21 Gaza children die of starvation in 72 hours, UN says lifelines collapsing
The doctor said the deaths had been recorded at multiple hospitals during the past 72 hours.The announcement came just hours after Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli strikes had killed 15 people, after the World Health Organization said Israel attacked its facilities amid expanding ground operations.Agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that Israeli strikes on the Al-Shati camp west of Gaza City killed at least 13 people and wounded more than 50.Authorities in the Hamas-run territory say more than 59,000 people have been killed during the 21-month war.Most of Gaza's population has been displaced at least once during the conflict and the Al-Shati camp -- on the Mediterranean coast -- hosts thousands of people displaced from the north in tents and makeshift shelters.Raed Bakr, 30, lives with his three children and said he heard "a massive explosion" at about 1:40 am on Tuesday (2240 GMT Monday), which blew their tent away."I felt like I was in a nightmare. Fire, dust, smoke and body parts flying through the air, dirt everywhere. The children were screaming," Bakr, whose wife was killed last year, told AFP.Reports of the latest death toll came as the Roman Catholic church's most senior cleric in the Holy Land said the humanitarian situation in Gaza was "morally unacceptable"."We have seen men holding out in the sun for hours in the hope of a simple meal," Latin Patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa told a news conference in Jerusalem after visiting the war-torn Palestinian territory.NEW GROUND OPERATIONSHis visit came after an Israeli army strike on the only Catholic church in Gaza killed three people last week, prompting Pope Leo XIV to condemn the "barbarity" of the war and the blind "use of force".The World Health Organization too sharply criticised the Israeli military.The UN agency's chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus accused troops of entering its staff residence, and forcing women and children to evacuate, as they handcuffed, stripped and interrogated male staff at gunpoint.advertisementUN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Monday evening warned that "the last lifelines keeping people alive are collapsing" in Gaza, and that there were growing reports of children and adults with malnutrition.The latest criticism of Israel came as its forces expanded ground operations in Deir el-Balah following intense shelling of the area in central Gaza on Monday.The Israeli military had earlier ordered residents to leave, warning of imminent action in an area where it had not previously operated.The civil defence agency's Bassal said two people were killed in Deir el-Balah.The Israeli military said later its troops "identified shots being fired toward them in the Deir al-Balah area, and responded toward the area from which the shooting originated"."The (army) will not refrain from operating in areas where terrorist activity threatens the security of the State of Israel," it said in a statement.The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimated that between 50,000 and 80,000 people were living in the area, which until now had been considered relatively safe.Some 30,000 were living in displacement sites.AFP footage from central Gaza showed a large plume of smoke rising over Deir el-Balah while a surveillance drone was heard buzzing overhead.advertisementOCHA said nearly 88 percent of the entire Gaza Strip was now either under evacuation orders or within Israeli militarised zones, forcing the population of 2.4 million into an ever-shrinking space.Israel's military campaign in Gaza has killed 59,106 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.Hamas's 2023 attack, which sparked the war, resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.- EndsTune InMust Watch
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Hindustan Times
15 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
‘Mass starvation' spreading across Gaza as war continues for 21 months, warn aid groups
'Mass starvation' is spreading across the population in Gaza as the devastating war continues for 21 months straight, over a 100 aid and human rights groups said on Wednesday. Yazan, a malnourished 2-year-old Palestinian boy, stands with his back turned in his family's damaged home in the Al-Shati refugee camp, west of Gaza City, on July 23, 2025.(AFP) As many as 2 million people in Gaza have been scrambling for food and other basic essentials ever since the war began. The rights group also accused Israel of not allowing food inside the Palestinian territories to be distributed. Over the past three days, 21 children in Gaza died due to malnutrition and starvation, said the head of Gaza's largest hospital on Tuesday. The warning by aid organisations comes as the United States indicated that efforts were on to facilitate a ceasefire in the war-torn country and said that its Middle-East envoy Steve Witkoff will head to Europe for potential ceasefire talks. Witkoff comes with "a strong hope that we will come forward with another ceasefire as well as a humanitarian corridor for aid to flow, that both sides have in fact agreed to," said State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce. Amid spread of 'mass starvation' in Gaza, Israel is under immense pressure over letting aid inside the country. However, Israel has denied blocking the aid and said that 950 trucks' worth of aid were in Gaza waiting for international agencies to collect and distribute, reported AP. "We have not identified starvation at this current point in time but we understand that action is required to stabilise the humanitarian situation," the Times of Israel quoted an unnamed senior Israeli security official as saying. Israel has also maintained that while it has allowed aid into Gaza, it was Hamas that was making things worse by stealing it and selling it at inflated prices. Palestinians killed at aid centres Lately, several people have been killed in Gaza reportedly while trying to get food or other supplies from aid centres. Health officials in Gaza say that on Tuesday and early Wednesday, 21 people were killed by Israeli strikes. According to the United Nations, over 1,000 Palestinians have been killed while seeking food and aid by Israel since late May, ever since the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which is backed by the US and Israel, started operations in the region. During this time, the US-led aid system was sidelined. According to a statement signed by 111 aid and human rights organisations, they have called for an immediate ceasefire and Gaza and opening of all its borders to allow aid through UN-led systems. The statement warned that "our colleagues and those we serve are wasting away" "Palestinians are trapped in a cycle of hope and heartbreak, waiting for assistance and ceasefires, only to wake up to worsening conditions," the statement added. "It is not just physical torment, but psychological. Survival is dangled like a mirage…The humanitarian system cannot run on false promises. Humanitarians cannot operate on shifting timelines or wait for political commitments that fail to deliver access." The war in Gaza was triggered by Hamas' attack on Israel on October 7, 2025, in which over 1,200 people, most of them civilians, died. In Israel's retaliation, around 59,219 Palestinians have been killed so far, most of whom are also civilians, according to Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry. With inputs from AP.
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Business Standard
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Indian Express
an hour ago
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Over 100 aid agencies say Gaza at risk of mass starvation after 10 more deaths reported in a day
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