Latest news with #Save the Children
BBC News
2 days ago
- Politics
- BBC News
Southend boys clean beach and parks to raise money for Gaza
Young boys who were left horrified by pictures of starving Palestinian children have started cleaning their local beach and parks to raise money for Zac, 12, Abel, 10, eight-year-old Todd, and their cousins, Koah, 11, and Phoenix, eight, are raising money for Save the say their message is simple but powerful: "We're all kids. We all deserve safety."The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification has said 470,000 people in Gaza (22% of the population in the territory) are facing an extreme lack of food. Earlier this week, Zac told BBC Essex: "Me and Abel believe that no child should have to starve to death."Some of the videos coming out of Gaza are quite horrific."Every kid is a kid, and I didn't want to just keep sitting by and seeing that happen." A video of children's entertainer Miss Rachel talking about the humanitarian crisis on her YouTube channel first sparked the idea for the continued: "We wanted to have a way to raise money so they wouldn't have to starve anymore."The team have exceeded their £500 target and say they will continue their efforts beyond the summer holiday."We've decided we're going to do clean-ups until the situation in Gaza is over," he added."We were cleaning up by Southchurch Park and only in a few minutes we had three bags full." Medics have been warning of shortages in vital food and medical supplies for weeks, after Israel began a months-long blockade of all aid and goods into has since been partially lifted, but humanitarian agencies have said more aid must be allowed to enter to Gaza to prevent famine and malnutrition Nations (UN) agencies have blamed the crisis on Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister, denies there is starvation in the territory and insists his country is not blocking aid. Follow Essex news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
Arab News
23-07-2025
- Politics
- Arab News
More than 100 NGOs warn ‘mass starvation' spreading across Gaza
Israel is facing mounting international pressure over the catastrophic humanitarian situationA statement with 111 signatories, including Doctors Without Borders (MSF), Save the Children and Oxfam, warned that 'our colleagues and those we serve are wasting away'JERUSALEM: More than 100 aid organizations and human rights groups warned on Wednesday that 'mass starvation' was spreading in Gaza, as the United States said its top envoy was heading to Europe for talks on a possible ceasefire and aid is facing mounting international pressure over the catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza, where more than two million people are facing severe shortages of food and other essentials after 21 months of it denied blocking supplies, saying that 950 trucks' worth of aid were in Gaza waiting for international agencies to collect and distribute.'We have not identified starvation at this current point in time but we understand that action is required to stabilize the humanitarian situation,' an unnamed senior Israeli security official was quoted as saying by the Times of the ground, the Israeli military said it was operating in Gaza City and the north, and had hit dozens of 'terror targets' across the Palestinian civil defense agency told AFP that Israeli strikes killed 17 people overnight, including a pregnant woman in Gaza United Nations said on Tuesday that Israeli forces had killed more than 1,000 Palestinians trying to get food since the US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) started operations in late May — effectively sidelining the longstanding UN-led system.A statement with 111 signatories, including Doctors Without Borders (MSF), Save the Children and Oxfam, warned that 'our colleagues and those we serve are wasting away.'The groups called for an immediate negotiated ceasefire, the opening of all land crossings and the free flow of aid through UN-led United States said its envoy Steve Witkoff will head to Europe this week for talks on Gaza and may then visit the Middle comes with 'a strong hope that we will come forward with another ceasefire as well as a humanitarian corridor for aid to flow, that both sides have in fact agreed to,' State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce told after Israel began easing a more than two-month aid blockade in late May, Gaza's population is still suffering extreme says humanitarian aid is being allowed into Gaza and accuses Hamas of exploiting civilian suffering, including by stealing food handouts to sell at inflated prices or shooting at those awaiting said the United Nations, which refuses to work with it, 'has a capacity and operational problem' and called for 'more collaboration' to deliver life-saving the Israeli defense ministry body that oversees civil affairs in the Palestinian territories, said nearly 4,500 trucks entered Gaza recently, with flour, baby food and high-calorie food for it said there had been 'a significant decline in the collection of humanitarian aid' by international organizations in the past month.'This collection bottleneck remains the main obstacle to maintaining a consistent flow of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip,' it agencies, though, said permissions from Israel were still limited and coordination to move trucks to where they are needed — and safely — was a major humanitarian organizations said warehouses with tons of supplies were sitting untouched just outside the territory, and even inside, as they were blocked from delivering the goods.'Palestinians are trapped in a cycle of hope and heartbreak, waiting for assistance and ceasefires, only to wake up to worsening conditions,' the signatories said.'It is not just physical torment, but psychological. Survival is dangled like a mirage,' they added.'The humanitarian system cannot run on false promises. Humanitarians cannot operate on shifting timelines or wait for political commitments that fail to deliver access.'The head of Gaza's largest hospital said Tuesday that 21 children had died due to malnutrition and starvation in the Palestinian territory over the previous three have been shuttling between Israeli and Hamas negotiators in Doha since July 6 in search of an elusive truce, with expectations that Witkoff would join the talks as they entered their final than two dozen Western governments called on Monday for an immediate end to the war, saying suffering in Gaza had 'reached new depths.'Israel's military campaign in Gaza has killed 59,219 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which sparked the war, resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Arab News
22-07-2025
- Politics
- Arab News
Food situation in Gaza ‘absolutely desperate,' charity warns
LONDON: Rachael Cummings, the humanitarian director for Save the Children, described the food situation in Gaza as 'absolutely desperate' and 'the worst it has ever been.' She spoke to Sky News from Deir Al-Balah on Tuesday, a city in central Gaza where Israeli forces launched a bombing campaign this week and where tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians have sought shelter. 'One of my colleagues said to me yesterday: 'We are all walking together towards death'. And this is the situation now for people in Gaza. 'There is no food for their children; it's absolutely desperate here,' she said during the video call. Markets in the territory are devoid of goods, she added, and people with cash are unable to find bread or vegetables to buy. 'My team have said to me: 'There's nothing in my house to feed my children, my children are crying all day, every day'.' Cummings' remarks came as the UK, along with 24 other nations, issued a joint statement on Monday calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and criticizing the US-Israeli model of aid distribution. In recent weeks, hundreds of Palestinians have reportedly been killed while attempting to obtain food from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a controversial organization supported by the US and Israel. 'The Israeli government's aid delivery model is dangerous, fuels instability and deprives Gazans of human dignity,' the joint statement said. The 25 countries also called for the 'immediate and unconditional release' of hostages captured by Hamas during the Oct. 7 attacks. Sources informed Reuters that Israel suspects some hostages taken by the armed group may be located near Deir Al-Balah. Meanwhile, several humanitarian organizations, including UNRWA and the Norwegian Refugee Council, have also warned that some of their staff are starving due to low food and drinking water supplies in the territory. Since Sunday, 21 children have died in Gaza due to severe malnutrition and hunger-related complications, amid shortages of food and medical supplies. UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy pledged £40 million ($54 million) for humanitarian assistance in Gaza on Tuesday. Charity staffer Liz Allcock, who works for Medical Aid for Palestinians in Gaza, welcomed the announcement, but told Sky News: 'There have been (similar) statements in the past 21 months and nothing has changed. In fact, things have only got worse. And every time we think it can't get worse, it does. 'Without a reversal of the siege, the lack of supplies, the constant bombardment, the forced displacement, the killing and the militarization of aid, we are going to collapse as a humanitarian response,' she said. 'And this would do a grave injustice to the 2.2 million people we're trying to serve.'
