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Free Malaysia Today
28-07-2025
- Politics
- Free Malaysia Today
Israel denies Gaza ‘mass starvation' accusations
An Israeli soldier guards a truck loaded with aid for Gaza at the Kerem Shalom crossing in southern Israel. (EPA Images pic) JERUSALEM : Israel hit back on Wednesday at growing international criticism that it was behind chronic food shortages in Gaza, instead accusing Hamas of deliberately creating a humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian territory. More than 100 aid and human rights groups said earlier Wednesday that 'mass starvation' was spreading in the Gaza Strip, while France warned of a growing 'risk of famine' caused by 'the blockade imposed by Israel'. The head of the World Health Organization also weighed in, saying that a 'large proportion of the population of Gaza is starving'. 'I don't know what you would call it other than mass starvation – and it's man-made,' Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters. But an Israeli government spokesman, David Mencer, said there was 'no famine caused by Israel. There is a man-made shortage engineered by Hamas.' President Isaac Herzog, visiting troops in Gaza, maintained that Israel was acting 'according to international law', while Hamas was 'trying to sabotage' aid distribution in a bid to obstruct the Israeli military campaign that began more than 21 months ago. An organisation backed by the United States and Israel, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), began distributing aid in Gaza in May as Israel eased a two-month total blockade, effectively sidelining the longstanding UN-led system. Aid agencies have said permissions from Israel were still limited, and coordination to safely move trucks to where they are needed was a major challenge in an active war zone. Mencer accused Hamas, whose attack on Israel on Oct 7, 2023 sparked the war, of preventing supplies from being distributed and looting aid for themselves or to sell at inflated prices. 'Aid has been flowing into Gaza,' he said, blaming the United Nations and its associates for failing to pick up truckloads of foodstuffs and other essentials that were cleared and waiting on the Gaza side of the border. 'Torment' The US, meanwhile, said its top Middle East envoy was heading to Europe for talks on a possible Gaza ceasefire and an aid corridor, raising hopes of a breakthrough after more than two weeks of negotiations. With no let-up in deadly Israeli strikes across the territory, getting aid to the more than two million people who need it has become a key issue in the conflict, and doctors and aid agencies have reported increasing cases of malnutrition and starvation. The humanitarian organisations said in a joint statement that warehouses with tonnes of supplies were sitting untouched, while people were 'trapped in a cycle of hope and heartbreak, waiting for assistance and ceasefires'. 'It is not just physical torment but psychological. Survival is dangled like a mirage,' they added. The 111 signatories, including Doctors Without Borders (MSF), Save the Children and Oxfam, called for an immediate negotiated ceasefire, the opening of all land crossings and the free flow of aid through UN-led mechanisms. In New York, the Committee to Protect Journalists added its voice to the appeal, accusing Israel of 'starving Gazan journalists into silence', after AFP reporters in Gaza said they were all affected by the lack of food. In Khan Yunis, in Gaza's south, residents told AFP how they battled to get food aid, with one man calling it 'a catastrophic scene and a real famine'. The UN said on Tuesday that Israeli forces had killed more than 1,000 Palestinians trying to get aid since late May, most near GHF sites. GHF and Israel have accused Hamas of firing on civilians. Stalled talks Even after Israel began easing its aid blockade in late May, Gaza's population is still suffering extreme scarcities. GHF said the UN, which refuses to work with it over neutrality concerns, had 'a capacity and operational problem' and called for 'more collaboration' to deliver life-saving aid. COGAT, an Israeli defence ministry body overseeing civil affairs in the Palestinian territories, said the 'main obstacle to maintaining a consistent flow of humanitarian aid' was a 'collection bottleneck' that it blamed on international organisations. Israel's military campaign in Gaza has killed 59,219 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory. Hamas's October 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures. Mediators have been shuttling between Israeli and Hamas negotiators in Doha since July 6 in search of an elusive truce, with each side blaming the other for refusing to budge on their key demands.
CNN
24-07-2025
- Politics
- CNN
Gaza is starving and outrage is spreading. Will Netanyahu listen?
The Middle East Israel-Hamas war The UNFacebookTweetLink Follow The images of skeletal children that are now pouring out of Gaza are shocking but they should not be surprising. Humanitarian groups with decades of experience distributing aid in the Strip have been warning about this scenario for months, since Israel began throttling aid to a trickle. Haunting footage of lifeless bodies with sharp bones protruding through stretched skin can be seen around the world. The pictures of starvation in Gaza are horrific, distressing and inescapable. The main United Nations agency for Palestinians said Thursday that 'people are being starved, while a few kilometers away supermarkets are loaded with food,' highlighting the stark and uncomfortable reality between life in Israel and survival in Gaza. On a popular US-Canadian podcast this week, listeners learned that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prefers Burger King to McDonalds, a 'Whopper' seeming to be his burger of choice. While Netanyahu did not introduce the topic, the public discussion on fast food by the man responsible for getting food into Gaza is, at its most generous, tone deaf. The US correspondent for Israeli newspaper Haaretz noted that Netanyahu 'spent valuable time' on the burger chat 'rather than answering legitimate questions about the Gaza humanitarian crisis or the delays in sealing a hostage deal and cease-fire.' World leaders see the same pictures of starvation as everyone else and yet seem powerless to stop them, unable to pressure Israel into allowing more aid in or returning to the tried and tested UN-led distribution methods. It is true that condemnation is becoming more collective and targeted. More than two dozen European foreign ministers jointly criticized Israel's 'drip feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians,' a statement Israel's foreign ministry rejected as 'disconnected from reality.' More than 100 international humanitarian organizations warned Israeli restrictions on aid are endangering the lives of doctors and aid workers. But these are words and words can be ignored. Writing about the EU response, former Israeli hostage negotiator Gershon Baskin said it was 'still just a piece of paper. Into the trash bin of history is the way that the State of Israel treats it.' So, what could reverse what the United Nations chief is calling the 'horror show' in Gaza? In a word, Trump. The US president was publicly scathing of Netanyahu when Israel struck Iran hard in the final hours before a ceasefire. After a phone call, Israel pulled back. When Israel struck the only Catholic Church in Gaza, Trump did not have a 'positive reaction' according to the White House and called Netanyahu. The Israeli leader said he deeply regretted it, calling the strike a mistake. An irate phone call from the leader of the free world does appear to be the quickest way to provoke a change of heart from a leader seemingly unmoved by increasing international criticism. The White House spokesperson has said Trump 'wants the killing to end' but visible anger, frustration, condemnation from the US president over the humanitarian crisis unfolding has been minimal, at least publicly. The US focus has been on securing a ceasefire and hostage deal, still elusive despite words of hope and optimism from the Trump administration in recent weeks. Arab leaders have condemned Israel, called for an immediate ceasefire and devised a plan to rebuild post-war Gaza to counter Trump's plan to displace the entire population from the Strip. The Secretary General of the Gulf Cooperation Council called Israel's policies this week the 'crime of the century.' Israel has long rejected accusations of a humanitarian blockade, insisting its policies are designed to prevent Hamas from stealing supplies, claims aid agencies have denied. Israel's President Isaac Herzog, visiting Gaza Wednesday, says Israel is following international law and it is Hamas who is trying to sabotage the aid process. COGAT, the agency in charge of aid entering Gaza, says the the military is 'working to allow and facilitate the transfer of aid, including food.' Israel has also pushed back on calls to allow more aid in, saying there are truckloads waiting at the border to be collected by aid agencies. The UN and others on the ground have countered that Israel does not always give permission to move aid or approves routes deemed too dangerous. Comments from the far right of Netanyahu's coalition calling for starving Gaza until the hostages are released provoke widespread revulsion outside Israel, but less within it. Hamas' brutal attack on October 7, 2023 killed around 1,200 Israelis, saw another roughly 250 kidnapped as hostages, and hardened Israeli views against their Palestinian neighbors. But one recent poll shows 71% of Israelis asked now want the war to end. While Netanyahu is losing his mandate to keep fighting, there are no signs that his coalition plans to ease restrictions on aid to Gaza, where nearly 60,000 people have been killed since the start of the war. And the media in Israel focuses more on concern for the remaining hostages and the soldiers fighting in Gaza, than it does on the plight of besieged Palestinians. For them, hope now rests on a ceasefire, a deal that will allow a flood of supplies into the ruined territory. But when will that be agreed, how soon will the borders open to life-saving aid and how many will die in the meantime? The malnutrition toll has been spiking in recent days with the director of al Shifa Hospital warning this week 'we are heading towards terrifying death tolls.' One UN worker on the ground added, 'People in Gaza are neither dead (nor) alive, they are walking corpses'.
The Independent
24-07-2025
- General
- The Independent
Starving Palestinians trade gold for flour and risk death for aid as Gaza food crisis spirals
Starving Palestinians have described the unfolding horror in Gaza as catastrophic levels of hunger forces them to risk death for aid and trade their personal gold for flour. Growing levels of starvation in the Gaza Strip have tipped over the edge in recent days. Most of the 111 hunger-related deaths have come in recent weeks, and 80 were children, according to Palestinian health officials. Israel has imposed heavy restrictions on the amount of food and aid allowed to enter Gaza, limiting aid to a handful of trucks each day following a total 11-week blockade earlier this year. UN officials say the aid delivered into the strip is a drop in the ocean of what is needed. Israeli forces have killed hundreds of Palestinians as they rushed to secure food from the limited number of aid trucks, according to those on the ground, drawing widespread condemnation, including from many of its own allies. As more than 100 human rights groups and charities demanded more aid in a letter on Wednesday, The Independent has spoken to Palestinians suffering daily as they look to provide for their starving families. 'We are living in hunger and daily suffering, as prices have risen in an insane way that no Gazan citizen, whether employed or unemployed, can bear, in a way that is beyond comprehension,' said Wajih Al-Najjar, 70, from Gaza City, the breadwinner for a family of 13. 'People are forced to go to death in search of some aid,' he said, lamenting the 'insane' price spiral of flour, which he says has shot up from 35 shekels (£7.74) to up to 180 shekels (£39.80) per kilo. Mr Najjar, who has lost one quarter of his bodyweight - dropping from 85kg to 62kg - says he can not get a full meal for himself. 'So what about children who need food more than three times a day?' he told The Independent. The 70-year-old recalled his grandchildren asking him to buy flour, which he could not afford. He divided the family's remaining bread among them, but it was not enough to satisfy their desperate hunger. 'We have all become hungry and can barely eat one meal a day if we can afford it. We no longer even talk about sugar, as its market price has reached nearly $100 per kilo,' Mr Najjar said. He explained that vegetables and fruits are also at exorbitant prices. 'We are the poorest geographical area and we have the most expensive food commodities in the world.' 'We appeal to the entire world to work to bring in aid as soon as possible so that our children do not die. We want the world to pressure the occupation to allow the entry of humanitarian aid,' Mr Najjar appealed to the international community. 'The food we eat is not suitable for our bodies. We are all suffering from [being] underweight.' Hanaa Almadhoun, 40, told the BBC that Gazans are trading their personal possessions, including their gold, to pay for flour. Flour is the 'basis of everything', she said, but it is 'expensive and difficult to secure'. Prices continue to rise beyond control and food scarcity has soared to an unprecedented level in the Gaza Strip, in the 21st month of a destructive Israeli invasion and bombardment which Palestinian health officials say has killed more than 60,000 people. The war and invasion began on October 7, in response to attacks on Israel by the Hamas militants that killed 1,200 people and captured at least 250 hostages in October 2023. Ihab Abdullah, a 43-year-old university lecturer who is the breadwinner for nine family members, said every night before he goes to sleep, he asks: 'How will I provide for my children today? I can bear the hunger, but what about my children?' 'We have become unable to buy or find food in the markets. We live in daily hunger because the most needed commodity, flour, is not available in sufficient quantities. We are in a situation where we can not buy food even if we have money. Those who have money and those who do not have money are the same. Purchasing value has disappeared. 'I have to walk long distances to find one kilo of lentils and beans. I work as a university lecturer and need at least $100 a day to buy lentils, which have reached $30 per kilo, in addition to firewood.' Younis Abu Odeh, a 32-year-old who is displaced in Gaza, says he feels as if Gazans have been 'put on a chicken farm and starved'. 'We are living through a war of extermination, famine, and psychological warfare," Mr Odeh told The Independent. 'A war of displacement, a war of tents, a war of heat and sun.' On Wednesday, more than 100 organisations signed a letter calling for more aid to Gaza as it faces 'mass starvation'. The Israeli government insists it is not causing a famine, and that the 'man-made shortage' of food is 'engineered by Hamas', according to spokesman David Mencer. Mr Mencer said on Wednesday that more than 4,400 aid trucks entered Gaza from 19 July until Tuesday, containing food, flour and baby food. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation - the controversial US-backed organisation leading aid deliveries in Gaza - delivered two million meals to Gazans in one day on Tuesday, he added. "Hamas is trying to prevent the distribution of food. Where there is hunger in Gaza, it is hunger orchestrated by Hamas,' he added.
Japan Times
12-07-2025
- Politics
- Japan Times
U.N. says hundreds killed in recent weeks while seeking aid in Gaza
Ten Palestinians were reported killed Friday while waiting for rations in Gaza, adding to nearly 800 similar deaths in the last six weeks, according to the U.N., with Israel's army saying it issued new instructions to troops following repeated reports of fatalities. Friday's reported violence came as negotiators from Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas were locked in indirect talks in Qatar to try to agree on a temporary ceasefire in the more than 21-month conflict. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday he hoped a deal for a 60-day pause in the war could be struck in the coming days, and that he would then be ready to negotiate a more permanent end to hostilities. Hamas has said the free flow of aid is a main sticking point in the talks, with Gaza's more than 2 million residents facing a dire humanitarian crisis of hunger and disease amid the grinding conflict. Israel began easing a more than two-month total blockade of aid in late May. Since then, a new U.S.— and Israel-backed organization called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) has effectively sidelined the territory's vast U.N.-led aid delivery network. There are frequent reports of Israeli forces firing on people seeking aid, with Gaza's civil defense agency saying 10 Palestinians were killed Friday while waiting at a distribution point near the southern city of Rafah. The U.N., which refuses to cooperate with GHF over concerns it was designed to cater to Israeli military objectives, said Friday that 798 people have been killed seeking aid between late May and July 7, including 615 "in the vicinity of the GHF sites." "Where people are lining up for essential supplies such as food and medicine, and where... they have a choice between being shot or being fed, this is unacceptable," U.N. rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told reporters in Geneva. Israel's military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday's deaths, but has previously accused militants of firing at civilians in the vicinity of aid centers. Asked about the U.N. figures, the military said it had worked to minimize "possible friction" between aid seekers and soldiers, and that it conducted "thorough examinations" of incidents in which "harm to civilians who arrived at distribution facilities was reported." "Instructions were issued to forces in the field following lessons learned," it added in a statement. GHF called the U.N. report "false and misleading," claiming that "most deadly attacks on aid sites have been linked to U.N. convoys." Mahmud Bassal, spokesman for Gaza's civil defense agency, said that Israeli forces killed 45 people overall in the territory on Friday. Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify tolls and details provided by the agency and other parties. In Gaza's south, a witness said Israeli tanks were seen near Khan Yunis, reporting "intense gunfire, intermittent air strikes, artillery shelling, and ongoing bulldozing and destruction of displacement camps and agricultural land." Israel's military said troops were operating in the area against "terrorist infrastructure sites, both above and below ground." Hamas has said that as part of a potential truce deal it was willing to release 10 of the hostages taken during its attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, which sparked the Gaza war. Netanyahu, who is under pressure to end the war after mounting military losses, said that would leave 10 living hostages still in captivity. "I hope we can complete it in a few days," he said of the initial ceasefire agreement and hostage release in an interview with U.S. outlet Newsmax. "We'll probably have a 60-day ceasefire, get the first batch out, then use the 60-day ceasefire to negotiate an end to this." Netanyahu has said that a key condition of any deal is that Hamas first gives up its weapons and its hold on Gaza, warning that failure to do so on Israel's terms would lead to further conflict. Another issue holding up a deal is disagreement on the number of Palestinian prisoners to be released in exchange for hostages, Foreign Minister Gideon Saar has said. Hamas has said it wants "real guarantees" for a lasting truce and Israel's full withdrawal from Gaza, and that it opposes any Israeli moves to push Palestinians into "isolated enclaves." The group's 2023 attack on Israel led to the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures. Out of 251 hostages seized in the attack, 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead. At least 57,823 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed since the start of the war, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.
