Latest news with #JonathanCrickx
Saudi Gazette
22-05-2025
- Health
- Saudi Gazette
Gazans fear shutdown of water plants as Israel widens offensive
JERUSALEM — Chronic shortages of water in Gaza are worsening as Israel's expanding military offensive causes new waves of displacement - and desalination and hygiene plants are running out of fuel. The UN's humanitarian office has said its partners are warning that, without immediate fuel deliveries, a full shutdown of water and sanitation facilities is possible by the end of the week. Days after Israel imposed its blockade on aid in early March - which is only now being eased - it also cut off power lines to the main desalination plants - a vital source of water for Gazans. It said these steps were to put pressure on Hamas to release the remaining hostages it is holding. Although Israel has said it will now permit the entry of basic supplies into Gaza, so far this has not included fuel. However, some drinking water was loaded on the dozens of UN lorries that have entered the strip - with supplies not yet distributed. Parents have told the BBC that during 19 months of war, their children have grown used to drinking salty water - with doctors saying they have seen a rise in serious kidney complaints as a result. "Often the water turns out to be half sweet [fresh], half salty," said Raed al-Zaharneh, a father-of-four in Khan Younis who, like most Gazans, now relies on water delivered on lorries. "We know it is undrinkable water, and we still drink it," he went on. "We've had stomach pain and diarrhoea, but we put up with it. What do we do? We need to drink. There's no alternative." Earlier this month, there was still a loud whirring sound at a desalination plant in southern Gaza as Jonathan Crickx of Unicef visited. He said that production at the site had been reduced by 80% after electricity was recently cut off. However, it was still producing thousands of litres per day. "The problem is that to produce water we now need fuel," Mr Crickx said. "And afterwards we need to truck the water to the different communities." "This is a difficult process as we have less and less fuel, not only to produce the water but to run the trucks." While some lorries as well as donkey carts have continued to distribute water in recent days, the ramping up of Israel's military offensive and new waves of displacement - affecting some 140,000 people in the north and south of the strip - have made this even more challenging. The UN's Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) says that water and sanitation services have already been severely disrupted by ongoing fuel shortages. In northern Gaza, no fuel is currently available and only half the needed supply was received last week, Ocha says. This has meant the operating hours for water wells have been further reduced with complete shutdowns expected. In southern Gaza, Ocha says that UN water utilities have not received any fuel, although 140,000 liters of fuel per week are needed to keep them going. This has led to water, sanitation and hygiene facilities reducing their operating hours by more than one fifth. UN workers have said they try daily to retrieve fuel from reserves in areas where they are required to co-ordinate with the Israeli authorities, such as Rafah - which has been a main focus of military operations. However, these continue to be denied. No new fuel has been allowed into Gaza since Israel imposed its full blockade on 2 March. A kidney specialist at al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, Dr Ghazi al-Yazji, told the BBC he was seeing more patients with new infections and conditions caused by contaminated water and drinking water with high salinity. "We don't have precise figures, but the cases are noticeably higher among children," he said. Even before the war, shortages of water and the poor quality of supplies in Gaza contributed to relatively high numbers of patients with serious kidney complaints. Dr al-Yazji says his department has 220 patients requiring kidney dialysis and that they have been disproportionately affected by the worsening water problems. Several, he said, had recently died. — BBC
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Israel-backed food aid group admits it won't be able to reach most vulnerable in Gaza
The organisation backed by Israel to take over food distribution in Gaza as famine looms has admitted it would not be able to feed some of the most vulnerable civilians from the militarised compounds it plans to set up. Aid groups and the United Nations have already refused to work with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a Swiss-registered organisation led by a former US marine. They say it does not have the capacity to end hunger in Gaza and would make it harder to get aid to civilians caught up in other wars by undermining their neutrality. Israel has not officially laid out its plans for food distribution in Gaza, but statements from the GHF and briefings from Israeli officials envisage four or five militarised distribution centres in southern Gaza, run by private security companies, under the oversight of Israeli military bases. Related: Trump says people in Gaza are starving and US will take care of situation GHF is in 'advanced discussions' with Israel on details and timing and hopes to have news soon, a person involved with planning at the foundation said. Heads of household would be expected to collect boxes weighing up to 20kg with several days' supply of food and basic hygiene items like soap for their families. There is no provision for those too sick or weakened by famine to walk long distances across Gaza's ruined landscape with heavy loads. 'From what we have understood, the plan would increase the ongoing suffering of children and families in the Gaza Strip,' said United Nations Children's Fund spokesperson Jonathan Crickx. 'How is a mother of four children, who has lost her husband, going to carry 20kg back to her makeshift tent, sometimes several kilometres away?' Crickx said. 'The most vulnerable people, including the elderly, people with disabilities, the sick and wounded, and orphans, will face huge challenges to access aid.' Beyond logistical problems with Israel's plans, humanitarian organisations say that agreeing to work under Israel's military would compromise the neutrality that is the most crucial protection for their unarmed teams. It would also make it harder for them to operate in other conflict zones, where neutrality is key to being able to reach civilians in contested areas. 'These plans are basically instrumentalising humanitarian aid, putting it into the hands of a party to the conflict, which goes against the principles of impartiality and independence. We don't work with parties to (any) conflict,' said Bushra Khalidi, policy lead for the Palestinian territory at Oxfam. 'Giving Israel power over who receives the aid and where basically turns it into a tool of coercion, and it blurs the line between the humanitarian assistance and Israel's military objectives, which in turn puts civilians and aid workers at serious risk.' That is a particular concern because Israeli attacks have killed hundreds of aid workers during the war, including both Palestinians and foreign citizens. Over two months into a siege of Gaza, with famine edging closer, Israel appears to be using Palestinian lives to try to coerce the UN and aid groups into cooperating with its new plans for militarised aid delivery, one western diplomat said. They have been presented with a bleak choice – to either cooperate or let Palestinians continue to go hungry. 'When the consequences are starvation, that is a very hard decision to make,' the diplomat said. For now UN and major international aid groups have presented a unified rejection, and Israel may be forced to partly back down if it wants to avert full-blown famine. Under international law Israel, as an occupying power, has a responsibility to provide for the basic needs of civilians in Gaza, including food and medicine. Despite the government's insistence that there are no food shortages, some military officials are now privately admitting that Palestinians are on the brink of starvation, the New York Times reported. GHF acknowledged this week it would not be able to reach the most vulnerable Palestinians. 'In order to provide all Gazans, including those that are infirm, immobile, or unwilling to travel to a secure distribution site, with access to food aid, GHF will require aid distribution mechanisms that expand beyond the currently scoped model,' the organisation said in a statement. Israeli forces are already preparing sites that match descriptions of militarised aid hubs planned by GHF, a BBC investigation found. But only the UN and aid groups on the ground at the moment have the capacity to distribute aid in the community. Israel's siege and its apparent new plan to control food going into Gaza has been justified by repeated claims that Hamas is systematically stealing a significant proportion of food aid intended for civilians. Despite intense scrutiny of aid networks in Gaza, Israeli officials have never provided evidence to back up these claims, which diplomats and humanitarians say are not true. Monitoring and audit systems to account for public money can track deliveries from arrival in Gaza to the moment they are handed over. This openness contrasts with the GHF's secrecy in its first few weeks of existence. It does not have a website or public contact details beyond a postal address. Its communications about one of the most pressing humanitarian crises in the world have been largely limited to two statements circulating online. It has burnished its credentials by listing the names of two high-profile humanitarian figures as part of its senior team, the former head of the World Food Programme David Beasley and the former CEO of World Central Kitchen Nathan Mook. But both have told CNN they are not currently involved. The GHF did not respond to requests for comments about personnel. Even if Israel decides to back down over food supply networks in the short-term, few expect pressure on international humanitarian groups to let up. Last week 55 organisations called for the international community to take action on new rules for registration inside Israel, saying the regulations threaten to shut their work down. 'Based on vague, broad, politicised, and open-ended criteria, these rules appear designed to assert control … [and] silence advocacy grounded in international humanitarian and human rights law,' they said in an open letter. Israeli officials are seeking not only control of aid supplies, but the people delivering it, Khalidi said. With foreign journalists and diplomats barred from entering Gaza, humanitarians on the ground have been some of the only external witnesses to the impact of Israel's campaign there. 'We have been monitoring, reporting, and calling for accountability on what we're witnessing on the ground. And Israel is not happy about that.'
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Food security experts warn Gaza at ‘critical risk of famine' amid Israeli blockade
Gaza is at 'critical risk of famine', food security experts have warned, 10 weeks after Israel imposed a blockade on the devastated Palestinian territory, cutting off all supplies including food, medicine, shelter and fuel. In its most recent report, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) said on Monday there had been a 'major deterioration' in the food security situation in Gaza since its last assessment in October 2024 and that Palestinians living there faced 'a critical risk of famine'. 'Goods indispensable for people's survival are either depleted or expected to run out in the coming weeks. The entire population is facing high levels of acute food insecurity, with half a million people – one in five – facing starvation,' said the IPC, a consortium of independent specialists tasked by the UN and international NGOs with assessing the risk of famine in crises worldwide. Israel imposed its strict blockade in early March, after the end of the first phase of a supposed three-phase ceasefire. Just over two weeks later, a new wave of attacks by the Israeli military definitively ended the truce. Aid workers in Gaza told the Guardian that prices for essentials had risen further in recent days, warehouses were empty and humanitarian teams treating malnourished children were being forced to divide rations designed for one between two patients to give both a chance of survival. Related: A picture that shocked the world: the story behind baby Siwar Ashour 'The stocks we brought in during the [two-month-long] ceasefire are running very low. We have treated more than 11,000 children since the beginning of the year … In coming weeks, we fear we will see more children dying,' said Jonathan Crickx, a spokesperson for Unicef speaking from southern Gaza. The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization separately warned that Gaza faced 'imminent risk of famine', saying agriculture was 'on the brink of total collapse' and called for the 'immediate' lifting of the blockade. Law and order has also suffered in recent weeks as desperate Palestinians and organised gangs exploit growing chaos. Israeli officials say the blockade aims to pressure Hamas to release the 59 hostages it has been holding since October 2023, when it launched a surprise raid into southern Israel. On Monday, the Islamist militant organisation released the last living US-Israeli citizen held in Gaza, a 21-year-old soldier. More than 1,200 were killed, mostly civilians, and 251 abducted during the Hamas attack in 2023. More than 52,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza during the ensuing offensive and swaths of the territory reduced to rubble. Israel accuses Hamas of systematically diverting aid to finance its military and other operations, and of using civilians as human shields. Hamas denies both charges. In Gaza, bakeries run by the World Food Programme shut down weeks ago, all out of flour or fuel. Kitchens that handed out nearly 1m meals every day in Gaza have closed or have limited supplies left. The warehouses of the UN are empty, aid officials said. Prices have risen steadily as basic foodstuffs have become scarcer. A kilo of potatoes and tomatoes in some areas costs more than $10 (£7.60). Dr Ahmed al-Farah, the director of the children's and maternity building at the Nasser medical complex in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, said last week that between five and 10 new malnutrition cases were being recorded there each day. Related: 'Desperate, traumatised people': Gaza faces wave of looting, theft and violence 'We're seeing severe cases. Malnutrition appears in children in a horrifying and extremely visible way,' Farah said. 'We have nothing to offer them. They need proteins, but there are none. We try to provide a little milk, perhaps powdered milk, but we can't offer anything more.' Israel has proposed a new system of aid distribution in Gaza involving individual hubs run by private contractors and protected by Israeli troops. The UN has so far refused to participate in the scheme, which humanitarian officials describe as inadequate, impractical and potentially unlawful. The IPC, which has developed a five-level famine warning system, found that from 1 April to 10 May, 244,000 people in Gaza were in the most critical food security situation – level five, or 'catastrophe/famine'. The consortium, set up in 2004, brings together more than a dozen UN agencies, aid groups, governments and other bodies. It has rarely declared famine: in Somalia in 2011, and South Sudan in 2017 and 2020, and last year in parts of Sudan's western Darfur region. The technical definition of a famine is demanding, with at least two of three things observed: 20% of households with an extreme lack of food; at least 30% of children six months to five years old suffering from acute malnutrition; and at least two people or four children under five per every 10,000 dying daily due to starvation or the interaction of malnutrition and disease. The new IPC assessment found that the first threshold was met in Gaza, saying 477,000 people – or 22% of the population – were classified as facing 'catastrophic' hunger, the highest level, for the period from 11 May to the end of September. The other thresholds were not met, however. Related: Gaza blockade: a Palestinian widow, her children and a cupboard that is almost bare Humanitarian officials in Gaza say they fear that by the time a famine is officially declared it will be too late and many will already have died. The IPC also warned of 'imminent' famine in northern Gaza in March 2024, but the following month Israel allowed an influx of aid under US pressure after an Israeli strike killed seven aid workers.
Yahoo
11-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Malnourished children, hospital supplies running low: Impact of 2 months of no aid in Gaza
Israel's decision to halt all humanitarian aid from crossing into Gaza is entering its third month. The Israeli government said the blockade is to pressure Hamas to release the remaining 59 hostages, including the remains of those who have died, and to accept a new proposal to extend phase one of the ceasefire deal, which ended on March 18. Israel's Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) wrote in a post on X in late April that humanitarian personnel have been allowed to enter and exit Gaza to support humanitarian efforts in the strip. MORE: Gaza aid timeline: How the hunger crisis unfolded amid the Israel-Hamas war But multiple doctors and international aid workers told ABC News that water, food, medicine and medical supplies are running low, and in some cases running out completely. Children are becoming malnourished, diseases are at risk of spreading and those who are injured cannot be treated properly, the workers said. "If nothing is done, if food is not brought in, if water is not brought in, if vaccines are not brought in at scale -- we're already in a catastrophe, and we're going to have way more children dying [from] preventable causes," Jonathan Crickx, chief of communication for UNICEF Palestine, told ABC News. A Trump administration official told ABC News there is a no-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. The Israel Defense Forces did not immediately return ABC News' request for comment. The lack of food entering Gaza is one of the most severe problems the strip is facing, according to aid workers. Osama As, the lead for quality, evidence and learning with the Mercy Corps Gaza Emergency Response Program, said the situation "is getting worse day after day, especially in relation to food" because most people in Gaza depend on humanitarian aid and community kitchens for food. He said most families survive on one meal a day, and that most food available is canned food and bread. "I never imagined that we would reach this point. Most people cannot afford the remaining items, which are either like canned foods and few quantities of vegetables which are produced locally here in Gaza," As, who is based in Gaza, said. "The prices are very high, so I think most people cannot afford these kinds of items to buy from the local market." Dr. Ahmed Alfar, head of the pediatrics department at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, said he has seen many examples of malnourished children over the past two months. One example he gave is a baby girl named Siwar, who was born four months ago. At birth, she weighed 2.5 kilograms, or 5.5 pounds. MORE: Gaza aid timeline: How the hunger crisis unfolded amid the Israel-Hamas war Four months later, she should be weighing about 5 kilograms, or 11 pounds. Instead, she is only about 6 pounds, according to Alfar. Alfar said the mother is unable to lactate and the family does not have much money, so they have been unable to feed Siwar milk, just sweetened water. "That means in four months she gained just 200 grams, and this is unbelievable," he told ABC News in Arabic. "She was a full-term baby. She was delivered vaginally. Her health was completely normal. ... We called it one of the most severe [cases of] malnutrition. Now Siwar is facing a severe, critical situation." Similarly, Crickx, from UNICEF Palestine, who is currently in Al Mawasi, in southern Gaza, said he visited Nasser Hospital this week and met a 4-year-old boy named Osama. Crickx said Osama should weigh 15 to 16 kilograms, about 33 to 35 pounds. Instead, he weighs 8 kilograms, or 17.5 pounds, Crickx said. He said UNICEF and its partners have a small number of ready-to-use therapeutic foods to treat malnutrition, but they are running out. UNICEF has already run out of food meant to address the first signs of malnutrition. "[Osama] has, really, the skin on the bones, and he was healthy before the beginning of this terrible war," Crickx said. "So, we are now in a situation where children are hungry, they are little by little being affected more and more by acute malnutrition, acute severe malnutrition. And if nothing is done, we fear that the worst will happen to them." Community kitchen workers told ABC News if the border crossings remain closed, markets will close, and ingredients will run out. 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 (WCK) announced on Wednesday that it had run out of supplies and ingredients needed to cook meals or bake bread in Gaza. WCK said it has trucks loaded with food and cooking fuel that have been ready to enter Gaza since early March as well as additional food and equipment ready to be shipped from Jordan and Egypt. "In recent weeks, our teams stretched every remaining ingredient and fuel source using creativity and determination. We turned to alternative fuels like wood pallets and olive husk pellets and pivoted away from rice recipes that require more fuel in favor of stews with bread," WCK said. "But we have now reached the limits of what is possible." The blockade has also had an impact on the spread of disease in Gaza, aid workers said. Overcrowding in tent camps -- along with a lack of clean water, hygiene products and poor sanitation -- puts Gazans at risk of contracting infectious diseases, they said. Limited supplies of soap and hygienic products "will continue to lead to escalation in skin manifestations of diseases like scabies," Dr. Aqsa Durrani, a pediatrician who was recently on assignment in Gaza with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), or Doctors Without Borders, told ABC News. MORE: A Palestinian girl suffered burns to over 60% of her body: This is her monthslong journey out of a war zone It's unclear how many infections have been diagnosed over the past two months but a study from April 2024 estimated 55,400 cases of scabies and lice outbreaks among children under age five who were displaced. Limited clean drinking water and overcrowded camps has also led to a rise in diarrheal diseases. A report from the Institute for Palestine Studies estimates at least half of cases recorded as of Jan. 2024 have been among children under 5 years old. Crickx said a majority of children are affected by chronic watery diarrhea, which can lead to serious complications for babies and toddlers. There has also been a rise in vaccine-preventable diseases in Gaza including hepatitis A, chickenpox, measles and polio. Aid workers say the blockade imposed by Israel has halted the delivery of vaccines, such as the oral polio vaccine to Gaza, leaving residents vulnerable to diseases. "Even in these terrible conditions, we have pregnant women and babies still being born in this community and population of 2 million people," Durrani said. "And so, we need more vaccinations as well vaccines." Since Hamas launched its surprise terrorist attack in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and Israel responded by declaring war, thousands have reportedly been killed or injured. Israel has said its goal is to destroy Hamas and that it attempts to minimize civilian casualties as often as possible. More than 15 months into the conflict, Hamas and Israel reached a ceasefire deal. The ceasefire saw the withdrawal of some Israeli forces to allow more aid to get in and the release of some of the hostages. However, resumption of hostilities in mid-March led to an increase in injuries, Crickx said. UNICEF estimates that more than 500 children have been killed since March 18 and more than 1.250 children have been injured. MORE: A Palestinian girl suffered burns to over 60% of her body: This is her monthslong journey out of a war zone Durrani -- who worked as medical activity manager for MSF at a field hospital in Deir al Balah in central Gaza from the end of February until the end of April -- said she saw injuries caused by air strikes, fires after air strikes and from large cooking fires. "Because there's no cooking gas, people are burning household items and trying to cook over large open flames,' she said. "So, we also saw children with burns due to those flames, as well as scald burns from children who had been waiting in food distribution lines, and the jostling of the food items would then lead to them being injured from hot food." What's more, burn victims or those who are injured can take longer to heal due to malnourishment. They can also be at risk of infections or skin graft failure. Durrani explained that poor wound healing can be associated with poor nutrition, which resulted in some pediatric burn patients developing infections. "Not only was our staff hungry, but we also had no food for our patients, including our pediatric patients," Durrani said. "Other than just being harrowing from a human perspective, it's also, from a medical perspective, really impacts the way that people can heal from these injuries, and these types of burns." "Not even being clear that we will have enough antibiotics to treat the infection if the patients develop infections," she continued. "In the face of also not having enough surgical materials or concern that we may run critically low on anesthesia supplies if they need to go back to the [operating room]." In conversations with doctors this week, Crickx said hospitals are experiencing shortages of anesthetics and anticoagulants. There is also a lack of medical supplies to fix bones when they suffer fractures, he said. Durrani said her team was forced to ration medications, including painkillers, antibiotics and critical surgery supplies. They often had to perform painful procedures and wound dressing changes without any pain control. She said she didn't want to cause pain by removing dressings without proper pain control, but if the dressings aren't removed, then it could lead to infections for patients. "We're being forced to make impossible decisions like that, which is unconscionable, given that just miles away there are trucks and trucks full of food and supplies and medications and nutritional sources," she said. "For me personally, this is the first time that I had to look patients in the eye and say I didn't have something that I know is just miles away." ABC News' Shannon Kingston and Diaa Ostaz contributed to this report. Malnourished children, hospital supplies running low: Impact of 2 months of no aid in Gaza originally appeared on
Los Angeles Times
08-05-2025
- General
- Los Angeles Times
Aid group closes soup kitchens across Gaza due to dwindling supplies
DEIR AL BALAH, Gaza — Israel's ongoing blockade of humanitarian assistance for Gaza forced a leading aid group to shut its community soup kitchens Thursday as it faced empty warehouses and no replenishment of supplies in the war-battered enclave. U.S.-based World Central Kitchen, which was serving 133,000 meals per day, said there is almost no food left in Gaza with which to cook. The ongoing hunger is threatening Gaza's population, already battered by 19 months of war. In April, the World Food Program said its food stocks in Gaza had run out under Israel's blockade, ending a main source of sustenance for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in the territory. A UNICEF spokesperson said most of Gaza's water system is damaged, while fuel shortages make it harder to operate desalination plants or water trucks. Malnutrition and hunger are becoming increasingly prevalent in the Gaza Strip as Israel's total blockade enters its third month, and aid agencies say supplies to treat and prevent malnutrition are running out. Israel imposed the blockade March 2, then shattered a two-month ceasefire by resuming military operations in the territory March 18. It said both steps aim to pressure the militant Hamas group to release hostages. Rights groups call the blockade a 'starvation tactic' and a potential war crime. With restaurants and bakeries closed, community kitchens are often the only way for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza to eat a daily meal. But a third of those supported by the U.N. have closed in the last 10 days for lack of food or fuel, according to the U.N. humanitarian office, or OCHA, which said more closures could be imminent. 'The hot meals provided by these kitchens constitute one of the last remaining lifelines' for Palestinians, OCHA said. At those still open, chaotic scenes of desperate men, women and children fighting to get meager rations are common. UNICEF spokesperson Jonathan Crickx on Thursday said 65% to 70% of Gaza's water system is damaged. Aid workers have instead set up water distribution points that rely on trucking. But it's difficult to reach people when fuel has become scarce, Crickx told the Associated Press. 'The children are, of course, bearing the brunt of this war,' he said. Water availability has plummeted to an average of 3-5 liters per person per day, according to the Palestinian Water Authority. That's less than the 15 liters that the World Health Organization says people need to survive. A pipeline operated by Israel had been supplying 70% of Gaza City's water since the war began, but it was damaged with the renewed Israeli offensive in April. Desalination plants had supplied about 7% of Gaza's water needs before the war, until the aquifer became contaminated and depleted. Since the start of the war, World Central Kitchen said it has served more than 130 million meals and baked 80 million loaves of bread. On Thursday, the group said it had no flour left in its mobile bakery. 'Our trucks — loaded with food and supplies — are waiting in Egypt, Jordan and Israel, ready to enter Gaza,' said José Andrés, the celebrity chef who founded the organization. 'But they cannot move without permission. Humanitarian aid must be allowed to flow.' COGAT, the Israeli defense body overseeing aid to Gaza, said the blockade would continue unless the Israeli government changed its policy. Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer said the government was concerned that Hamas controlled the humanitarian aid, and that Israeli officials were exploring ways to get it only to 'those in need.' Mencer said the hunger had been 'engineered by Hamas,' and said the blockade would end when the group lays down its weapons, he said. However, Israel has provided no evidence that Hamas syphons off aid. The U.N. and aid workers deny there is significant diversion of aid to militants, saying the U.N. strictly monitors distribution. Since the start of the year, more than 10,000 children have been treated for acute malnutrition, according to the World Health Organization. The number climbed dramatically in March, to 3,600 cases from 2,000 the month before, UNICEF reported. Nearly half the 200 nutrition centers around Gaza have shut down because of displacement and bombardment. World Central Kitchen had previously suspended operations in April of last year after seven aid workers were killed in Israeli strikes on their convoy, before resuming weeks later. The Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza said Thursday the bodies of 106 people killed by Israeli strikes have been brought to hospitals over the last 24 hours. Hospitals also received 367 wounded, the ministry said in its daily report. The overall Palestinian death toll from the Israel-Hamas war rose to at least 52,760 since Oct. 7, 2023, the ministry said. An additional 119,264 have been wounded, it said. It said the tally includes 2,651 dead and 7,223 wounded since Israel shattered the nearly two-month ceasefire March 18. The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants, but says more than half of the dead were women and children. The Israeli military said they are targeting Hamas infrastructure in Gaza. On Wednesday, chief of staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir told commanders that Israel plans to 'expand and intensify our operations' in Gaza. Also on Thursday, a series of Israeli airstrikes hit hilltops in the vicinity of the southern Lebanese city of Nabatieh, killing at least one person and wounding eight others, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry. The Israeli military said it bombed infrastructure that belonged to the Hezbollah militant group and included weapons and tunnels. Israel said that Hezbollah's activities at the site violated a November ceasefire. Hezbollah did not immediately comment on the strikes. Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said public institutions in the area were closed after the attacks as families rushed to schools to take their children home. Since the U.S.-brokered ceasefire in November stopped the war between Israel and Hezbollah, Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon have continued. Hezbollah says it has largely disarmed south of the Litani River, but Israel insists the militants are rearming themselves. Some 4,000 people in Lebanon were killed during the war, including many civilians. A renowned Palestinian journalist arrested by the Israeli military and suffering from multiple chronic illnesses has been placed on six months of administrative detention, the Israeli military said. Ali Samoudi, who has worked for international news outlets including CNN and Al Jazeera, was detained late last month by the Israeli military from his family home in the city of Jenin in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, and has spent part of the time in the hospital due to chronic health issues. The Israeli military said Samoudi was detained based on involvement in 'actions endangering regional security' but that a police investigation did not find sufficient evidence against him to issue an arrest. However, on Thursday, a military court decided to place him under administrative detention for six months. Israeli authorities can renew administrative detentions indefinitely. Detainees are held without charge or trial. Israel says the controversial tactic is necessary for security reasons, but Palestinians and rights groups say the system denies due process and is widely abused. Shurafa and Chehayeb write for the Associated Press. Chehayeb reported from Beirut. AP writer Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, and Sally Abou AlJoud in Beirut contributed to this report.
