At least 67 Gazans killed waiting for aid, death toll rises
July 20 (UPI) -- At least 67 people waiting for aid from the United Nations in northern Gaza have been killed, the Hamas-run health ministry said.
The U.N. World Food Program said its 25-truck convoy "encountered massive crowds of hungry civilians which came under gunfire" after it cleared checkpoints and crossed into Israel, the BBC reported.
The Israel Defense Forces said it "fired warning shots" to remove what it called "an immediate threat" in the area, and disrupted the number of casualties, and added that it is investigating the incident.
The Palestinian Red Crescent claimed that Israeli military forces "targeted civilians waiting for humanitarian aid" north of Beit Lahia.
The health ministry reported Saturday that extreme hunger was growing in the region and an increasing number of people were arriving at the aid site "in a state of extreme exhaustion and fatigue."
"We warn that hundreds of people whose bodies have wasted away are at risk of imminent danger due to hunger," the U.N. said. Civilians in Gaza are starving, the U.N. continued, and called for an immediate influx of essential aid.
Gaza's civil defense agency said Israeli fire had killed a total of at least 94 people and wounded dozens more across Gaza on Sunday, 80 of whom it said were shot dead in northern Gaza while they were receiving flour and bread, and another 9 were killed near an aid point in Rafah. Four additional people were fatally wounded near an aid station in Khan Younis.
The health ministry said at least 19 people had died due to "starvation" in what it has called one of the deadliest days of casualties in the 21-month long conflict between Israel and Hamas, the latest chapter of which dates to Oct. 7, 2023.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Hamilton Spectator
3 hours ago
- Hamilton Spectator
Canadian aid agency workers call for action saying starvation is rampant in Gaza
TORONTO - Canadian aid agencies say malnutrition and starvation is rampant among children in Gaza, as well as among the aid workers trying to help them. The Toronto-based president and CEO at Save the Children Canada said Friday the global agency's clinics are inundated by 200 to 300 people arriving each day. Danny Glenwright said there's been 'a tenfold' increase in the number of children suffering acute malnutrition over the past two months, and that even clinic staff are bringing their children in for help. 'Every single child is now coming in malnourished,' Glenwright said. 'We're also seeing their parents increasingly malnourished and skin-and-bones.' That's echoed by Canada's executive director of Doctors Without Borders, with Sana Beg adding that members of her organization have had to donate their own blood to patients because supplies are so short. Beg said Doctors Without Borders welcomed Canada's recent denunciation of the Israeli government for failing to prevent the humanitarian crisis but called for immediate concrete actions that would open borders to aid trucks carrying desperately needed food and medical supplies. 'Just recently we've had a couple of a handful of trucks that came in with the fuel that was required. A drop in the ocean of needs, really,' said Beg. 'We have no sterile equipment, we have no clean sheets in the hospitals, our hospitals themselves are barely functional, as I said. There is no adequate or safe passage for either civilians, patients, or aid workers to be able to even arrive at medical facilities such as hospitals or clinics.' International experts have warned that a 'worst-case scenario of famine' is playing out in Gaza, where Israel's military offensive against Hamas has made it nearly impossible to safely deliver food to starving people. Glenwright said Friday that Canadians should be upset by the crisis, calling it 'a profound moral, political, and legal failure.' 'There's no food anywhere else in Gaza and the limited supplies we have are running out,' said Glenwright, whose agency has a clinics in Khan Younis and one in Deir al Balah. 'The trucks that are sitting on the border — thousands of them with these life-saving supplies — are not being allowed in at the scale that is required. And it's a calamity.' Several aid agencies detailed a near-total collapse of the humanitarian system in a press conference Tuesday in London that included members of Oxfam, War Child Alliance, Save the Children International in Gaza and the Palestinian Non-Governmental Organizations Network. Prime Minister Mark Carney on Thursday accused the Israeli government of violating international law by denying aid as it controls aid distribution, and called on all sides to negotiate an immediate ceasefire. Beg detailed a catastrophic decline in a region where dire shortages had already forced some doctors to carry out surgeries and limb amputations without anesthesia. 'Today we're talking about a crisis that has magnified tenfold since then,' said Beg, noting premature babies now have to share a single ICU incubator. 'So three or four babies crowded into one incubator at the ICU. Our teams are talking about having to donate their own blood for the patients because there is such a shortage.' Beg said her organization, also known as Médecins Sans Frontières Canada, has about a thousand staff in Gaza, most of them locally hired Palestinians. About 30 to 35 international staff come in for temporary assignments, among them about five Canadians. As malnutrition cases increase, she said staff have had to make gruelling choices over who can be considered dire enough to receive treatment for severe acute malnutrition. Glenwright suggested Canada could do much more diplomatically and economically, noting how strongly the country mobilized to help Ukraine. 'Our government's inability to do more is shameful to all of us,' Glenwright said. 'Canadians can pressure their government – call your MP, say that you want candidates to do much more.' Beg agreed and called on Canadians to inform themselves about the crisis and act. 'Call your local MPs. Write to the Canadian government. Sign petitions,' she said. 'Make your voice heard. Use all of your avenues as a citizen of a democracy to speak truth to power.' – With files from The Associated Press. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 1, 2025. Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. There was a problem with the recaptcha. Please try again. You may unsubscribe at any time. By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of service apply. Want more of the latest from us? Sign up for more at our newsletter page .
Hamilton Spectator
4 hours ago
- Hamilton Spectator
Canadian aid agencies call for action saying starvation is rampant in Gaza
TORONTO - Canadian aid agencies say malnutrition and starvation is rampant among children in Gaza, as well as among the aid workers trying to help them. The Toronto-based president and CEO at Save the Children said Friday its clinics are inundated by 200 to 300 people arriving each day. Danny Glenwright said there's been 'a tenfold' increase in the number of children suffering acute malnutrition over the past two months, and that even clinic staff are bringing their children in for help. 'Every single child is now coming in malnourished,' Glenwright said. 'We're also seeing their parents increasingly malnourished and skin-and-bones.' That's echoed by Canada's executive director of Doctors Without Borders, with Sana Beg adding that members of her organization have had to donate their own blood to patients because supplies are so short. Beg said Doctors Without Borders welcomed Canada's recent denunciation of the Israeli government for failing to prevent the humanitarian crisis but called for immediate concrete actions that would open borders to aid trucks carrying desperately needed food and medical supplies. 'Just recently we've had a couple of a handful of trucks that came in with the fuel that was required. A drop in the ocean of needs, really,' said Beg. 'We have no sterile equipment, we have no clean sheets in the hospitals, our hospitals themselves are barely functional, as I said. There is no adequate or safe passage for either civilians, patients, or aid workers to be able to even arrive at medical facilities such as hospitals or clinics.' International experts have warned that a 'worst-case scenario of famine' is playing out in Gaza, where Israel's military offensive against Hamas has made it nearly impossible to safely deliver food to starving people. Glenwright said Friday that Canadians should be upset by the crisis, calling it 'a profound moral, political, and legal failure.' 'There's no food anywhere else in Gaza and the limited supplies we have are running out,' said Glenwright, whose agency has a clinics in Khan Younis and one in Deir al Balah. 'The trucks that are sitting on the border — thousands of them with these life-saving supplies — are not being allowed in at the scale that is required. And it's a calamity.' Several aid agencies detailed a near-total collapse of the humanitarian system in a press conference Tuesday in London that included members of Oxfam, War Child Alliance, Save the Children International in Gaza and the Palestinian Non-Governmental Organizations Network. Prime Minister Mark Carney on Thursday accused the Israeli government of violating international law by denying aid as it controls aid distribution, and called on all sides to negotiate an immediate ceasefire. Beg detailed a catastrophic decline in a region where dire shortages had already forced some doctors to carry out surgeries and limb amputations without anesthesia. 'Today we're talking about a crisis that has magnified tenfold since then,' said Beg, noting premature babies now have to share a single ICU incubator. 'So three or four babies crowded into one incubator at the ICU. Our teams are talking about having to donate their own blood for the patients because there is such a shortage.' Beg said her organization, also known as Médecins Sans Frontières Canada, has about a thousand staff in Gaza, most of them locally hired Palestinians. About 30 to 35 international staff come in for temporary assignments, among them about five Canadians. As malnutrition cases increase, she said staff have had to make gruelling choices over who can be considered dire enough to receive treatment for severe acute malnutrition. Glenwright suggested Canada could do much more diplomatically and economically, noting how strongly the country mobilized to help Ukraine. 'Our government's inability to do more is shameful to all of us,' Glenwright said. 'Canadians can pressure their government – call your MP, say that you want candidates to do much more.' Beg agreed and called on Canadians to inform themselves about the crisis and act. 'Call your local MPs. Write to the Canadian government. Sign petitions,' she said. 'Make your voice heard. Use all of your avenues as a citizen of a democracy to speak truth to power.' – With files from The Associated Press. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 1, 2025. Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. There was a problem with the recaptcha. Please try again. You may unsubscribe at any time. By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of service apply. Want more of the latest from us? Sign up for more at our newsletter page .
Associated Press
5 hours ago
- Associated Press
PHOTO ESSAY: Starvation attacks the bodies of these children in Gaza
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — In some tents and shelters in northern Gaza, emaciated children are held in their parents' arms. Their tiny arms and legs dangle limp. Their shoulder blades and ribs stick out from skeletal bodies slowly consuming themselves for lack of food. Starvation always stalks the most vulnerable first. Kids with preexisting conditions, like cerebral palsy, waste away quickly because the high-calorie foods they need have run out, along with nutritional supplements. But after months of Israeli blockade and turmoil in the distribution of supplies, children in Gaza with no previous conditions are also starting to die from malnutrition, aid workers and doctors say. Over the past month, 25 children have died of malnutrition-related causes, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, though it's not known how many had other conditions. The ministry, part of the Hamas-run government, is staffed by medical professionals and its figures on war deaths are seen by the U.N. and other experts as the most reliable estimate of casualties. Salem Awad was born in January with no medical problems, the youngest of six children, his mother Hiyam Awad said. But she was too weak from lack of food to breastfeed him. For the first two months of Salem's life, there was a ceasefire in Gaza, and more aid entered, but even then it was hard to find milk for him, his mother said. In March, Israel cut off all food from entering the territory for more than 2 ½ months. Since then, Salem has been wasting away. Now he weighs 4 kilograms (9 pounds), his mother said. 'He just keeps losing weight. At the hospital, they say if he doesn't get milk, he could die,' she said, speaking in the family's tent in Gaza has been allowing a trickle of aid into Gaza since late May. After an international outcry over increasing starvation, it introduced new measures last weekend it says are intended to increase the amount of food getting to the population, including airdrops and pauses in military operations in some areas. But so far, they have not had a significant effect, aid groups say. Food experts warned this week the 'worst-case scenario of famine is playing out in Gaza.' The U.N. says the impact of hunger building for months is quickly worsening, especially in Gaza City and other parts of northern Gaza, where it estimates nearly one in five children is now acutely malnourished. Across Gaza, more than 5,000 children were diagnosed with malnutrition this month, though that is likely an undercount, the U.N. says. Malnutrition was virtually nonexistent before the war. Doctors struggle to treat the children because many supplies have run out, the U.N. denies a famine is taking place or that children are starving. It says it has supplied enough food throughout the war and accuses Hamas of causing shortages by stealing aid and trying to control food distribution. Humanitarian groups deny that significant diversion of food takes place. Throughout nearly 22 months of war, the number of aid trucks has been far short of the roughly 500 a day the U.N. says is needed. The impact is seen most strongly in children with special needs — and those who have been grievously wounded in Israeli bombardment. Mosab al-Dibs, 14, suffered a heavy head wound on May 7 when an airstrike hit next to his family's tent. For about two months, he has been at Shifa Hospital, largely paralyzed, only partly conscious and severely malnourished because the facility no longer has the supplies to feed him, said Dr. Jamal Salha. Mosab's mother, Shahinaz al-Dibs, said the boy was healthy before the war, but that since he was wounded, his weight has fallen from 40 kilograms to less than 10 (88 to 22 pounds) At his bedside, she moves his spindly arms to exercise them. The networks of tiny blue veins are visible through the nearly transparent skin over his protruding ribs. The boy's eyes dart around, but he doesn't respond. His mother puts some bread soaked in water — the only food she can afford — into a large syringe and squirts it into his mouth in a vain attempt to feed him. Most of it dribbles out from his lips. What he needs is a nutrient formula suitable for tube feeding that the hospital doesn't have, Salha a school-turned-shelter for displaced people in Gaza City, Samah Matar cradles her son Yousef as his little brother Amir lies on a cushion beside her — both of them emaciated. The two boys have cerebral palsy and also need a special diet. 'Before the war, their health situation was good,' said Matar. They could get the foods they needed, but now 'all those things have disappeared, and their health has declined continually.' Yousef, 6 years old, has dropped from 14 kilograms (30 pounds) before the war to 9 kilograms (19 pounds) now. His 4-year-old brother, Amir, has shrunk from 9 kilograms to under 6 (19 to 13 pounds), she said. ___ This is a documentary photo story curated by AP photo editors.
