Latest news with #KhanYounis
BreakingNews.ie
3 hours ago
- Health
- BreakingNews.ie
Gaza war death toll surpasses 62,000, says Palestinian Health Ministry
The Palestinian Health Ministry has said that more than 62,000 Palestinians have been killed in the 22-month war in Gaza. At least 60 people were killed in the past 24 hours, bringing the death toll from the Israel-Hamas war that started on October 7 2023 to 62,004. Advertisement Another 156,230 have been wounded, it said. Smoke rises to the sky following an Israeli army airstrike in Khan Younis, in the Gaza Strip (Mariam Dagga/AP) The Health Ministry said 1,965 people have been killed while seeking aid from aid convoys or killed close to aid distribution sites. At least seven Palestinians were killed attempting to access aid on Monday morning. The ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count, is staffed by medical professionals. Advertisement The United Nations and other independent experts view its figures as the most reliable count of casualties. Israel has disputed its figures, but has not provided its own account of casualties. Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Mustafa and Egyptian foreign minister Badr Abdelatty attend a press conference during their visit to the Rafah crossing (Mohamed Arafat/AP) Also on Monday, Egypt's top diplomat condemned Israel's plan to forcibly resettle Palestinians outside of Gaza and said the country is attempting to restart ceasefire negotiations along with Qatar. Mediators are 'exerting extensive efforts' to revive a US proposal for a 60-day ceasefire during which the warring parties will negotiate an end to the war, Egyptian foreign minister Badr Abdelatty said on the Egyptian side of a crossing between Egypt and Gaza. Advertisement He met there with Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa.
Al Bawaba
a day ago
- Politics
- Al Bawaba
Joint resistance: Al-Qassam, Islamic Jihad, and Allies attack Israeli positions
ALBAWABA - The Hamas military wing, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, published new video footage showing a string of assaults against Israeli forces in southern Gaza. The actions highlighted the group's policy of sustaining resistance in the face of continuous Israeli military pressure by focusing on regions of Israeli incursion in Khan Younis and along the Salah al-Din axis. In the footage, fighters were shown employing explosive devices and Yasin 105 anti-tank rockets to hit Israeli tanks and armored vehicles. At the Abu Hamid roundabout in the heart of Khan Younis, two tanks were attacked, while two armored personnel carriers were damaged in other attacks. Additionally, "Rajoum" rockets and mortar fire were used against troop concentrations. One fighter quoted remarks made by the late Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif, who emphasized resoluteness and the conviction that resistance would persist in growing in spite of efforts to eradicate it. Actions of Joint Resistance Cooperation with other Palestinian factions was also emphasized in the video. Together, the Popular Resistance Committees' Al-Nasser Salah al-Din Brigades and Islamic Jihad's Al-Quds Brigades launched mortar and rocket attacks against Israeli targets. Hamas characterizes this collaboration as part of a coordinated combat effort by Palestinian factions to increase pressure on the Israeli army on several fronts. Additional strikes were reported by al-Qassam on Saturday, including another joint strike close to the Khan Younis courthouse complex and mortar fire on an Israeli command-and-control post along the Salah al-Din axis south of Rafah. Images of attacks on Israeli soldiers and vehicles east of Gaza City were also made public by the group. "لا سامح الله من تخاذل ولا سامح الله من ترك غزة وحدها".. عــاجــل | ضمن سلسلة عمليات "حجارة داود".. كتائب القسام تبث مشاهد من استهداف آليات الاحتلال ودك مواقعه وتحشداته في محاور التوغل بمدينة #خانيونس ومحور صلاح الدين جنوب قطاع غزة
The Independent
2 days ago
- General
- The Independent
‘The children in Gaza are too weak to play or sing: hunger has stolen their childhood'
At the SOS Children's Village in southern Gaza, a group of children are crowding around a bus carrying energy biscuits and milk from UNICEF. 'You cannot imagine the happiness in the camp when they received those biscuits,' says Reem Alreqeb, who helps run the camp for displaced children in Khan Younis. 'It isn't that delicious, but the children felt good to taste them after three months without any sweets.' Since Israel announced a military takeover of the Gaza Strip, life has felt even more uncertain and tense for Ms Alreqeb and the children at the camp, many of whom have lost their families. If they are asked to move, all that remains is a bus with a few tents. They don't have enough food or basic supplies to bring with them. 'I'm doing my best to stay focused and grounded, especially for the sake of the children and families who rely on us,' she tells The Independent. This isn't the first time that SOS Children's Villages has been forced to move the children from Gaza in its care since the ongoing conflict began on October 7, 2023. In May last year, they were forced to leave their permanent village in Rafah after a ground invasion began which displaced an estimated one million Palestinians. In just one day, they had to transport 170 people - including caregivers and their families - to a humanitarian zone in Khan Younis. On the final day of a three-day trip to bring bare essentials to the humanitarian zone, their car broke down as drones struck people overhead. 'The plane was shooting directly at the people who were around us,' Ms Alreqeb remembers. 'I thought that we were going to die at that moment.' Within three days, they managed to install tents and contract vendors to install bathrooms and water infrastructure, but that memory still haunts Ms Alreqeb. 'It was a nightmare,' she says. 'I still dream about those days and hope that I never have to experience it again.' In over a year, the number of children in the camp has increased to almost 50, and they receive between 10 and 15 new children every month. Working with UNICEF and social workers on the strip, they work to look after children who are unaccompanied and separated from their families before reunifying them with relatives. Until the children are reunited with family, they stay with caregivers in a caravan that they call a home where all their needs are supported. A lot of the children who arrive at the camp are often 'suffering from intensive hunger', says Ms Alreqeb, with some children suffering from such trauma that they become violent. 'We have a team who is very experienced at dealing with those children,' she adds, referring to the social workers and psychologist who form part of the staff. 'When these children receive the care they need, their behaviour improves.' Every day they wake up to the sound of bombardment, but Ms Alreqeb says the ultimate challenge for the past three months has been finding food after Israel's blockade in March. It is a daily issue for caregivers and aid workers to petition other International Non Governmental Organisations and street vendors to supply the camp with what little food remains in the war-torn strip. While they are just about able to get the bare minimum of nappies, milk, food and fuel, starvation is taking its toll on the children. 'Hunger has taken away the childhood [of Gaza's children]', Ms Alreqeb says. 'They don't have the power to play. Many children have stopped playing altogether. 'I see lots of children are too tired, weak and emotionally suffering,' she adds. 'The children no longer draw, no longer laugh, no longer sing, even. They've lost the things that make them laugh. They are frustrated and this makes us cry.' A week ago, there was a bright spot in the bleakness of starvation when the biscuits arrived from UNICEF. One child, five-year-old Mohammed, even danced as he hadn't seen a biscuit in three months. Ms Alreqeb says they are trying to secure more biscuits - not only for the children in their care, but for the 600 children at the school they run. She adds: 'We are advocating to provide them with the biscuits as we can imagine the effect of receiving such a small thing - what the effect will be.' As Israel looks to intensify its military expansion in the war-torn strip, the future remains uncertain and fragile for the children of Gaza. 'Without urgent support, those children will face a life of trauma, poverty and a loss of opportunities. A lot of children will lose the right to care and protection But we still have hope,' Ms Alreqeb says. Though bruised by years of war and worn down by hunger, when the children are asked about their dreams, they speak of becoming nurses, doctors and teachers. 'The children always ask me: 'Is the war going to be stopped? Are there people outside Gaza who will help us to stop it?' 'We still have hope that the people from around the world will advocate to stop the war.'
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Heat and thirst drive families in Gaza to drink water that makes them sick
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — After waking early to stand in line for an hour under the August heat, Rana Odeh returns to her tent with her jug of murky water. She wipes the sweat from her brow and strategizes how much to portion out to her two small children. From its color alone, she knows full well it's likely contaminated. Thirst supersedes the fear of illness. She fills small bottles for her son and daughter and pours a sip into a teacup for herself. What's left she adds to a jerrycan for later. 'We are forced to give it to our children because we have no alternative,' Odeh, who was driven from her home in Khan Younis, said of the water. 'It causes diseases for us and our children.' Such scenes have become the grim routine in Muwasi, a sprawling displacement camp in central Gaza where hundreds of thousands endure scorching summer heat. Sweat-soaked and dust-covered, parents and children chase down water trucks that come every two or three days, filling bottles, canisters and buckets and then hauling them home, sometimes on donkey-drawn carts. Each drop is rationed for drinking, cooking, cleaning or washing. Some reuse what they can and save a couple of cloudy inches in their jerrycans for whatever tomorrow brings — or doesn't. When water fails to arrive, Odeh said, she and her son fill bottles from the sea. Over the 22 months since Israel launched its offensive, Gaza's water access has been progressively strained. Limits on fuel imports and electricity have hampered the operation of desalination plants while infrastructure bottlenecks and pipeline damage choked delivery to a dribble. Gaza's aquifers became polluted by sewage and the wreckage of bombed buildings. Wells are mostly inaccessible or destroyed, aid groups and the local utility say. Meanwhile, the water crisis has helped fuel the rampant spread of disease, on top of Gaza's rising starvation. UNRWA — the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees — said Thursday that its health centers now see an average 10,300 patients a week with infectious diseases, mostly diarrhea from contaminated water. Efforts to ease the water shortage are in motion, but for many the prospect is still overshadowed by the risk of what may unfold before new supply comes. And the thirst is only growing as a heat wave bears down, with humidity and temperatures in Gaza soaring on Friday to 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit). Searing heat and sullied water Mahmoud al-Dibs, a father displaced from Gaza City to Muwasi, dumped water over his head from a flimsy plastic bag — one of the vessels used to carry water in the camps. 'Outside the tents it is hot and inside the tents it is hot, so we are forced to drink this water wherever we go,' he said. Al-Dibs was among many who told The Associated Press they knowingly drink non-potable water. The few people still possessing rooftop tanks can't muster enough water to clean them, so what flows from their taps is yellow and unsafe, said Bushra Khalidi, an official with Oxfam, an aid group working in Gaza. Before the war, the coastal enclave's more than 2 million residents got their water from a patchwork of sources. Some was piped in by Mekorot, Israel's national water utility. Some came from desalination plants. Some was pulled from high-saline wells, and some imported in bottles. Every source has been jeopardized. Palestinians are relying more heavily on groundwater, which today makes up more than half of Gaza's supply. The well water has historically been brackish, but still serviceable for cleaning, bathing, or farming, according to Palestinian water officials and aid groups. Now people have to drink it. The effects of drinking unclean water don't always appear right away, said Mark Zeitoun, director general of the Geneva Water Hub, a policy institute. 'Untreated sewage mixes with drinking water, and you drink that or wash your food with it, then you're drinking microbes and can get dysentery," Zeitoun said. "If you're forced to drink salty, brackish water, it just does your kidneys in, and then you're on dialysis for decades.' Deliveries average less than three liters (12.5 cups) per person per day — a fraction of the 15-liter (3.3-gallon) minimum humanitarian groups say is needed for drinking, cooking and basic hygiene. In February, acute watery diarrhea accounted for less than 20% of reported illnesses in Gaza. By July, it had surged to 44%, raising the risk of severe dehydration, according to UNICEF, the U.N. children's agency. System breakdown Early in the war, residents said deliveries from Israel's water company Mekorot were curtailed — a claim that Israel has denied. Airstrikes destroyed some of the transmission pipelines as well as one of Gaza's three desalination plants. Bombardment and advancing troops damaged or cut off wells – to the point that today only 137 of Gaza's 392 wells are accessible, according to UNICEF. Water quality from some wells has deteriorated, fouled by sewage, the rubble of shattered buildings and the residue of spent munitions. Fuel shortages have strained the system, slowing pumps at wells and the trucks that carry water. The remaining two desalination plants have operated far below capacity or ground to a halt at times, aid groups and officials say. In recent weeks, Israel has taken some steps to reverse the damage. It delivers water via two of Mekorot's three pipelines into Gaza and reconnected one of the desalination plants to Israel's electricity grid, Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel told The Associated Press. Still, the plants put out far less than before the war, Monther Shoblaq, head of Gaza's Coastal Municipalities Water Utility, told AP. That has forced him to make impossible choices. The utility prioritizes getting water to hospitals and to people. But that means sometimes withholding water needed for sewage treatment, which can trigger neighborhood backups and heighten health risks. Water hasn't sparked the same global outrage as limits on food entering Gaza. But Shoblaq warned of a direct line between the crisis and potential loss of life. 'It's obvious that you can survive for some days without food, but not without water,' he said. Supply's future Water access is steadying after Israel's steps. Aid workers have grown hopeful that the situation won't get worse and could improve. Southern Gaza could get more relief from a United Arab Emirates-funded desalination plant just across the border in Egypt. COGAT, the Israeli military body in charge of humanitarian aid to Gaza, said it has allowed equipment into the enclave to build a pipeline from the plant and deliveries could start in a few weeks. The plant wouldn't depend on Israel for power, but since Israel holds the crossings, it will control the entry of water into Gaza for the foreseeable future. But aid groups warn that access to water and other aid could be disrupted again by Israel's plans to launch a new offensive on some of the last areas outside its military control. Those areas include Gaza City and Muwasi, where much of Gaza's population is now located. In Muwasi's tent camps, people line up for the sporadic arrivals of water trucks. Hosni Shaheen, whose family was also displaced from Khan Younis, already sees the water he drinks as a last resort. 'It causes stomach cramps for adults and children, without exception," he said. 'You don't feel safe when your children drink it.' ___ Metz reported from Jerusalem. Alon Berstein contributed reporting from Kerem Shalom, Israel. ___ Follow AP's war coverage at Wafaa Shurafa And Sam Metz, The Associated Press
Arab News
3 days ago
- Health
- Arab News
Thirst drives Gaza families to drink water that makes them sick
DEIR AL-BALAH: After waking early to stand in line for an hour under the August heat, Rana Odeh returns to her tent with her jug of murky water. She wipes the sweat from her brow and strategizes how much to portion out to her two small children. From its color alone, she knows full well it's likely contaminated. Thirst supersedes the fear of illness. She fills small bottles for her son and daughter and pours a sip into a teacup for herself. What's left she adds to a jerrycan for later. 'We are forced to give it to our children because we have no alternative,' Odeh, who was driven from her home in Khan Younis, said of the water. 'It causes diseases for us and our children.' Such scenes have become the grim routine in Muwasi, a sprawling displacement camp in central Gaza where hundreds of thousands endure scorching summer heat. Sweat-soaked and dust-covered, parents and children chase down water trucks that come every two or three days, filling bottles, canisters and buckets and then hauling them home, sometimes on donkey-drawn carts. Each drop is rationed for drinking, cooking, cleaning, or washing. Some reuse what they can and save a couple of cloudy inches in their jerrycans for whatever tomorrow brings — or does not. When water fails to arrive, Odeh said, she and her son fill bottles from the sea. Over the 22 months since Israel launched its offensive, Gaza's water access has been progressively strained. Limits on fuel imports and electricity have hindered the operation of desalination plants, while infrastructure bottlenecks and pipeline damage have restricted delivery to a trickle. Gaza's aquifers became polluted by sewage and the wreckage of bombed buildings. Wells are mostly inaccessible or destroyed, aid groups and the local utility say. Meanwhile, the water crisis has helped fuel the rampant spread of disease, on top of Gaza's rising starvation. UNRWA — the UN agency for Palestinian refugees — said that its health centers now see an average of 10,300 patients a week with infectious diseases, mostly diarrhea from contaminated water. Efforts to ease the water shortage are underway, but for many, the prospect remains overshadowed by the risk of what may unfold before a new supply arrives. And the thirst is only growing as a heat wave bears down, with humidity and temperatures in Gaza soaring on Friday to 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit). Mahmoud Al-Dibs, a father displaced from Gaza City to Muwasi, dumped water over his head from a flimsy plastic bag — one of the vessels used to carry water in the camps. 'Outside the tents, it is hot, and inside the tents, it is hot, so we are forced to drink this water wherever we go,' he said. Al-Dibs was among many who said they knowingly drink non-potable water. The few people still possessing rooftop tanks cannot muster enough water to clean them, so what flows from their taps is yellow and unsafe, said Bushra Khalidi, an official with Oxfam, an aid group working in Gaza. Before the war, the coastal enclave's more than 2 million residents got their water from a patchwork of sources. Some was piped in by Mekorot, Israel's national water utility. Some came from desalination plants. Some was pulled from high-saline wells, and some was imported in bottles. Palestinians are relying more heavily on groundwater, which now accounts for more than half of Gaza's water supply. The well water has historically been brackish, but still serviceable for cleaning, bathing, or farming, according to Palestinian water officials and aid groups. The effects of drinking unclean water don't always appear right away, said Mark Zeitoun, director general of the Geneva Water Hub, a policy institute. 'Untreated sewage mixes with drinking water, and you drink that or wash your food with it, then you're drinking microbes and can get dysentery,' Zeitoun said. 'If you're forced to drink salty, brackish water, it just does your kidneys in, and then you're on dialysis for decades.' Deliveries average less than three liters per person per day — a fraction of the 15 liters that humanitarian groups say is needed for drinking, cooking, and basic hygiene. In February, acute watery diarrhea accounted for less than 20 percent of reported illnesses in Gaza. By July, it had surged to 44 percent, raising the risk of severe dehydration, according to UNICEF, the UN children's agency. Early in the war, residents said deliveries from Israel's water company Mekorot were curtailed — a claim that Israel has denied. Airstrikes destroyed some of the transmission pipelines as well as one of Gaza's three desalination plants. Bombardment and advancing troops damaged or cut off wells to the point that today only 137 of Gaza's 392 wells are accessible, according to UNICEF. Water quality from some wells has deteriorated, fouled by sewage, the rubble of shattered buildings and the residue of spent munitions. Fuel shortages have strained the system, slowing pumps at wells and the trucks that carry water. The remaining two desalination plants have operated far below capacity or ground to a halt at times, aid groups and officials say. In recent weeks, Israel has taken some steps to reverse the damage. It delivers water via two of Mekorot's three pipelines into Gaza and reconnected one of the desalination plants to Israel's electricity grid, Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel told The Associated Press. Still, the plants put out far less than before the war, said Monther Shoblaq, head of Gaza's Coastal Municipalities Water Utility. That has forced him to make impossible choices. The utility prioritizes delivering water to hospitals and to the public. However, that means sometimes withholding water needed for sewage treatment, which can lead to neighborhood backups and increase health risks. Water hasn't sparked the same global outrage as limits on food entering Gaza. But Shoblaq warned of a direct line between the crisis and potential loss of life. 'It's obvious that you can survive for some days without food, but not without water,' he said. Water access is steadying after Israel's steps. Aid workers have grown hopeful that the situation will not worsen and could improve. Southern Gaza could get more relief from a desalination plant just across the border in Egypt. The plant wouldn't depend on Israel for power, but since Israel holds the crossings, it will control the entry of water into Gaza for the foreseeable future. But aid groups warn that access to water and other aid could be disrupted again by Israel's plans to launch a new offensive on some of the last areas outside its military control. Those areas include Gaza City and Muwasi, where a significant portion of Gaza's population is now concentrated. In Muwasi's tent camps, people line up for the sporadic arrivals of water trucks. Hosni Shaheen, whose family was also displaced from Khan Younis, already sees the water he drinks as a last resort. 'It causes stomach cramps for adults and children, without exception,' he said. 'You don't feel safe when your children drink it.'
