More Gazans die seeking aid and from hunger, with burial shrouds in short supply
The 10 died in two separate incidents near aid sites belonging to the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in central and southern Gaza, local medics said. The United Nations says more than 1,000 people have been killed trying to receive aid in the enclave since the GHF began operating in May 2025, most of them shot by Israeli forces operating near GHF sites.
The GHF said there were no incidents at or near their sites on Monday. It could not be verified where the incidents took place.
Bilal Thari, 40, was among the mourners at Gaza City's Shifa hospital on Monday who had gathered to collect the bodies of Palestinians killed a day earlier by Israeli fire as they sought aid, Gaza health officials said.
"Everyone who goes there, comes back either with a bag of flour or carried back (on a wooden stretcher) as a martyr, or injured. No one comes back safe," Thari said.
At least 13 Palestinians were killed on Sunday while waiting for the arrival of U.N. aid trucks at the Zikim crossing on the Israeli border with the northern Gaza Strip, the officials said.
At the hospital, some bodies were wrapped in thick patterned blankets because white shrouds, which hold special significance in Islamic burials, were in short supply due to continued Israeli border restrictions and the mounting number of daily deaths, Palestinians said.
"We don't want war, we want peace, we want this misery to end. We are out on the streets, we all are hungry, we are all in bad shape, women are out there on the streets, we have nothing available for us to live a normal life like all human beings, there's no life," Thari said.
There was no immediate comment by Israel on Sunday's incident.
Palestinians wait to receive food from a charity kitchen amid a hunger crisis, in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip on Monday. |
REUTERS
The Israeli military said in a statement that it had not fired earlier on Monday in the vicinity of the aid distribution center in the southern Gaza Strip. It did not elaborate further.
Israel blames Hamas for the suffering in Gaza and says it is taking steps for more aid to reach its population, including pausing fighting for part of the day in some areas, allowing airdrops and announcing protected routes for aid convoys.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday he would convene his security Cabinet this week to discuss how the military should proceed in Gaza to meet all his government's war goals, which include defeating Hamas and releasing the hostages.
Meanwhile, five more people died of starvation or malnutrition over the last 24 hours, Gaza's health ministry said on Monday. The new deaths raised the toll of those dying from hunger to 180, including 93 children, since the war began.
U.N. agencies have said that airdrops of food are insufficient and that Israel must let in far more aid by land and quickly ease access to it.
COGAT, the Israeli military agency that coordinates aid, said that during the last week, over 23,000 tons of humanitarian aid in 1,200 trucks had entered Gaza but that hundreds of the trucks had yet to be driven to aid distribution hubs by U.N. and other international organizations.
Israel's military later said 120 aid packages containing food had been dropped into Gaza "over the past few hours" by six different countries in collaboration with COGAT.
The Hamas-run Gaza government media office said on Sunday that more than 600 aid trucks had arrived since Israel eased restrictions in late July. However, witnesses and Hamas sources said many of those trucks have been looted by desperate displaced people and armed gangs.
Palestinian and U.N. officials said Gaza needs around 600 aid trucks to enter per day to meet the humanitarian requirements — the number Israel used to allow into Gaza before the war.
The Gaza war began when Hamas killed 1,200 people and took 251 hostage in an attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, according to Israeli figures. Israel's offensive has since killed more than 60,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials who do not distinguish between fighters and non-combatants.
According to Israeli officials, 50 hostages now remain in Gaza, only 20 of whom are believed to be alive.
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Japan Times
15 hours ago
- Japan Times
More Gazans die seeking aid and from hunger, with burial shrouds in short supply
At least 40 Palestinians were killed by Israeli gunfire and airstrikes on Gaza on Monday, including 10 seeking aid, health authorities said, adding another five had died of starvation in what humanitarian agencies say may be an unfolding famine. The 10 died in two separate incidents near aid sites belonging to the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in central and southern Gaza, local medics said. The United Nations says more than 1,000 people have been killed trying to receive aid in the enclave since the GHF began operating in May 2025, most of them shot by Israeli forces operating near GHF sites. The GHF said there were no incidents at or near their sites on Monday. It could not be verified where the incidents took place. Bilal Thari, 40, was among the mourners at Gaza City's Shifa hospital on Monday who had gathered to collect the bodies of Palestinians killed a day earlier by Israeli fire as they sought aid, Gaza health officials said. "Everyone who goes there, comes back either with a bag of flour or carried back (on a wooden stretcher) as a martyr, or injured. No one comes back safe," Thari said. At least 13 Palestinians were killed on Sunday while waiting for the arrival of U.N. aid trucks at the Zikim crossing on the Israeli border with the northern Gaza Strip, the officials said. At the hospital, some bodies were wrapped in thick patterned blankets because white shrouds, which hold special significance in Islamic burials, were in short supply due to continued Israeli border restrictions and the mounting number of daily deaths, Palestinians said. "We don't want war, we want peace, we want this misery to end. We are out on the streets, we all are hungry, we are all in bad shape, women are out there on the streets, we have nothing available for us to live a normal life like all human beings, there's no life," Thari said. There was no immediate comment by Israel on Sunday's incident. Palestinians wait to receive food from a charity kitchen amid a hunger crisis, in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip on Monday. | REUTERS The Israeli military said in a statement that it had not fired earlier on Monday in the vicinity of the aid distribution center in the southern Gaza Strip. It did not elaborate further. Israel blames Hamas for the suffering in Gaza and says it is taking steps for more aid to reach its population, including pausing fighting for part of the day in some areas, allowing airdrops and announcing protected routes for aid convoys. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday he would convene his security Cabinet this week to discuss how the military should proceed in Gaza to meet all his government's war goals, which include defeating Hamas and releasing the hostages. Meanwhile, five more people died of starvation or malnutrition over the last 24 hours, Gaza's health ministry said on Monday. The new deaths raised the toll of those dying from hunger to 180, including 93 children, since the war began. U.N. agencies have said that airdrops of food are insufficient and that Israel must let in far more aid by land and quickly ease access to it. COGAT, the Israeli military agency that coordinates aid, said that during the last week, over 23,000 tons of humanitarian aid in 1,200 trucks had entered Gaza but that hundreds of the trucks had yet to be driven to aid distribution hubs by U.N. and other international organizations. Israel's military later said 120 aid packages containing food had been dropped into Gaza "over the past few hours" by six different countries in collaboration with COGAT. The Hamas-run Gaza government media office said on Sunday that more than 600 aid trucks had arrived since Israel eased restrictions in late July. However, witnesses and Hamas sources said many of those trucks have been looted by desperate displaced people and armed gangs. Palestinian and U.N. officials said Gaza needs around 600 aid trucks to enter per day to meet the humanitarian requirements — the number Israel used to allow into Gaza before the war. The Gaza war began when Hamas killed 1,200 people and took 251 hostage in an attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, according to Israeli figures. Israel's offensive has since killed more than 60,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials who do not distinguish between fighters and non-combatants. According to Israeli officials, 50 hostages now remain in Gaza, only 20 of whom are believed to be alive.
Japan Today
a day ago
- Japan Today
At least 40 Gazans killed while seeking aid
By Nidal al-Mughrabi At least 40 Palestinians were killed by Israeli gunfire and airstrikes on Gaza on Monday, including 10 seeking aid, health authorities said, adding another five had died of starvation in what humanitarian agencies say may be an unfolding famine. The 10 died in two separate incidents near aid sites belonging to the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in central and southern Gaza, local medics said. The United Nations says more than 1,000 people have been killed trying to receive aid in the enclave since the GHF began operating in May 2025, most of them shot by Israeli forces operating near GHF sites. The GHF said there were no incidents at or near their sites on Monday. Reuters was unable to verify where the incidents took place. Bilal Thari, 40, was among mourners at Gaza City's Al Shifa hospital on Monday who had gathered to collect the bodies of Palestinians killed a day earlier by Israeli fire as they sought aid, Gaza health officials said. "Everyone who goes there, comes back either with a bag of flour or carried back (on a wooden stretcher) as a martyr, or injured. No one comes back safe," Thari said. At least 13 Palestinians were killed on Sunday while waiting for the arrival of U.N. aid trucks at the Zikim crossing on the Israeli border with the northern Gaza Strip, the officials said. At the hospital, some bodies were wrapped in thick patterned blankets because white shrouds, which hold special significance in Islamic burials, were in short supply due to continued Israeli border restrictions and the mounting number of daily deaths, Palestinians said. "We don't want war, we want peace, we want this misery to end. We are out on the streets, we all are hungry, we are all in bad shape, women are out there on the streets, we have nothing available for us to live a normal life like all human beings, there's no life," Thari said. There was no immediate comment by Israel on Sunday's incident. The Israeli military said in a statement to Reuters that it had not fired earlier on Monday in the vicinity of the aid distribution centre in the southern Gaza Strip. It did not elaborate further. Israel blames Hamas for the suffering in Gaza and says it is taking steps for more aid to reach its population, including pausing fighting for part of the day in some areas, allowing airdrops and announcing protected routes for aid convoys. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday he would convene his security cabinet this week to discuss how the military should proceed in Gaza to meet all his government's war goals, which include defeating Hamas and releasing the hostages. DEATHS FROM HUNGER Meanwhile, five more people died of starvation or malnutrition over the last 24 hours, Gaza's health ministry said on Monday. The new deaths raised the toll of those dying from hunger to 180, including 93 children, since the war began. U.N. agencies have said that airdrops of food are insufficient and that Israel must let in far more aid by land and quickly ease access to it. COGAT, the Israeli military agency that coordinates aid, said that during the last week, over 23,000 tons of humanitarian aid in 1,200 trucks had entered Gaza but that hundreds of the trucks had yet to be driven to aid distribution hubs by U.N. and other international organizations. Israel's military later said 120 aid packages containing food had been dropped into Gaza "over the past few hours" by six different countries in collaboration with COGAT. The Hamas-run Gaza government media office said on Sunday that more than 600 aid trucks had arrived since Israel eased restrictions in late July. However, witnesses and Hamas sources said many of those trucks have been looted by desperate displaced people and armed gangs. Palestinian and U.N. officials said Gaza needs around 600 aid trucks to enter per day to meet the humanitarian requirements - the number Israel used to allow into Gaza before the war. The Gaza war began when Hamas killed 1,200 people and took 251 hostage in an attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, according to Israeli figures. Israel's offensive has since killed more than 60,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials who do not distinguish between fighters and non-combatants. According to Israeli officials, 50 hostages now remain in Gaza, only 20 of whom are believed to be alive. © Thomson Reuters 2025.
Japan Times
5 days ago
- Japan Times
'If the baby could speak, she would scream': the risky measures to feed small babies in Gaza
In a makeshift tent on a Gazan beach, 3-month-old Muntaha's grandmother grinds up chickpeas into the tiniest granules she can to form a paste to feed the infant, knowing it will cause her to cry in pain, in a desperate race to keep the baby from starving. "If the baby could speak, she would scream at us, asking what we are putting into her stomach," her aunt, Abir Hamouda said. Muntaha grimaced and squirmed as her grandmother fed her the paste with a syringe. Muntaha's family is one of many in Gaza facing dire choices to try to feed babies, especially those below the age of six months who cannot process solid food. Infant formula is scarce after a plummet in aid access to Gaza. Many women cannot breastfeed due to malnourishment, while other babies are separated from their mothers due to displacement, injury or, in Muntaha's case, death. Her family says the baby's mother was hit by a bullet while pregnant, gave birth prematurely while unconscious in intensive care, and died a few weeks later. The director of the Shifa Hospital described such a case in a Facebook post on April 27, four days after Muntaha was born. Hamouda holds her granddaughter, Muntaha, while feeding her with a homemade herbal mixture in Gaza City on Tuesday. | REUTERS "I am terrified about the fate of the baby," said her grandmother, Nemah Hamouda. "We named her after her mother ... hoping she can survive and live long, but we are so afraid, we hear children and adults die every day of hunger." Muntaha now weighs about 3.5 kilograms, her family said, barely more than half of what a full-term baby her age would normally weigh. She suffers stomach problems like vomiting and diarrhea after feeding. Health officials, aid workers and Gazan families said many families are feeding infants herbs and tea boiled in water, or grinding up bread or sesame. Humanitarian agencies also reported cases of parents boiling leaves in water, eating animal feed and grinding sand into flour. Feeding children solids too early can disrupt their nutrition, cause stomach problems, and risk choking, pediatric health experts say. "It's a desperate move to compensate for the lack of food," said UNICEF spokesperson Salim Oweis. "When mothers can't breastfeed or provide proper infant formula they resort to grinding chickpeas, bread, rice, anything that they can get their hands on to feed their children ... it is risking their health because these supplies are not made for infants to feed on." Gaza's spiraling humanitarian crisis prompted the main world hunger monitoring body on Tuesday to say a worst-case scenario of famine is unfolding and immediate action is needed to avoid widespread death. Images of emaciated Palestinian children have shocked the world. Hamouda holds a spoon filled with dried herbs as she prepares a homemade mixture to feed her granddaughter in Gaza City on Tuesday. | REUTERS Gazan health authorities have reported more and more people dying from hunger-related causes. The total so far stands at 154, among them 89 children, most of whom died in the last few weeks. With the international furor over Gaza's ordeal growing, Israel announced steps over the weekend to ease aid access. But the U.N. World Food Program said on Tuesday it was still not getting the permissions it needed to deliver enough aid. Israel and the U.S. accuse militant group Hamas of stealing aid — which the militants deny — and the U.N. of failing to prevent it. The U.N. says it has not seen evidence of Hamas diverting much aid. Hamas accuses Israel of causing starvation and using aid as a weapon, which the Israeli government denies. Humanitarian agencies say there is almost no infant formula left in Gaza. The cans available in the market cost over $100 — impossible to afford for families like Muntaha's, whose father has been jobless since the war closed his falafel business and displaced the family from their home. In the pediatric ward of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central Gaza city of Deir al-Balah, the infant formula supply is mostly depleted. One mother showed how she poured thick tahini sesame paste into a bottle and mixed it with water. Hamouda prepares food for her grandchildren using limited ingredients in Gaza City on Tuesday. | REUTERS "I am using this instead of milk, to compensate her for milk, but she won't drink it," said Azhar Imad, 31, the mother of 4-month-old Joury. "I also make her fenugreek, anise, caraway, any kind of herbs (mixed with water)," she said, panicked as she described how instead of nourishing her child, these attempts were making her sick. Medical staff at the hospital spoke of helplessness, watching on as children's health deteriorated with no way to safely feed them. "Now, children are being fed either water or ground hard legumes, and this is harmful for children in Gaza," said doctor Khalil Daqran. "If the hunger continues ... within three or four days, if the child doesn't get access to milk immediately, then they will die," he said.
