Israeli strikes in Gaza kill at least 21 people, health authorities say
Desperation is mounting in the Palestinian territory of more than 2 million, which experts say is at risk of famine because of Israel's blockade and nearly two-year offensive. A breakdown of law and order has led to widespread looting and contributed to chaos and violence around aid deliveries.
More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since May while trying to get food in the Gaza Strip, mostly near aid sites run by an American contractor, the UN human rights office said Tuesday.
More than 100 human rights groups and charities signed a letter published Wednesday demanding more aid for Gaza and warning of grim conditions causing starvation.
More than 59,000 Palestinians have been killed during the Israel-Hamas war, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which is part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals. Its count doesn't distinguish between militants and civilians, but the ministry says that more than half of the dead are women and children. The UN and other international organizations see it as the most reliable source of data on casualties.
Here is the latest:
Overnight strikes kill at least 21
One Israeli strike hit a house Tuesday in the northwestern side of Gaza City, killing at least 12 people, according to the Shifa Hospital, which received the casualties.
The dead included six children and two women, according to the Health Ministry's casualty list.
Another strike hit an apartment in the Tal Al-Hawa area in northern Gaza, killing at least six people. Among the dead were three children and two women, including one who was pregnant. Eight others were wounded, the ministry said.
A third strike hit a tent in the Naser neighborhood in Gaza City late Tuesday and killed three children, Shifa Hospital said.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the strikes. It blames Hamas for civilian casualties because the militants operate from populated areas.
Human rights groups and charities demand more Gaza aid
In the letter issued Wednesday by 109 human rights and charity groups, they warned of a dire situation pushing more people toward starvation. They said they were watching their own colleagues, as well as the Palestinians they serve, 'waste away.'
The letter slammed Israel for what it said were restrictions on aid into the war-ravaged territory. It lamented 'massacres' at food distribution points, which have seen chaos and violence in recent weeks as desperation has risen.
'The government of Israel's restrictions, delays, and fragmentation under its total siege have created chaos, starvation, and death,' the letter said.
The letter called for aid to be scaled up as well as for a ceasefire. `
Israel says that it has allowed the entry of thousands of trucks since May and blames aid groups for not consistently delivering goods.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Arab News
11 hours ago
- Arab News
Aid groups sue Belgium to do more to stop Israel's war in Gaza
BRUSSELS: Two Belgian aid groups launched a court case on Friday seeking to pressure the country to do more to help stop Israel's war in Gaza, as the EU struggles to take action. Belgium has been one of the most outspoken of the EU's 27 countries in seeking to call out Israel over its devastating military operation in Gaza. The EU's top diplomat floated a raft of options after Israel was found to have breached a cooperation agreement with the EU on human rights grounds. But the bloc's member states are deeply divided over their approach to the conflict. • The two organizations behind the court case are pushing for Belgium to try to unilaterally halt the EU's cooperation deal with Israel. • They are also demanding other steps, including the closure of the country's airspace for any flights taking military equipment to Tel Aviv. The two organizations behind the court case — the Belgian-Palestinian Association and National Coordination for Peace and Democracy — are pushing for Belgium to try to unilaterally halt the EU's cooperation deal with Israel. They are also demanding other steps, including the closure of the country's airspace for any flights taking military equipment to Israel. 'Unless there is a sudden change, the European Union will not be able to suspend the association agreement with Israel,' Vincent Letellier, a lawyer representing the NGOs said — alluding to the bloc's divisions. 'Countries must now be put under pressure by their voters and by the courts.' A preliminary hearing in the case was held before a judge in Brussels on Friday and full proceedings were scheduled for Sept. 15. International criticism of Israel is growing over the plight of the more than 2 million Palestinians in Gaza, where more than 100 aid and rights groups have warned that 'mass starvation' is spreading. Aid groups warned of surging numbers of malnourished children in the enclave as a trio of European powers held an 'emergency call' Friday. Doctors Without Borders said that a quarter of the young children and pregnant or breastfeeding mothers it had screened at its clinics last week were malnourished, a day after the UN said one in five children in Gaza City were suffering from malnutrition. More than 100 aid and human rights groups warned this week that 'mass starvation' was spreading in Gaza. Israel has rejected accusations it is responsible for the deepening crisis, which the World Health Organization has called 'man-made.' Israel placed the Gaza Strip under an aid blockade in March, which it only partially eased two months later.
Arab News
12 hours ago
- Arab News
British surgeon alleges ‘target practice' shootings of Gazans by Israeli forces
LONDON: A British surgeon who recently returned from Gaza has claimed Israeli soldiers are shooting civilians at aid distribution points 'almost like a game of target practice,' allegations the Israeli military have strongly denied. Dr. Nick Maynard, a veteran of humanitarian missions in Gaza over the past 15 years, spent four weeks working at Nasser Hospital in the south of the Strip. He told Sky News that the population is suffering from 'profound malnutrition' and described the medical crisis facing patients and healthcare workers. Speaking to The World with Yalda Hakim on Sky News, Maynard said: 'I met several doctors who had cartons of formula feed in their luggage — and they were all confiscated by the Israeli border guards. Nothing else got confiscated, just the formula feed. 'There were four premature babies who died during the first two weeks when I was in Nasser Hospital — and there will be many, many more deaths unless the Israelis allow proper food to get in there.' Maynard, who has now visited Gaza three times since the war began, said the paediatric unit is relying on sugar water to feed children due to a lack of baby formula. 'They've got a small amount of formula feed for very small babies, but not enough,' he said. The effects of the crisis have also been severe on his colleagues. 'I saw people I'd known for years and I didn't recognise some of them,' he said. 'Two colleagues had lost 20kg and 30kg respectively. They were shells, they're all hungry. 'They're going to work every day, then going home to their tents where they have no food.' In the most serious allegation, Maynard claimed civilians were being shot by Israeli forces while they were collecting food at aid points. 'Israeli soldiers are shooting civilians at aid points almost like a game of target practice,' he said. Israel's military 'categorically rejects the claims of intentional harm to civilians, particularly in the manner described. For the sake of clarity, the army's binding orders prohibit forces operating in the area from intentionally firing at civilians,' it said. 'We are aware of reports of casualties among those who arrived at the aid distribution sites. These incidents are under examination by the relevant (military) authorities. Any allegation of a violation of the law or regulations will be thoroughly investigated, including taking appropriate action if necessary.' The military said it was 'working to facilitate and ease the distribution of humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation at the designated distribution centres, as well as through other international actors. These efforts are being conducted under difficult and complex operational conditions.' Maynard claimed to have operated on boys as young as 11 who had been shot while collecting food at distribution sites run by the US and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. 'They had gone to get food for their starving families and they were shot,' he said. 'I operated on one 12-year-old boy who died on the operating table because his injuries were so severe.' He also alleged a disturbing pattern in the injuries observed during his time at the hospital. 'What was even more distressing was the pattern of injuries that we saw, the clustering of injuries to particular body parts on certain days,' he said. 'One day they'd be coming in predominately with gunshot wounds to the head or the neck, another day to the chest, another day to the abdomen. 'Twelve days ago, four young teenage boys came in, all of whom had been shot in the testicles and deliberately so. This is not coincidental. 'The clustering was far too obvious to be coincidental, and it seemed to us like this was almost like a game of target practice. I would never have believed this possible unless I'd witnessed this with my own eyes.'
Asharq Al-Awsat
19 hours ago
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Gaza Running Out of Specialized Food to Save Malnourished Children
Gaza is on the brink of running out of the specialized therapeutic food needed to save the lives of severely malnourished children, United Nations and humanitarian agencies say. "We are now facing a dire situation, that we are running out of therapeutic supplies," said Salim Oweis, a spokesperson for UNICEF in Amman, Jordan told Reuters on Thursday, saying supplies of Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF), a crucial treatment, would be depleted by mid-August if nothing changed. "That's really dangerous for children as they face hunger and malnutrition at the moment," he added. Oweis said UNICEF had only enough RUTF left to treat 3,000 children. In the first two weeks of July alone, UNICEF treated 5,000 children facing acute malnutrition in Gaza. Nutrient-dense, high-calorie RUTF supplies, such as high-energy biscuits and peanut paste enriched with milk powder, are critical for treating severe malnutrition. "Most malnutrition treatment supplies have been consumed and what is left at facilities will run out very soon if not replenished," a World Health Organization spokesperson said on Thursday. The WHO said that a program in Gaza that was aiming to prevent malnutrition among the most vulnerable, including pregnant women and children under five, may have to stop work as it is running out of the nutritional supplements. Gaza's food stocks have been running out since Israel, at war with Palestinian group Hamas since October 2023, cut off all supplies to the territory in March, lifting that blockade in May but with restrictions that it says are needed to prevent aid being diverted to "militant" groups. As a result, international aid agencies say that only a trickle of what is needed, including medicine, is currently reaching people in Gaza. Israel says it is committed to allowing in aid but must control it to prevent it from being diverted by "militants". It says it has let enough food into Gaza during the war and blames Hamas for the suffering of Gaza's 2.2 million people. COGAT, the Israeli military aid coordination agency, in response to emailed questions on RUTF supplies said it was working with international organizations to improve the distribution of aid from the crossings where hundreds of aid trucks were waiting. Save the Children, which runs a clinic that has treated spiking numbers of malnourished children in central Gaza, said it had not been able to bring in its own supplies since February and was relying on United Nations deliveries. "If they're going to run out, that's also going to affect UNICEF partners and other organizations that rely on their supplies to provide that for children," said Alexandra Saieh, Global Head of Humanitarian Policy and Advocacy at Save the Children. UNICEF said that from April to mid-July, 20,504 children were admitted with acute malnutrition. Of those patients, 3,247 were suffering from severe acute malnutrition, nearly triple the number in the first three months of the year. Severe acute malnutrition can lead to death, and to long-term physical and mental developmental health problems in children who survive. The WHO said on Wednesday 21 children under the age of five were among those who died of malnutrition so far this year. Two more Palestinians died overnight from starvation, the Gaza health ministry said on Thursday, bringing the total number of people who have starved to death to 113, most of them in recent weeks as a wave of hunger crashes on the Palestinian enclave.
