A parish priest and several injured as airstrikes hit a Gaza church
Parish priest Fr. Gabriel Romanelli was very close with the late Pope Francis and the two spoke often during the war in Gaza.
The church was damaged in the attack, officials said, in what witnesses said appeared to be an Israeli tank shelling.
The Israeli military did not have immediate comment on the strike.
In the last 18 months of his life, Francis would often call the lone Catholic church in the Gaza Strip to see how people huddled inside were coping with a devastating war.
The war began with Hamas' cross-border attack on Oct. 7, 2023. That day, militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251 people, most of whom have since been released in ceasefire agreements or other deals.
Fifty hostages are still being held, less than half of them believed to be alive.
Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed over 58,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which has said women and children make up more than half of the dead. It does not distinguish between civilians and militants in its tally.
The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government but is led by medical professionals. The United Nations and other international organizations consider its figures to be the most reliable count of war casualties.
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Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Yahoo
Baby boy starves to death in Gaza as hunger spreads, medics say
By Nidal al-Mughrabi CAIRO/GAZA (Reuters) -Six-week-old Yousef's lifeless body lay limp on a hospital table in Gaza City, his skin stretched over protruding ribs and a bandage where a drip had been inserted into his tiny arm. Doctors said the cause of death was starvation. He was among 15 people to starve to death in the last 24 hours in Gaza, according to doctors who say a wave of hunger that has loomed over the enclave for months is now finally crashing down. Yousef's family couldn't find baby formula to feed him, said his uncle, Adham al-Safadi. "You can't get milk anywhere, and if you do find any it's $100 for a tub," he said, looking at his dead nephew. Three of the other Palestinians who died of hunger over the last day were also children, including 13-year-old Abdulhamid al-Ghalban, who died in a hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis. Israeli forces have killed nearly 60,000 Palestinians in airstrikes, shelling and shooting since launching their assault on Gaza in response to attacks on Israel by the Hamas group that killed 1,200 people and captured 251 hostages in October 2023. For the first time since the war began, Palestinian officials say dozens are now also dying of hunger. Gaza has seen its food stocks run out since Israel cut off all supplies to the territory in March and then lifted that blockade in May with new measures it says are needed to prevent aid from being diverted to militant groups. At least 101 people are known to have died of hunger during the conflict, according to Palestinian officials, including 80 children, most of them in just the last few weeks. Israel, which controls all supplies entering Gaza, denies it is responsible for shortages of food. Israel's military said it "views the transfer of humanitarian aid into Gaza as a matter of utmost importance", and works to facilitate its entry in coordination with the international community. It has blamed the United Nations for failing to protect aid it says is stolen by Hamas and other militants. The fighters deny stealing it. Asked for comment, a White House official sided with Israel's position that Hamas is to blame. The official said the United States supports the Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation aid organisation. "It's horrific that Hamas continues to target this crucial aid and hinder GHF's ability to deliver life-saving assistance by placing bounties on aid workers, targeting contractors, and spreading disinformation," the official said. More than 800 people have been killed in recent weeks trying to reach food, mostly in mass shootings by Israeli soldiers posted near GHF distribution centres. The United Nations has rejected this system as inherently unsafe, and a violation of humanitarian neutrality principles needed to ensure that distribution succeeds. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called the situation for the 2.3 million residents of the Palestinian enclave a "horror show". "We are seeing the last gasp of a humanitarian system built on humanitarian principles," Guterres told the U.N. Security Council. "That system is being denied the conditions to function." The Norwegian Refugee Council, which supported hundreds of thousands of Gazans in the first year of the war, said its aid stocks were now depleted and some of its own staff were starving. "Our last tent, our last food parcel, our last relief items have been distributed. There is nothing left," its director Jan Egeland told Reuters. "Israel is not yielding. They just want to paralyse our work," he said. The head of the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency said on Tuesday that its staff, as well as doctors and humanitarian workers, were fainting on duty in Gaza due to hunger and exhaustion. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Tuesday that images of civilians killed during the distribution of aid were "unbearable" and urged Israel to deliver on pledges to improve the situation. FOOD AND MEDICINE SHORTAGES On Tuesday, men and boys lugged sacks of flour past destroyed buildings and tarpaulins in Gaza City, grabbing what food they could from aid warehouses. "We haven't eaten for five days," said Mohammed Jundia. Israeli military statistics showed on Tuesday that an average of 146 trucks of aid per day had entered Gaza over the course of the war. The United States has said a minimum of 600 trucks per day are needed to feed Gaza's population. "Hospitals are already overwhelmed by the number of casualties from gunfire. They can't provide much more help for hunger-related symptoms because of food and medicine shortages," said Khalil al-Deqran, a spokesperson for the health ministry. Deqran said some 600,000 people were suffering from malnutrition, including at least 60,000 pregnant women. Symptoms among those going hungry include dehydration and anaemia, he said. Baby formula in particular is in critically short supply, according to aid groups, doctors and residents. The health ministry said at least 72 Palestinians were killed by Israeli gunfire and military strikes in the past 24 hours, including 16 people living in tents in Gaza City. The Israeli military said it wasn't aware of any incident or artillery in the area at that time.
Hamilton Spectator
5 hours ago
- Hamilton Spectator
US organ donation system faces scrutiny and changes after reports of disturbing near-misses
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. is developing new safeguards for the organ transplant system after a government investigation found a Kentucky group continued preparations for organ donation by some patients who showed signs of life, officials told Congress Tuesday. While the organ removals were canceled, near misses that some lawmakers called horrifying should never happen. A House subcommittee asked how to repair trust in the transplant network for potential organ donors and families — some of whom have opted out of donor registries after these cases were publicized. 'We have to get this right,' said Rep. Brett Guthrie, a Kentucky Republican who chairs the Energy and Commerce Committee and whose mother died waiting for a liver transplant. 'Hopefully people will walk away today knowing we need to address issues but still confident that they can give life,' Guthrie said, adding that he will remain a registered organ donor. The hearing came after a federal investigation began last fall into allegations that a Kentucky donation group pressured a hospital in 2021 to proceed with plans to withdraw life support and retrieve organs from a man despite signs that he might be waking up from his drug overdose. That surgery never happened after a doctor noticed him moving and moaning while being transported to the operating room — and the man survived. Lawmakers stressed most organ donations proceed appropriately and save tens of thousands of lives a year. But the federal probe – concluded in March but only made public ahead of Tuesday's hearing — cited a 'concerning pattern of risk' in dozens of other cases involving the Kentucky group's initial planning to recover someone's organs. The report said some should have been stopped or reassessed earlier, and mostly involved small or rural hospitals with less experience in caring for potential organ donors. The Kentucky organ procurement organization, or OPO, has made changes and the national transplant network is working on additional steps. But notably absent Tuesday was any testimony from hospitals – whose doctors must independently determine a patient is dead before donation groups are allowed to retrieve organs. Here's a look at how the nation's transplant system works. There's a dire need for organ donation More than 100,000 people are on the U.S. transplant list and about 13 a day die waiting, according to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network. Only about 1% of deaths occur in a way that allows someone to even be considered for organ donation . Most people declared dead in a hospital will quickly be transferred to a funeral home or morgue instead. How the U.S. organ transplant system is set up Several groups are involved in every transplant: the hospital caring for someone dead or dying; the 55 OPOs that coordinate recovery of organs and help match them to patients on the waiting list; and transplant centers that decide if an organ is the right fit for their patients. Adding to the complexity, two government agencies — HRSA, the Health Resources and Services Administration, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services — share regulatory oversight of different parts of the donation and transplant process. How deceased donation works Most organ donors are brain-dead – when testing determines someone has no brain function after a catastrophic injury. The body is left on a ventilator to support the organs until they can be retrieved. But increasingly organs are donated after circulatory death, called DCD – when people die because their heart stops. It usually happens when doctors determine someone has a nonsurvivable injury and the family withdraws life support. Donation groups don't provide hands-on patient care Hospitals are required to alert their area OPO to every potential donor who is declared brain-dead or once the decision to withdraw life support is made. The OPOs by law can't participate in that decision and 'we are not even in the room at that time,' said Barry Massa of Kentucky's Network for Hope. During the following days of preparation, hospital employees continue caring for the patient – while the donation team talks with the family about the process, gathers hospital records showing the patient is eligible, requests tests of organ quality, and make arrangements with transplant centers to use them. Once the hospital withdraws life support and the heart stops beating there's a mandatory wait – five minutes – to be sure it won't restart. When the doctor declares death, the organ retrieval process can begin. Organs are only considered usable if death occurs relatively quickly, usually up to about two hours. Sometimes that takes much longer and thus the organs can't be used – and HRSA's Dr. Raymond Lynch told Congress that doesn't necessarily mean anything was done wrong. Still, he said HRSA is investigating reports of possible mistakes elsewhere. 'This is a technically demanding form of care' that requires 'good collaboration between the OPO and the hospital,' he said. What happens next At issue is how doctors are sure when it's time to withdraw life support from a dying patient — and the delicate balance of how OPOs interact with hospital staff in preparing for donation once death occurs. In May, HRSA quietly ordered the U.S. transplant network to oversee improvements at the Kentucky OPO and to develop new national policies making clear that anyone – family, hospital staff or organ donation staff – can call for a pause in donation preparations any time there are concerns about the patient's eligibility. Lynch said the government now wants more proactive collaboration from OPOs to give hospital staff 'a clear understanding' of when to at least temporarily halt and reevaluate a potential donor if their health status changes. Kentucky's Massa said his group only received HRSA's reports this week – but that after learning about last fall's allegations, it made some changes. Massa said every hospital doctor and nurse now gets a checklist on caring for potential donors and how to pause when concerns are raised — and anyone can anonymously report complaints. ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
5 hours ago
'Indescribable' crisis deepens for many mothers, malnourished children in Gaza as IDF expands military operation
LONDON and DEIR AL BALAH, Gaza Strip -- In the children's ward in the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Hospital in Deir al Balah, central Gaza, the impact of Gaza's deteriorating humanitarian crisis is on full display. There are around 30 children receiving treatment in the ward, local staff told ABC News, and all of them are suffering from the effects of malnutrition. Nourhan Salha said she took her 5-month-old daughter to the hospital after she fell ill and was unable to gain weight. Haya suffered from complications at birth, her mother said, due to a lack of oxygen. The baby's weak immune system at birth was exacerbated by a lack of baby formula available in Gaza, Nourhan said. "It's a difficult feeling to see my daughter sick," she said. "And I can't do anything for her. It's a really hard thing for a mother to feel like this; it's indescribable." COGAT, the Israel i organization in charge of facilitating aid into the Gaza Strip, says there is no ban on baby formula entering the strip, and they have delivered over 2,000 tons of formula and baby food into Gaza. But Salha said that baby formula is difficult to access, either due to a lack of availability or prohibitively high prices. UNRWA, the UN agency that supports Palestinian refugees, says that "malnutrition has increased amid severe shortages of nutrition supplies" and that one in ten children screened in their medical facilities is malnourished. The United Nations Population Fund has warned that pregnant women are particularly vulnerable in Gaza, with hunger increasing the chance of miscarriages, low birth rate and other complications for newborns. Some of the children at Al Aqsa Martyrs are suffering from other conditions, exacerbated by their underlying malnutrition, doctors said. Om Ismael Abu Zannana, a mother of three, took her 2-year-old daughter to the hospital after they struggled to find food for several days after she said the family had been displaced a week ago. Her daughter fainted, she said, after feeling dizzy. "My daughter wants to eat, and I can't afford to get her or myself anything to eat. Or to my other children at the tent," Zannana told ABC News. In the hospital, Haya is able to drink some of the formula she desperately needs, her mother said. But each day is a struggle for survival. "Sometimes we buy [formula] from the market. It used to be available," she said. "But now it's not. It's too expensive and not available in enough quantities." At the nearby Deir al Balah market, what were once thriving stalls full of produce now look scarce. Shopkeepers and customers complain of both a lack of supply, and the food and basic necessities they do have on offer are prohibitively expensive for many. "Prices are unimaginable, the situation is tragic," Ayed Shaheen, a shopkeeper, told ABC News. Asked about prospective ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas, Shaheen's ire seemed to turn towards the Hamas negotiators abroad, who are in talks with Israel. "Find us a solution, what are you negotiating about?" he said. "We are humans, not dogs, we want to eat and live, just like you [negotiators] living abroad eating meat, lamb and fish and living the best way. We want to live like you are living." The World Food Programme warned on Sunday that 90,000 women and children in Gaza now urgently need treatment for malnutrition, but for many there does not appear to be respite from the Israeli military campaign in the near future. Israel denies there is widespread starvation in Gaza, and has accused Hamas of exploiting humanitarian aid deliveries to pay for its "war machine." On Sunday, the IDF issued new evacuation orders for the city of Deir al Balah, although neither the market nor the hospital fall under the latest evacuation orders. The evacuation order has cut off the coastal area of Al Mawasi, where thousands of Palestinians are living in tents, from the city to the rest of central Gaza, where most humanitarian organizations in the Strip are headquartered, according to a visual analysis by ABC News. From the market, smoke can be seen rising in the near distance from the renewed attacks on the city. As the war continues to close in, Nourhan hopes that her family will not be abandoned. "I ask the world to stop the war," she said. "Open the borders and provide milk and diapers for the children. It's not fair what's happening to us." Witnesses have reported a major increase in military activity in the city, which has so far been relatively untouched in over 21 months of war. From the market, smoke from Israel's expanded ground operation there can be seen rising in the near distance.
