Israel reviews Hamas ceasefire proposal as WHO says ‘man-made' starvation grips Gaza

CNN

6 days ago

Update:
Date: 37 min ago
Title: Gazans face starvation while supermarkets are full 'a few kilometers away,' says UNRWA
Content:
Palestinians in Gaza are facing starvation while nearby supermarkets in Israel are stocked with food, UNRWA, the main United Nations providing essential services for Palestinian refugees, warned Thursday.
'People are being starved, while a few kilometers away supermarkets are loaded with food,' UNRWA wrote on X.
The agency said it has thousands of trucks in neighboring countries, waiting for the green light to be allowed in.
Without naming Israel, the statement demanded that the 'siege' be lifted and aid be let in 'at scale.'
Update:
Date: 6 min ago
Title: Gaza facing "man-made" mass starvation, WHO chief says
Content:
Palestinians in Gaza are suffering a man-made 'mass starvation' due to the aid blockade on the enclave, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned reporters at a briefing Wednesday.
'Parents tell us their children cry themselves to sleep from hunger,' Ghebreyesus said. 'Food distribution sites have become places of violence.'
Ghebreyesus' answer was unambiguous when asked whether he agrees with a statement this week from over 100 aid organizations that Gaza is experiencing 'mass starvation.' Earlier in the briefing, one of the WHO chief's colleagues expressed reservations about using the term.
'Mass starvation means starvation of a large portion of the population,' Ghebreyesus said. 'And a large proportion of the population of Gaza is starving. I don't know what you'd call it other than mass starvation. And it is man-made, and that's very clear.'
'This is because of (the) blockade,' Ghebreyesus continued. 'And then of course there is an opening now, but it's not enough. It is just a trickle and people are starving.'
'I don't know why we're even splitting hairs here,' Ghebreyesus added.
The WHO chief pointed to a UN report from this week noting that over 1,000 Palestinians have been killed seeking aid since late May, hundreds of them at sites managed by the Israeli and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. The organization said in a statement to CNN that the UN statistics are 'false and exaggerated.'
Israeli officials have blamed Hamas for any hunger in Gaza.
Update:
Date: 39 min ago
Title: Hamas says it submitted new response to ceasefire mediators
Content:
Hamas said early Thursday morning that it has submitted a new response to ceasefire mediators, several days after the militant group received the latest ceasefire and hostage release proposal.
The Hamas statement did not include any details on what its new proposal contains.
On Wednesday, an Egyptian source told CNN that Qatari and Egyptian negotiators requested that Hamas submit a revised proposal after rejecting an earlier draft.
Sticking points: Last week, the United States successfully pressured Israel to drop its objections to withdrawing its troops from a southern corridor in Gaza, two sources familiar with the negotiations told CNN.
This week, the US communicated to Hamas that it is running out of patience and that the group must soon provide its response to the latest framework for a ceasefire and hostage release deal, the sources added.
Both sources said the US, Qatar and Egypt – the main mediators in the ceasefire negotiations – were bringing heavy pressure on Hamas to reach a deal.
'We don't have time,' one of the sources said, pointing to the high daily death toll in Gaza and deteriorating humanitarian conditions.
Previous reporting from CNN's Jeremy Diamond.
Update:
Date: 39 min ago
Title: At least 1,500 aid trucks needed daily to combat starvation in Gaza, hospital director says
Content:
The director of Al-Ahli Hospital in northern Gaza called to ramp up the entry of humanitarian aid as starvation spreads across the Strip.
'Gaza needs at least 1,500 aid trucks every single day for a month — just to begin healing from the wounds left by the weapon of starvation,' Dr. Fadel Naim said Thursday.
On Wednesday, around 70 trucks were unloaded at aid crossings, and over 150 were collected by the UN and international organizations from the Gazan side of the border, according to COGAT, the Israeli agency that manages the flow of aid into Gaza.
Before the war began on October 7, 2023, an average of 500 to 600 trucks entered Gaza each day, according to the United Nations.
Naim's statement comes amid ongoing warnings from aid agencies about severe shortages of food and widespread hunger in the territory.
The UN says more than a thousand people have been killed by Israeli forces while seeking food since late May, when a controversial Israel and US-backed aid group, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), began operating.
Of those, hundreds have died near GHF sites, according to the UN. The GHF was created to replace the UN's long-established role distributing aid in Gaza and has been widely criticized for failing to provide adequate and safe access to desperately needed supplies.
On Tuesday, Gaza's health ministry said 900,000 children are going hungry, and 70,000 already show signs of malnutrition.