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Jordan News
2 days ago
- Health
- Jordan News
Jordan Welcomes Gaza Patients in a Humanitarian Medical Journey - Jordan News
Amid the health challenges facing the Gaza Strip, Jordan has extended support and assistance to Palestinian patients, particularly cancer patients who long for medical care that upholds their basic human right to receive treatment when ill. اضافة اعلان Since the start of the Israeli aggression on Gaza on October 7, 2023, the King Hussein Cancer Foundation and Center (KHCC) has received 142 cancer patients from Gaza, most of them children, along with 250 accompanying family members who were forced to flee their homes in search of safety and treatment. This effort comes in line with His Majesty King Abdullah II's announcement that Jordan will receive 2,000 children from Gaza, both patients and the injured, to complete their treatment at Jordan's expense—an embodiment of Jordan's humanitarian mission and commitment to embracing those in need. Children with cancer and their families shared with Petra News Agency the immense suffering and pain they endured due to the war, as access to basic medical care had become impossible due to the lack of resources and treatments. They highly praised Jordan's efforts, led by King Abdullah II, who issued a royal initiative to treat children with cancer from Gaza. They expressed heartfelt gratitude and prayers for continued peace and safety in Jordan—its leadership, government, and people—stating that Jordan exemplifies generosity and nobility, becoming a warm haven for Gaza's patients in their time of crisis. One such story is that of Rahaf Kaskin, an 11-year-old girl diagnosed with pituitary gland cancer in the brain, which led to loss of vision due to the tumor's pressure on the optic nerve. Her mother explained that the diagnosis came one month after the war began, following a rapid health deterioration. There were no proper scans or lab tests available at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, and painkillers offered only brief relief. She and her daughter fled to Egypt without documentation, coordinated by the Palestinian Ministry of Health and St. Jude Foundation. There, 40% of the tumor was removed, and Rahaf received two chemotherapy sessions before being transferred to KHCC in Jordan. At the center, her condition was fully re-evaluated, and she continued chemotherapy and underwent 16 radiation sessions. Her health has now stabilized with no signs of the tumor, and she continues follow-up treatment, including medication, vitamins, and hormones. Yousef Sabooh, a 9-year-old boy with leukemia, also shared his painful journey. His father explained that Yousef arrived in Jordan under the royal initiative while suffering from high fever due to complications from a central line catheter used for chemotherapy. The line had become infected, causing the fevers. Yousef had been without treatment for two months in Gaza after Al-Rantisi Hospital was destroyed by Israeli shelling. He was then moved to Hospital 57 in Egypt, where doctors found his treatment protocol incompatible with those available in Gaza. It was during this time that the Jordanian Ambassador visited and informed them of arrangements to transfer to Jordan for continued care at KHCC—an encounter the family described as a lifeline. Upon arriving in Jordan, KHCC received them with great care. Just two days later, Her Majesty Queen Rania visited the center, checked on their condition, and personally inquired about their health and the care they were receiving. The father added that Jordanian schools have committed to educating cancer patients arriving from Gaza, allowing the children to not only receive medical care but also resume their lives with a sense of normalcy and dignity. He emphasized that Jordan is playing a vital and admirable role in treating these children, describing it as an extension of the country's long-standing commitment to standing by its neighbors with honor and compassion. Yousef's condition has significantly improved and he now lives a relatively normal life, though he still requires periodic chemotherapy, which sometimes causes nausea, fatigue, and dizziness. Nisreen Qatamish, Director General of the King Hussein Cancer Foundation, affirmed that Jordan, under the direction of His Majesty the King and the supervision of HRH Princess Ghida Talal, Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Foundation, has embraced Gaza's cancer patients in their humanitarian medical journey. She stated that KHCF has launched the 'Gaza Fund' to enable patients from Gaza to complete their treatment with dignity. The fund covers comprehensive care at KHCC, full accommodation for patients and their companions, three daily meals, monthly vouchers for food and clothing, a monthly allowance, and educational scholarships at both school and university levels. It also includes emergency medical coverage for companions and provides in-hospital or hotel caregivers as needed. To date, the initiative has cost over 7 million Jordanian dinars. Qatamish added that KHCC continues to coordinate with relevant parties to facilitate medical evacuations for Gaza patients and ensure their treatment is completed in a safe and humane environment with comprehensive medical care. She also noted that each incoming patient and their companions undergo psychological evaluation upon arrival in Jordan and are referred to mental health specialists, due to the trauma and suffering caused by the war. Psychological care is an integral part of the treatment plan and includes palliative care, home care where needed, and providing caregivers for Gaza patients either at the center or in their accommodations, based on doctors' recommendations.
Irish Independent
23-07-2025
- Health
- Irish Independent
Six-week-old boy dies of starvation in Gaza as food stocks run out
He was among 15 people to starve to death in the last 24 hours in Gaza, according to doctors who say a wave of hunger that has loomed over the enclave for months is now crashing down. Yousef's family could not find baby formula to feed him, said his uncle, Adham al-Safadi. 'You can't get milk anywhere, and if you do find any it's $100 for a tub,' he said, looking at his dead nephew. Three of the other Palestinians who died of hunger over the last day were also children, including 13-year-old Abdulhamid al-Ghalban, who died in a hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis. Israeli forces have killed nearly 60,000 Palestinians in airstrikes, shelling and shooting since launching their assault on Gaza in response to attacks on Israel by the Hamas group that killed 1,200 people and carried away 251 hostages in October 2023. Israel's military said it 'views transfer of humanitarian aid into Gaza as of utmost importance' For the first time since the war began, Palestinian officials say dozens are now also dying of hunger. Gaza has seen its food stocks run out since Israel cut off all supplies to the territory in March and then lifted that blockade in May with new measures it says are needed to prevent aid from being diverted to militant groups. At least 101 people are known to have died of hunger during the conflict, according to Palestinian officials, including 80 children, most of them in the last few weeks. Israel, which controls all supplies entering Gaza, denies that it is responsible for shortages of food. Israel's military said it 'views the transfer of humanitarian aid into Gaza as a matter of utmost importance' and works to facilitate its entry in co-ordination with the international community. It has blamed the UN for failing to protect aid it says is stolen by Hamas and other militants. The fighters deny stealing it. More than 800 people have been killed in recent weeks trying to reach food, mostly in mass shootings by Israeli soldiers posted near distribution centres of a new, US-backed aid organisation. The UN has rejected this system as inherently unsafe and a violation of humanitarian neutrality principles needed to ensure distribution succeeds. UN secretary general Antonio Guterres called the situation for the 2.3 million residents of the Palestinian enclave a 'horror show'. 'We are seeing the last gasp of a humanitarian system built on humanitarian principles,' Mr Guterres told the UN Security Council. 'That system is being denied the conditions to function.' The Norwegian Refugee Council, which supported hundreds of thousands of Gazans in the first year of the war, said its aid stocks were now depleted and some of its own staff were starving. 'Our last tent, our last food parcel, our last relief items have been distributed. There is nothing left,' said its director, Jan Egeland. 'Israel is not yielding. They just want to paralyse our work,' he said. The head of the UN Palestinian refugee agency said yesterday that its staff, as well as doctors and humanitarian workers, were fainting on duty in Gaza due to hunger and exhaustion. European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said yesterday that images of civilians killed during the distribution of aid were 'unbearable' and urged Israel to deliver on pledges to improve the situation. Baby formula in particular is in critically short supply, according to aid groups, doctors and residents Yesterday, men and boys lugged sacks of flour past destroyed buildings and tarpaulins in Gaza City, grabbing what food they could from aid warehouses. 'We haven't eaten for five days,' said Mohammed Jundia. Israeli military statistics showed yesterday that an average of 146 trucks of aid per day had entered Gaza over the course of the war. The US has said a minimum of 600 trucks per day are needed to feed Gaza's population. 'Hospitals are already overwhelmed by the number of casualties from gunfire. They can't provide much more help for hunger-related symptoms because of food and medicine shortages,' said Khalil al-Deqran, a spokesperson for the health ministry. Mr Deqran said 600,000 people were suffering from malnutrition, including at least 60,000 pregnant women. Symptoms include dehydration and anaemia, he said. Baby formula in particular is in critically short supply, according to aid groups, doctors and residents. The health ministry said yesterday that at least 72 Palestinians were killed by Israeli gunfire and military strikes in the previous 24 hours, including 16 people living in tents in Gaza City. The Israeli military said it was not aware of any incident or artillery in the area at that time.
SBS Australia
23-07-2025
- Health
- SBS Australia
Concern grows over 'astonishing levels of desperation' for food in Gaza
Listen to Australian and world news, and follow trending topics with SBS News Podcasts . On a hospital table in Gaza City, the body of six-week-old Yousef lies limp and lifeless, with protruding ribs and a bandage on his frail arm, where a drip once was. Doctors at the hospital say Yousef died of starvation. His uncle, Adham al-Safadi, says his family could not find any baby formula to feed him in time. 'The baby is 40 days old and there are no milk boxes in the country. Whenever you go searching for a box of milk, you don't find it. A box of milk now costs $100, we can't afford it and it's not available. The mother can't breastfeed, there's no food and drinks, so there is no breastmilk. The baby died of malnutrition, the child had malnutrition and the mother had malnutrition. This is the case for all of Gaza Strip's children.' Dr Mohammad Abu Selmia is the Director of Al-Shifa Hospital where Yousef was taken. He says the baby was one of 15 people who starved to death in the past 24 hours - and he fears that number will likely rise. "Famine and starvation are now hitting the Gaza Strip hard. The most fragile category of people, who are suffering from malnutrition which is affecting their lives, are children, patients and elderly people - especially child patients whose situation is getting a lot worse because of malnutrition. Until now, we registered more than 86 deaths since the beginning of this crisis. During the past 36 hours, there has been 21 deaths because of malnutrition, and numbers are subject to increase significantly." Israeli military statistics show that since 2023, an average of 146 aid trucks have entered Gaza each day. The United States has previously stated that a minimum of 600 trucks per day are needed to feed everyone in Gaza. The U-N's World Food Program has declared that in Gaza, the 'hunger crisis has reached new and astonishing levels of desperation'. Sitting atop empty water containers, Yasser Saada says people are collapsing from hunger. "People started losing the ability to walk, losing the ability to move. Their movement is abnormal because of malnutrition and there are no essential items for food. Bread, the basic and main substance of food, is not present or is barely present in the Gaza Strip, because of the siege and the closure (of borders)." The Norwegian Refugee Council is one of the largest independent aid organisations in Gaza. Secretary General Jan Egeland says supplies are exhausted and even some of his staff on the ground are starving. "And of course, there are hundreds of truckloads just for my organisation waiting to get in. That's why we are so angry. Because our job is to help women, children, the innocent survive. And we're not used to people - beyond Assad in Syria, beyond some of the armed groups in the Congo or in Sudan - denying us access. We're not used to a government supported by Western capitals systematically starving entire populations." But the United Nations human rights office [[OCHA]] says starvation is not the only risk - it says more than 1,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed by Israeli forces since May while trying to access aid. Head of OCHA, Ajith Sunghay, says these numbers have been verified. "We have put out a statement today giving out a certain figure, 1100 plus. We're very certain of the number. This is not a number that is coming from the Ministry of Health, which is usually disputed by the Israelis. So we do our independent gathering of information and that's based on several sources that we have on the ground, and that's reliable. We've worked with them for years now." Most of the recent killings have taken place in the vicinity of U-S-Israeli backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which is run by a private U-S contractor. Israel says its soldiers do not target civilians, and it rejects the death tolls reported by aid groups and by Gaza's health ministry. But Ajith Sunghay says if Israel denies these killings are occurring, they should allow independent investigations. "We have to remember the Israeli Defence Force themselves have admitted to have shot on several occasions. So that's one thing that we need to keep in mind. The other point is we have always said it's important to investigate these killings. What the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, then the IDF need to do is to investigate this, not completely dismiss that this is not happening , and that's not true. And finally, when we have such disputes and even broader questions that have come up about this conflict, allow independent media, allow people like you to go into Gaza , what is there to hide?" The World Health Organisation says the Israeli military has also attacked its staff residence and main warehouse in Deir al-Balah, which is located in an evacuation zone. Spokesperson Tarik Jasarevic says forces raided the residences of their employees, and male staff were handcuffed, stripped and interrogated. "The house where WHO staff is residing has been attacked. Israeli military moved into the premises. They ordered women and children to leave on foot. Then they sort of interrogated, stripped, handcuffed male residents. And one of our staff is still detained. We don't know what are the charges, we demand his release." The Israeli military says that its forces came under fire while operating in the vicinity and responded. It did not deny raiding the W-H-O facility, but says any of those it deems 'suspects' are being treated 'in accordance with international law.' Meanwhile, in Israel, protesters have taken to the streets of Tel Aviv, carrying sacks of flour on their backs and placards showing pictures of emaciated children. The protest was organised by the Standing Together Movement, a grassroots organisation that says its goal is to build a new majority within Israeli society that supports peace, equality, and social and environmental justice. Shahda Bishara is a member of the group's national leadership, and says the crowds are demanding an end to what they have described as Israel's 'policy of starvation' in Gaza. "We know that a lot of Palestinians right now are experiencing starvation and famine due to the policy of the Israeli government not to allow any humanitarian aid to enter to the Gaza Strip. And therefore, we are coming with, as you see, bags of flour to demonstrate our, first of all, our anger against this inhumane policy, as well as to show that there is a majority within the Israeli society, Palestinian citizens of Israel as well as Jewish, that they are strongly against what is happening right now in Gaza." Earlier this week, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong, along with more than 20 of her global counterparts, signed a joint statement calling for an immediate end to what they say is Israel's violence and denial of humanitarian assistance. The United States says top envoy Steve Witkoff will travel to Europe for talks on a ceasefire and the opening of aid corridors. International negotiator and fellow at the Geneva Centre for Security Studies, Nomi Bar-Yaacov, says leaders in the West are feeling increasing pressure to take action. "Now, I think that the states are responding to the daily deaths of innocent people. We have almost gotten accustomed to hearing that there are up to three figures of innocent deaths every single day. It's become part and parcel of the news, and they're coming under pressure, these Thank you very much. Have a great day. Bye. You know, and that's where I think the problem is coming. I think they're worried, European leaders are worried that they will be toppled because they're not taking action in the face of very clear war crimes."
SBS Australia
23-07-2025
- Health
- SBS Australia
'Israel is not yielding': Fifteen people, including baby, starve to death in Gaza in one day
A six-week-old baby boy is among 15 people who have starved to death in the last 24 hours in Gaza, according to doctors who say a wave of hunger that has loomed over the enclave for months is now finally crashing down. The family of the boy, Yousef, couldn't find baby formula to feed him, his uncle, Adham al-Safadi, said. "You can't get milk anywhere, and if you do find any, it's $100 for a tub," he said, looking at his dead nephew. Three of the other Palestinians who died of hunger over the last day were also children, including 13-year-old Abdulhamid al-Ghalban, who died in a hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis. While the threat of famine has long loomed in Gaza since October 7, Palestinian officials say dozens of deaths are now being recorded directly related to hunger. At least 101 people are known to have died of hunger during the conflict, according to Palestinian officials, including 80 children, most of them in just the last few weeks. Gaza has witnessed its food stocks run out since Israel cut off all supplies to the territory in March and then lifted that blockade in May with new measures it says are needed to prevent aid from being diverted to militant groups. Israel, which controls all supplies entering Gaza, denies that it is responsible for shortages of food. More than 800 people have been killed in recent weeks trying to reach food in Gaza, mostly in mass shootings by Israeli soldiers posted near distribution centres of a new, United States-backed aid organisation. Muhammad Zakariya Ayyoub al-Matouq, a one-year-old baby in Gaza, faces life-threatening malnutrition as the humanitarian situation worsens due to ongoing Israeli attacks and blockade. Source: Getty / Anadolu The United Nations has rejected this system as inherently unsafe and a violation of humanitarian neutrality principles, which are necessary to ensure that distribution succeeds. UN secretary-general António Guterres called the situation for the 2.3 million residents of the Palestinian enclave a "horror show". "We are seeing the last gasp of a humanitarian system built on humanitarian principles," Guterres told the UN Security Council. "That system is being denied the conditions to function." Israeli activists take part in a protest against the war in the Gaza Strip, Israel's measures regarding food distribution and the forced displacement of Palestinians, in Tel Aviv, Israel. Source: AP / Ohad Zwigenberg The Norwegian Refugee Council, which supported hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza in the first year of the war, said its aid stocks were now depleted and some of its own staff were starving. "Our last tent, our last food parcel, our last relief items have been distributed. There is nothing left," its secretary-general Jan Egeland told Reuters. "Israel is not yielding. They just want to paralyse our work," he said. The head of the UN Palestinian refugee agency said on Tuesday its staff, as well as doctors and humanitarian workers, were fainting on duty in Gaza due to hunger and exhaustion. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Tuesday images of civilians killed during the distribution of aid were "unbearable" and urged Israel to deliver on pledges to improve the situation. Food and medicine shortages On Tuesday, men and boys lugged sacks of flour past destroyed buildings and tarpaulins in Gaza City, grabbing what food they could from aid warehouses. "We haven't eaten for five days," Mohammed Jundia said. Israeli military statistics showed an average of 146 trucks of aid per day had entered Gaza over the course of the war. Palestinians gather flour from the ground after an airstrike on a warehouse. Source: AAP / Hasan Alzaanin / TASS / Sipa USA The US has said a minimum of 600 trucks per day are needed to feed Gaza's population. "Hospitals are already overwhelmed by the number of casualties from gunfire. They can't provide much more help for hunger-related symptoms because of food and medicine shortages," said Khalil al-Deqran, a spokesperson for the health ministry. Deqran said some 600,000 people were suffering from malnutrition, including at least 60,000 pregnant women. Symptoms among those going hungry include dehydration and anaemia, he said. Baby formula, in particular, is in critically short supply, according to aid groups, doctors, and residents. The health ministry said at least 72 Palestinians were killed by Israeli gunfire and military strikes in the past 24 hours, including 16 people living in tents in Gaza City. Nearly 60,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's subsequent campaign against Hamas in Gaza, according to Palestinian health officials, and flattened much of the densely populated strip, which is home to more than two million people.
Kuwait Times
23-07-2025
- Health
- Kuwait Times
Children starve to death in Gaza, UN slams ‘horror show'
GAZA: The head of Gaza's largest hospital on Tuesday said 21 children have died due to malnutrition and starvation in the Palestinian territory in the past three days, while the Zionist entity pressed a devastating assault. Health authorities announced 77 Palestinians were killed and 376 others were injured in the past 24 hours as a result of the Zionist occupation forces' continued war of extermination on the Gaza Strip. The Zionist military campaign in Gaza has killed 59,106 Palestinians, mostly civilians. Kuwait slams Zionist blockade Kuwait reiterated its condemnation and denunciation of the unjust blockade imposed by the Zionist occupation on Gaza Strip, a statement issued by the ministry of foreign affairs said Monday. The statement added the unjust blockage is a flagrant violation of international law and international humanitarian law, and disregards relevant international legitimacy resolutions, particularly Security Council resolutions, including Resolution 2417, which condemns the use of starvation of civilians as a method of warfare in conflict situations. The ministry expressed the Kuwait's condemnation of these grave and brutal crimes, including the killing of food seekers. The statement stressed the need for the international community and the Security Council to fulfill their legal and moral responsibilities and work to ensure the implementation of UN resolutions, lift the blockade imposed on the people in Gaza Strip and to allow the immediate entry of humanitarian aid. The ministry also called to halt the genocide and systematic starvation of the Palestinian people. Gaza's population of more than two million people is facing severe shortages of food and other essentials, with residents frequently killed as they try to collect humanitarian aid at a handful of distribution points. 'Twenty-one children have died due to malnutrition and starvation in various areas across the Gaza Strip,' Mohammed Abu Salmiya, the director of Al-Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza, told reporters. Abu Salmiya told reporters that new cases of malnutrition and starvation were arriving at Gaza's remaining functioning hospitals 'every moment'. 'We are heading towards alarming numbers of deaths due to the starvation inflicted on the people of Gaza,' he added. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called Gaza a 'horror show' in a speech on Tuesday, with 'a level of death and destruction without parallel in recent times'. In Gaza City, six-week-old Yousef's lifeless body lay limp on a hospital table, his skin stretched over protruding ribs and a bandage where a drip had been inserted into his tiny arm. Doctors said the cause of death was starvation. Yousef's family couldn't find baby formula to feed him, said his uncle, Adham Al-Safadi. 'You can't get milk anywhere, and if you do find any it's $100 for a tub,' he said, looking at his dead nephew. Other Palestinians who died of hunger over the last day were also children, including 13-year-old Abdulhamid Al-Ghalban, who died in a hospital in the southern city of Khan Yunis. For the first time since the war began, Palestinian officials say dozens are now dying of hunger. At least 101 people are known to have died of hunger during the conflict, according to Palestinian officials, including 80 children, most of them in just the last few weeks. The Norwegian Refugee Council, which supported hundreds of thousands of Gazans in the first year of the war, said its aid stocks were now depleted and some of its own staff were starving. 'Our last tent, our last food parcel, our last relief items have been distributed. There is nothing left,' its director Jan Egeland told Reuters. '(The Zionist entity) is not yielding. They just want to paralyze our work,' he said. The head of the UN Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA said on Tuesday that its staff, as well as doctors and humanitarian workers, were fainting on duty in Gaza due to hunger and exhaustion. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Tuesday that images of civilians killed during the distribution of aid were 'unbearable' and urged the Zionist entity to deliver on pledges to improve the situation. On Tuesday, men and boys lugged sacks of flour past destroyed buildings and tarpaulins in Gaza City, grabbing what food they could from aid warehouses. 'We haven't eaten for five days,' said Mohammed Jundia. 'Hospitals are already overwhelmed by the number of casualties from gunfire. They can't provide much more help for hunger-related symptoms because of food and medicine shortages,' said Khalil Al-Deqran, a spokesperson for the health ministry. Deqran said some 600,000 people were suffering from malnutrition, including at least 60,000 pregnant women. Symptoms among those going hungry include dehydration and anemia, he said. Baby formula in particular is in critically short supply, according to aid groups, doctors and residents. Chaotic scenes have become frequent at aid distribution areas since the US- and Zionist-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation began overseeing aid operations. The UN on Tuesday said Zionist forces had killed over 1,000 Palestinians trying to get food aid since the GHF began its operations. 'As of July 21, we have recorded 1,054 people killed in Gaza while trying to get food; 766 of them were killed in the vicinity of GHF sites and 288 near UN and other humanitarian organizations' aid convoys,' UN human rights office spokesman Thameen Al-Kheetan told AFP. Earlier Tuesday, Gaza's civil defense agency said Zionist strikes had killed 15 people, after the World Health Organization said the Zionist entity attacked its facilities amid its expanding ground operations. Agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP Zionist strikes on the Al-Shati camp west of Gaza City had killed at least 13 people and wounded more than 50. Most of Gaza's population has been displaced at least once during the conflict and the Al-Shati camp — on the Mediterranean coast — hosts thousands of people displaced from the north in tents and makeshift shelters. Raed Bakr, 30, lives with his three children and said he heard 'a massive explosion' at about 1:40 am on Tuesday (2240 GMT Monday), which blew their tent away. 'I felt like I was in a nightmare. Fire, dust, smoke and body parts flying through the air, dirt everywhere. The children were screaming,' Bakr, whose wife was killed last year, told AFP. Reports of the latest death toll came as the Roman Catholic church's most senior cleric in the Holy Land said the humanitarian situation in Gaza was 'morally unacceptable'. 'We have seen men holding out in the sun for hours in the hope of a simple meal,' Latin Patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa told a news conference in Jerusalem after visiting Gaza. His visit came after a Zionist army strike on the only Catholic church in the territory killed three people last week, prompting Pope Leo XIV to condemn the 'barbarity' of the war and the 'indiscriminate use of force'. The World Health Organization also sharply criticized the Zionist military. The UN agency's chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus accused troops of entering its staff residence, and forcing women and children to evacuate, as they handcuffed, stripped and interrogated male staff at gunpoint. The latest criticism of the Zionist entity came as its forces expanded ground operations in Deir el-Balah following intense shelling of the area in central Gaza on Monday. The civil defence agency's Bassal said two people were killed in Deir el-Balah. Guterres said 'devastation is being layered upon devastation' by the offensive. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimated that between 50,000 and 80,000 people were living in the area, which until now had been considered relatively safe. Some 30,000 were living in displacement sites. OCHA said nearly 88 percent of the entire Gaza Strip was now either under evacuation orders or within Zionist militarized zones, forcing the population of 2.4 million into an ever-shrinking space. – Agencies
