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Days of Palestine
26-05-2025
- General
- Days of Palestine
In Gaza genocide, hungry children walk miles for food
DaysofPal- Each day, countless children across Gaza walk the rubble-strewn streets, clutching empty bowls and bottles in search of food and clean water. After more than eleven weeks of a total Israeli blockade that has choked off humanitarian aid, the situation has reached catastrophic levels, with families resorting to desperate and dangerous means to keep their children alive. Rachel Cummings, humanitarian director with Save the Children, who is currently on the ground in central Gaza, described the unfolding humanitarian disaster as 'desperate and dire,' saying it is 'unimaginable how it feels to be a child in Gaza' under current conditions. 'I see children every day walking the streets trying to find food with empty bowls, trying to find water with empty bottles in hand,' Cummings said. 'We have mothers telling us how they are trying to keep their children alive, how they're talking to bulk it out with grass or dirty water, knowing that could result in their child becoming sick.' Cummings acknowledged that a trickle of aid has entered Gaza in the past 72 hours, calling it 'welcome but insignificant in terms of the actual number of people it can help.' 'What is needed are the thousands of trucks carrying humanitarian supplies that are held up by Israel outside Gaza, carrying life-saving aid,' she said, underscoring the urgent need for widespread humanitarian access. 'This is a very active and complex war. Bombs are dropping on children every day,' she continued. 'So we need a definitive ceasefire in Gaza, we need to be able to access populations and children who are in the most desperate circumstances, and we need humanitarian supplies to enter.' As famine conditions accelerate, humanitarian agencies are also raising serious concerns over new aid delivery proposals that could undermine neutral humanitarian operations. On Sunday, Save the Children issued a strong statement distancing itself from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation and any associated plans for militarized aid delivery. The organization reiterated that it will not participate in any system that compromises humanitarian principles. Gabriella Waaijman, Chief Operating Officer of Save the Children, said: 'Save the Children reiterates its firm position that it will not engage with any system of aid delivery in Gaza that fails to uphold humanitarian principles following reports about engaging with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation over a new militarized proposal for aid delivery. We have not agreed to support or collaborate with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, nor will we support limiting the number of humanitarian actors in the Gaza response. We stand united with our peers in calling on the Government of Israel and the international community to let us do our jobs.' Waaijman stressed the distinction between principled humanitarian assistance and politicized service delivery. 'Humanitarian principles guide the delivery of the aid people need to the people who need it most, independent of political considerations. Those principles are the difference between real humanitarian action and service delivery, and guide Save the Children's assistance to children and families across the world.' She warned of the consequences of deviating from these standards: 'New proposals for aid delivery that fail to uphold these standards are a distraction with devastating costs. After 11 weeks of total siege on the entry of all supplies into Gaza, thousands of children's lives hang in the balance. But instead of ensuring urgent, principled humanitarian aid delivery at the vast scale needed to save them, the Government of Israel is wasting time on political interference with what must remain a humanitarian-led system.' 'We reiterate our call to the Government of Israel and the international community to uphold humanitarian principles and international humanitarian law to ensure that people urgently receive the relief they need. Anything less is yet another world failure in what is becoming a long list for which the people of Gaza are paying with their lives.' These urgent calls have been echoed by the UN and other international aid organizations, which have warned that the death toll, especially among children, will continue to rise at a horrifying rate unless immediate, widespread access to Gaza and an end to the blockade are granted. Since March 2, Israel has been systematically starving some 2.4 million Palestinians in Gaza by closing the crossings to aid that has been piling up at the border, leading to famine and many deaths. Shortlink for this post:
RNZ News
23-05-2025
- Health
- RNZ News
Children dying from malnutrition as food blockaded, Gaza aid worker says
Palestinian children wait in front of a food distribution truck at a displacement camp near Gaza City's port, on Thursday. Photo: AFP/ Omar Al-Qattaa Save the Children says 20 children have died from malnutrition in Gaza in the last few days Speaking to Checkpoint from Deir al-Balah in Gaza, Rachel Cummings the agency's Humanitarian Director for the area, said lack of food for pregnant women was also of particular concern, and parents were using grass and dirty water to try to "bulk out" what food they had to help those suffering from hunger. More than 90 truckloads of humanitarian aid have now made it into Gaza after an almost three-month blockade by Israel. The aid, including flour, baby food and medical equipment, had been taken to warehouses for distribution. But aid agencies say the delivery was nowhere near enough to meet the population's needs, and people remained desperate for food. On average 500 supply trucks had entered Gaza each day before the war. The situation meant half a million Gazans were facing possible starvation with catastrophic levels of hunger, while 1 million others had barely enough food, according to UN-backed food security measures. "It's desperate - every child I meet, every child I see is hungry - and mothers are telling us that they just cry all the time asking for food," Cummings said. "Mothers are having to resort to extreme coping mechanisms to try and bulk out whatever food they can find - adding grass, bulking out with water that they know is dirty, feeding their children late at night so at least they hope they can sleep with the feeling of being full - but it's absolutely desperate. "And of course we're thinking about the immediate impacts for children, but the medium-longterm impacts on children's physical and mental health is very very concerning." Israel has blocked all food, shelter and medicines from entering the Gaza Strip for almost three months, as it continued ground and air offences on the Palestinian territory. Crowds reach out for food as it is distributed at a displacement camp near Gaza City's port, on 22 May. Photo: AFP/ Omar Al-Qattaa "The total population of Gaza - 2 million people - is at risk of famine... any supplies entering Gaza are very much needed," Cummings said. "We know that [the latest 90 trucks of supplies] is just not enough - there's been no medicines, no food, no equipment for water, no tents and shelter has entered Gaza for over 11 weeks. "The compounding factors in Gaza are so complex: You have this ongoing hostility and conflict. Just since 15 May just a week [ago], 172,000 people have been displaced in North and South Gaza. It's really a horrific situation here. A Palestinian boy scrapes off bits of lentil soup remaining in a cooking pot, in front of a food distribution point at a displacement camp near Gaza City's port on 22 May. Photo: AFP/ Omar Al-Qattaa Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
Boston Globe
19-05-2025
- General
- Boston Globe
Aid workers feel helpless as Israel's blockade pushes Gaza towards famine
A feeling of powerlessness has overwhelmed her. Soboh said sometimes she gives a little money or a bit of her own food. But now she, too, is struggling. 'This is the worst feeling, wanting to help but knowing you can't. I wished the earth would crack open and swallow me,' she said. 'What more cruel scenes does the world need to see?' After months of trying to raise alarm, humanitarian workers are overflowing with anger, frustration and horror over Israel's nearly three-month blockade. The Associated Press spoke to over a dozen aid workers, some with years of experience in emergencies around the world and Palestinians who have worked through this and other wars. Advertisement They say what is happening in Gaza is a catastrophe, among the worst they have ever seen. It's more painful, they say, because it's man-made, caused by Israel cutting off all food, fuel, medicine and other supplies to the territory nearly 11 weeks ago. The world's top authority on food crises last week warned of famine unless the blockade ends. Almost the entire population of around 2.3 million is acutely malnourished, and one in five Palestinians are on the brink of starvation, it said. Advertisement Israel late Sunday said it would allow a 'basic' amount of food into Gaza, saying it didn't want a hunger crisis to jeopardize its new military offensive. It was not immediately clear how much would be allowed in, or when, or how. Israel says it imposed the blockade to force Hamas to release hostages, a decision that rights groups call a 'starvation tactic' and a violation of international law. Aid workers are also wrestling with moves by Israel and the U.S. to impose a new aid system, despite their objections. The system would limit distribution to a few locations and put it under armed private contractors — to prevent theft by Hamas, Israel says. Humanitarian workers say it won't meet Gaza's needs and violates humanitarian principles. The U.N. denies that significant aid diversion takes place. The workers say they should be allowed to do their jobs. Some 170,000 metric tons of aid, including food, sits in trucks a few miles away, just inside Israel. 'The humanitarian community is well-experienced and well-versed in terms of treating malnutrition,' said Rachel Cummings, emergency coordinator for Save the Children in Gaza. But 'we need food into Gaza and to stop this, by design, attack on the children across the whole of Gaza.' Last lifelines are closing Community kitchens are the last lifeline for most people, but more than 60% have shut down as supplies run out. Those still working can only produce 260,000 meals a day. At his kitchen in Khan Younis, Nihad Abu Kush and 10 cooks prepare enough meals for about 1,000 people a day. More than 2,000 show up every morning, he said. Advertisement There are no lines, just a sea of people terrified of being among the half who will miss out. They push and shove, waving pots for portions from the vats of lentils, beans or peas in tomato sauce. 'I feel so helpless because the numbers grow every day,' Abu Kush said. 'I look at their faces and I am unable to do anything.' On a recent day, he gave up his own portion after he locked eyes with a child with an empty pot. 'I was among the 1,000 who didn't get any,' Abu Kush said. A breaking point Soboh, a nutritionist with MedGlobal, said her team stretches supplies of malnutrition treatments. Each can of baby formula is divided among several mothers. Therapy food portions are reduced by half. They give supplements only to children up to a year old, no longer up to 2. But their fixes get overwhelmed in the rising need. Staff try to dissuade mothers too weak to breastfeed from giving newborns sugar water, which can cause deadly diarrhea and infections, Soboh said. But it's the mothers' only alternative. Flour sold in the markets is rotten, full of insects, devoid of nutrition and enormously expensive. Still, if they find the cash, parents take risky trips to get it just to fill their children's stomachs, she said. Aid groups distributing water have reduced daily allowances to 5 liters a day per person, a third of the minimum in emergency conditions. Families must choose between using water to drink, wash hands or to cook, risking infection. Mahmoud al-Saqqa, Oxfam's food security sector coordinator, said parents tell him their kids are dizzy from lack of food. They search through garbage for scraps. Advertisement 'We see the hunger in their eyes,' he said. His group, like most, distributed its last food stocks weeks ago. One of Soboh's colleagues, Fady Abed, said desperate adults in his neighborhood ask him for the nutty-butter bars used to treat severely malnourished children to slake their own hunger. 'You feel like you let them down' refusing them, Abed said. He struggles to feed his own family. 'Fear of famine,' he said, 'is in every home.' Pumping air for 72 hours Medical workers improvise alternatives as supplies run out and machines break down. Al-Awda Hospital in northern Gaza lacks fuel and oxygen cylinders, so staff use hand-pumped respirators to keep patients breathing, said hospital director Mohammed Salha. Staff took turns hand-pumping air for one patient for 72 hours straight. The patient still died. 'People are dying ... because we simply don't have the basics,' he said. At Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza, doctors don't have drills, sealant or titanium plates to treat the many skull fractures from bombardment. They use expired gelatins to stop bleeding, but that doesn't stop spinal fluid from leaking, which can be deadly, said a foreign doctor volunteering with the aid group Medical Aid for Palestinians. Sometimes, there's nothing he can do. He has child patients whose cochlear implants are defective, but there's no way to replace them. Without them, 'they will never be able to develop normal speech,' he said. The doctor spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations from his organization to avoid reprisals from Israeli authorities. Israel has cut in half the number of foreign doctors allowed into Gaza since March. Advertisement New aid system Israel imposed the blockade and resumed its military campaign in March, breaking a two-month ceasefire with Hamas. COGAT, the Israeli military body in charge of overseeing aid, did not comment to the AP. Israeli officials have said they track the calories in Gaza and assert that there is enough aid after an influx during the ceasefire. Israel and the United States are pressing the U.N. and aid groups to join the planned new distribution system. The U.N. and most aid groups say they can't join because it enables Israel to use aid as a weapon for its political and military goals. In particular, it would depopulate much of Gaza by forcing Palestinians to move to planned distribution hubs. 'In the end, this is using food to humiliate, control and direct people,' said al-Saqqa of Oxfam. 'Every human being has the right to food.'
