Latest news with #blockade
CNN
21 minutes ago
- Politics
- CNN
Aid agencies warn of Gaza starvation as Israel urged to end blockade
Update: Date: Title: Aid agencies say they are watching their colleagues 'waste away' amid Gaza food crisis Content: A coalition of more than 100 international humanitarian organizations has called on Israel to end its blockade of Gaza, restore the full flow of food, clean water and medical supplies to the enclave, and agree to a ceasefire. In a joint statement the 111 agencies warned that supplies in the enclave are now 'totally depleted' and that humanitarian groups are 'witnessing their own colleagues and partners waste away before their eyes.' 'As the Israeli government's siege starves the people of Gaza, aid workers are now joining the same food lines, risking being shot just to feed their families,' the agencies said in the statement. Israel has previously blamed Hamas for its decision to halt aid shipments, alleging the militant group was stealing supplies and profiting from it. Hamas has denied this allegation. Israeli agencies have also blamed UN agencies, accusing them of not picking up aid that is ready to move into Gaza. But the UN asserts that Israeli forces frequently deny permission to move aid within the enclave, and that much more is waiting to be allowed in. Major agencies including Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), Amnesty International, and the Norwegian Refugee Council are among the signatories of the statement. For context: Gaza was already heavily dependent on aid and commercial shipments of food even before Israel launched its war on Hamas following the October 2023 attack, and shortages of food, medical supplies, fuel and other necessities have only worsened since. The agencies criticized the controversial Israeli- and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which began operating on May 27. The organizations said shootings occurred almost daily at food distribution sites. Update: Date: Title: Famine is "banging down the door," Oxfam director tells CNN Content: Humanitarian aid agencies are warning their own staff inside Gaza are starving alongside the civilians they are trying to help an aid agency director told CNN Wednesday as Israel continues to restrict the entry of desperately needed supplies into the territory. 'Time is up. Famine is knocking on the door. It's banging down the door right now,' said Scott Paul, director of Peace and Security at Oxfam. 'What we're seeing across the Gaza Strip is families are getting by with one nutritiously poor meal every day. Many cases, people are going without eating,' Paul to CNN's John Vause. Paul added that there is enough food at the borders around Gaza to feed the whole population for two months, but it can't reach those who need it because its distribution is 'being systematically restricted by the Government of Israel.' Israel has said it is allowing ample aid into the besieged Palestinian territory but aid agencies and multiple Western nations say the amount of food reaching Gaza's population under strict Israeli control is a fraction of what is needed. Israel's war in Gaza has also personally affected aid workers – many of them Palestinian – as they wake every morning trying to figure out who the most vulnerable people are in their communities and try to help them, Paul said. Uncertainty over whether aid workers can do their work safely, find enough food and medical care for their children and relatives has not changed in the last 21 months since the war, he added.
News.com.au
4 hours ago
- Health
- News.com.au
‘Horror show': Plea to evacuate Gaza journalists as hunger crisis reaches tipping point
A major news agency has pleaded for its contributors to be evacuated from Gaza amid fears they could starve to death during the strip's humanitarian crisis and blockade. Agence France-Presse (AFP) called on Israel to allow freelance journalists and their families to leave the Palestinian territory, saying they faced an 'appalling situation'. 'For months, we have been helplessly witnessing the dramatic deterioration of their living conditions,' AFP said in a statement overnight. 'Their situation is now untenable, despite their exemplary courage, professional commitment, and resilience.' The plea comes as Gaza authorities report 21 children died due to malnutrition and starvation over the past three days, and UN head Antonio Gutteres described events in Gaza as a 'horror show'. A six-week-old baby was among 15 people who died in a single day, according to local health officials. Global outcry has also intensified over reports of civilians being shot dead at aid centres, with UN officials saying more than 1000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces at food distribution sites since late May. Israel has also been blamed for attacking warehousing and staff living areas at Gaza's main aid hub in Deor al-Balah, which housed World Health Organization staff. 'Refuse to see them die' The AFP's journalist union says one freelance writer, three photographers and six video freelancers remained in Gaza a long 21 months into the war. In a post on X, the union shared a devastating missive from one of its members written on July 19. 'I don't have the power to cover media anymore,' photographer Bashar Taleb wrote. 'My body is lean and I no longer have the ability to walk. 'Gaza. 19.7.2025.' The union said he had been living in the same conditions as all Gazans, and 'for over a year, he has lived in complete destitution and works at enormous risk to his life'. 'Since AFP was founded in August 1944, we have lost journalists in conflicts, we have had wounded and prisoners in our ranks, but none of us can recall seeing a colleague die of hunger,' the union said. 'We refuse to see them die.' 'Living the catastrophe' The director of Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza, Mohammed Abu Salmiya, warned on Tuesday that Gaza was heading towards 'alarming numbers of deaths' due to lack of food. He said new cases of starvation were arriving at the hospital 'every moment', following the deaths of nearly two dozen children from malnutrition in recent days. 'We are heading towards alarming numbers of deaths due to the starvation inflicted on the people of Gaza,' Mr Abu Salmiya said. AFP journalist Ahlam Afana, 30, said an exhausting 'cash crisis' – from exorbitant bank charges and sky-high prices for food – was adding to the issue. She said the costs of every day items such as rice, pasta, oil and fruit were sky high: 'We can't afford them. I don't even remember how they taste. 'The danger isn't just the bombing. Hunger is slowly killing our bodies and threatening our ability to carry on. 'Now, I'm not just reporting the news. I'm living the catastrophe and documenting it at the same time.' Another contributor based in Gaza City, Khadr Al-Zanoun, said he had lost 30 kilograms since the war began. His family was 'barely hanging on', he said. Global patience wears thin More than 1000 people have been killed trying to get aid since the US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) started operations, the UN said overnight. An officially private effort, the GHF began operations on May 26 after Israel halted supplies into the Gaza Strip for more than two months, sparking famine warnings. GHF operations have been marred by chaotic scenes and near-daily reports of Israeli forces firing on people waiting to collect rations in the Palestinian territory, where the Israeli military is seeking to destroy Hamas. UN human rights office spokesman Thameen Al-Kheetan said since July 21, 1054 people were killed in Gaza while trying to get food. He added: '766 of them were killed in the vicinity of GHF sites and 288 near UN and other humanitarian organisations' aid convoys'. This week 28 nations – including Australia, the UK, France and Canada – penned an open statement calling for an immediate end to the war and release of remaining hostages. 'The Israeli government's denial of essential humanitarian assistance to the civilian population is unacceptable,' the statement read. 'Israel must comply with its obligations under international humanitarian law.' Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at the weekend described recent events in Gaza as 'completely indefensible' and said Israel was fast losing international support. The joint statement of western nations was criticised by Israel as 'disconnected from reality', while the US ambassador to Israel called it 'disgusting'. UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy, however, said he was 'sickened' at events in Gaza and called the current aid scheme 'a grotesque spectacle'.
CNN
4 hours ago
- Health
- CNN
‘We are watching our colleagues waste away': Aid workers, doctors, journalists risk starvation alongside people in Gaza
Dozens of international humanitarian organizations warned Israel's blockade of aid into Gaza is endangering the lives of doctors and aid workers, while a major news agency says it is trying to evacuate its remaining freelance journalists because the situation has become 'untenable.' In a joint statement, 111 international humanitarian organizations called on Israel to end its blockade, restore the full flow of food, clean water and medical supplies to Gaza, and agree to a ceasefire. The coalition warned Wednesday that supplies in the enclave are now 'totally depleted' and that humanitarian groups are 'witnessing their own colleagues and partners waste away before their eyes.' 'As the Israeli government's siege starves the people of Gaza, aid workers are now joining the same food lines, risking being shot just to feed their families,' said the statement, whose signatories include Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), Amnesty International, and the Norwegian Refugee Council. The statement followed a scathing indictment of Israel by 28 Western nations, who accused the country of 'drip feeding' aid into the Gaza Strip. Israel's foreign ministry rejected the joint statement – which was not signed by the US - as 'disconnected from reality. The Israeli military 'must stop killing people' seeking aid in Gaza, the European Union's top diplomat said Tuesday. 'The killing of civilians seeking aid in Gaza is indefensible,' Kaja Kallas, the EU's high representative for foreign affairs, said in a post on X. In the last 24 hours, 15 people, including four children, had died of starvation across Gaza, according to the Palestinian health ministry. 'Cases of malnutrition and starvation are arriving at Gaza's hospitals every moment,' said Dr. Mohammad Abu Salmiya, director of Al-Shifa Medical Complex, told CNN Tuesday. Gaza was already heavily dependent on aid and commercial shipments of food before Israel launched its war on Hamas, following the October 2023 attack. Israel has previously blamed Hamas for its decision to halt aid shipments, alleging the militant group was stealing supplies and profiting from it. Hamas has denied this allegation. Israeli authorities have also blamed United Nations agencies, accusing them of not picking up aid that is ready to move into Gaza. But the UN asserts that Israeli forces frequently deny permission to move aid within the enclave, and that much more is waiting to be allowed in. In the statement Wednesday, the coalition of humanitarian agencies also criticized the controversial Israeli-and-US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which began operating on May 27. The organizations said shootings occurred almost daily at food distribution sites. Juliette Touma, Director of Communications with the UN agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA, said in a separate statement that seeking food had 'become as deadly as the bombardments.' She criticized the distribution scheme by the GHF as 'a sadistic death-trap,' saying 'snipers open fire randomly on crowds as if they're given a license to kill.' And she added that care workers were unable to perform their duties due to a lack of food. 'Doctors, nurses, journalists, humanitarians' are among staff who are 'hungry… fainting due to hunger and exhaustion while performing their duties,' she said. Israel has long sought to dismantle UNRWA, arguing that some of its employees are affiliated with Hamas, and that its schools teach hate against Israel. UNRWA has repeatedly denied these accusations. As of July 21, 1,054 people had been killed while trying to get food in Gaza—766 near GHF sites and 288 near UN and other humanitarian organizations' aid convoys, according to UN human rights office spokesperson Thameen Al-Kheetan. The Israeli military has acknowledged firing warning shots toward crowds in some instances and denied responsibility for other incidents. In late June, the military said it had 'reorganized' the approach routes to aid sites to minimize 'friction with the population,' but the killings have continued. Last Wednesday, GHF said 19 people were trampled to death and another person was fatally stabbed in a crowd crush at one of its aid sites. It was the first time the group had acknowledged deaths at one of its sites. International news agency, Agence France-Presse (AFP), said Tuesday it is trying to evacuate its remaining freelance staff from Gaza because the situation has become 'untenable.' Alongside Reuters and the Associated Press, Paris-headquartered AFP is one of a trio of major global news agencies that provide other media outlets with text, photo and video images from around the world. Independent journalists are not able to operate in Gaza because of Israeli and Egyptian restrictions on entry to the strip. Palestinian reporters have become the eyes and ears of those suffering inside Gaza during the 21-month conflict and are living in the same arduous conditions as the rest of the population. AFP's main journalist union Société de Journalistes (SDJ), warned on Monday that some of the news agency's remaining freelance journalists inside Gaza were starving and too weak to work. 'Without immediate intervention, the last reporters in Gaza will die,' the union said in a statement. The SDJ said AFP had been working with a freelance reporter, three photographers, and six freelance video journalists in the Gaza Strip. The union shared a social media post from AFP staff, Bashar Taleb, who works for the agency as a photographer, describing the grave conditions in the besieged enclave. 'I don't have the power to cover media anymore. My body is lean and I no longer have the ability to walk,' Taleb, 30, wrote in a Facebook post on Saturday, according to the SDJ's statement. Bashar has been living in the ruins of his home in Gaza City with his mother, four brothers, sisters and the family of one of his brothers since February, according to the statement. On Sunday morning, he reported that one of his brothers had 'fallen, due to hunger.' Another AFP staffer, identified by a single name, Ahlam, was quoted saying: 'Every time I leave the tent to cover an event, do an interview or document a story, I don't know if I'll come back alive.' Her biggest issue is the lack of food and water, she told the union. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said on Tuesday that France hopes to evacuate some journalists' colleagues 'in the coming weeks' following calls from the SDJ. 'We are dedicating lots of energy,' to get them out, Barrot said in an interview with French radio station FranceInter. He added that the humanitarian situation in Gaza is 'inhumane,' describing it as a 'scandal that must stop immediately.' AFP said it successfully evacuated eight of its employees from Gaza and their families between January and April 2024, and the agency is now 'taking the same steps for its freelance staff, despite the extreme difficulty of leaving a territory subject to a strict blockade.' 'Their lives are in danger, so we urgently call on the Israeli authorities to authorize their immediate evacuation with their families,' it added. CNN has reached out to the Israeli foreign ministry and the Prime Minister's Office for comment. The Israel-Gaza war has killed more journalists over the course of a year than in any other conflict since the Committee to Project Journalists began collecting data three decades ago. At least 186 journalists and media workers were killed and 89 were imprisoned since the war began. As food struggles to reach displaced people and the journalists among them in Gaza, the SDJ said in its statement: 'Since AFP was founded in 1944, we have lost journalists in conflicts, some have been injured, others taken prisoner. But none of us can ever remember seeing colleagues die of hunger.' CNN's Joseph Ataman and Jerome Taylor contributed to this report.
Washington Post
3 days ago
- Health
- Washington Post
79 Gazans killed waiting for food after Israeli troops open fire, medics say
Israeli troops killed at least 79 Palestinians in the northern Gaza Strip on Sunday, local health authorities said, after large and desperate crowds mobbed one of the United Nations convoys carrying a trickle of aid into the mostly besieged enclave. The U.N. World Food Program said its 25-truck convoy was mobbed shortly after it passed through the Zikim border crossing from Israel into Gaza. 'Our convoy encountered massive crowds of hungry civilians which came under gunfire,' the agency said in a statement. Israel's four-month blockade has left Gazans so bereft of basics like fuel that the bodies of victims from Sunday's mass shooting were often piled onto donkey carts, rather than ambulances, to reach al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. According to the Gaza Health Ministry, at least 79 people were killed. The Israel Defense Forces said in a statement that it had identified 'a gathering of thousands of Gazans' and fired 'warning shots' to 'remove an immediate threat' to troops. The military did not respond to further questions about the nature of the threat. It has issued similar statements after mass shootings of aid-seekers gathered near distribution sites run by the U.S.- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation over the past two months. 'The IDF is aware of the claim regarding casualties in the area, and the details of the incident are still being examined,' the army said. It added that the Gaza Health Ministry's death toll did not 'align' with its own information, but provided no alternative figures. Israel's blockade and military operations have reduced Gaza's 2 million-strong population to near starvation. World Central Kitchen, a U.S.-based nonprofit, said Sunday that its teams had run out of ingredients to cook warm meals. The health ministry said 18 people had died of a lack of food in 24 hours. 'The Israeli Authorities are starving civilians in #Gaza,' the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees said in a post Sunday on X. 'Among them are 1 million children.' On the Al-Jazeera news network, the voice of correspondent Anas al-Sharif cracked as he pointed viewers to an elderly woman who appeared to have fainted from exhaustion as the cameras rolled. 'People are falling down now in the streets of Gaza from extreme hunger,' he said. Mahmoud Basal, a spokesman for Gaza's civil defense force, announced he was going on hunger strike, saying in a video statement that what is happening in Gaza 'is not merely a crisis.' 'It is a documented crime being committed against an entire people,' he said, addressing world leaders. 'You hold the power to stop this crime. History will not forgive those who watch in silence or those who remain complicit.' Reached by phone at al-Shifa Hospital, an eyewitness to the shootings in northern Gaza said she had seen Israeli troops open fire as crowds ran to the aid trucks. Rebhi al-Masri, 30, said her brother-in-law was badly wounded from being shot in the neck and chest. Another relative was shot in the pelvis, and her brother had gone missing in the chaos. 'I have no idea where he is,' she said. 'Everybody started running.' Zaher al-Wahidi, a spokesman for the Gaza Health Ministry, said another nine people were shot near two other aid distribution points or convoys in other areas of the enclave on Sunday. As of July 13, the U.N. had recorded 875 people killed in Gaza while trying to get food in recent months, 674 of whom were killed around Gaza Humanitarian Foundation sites. More than 200 others were killed while seeking food 'on the routes of aid convoys or near aid convoys' run by the U.N. or its humanitarian partners, Thameen al-Kheetan, a spokesman, told reporters in Geneva. The U.N. said Friday that Israel had declined to renew the visa for a top U.N. official in Gaza who had criticized the military's shooting of Palestinian aid-seekers. Jonathan Whittall, who heads the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the occupied Palestinian territories, had addressed the spiraling bloodshed in a news conference last month. 'What we are seeing is carnage,' he said. 'It's a death sentence for people just trying to survive.' Israeli media reported Sunday that the Foreign Ministry had viewed the comments as 'biased.' A spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declined to comment, and the Israeli mission to the U.N. in New York did not immediately respond.
The National
3 days ago
- Politics
- The National
Activist ship Handala set to sail for Gaza from Gallipoli port
Activists sail from Italy to Gaza with aid and a message of solidarity, defying Israel's blockade
