys knocking on the windows in tears, doing the universal symbol of hunger, some kids lifting their shirts showing me their ribs.' The territory had been besieged by Israel for three months, after truce talks with Hamas — which prompted the war by attacking Israel, killing more than a thousand and kidnapping more than 200 Israelis — unravelled. It was the bloodiest period of the war in Gaza since early last year. Israel conducted 900 strikes in May alone, according to Armed Conflict Location and Event Data, a nonprofit that monitors conflict zones. Elder said: 'Nothing came into the Gaza Strip apart from bombs.' He said he was still haunted by the screams of children in the Nasser hospital in Gaza, which is running short of painkillers. 'I've never experienced anything like it,' he said. 'Every time you turn around there is another horrendous case of a trauma wound on a child. You see one child, then you're taken into another room and there's a girl with a double amputation, and so on. Such is the lack of painkillers that it's just screaming, this constant blood-curdling scream of children.' The Israeli government finally relented amid an international outcry and pressure from President Trump, and began allowing a trickle of aid into the territory last month. UN aid lorries have begun entering, but in numbers far below the 500 lorries a day needed, according to UN officials. The US and Israel instead are backing a controversial new American group, the Gaza Humanitarian Fund (GHF), which has been boycotted by the UN and other aid organisations. Israel said the arrangement, which has forced Palestinians to walk miles to four GHF distribution centres, was designed to stop Hamas from commandeering aid. The UN said that Israel's claims had been exaggerated and the GHF's head, Jake Wood, resigned two weeks ago. • Israel bombs, children die and this British surgeon keeps working Wood said in a statement that it had become 'clear that it is not possible to implement this plan while also strictly adhering to the humanitarian principles of humanity'. The GHF said it was unable to distribute food on Saturday because of threats from Hamas, marking the fourth time in the past week the group's operations have been disrupted and the second time it has closed centres altogether. On Sunday, four people on their way to a distribution centre were killed by Israeli forces, according to Palestinian paramedics. More than 100 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli soldiers near GHF distribution sites since the group started its operations, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. The Israeli military has acknowledged that it fired warning shots at 'suspicious' individuals threatening its troops, and previously said it was investigating certain incidents. Elder was scathing in his criticism of the GHF, which insists that it is doing all it can to help Palestinians. He said: 'By claiming they're giving aid to people, they're going to force people to the south and they're going to try to ease that international pressure. It has nothing to do with aid. It's a veneer.' Wood, before his resignation, denied that the group would abet an Israeli plan to demolish what was left of the territory and encourage the inhabitants to leave, as senior Israeli officials have said. The group's advocates say they are doing the best they can within the circumstances. The Trump administration could become more closely involved with the foundation as the State Department is debating a plan to donate $500 million. Elder visited southern Gaza as the GHF efforts descended into shambles. Palestinians were increasingly said to be penned into so-called humanitarian zones as Israeli soldiers expanded their military operation against Hamas, destroying much of the territory in the process. Entering through an Israeli crossing, Elder found a landscape of 'utter rubble'. He said: 'Hordes of people, just large numbers, thousands of people out, walking through the rubble, asking for food, looking for food. And utter desperation. 'Now people are in full survival mode. Psychologically, physically. How do I get the next meal? How do I get a meal for my family? How do I know when to evacuate?' Elder said a ceasefire was desperately needed, describing a truce as an 'umbrella' which can get hostages home and aid into Gaza. In January, both sides agreed to stop the fighting, which has killed an estimated 54,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. It fell apart in March, however, after the US and Israel proposed an extension. Hamas accused them of reneging on the agreement, which had envisaged several stages before an Israeli military withdrawal and an end to the conflict. The group has since rejected another proposal on the same grounds. Elder said: 'A ceasefire means parents can literally promise their kids they can wake up in the morning. Children are well aware that parents have lost the ability to protect them.'
Middle East Eye
3 days ago
- General
- Middle East Eye
Gaza's children face hunger and grief instead of Eid joy, says Unicef
Eid al-Adha, a time meant for unity and celebration, has become a day of despair for children in Gaza, according to the UN children's agency. James Elder, spokesperson for Unicef, said the festive spirit has been overshadowed by tragedy. 'For Gaza's children, Eid is dominated by hunger, by grief, and by the silence of missing voices,' he said in a video message posted online. Elder condemned the dire humanitarian conditions in the besieged enclave, warning that barely any aid is making it through. 'Let us demand that aid flow freely,' he urged, noting that the current trickle falls far short of what Palestinians need to survive.
Al Jazeera
5 days ago
- General
- Al Jazeera
Getting food in Gaza has become 'like the Hunger Games'
James Elder, a UNICEF spokesperson for, explains the potentially deadly conditions awaiting Palestinians trying to reach aid in Gaza and the urgent need for safe aid access.
DW
5 days ago
- Politics
- DW
Gaza: Israel says it recovered bodies of 2 hostages – DW – 06/05/2025
06/05/2025 June 5, 2025 UNICEF decries private aid program for 'forceable displacement of a population' DW spoke with James Elder of UNICEF on the current humanitarian situation in Gaza as the US and Israel introduce a controversial new, private aid distribution system that has been temporarily shut down after the Israeli military carried out three deadly shootings at its distribution points. The UN has accused the two nations of having made "deliberate choices to deprive people in Gaza of the essentials to survive," after throwing UN and international aid groups out of Gaza and replacing them with centralized distribution centers operated by the privately run Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). When speaking of the role played by UN humanitarian aid organizations, UNICEF's Elder said, "we know what works, we just have to be allowed to do it." Elder said the US and Israel plan of centralizing aid distribution has resulted in the "forceable displacement of a population," criticizing the fact that people were being drawn into military conflict zones due to the limited number of distribution sites and the fact that these are guarded by Israeli military forces and private US security contractors.
