WHO says staff residence in Gaza was attacked
Two WHO staff and two family members were detained, said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO Director-General, adding that three were later released, while one staff member remained in detention.
Israeli tanks pushed into southern and eastern districts of the Gazan city of Deir Al-Balah for the first time on Monday, an area where Israeli sources said the military believes hostages may be held.
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Famine, starvation: challenges in defining Gaza's plight
PARIS: The UN and NGOs are warning of an imminent famine in the Gaza Strip — a designation based on strict criteria and scientific evidence. But the difficulty of getting to the most affected areas in the Palestinian territory, besieged by Israel, means there are huge challenges in gathering the required data. The internationally agreed definition for famine is outlined by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or IPC, an initiative of 21 organizations and institutions including UN agencies and aid groups. The IPC definition has three elements. Firstly, at least 20 percent of households must have an extreme lack of food and face starvation or destitution. Second, acute malnutrition in children under five exceeds 30 percent. Almost a third of people in Gaza are not eating for days and malnutrition is surging. UN's World Food Programme And third, there is an excess mortality threshold of two in 10,000 people dying per day. Once these criteria are met, governments and UN agencies can declare a famine. Available indicators are alarming regarding the food situation in Gaza. 'A large proportion of the population of Gaza is starving,' according to the World Health Organization's chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. Food deliveries are 'far below what is needed for the survival of the population,' he said, calling it 'man-made ... mass starvation.' Doctors Without Borders, or MSF, said on Friday that a quarter of all young children and pregnant or breastfeeding women screened at its clinics in Gaza last week were malnourished, blaming Israel's 'deliberate use of starvation as a weapon.' Almost a third of people in Gaza are 'not eating for days' and malnutrition is surging, the UN's World Food Programme said Friday. The head of Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City on Tuesday said that 21 children had died across the Palestinian territory in the previous 72 hours 'due to malnutrition and starvation.' The very few foodstuffs in the markets are inaccessible, with a kg of flour reaching the exorbitant price of $100, while the Gaza Strip's agricultural land has been ravaged by the war. According to humanitarian organizations, the 20 or so aid trucks that enter the territory each day — vastly insufficient for more than 2 million hungry people — are systematically looted. 'It's become a technical point to explain that we're in acute food insecurity, IPC4, which affects almost the entire population. It doesn't resonate with people,' said Amande Bazerolle, in charge of MSF's emergency response in Gaza. 'Yet we're hurtling toward famine — that's a certainty.' NGOs and the WHO concede that gathering the evidence required for a famine declaration is extremely difficult. 'Currently, we are unable to conduct the surveys that would allow us to formally classify famine,' said Bazerolle. She said it was 'impossible' for them to screen children, take their measurements, or assess their weight-to-height ratio. Jean-Raphael Poitou, Middle East program director for the NGO Action Against Hunger, said the 'continuous displacements' of Gazans ordered by the Israeli military, along with restrictions on movement in the most affected regions, 'complicate things enormously.' Nabil Tabbal, incident manager at the WHO's emergency program, said there were 'challenges regarding data, regarding access to information.'
Arab News
an hour ago
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Families of Americans slain in the West Bank lose hope for justice
BIDDU, West Bank: When Sayfollah Musallet of Tampa, Florida, was beaten to death by Israeli settlers in the West Bank two weeks ago, he became the fourth Palestinian-American killed in the occupied territory since the war in Gaza began. No one has been arrested or charged in Musallet's slaying – and if Israel's track record on the other three deaths is any guide, it seems unlikely to happen. Yet Musallet's father and a growing number of US politicians want to flip the script. 'We demand justice,' Kamel Musallet said at his 20-year-old son's funeral earlier this week. 'We demand the US government do something about it.' Still, Musallet and relatives of the other Palestinian-Americans say they doubt anyone will be held accountable, either by Israel or the US. They believe the first word in their hyphenated identity undercuts the power of the second. They believe the first word in their hyphenated identity undercuts the power of the second. And they say Israel and its law enforcement have made them feel like culprits — by imposing travel bans and, in some cases, detaining and interrogating them. Although the Trump administration has stopped short of promising investigations of its own, the US Embassy in Jerusalem has urged Israel to investigate the circumstances of each American's death. Writing on X on July 15, US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said he'd asked Israel to 'aggressively investigate the murder' of Musallet and that 'there must be accountability for this criminal and terrorist act.' Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland and 28 other Democratic senators have also called for an investigation. In a letter this week to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Attorney General Pam Bondi, they pointed to the 'repeated lack of accountability' after the deaths of Musallet and other Americans killed in the West Bank. Israel's military, police and Shin Bet domestic security agency did not offer comment on the Palestinian-Americans' deaths. Families have demanded independent investigations American-born teenagers Tawfic Abdel Jabbar and Mohammad Khdour were killed in early 2024 by Israeli fire while driving in the West Bank. In April 2025, 14-year-old Amer Rabee, a New Jersey native, was shot in the head at least nine times by Israeli forces as he stood among a grove of green almond trees in his family's village.
Arab News
an hour ago
- Arab News
Israel's military says airdrops of aid will begin Saturday night in Gaza
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip: Israel's military says airdrops of aid will begin Saturday night in Gaza, and humanitarian corridors will be established for United Nations convoys The statement issued late Saturday came after increasing accounts of starvation-related deaths in Gaza following months of experts' warnings of famine. International criticism, including by close allies, has grown as several hundred Palestinians have been killed in recent weeks while trying to reach aid. The military's statement did not say when the humanitarian corridors for UN convoys would open, or where. It also said the military is prepared to implement humanitarian pauses in densely populated areas. The statement added that the military 'emphasizes that combat operations have not ceased' in Gaza against Hamas. And it asserts there is 'no starvation' in the territory. Israeli airstrikes and gunshots killed at least 53 people in Gaza overnight and into Saturday, most of them shot dead while seeking aid, according to Palestinian health officials and the local ambulance service, as starvation deaths continued. Deadly Israeli gunfire was reported twice within hours close to the Zikim crossing with Israel in the north. In the first incident, at least a dozen people waiting for aid trucks were killed, said staff at Shifa hospital, where bodies were taken. Israel's military said it fired warning shots to distance a crowd 'in response to an immediate threat' and it was not aware of any casualties. A witness, Sherif Abu Aisha, said people started running when they saw a light that they thought was from aid trucks, but as they got close, they realized it was Israel's tanks. That's when the army started firing, he told The Associated Press. He said his uncle was among those killed. 'We went because there is no food ... and nothing was distributed,' he said. On Saturday evening, Israeli forces killed at least 11 people and wounded 120 others when they fired toward crowds who tried to get food from an entering UN convoy, Dr. Mohamed Abu Selmiyah, director of Shifa hospital, told the AP. 'We are expecting the numbers to surge in the next few hours,' he said. There was no immediate Israeli military comment. Elsewhere, those killed in strikes included four people in an apartment building in Gaza City, hospital staff and the ambulance service said. Another Israeli strike killed at least eight, including four children, in the crowded tent camp of Muwasi in the southern city of Khan Younis, according to the Nasser hospital. Also in Khan Younis, Israeli forces opened fire and killed at least nine people trying to get aid entering Gaza through the Morag corridor, according to the hospital's morgue records. There was no immediate comment from Israel's military.
