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Newborn baby starves to death in Gaza as Israel kills 116 more Palestinians

Newborn baby starves to death in Gaza as Israel kills 116 more Palestinians

Yahoo6 days ago
A Palestinian baby has died of starvation in Gaza as Israel maintains its blockade on aid supplies and fires on people forced to seek food at controversial United States-backed aid sites described as 'death traps'.
The 35-day-old infant died of malnutrition at Gaza City's al-Shifa Hospital, director Muhammad Abu Salmiya told Al Jazeera. The unnamed infant was one of two people who succumbed to starvation in the facility on Saturday.
The deaths occurred as Gaza's Ministry of Health warned that hospital emergency wards were overwhelmed by unprecedented numbers of starving people, with officials saying that 17,000 children in Gaza are suffering from severe malnutrition.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military continued to pound the Strip, with medical sources reporting that at least 116 people were killed across the enclave since dawn, including 38 who were shot dead while seeking food from aid sites run by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
Civil defence agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said the deaths happened near a site southwest of Khan Yunis and another centre northwest of Rafah, both in southern Gaza, attributing the fatalities to 'Israeli gunfire'.
The Health Ministry says almost 900 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces and private military contractors near dangerous GHF sites since the foundation began distributing aid in late May, opening four points that replaced about 400 centres run by United Nations agencies and charities.
Witness Mohammed al-Khalidi told Al Jazeera the shots fired at aid seekers on Saturday were 'meant to kill'.
'Suddenly, we saw the jeeps coming from one side and the tanks from the other, and they started shooting at us,' he said.
Another witness, Mohammed al-Barbary, whose cousin died in the shootings, said the GHF sites are 'death traps'.
'Anyone can get killed. My cousin was innocent. He went to get food. He wanted to live. We want to live like everyone else,' said al-Barbary.
Reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, Al Jazeera's Hind Khoudary said families hoping for something to eat are instead burying their loved ones.
The GHF denied that Saturday's killings happened at its site, claiming they occurred 'several kilometres away' and 'hours before our sites opened'.
The Israeli military said it was reviewing the incident.'Open the gates'
Jagan Chapagain, the secretary-general of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, warned that Palestinians in Gaza face 'an acute risk of famine'.
'No one should have to risk their life to get basic humanitarian assistance,' he said.
Basic supplies are not available in markets or distribution points, while the cost of essentials such as flour skyrocketed, making it impossible for the population of 2.3 million to meet their daily nutritional needs.
Jan Egeland, the head of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), rejected assertions made earlier in the week by European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, who noted 'some good signs' regarding aid distribution in Gaza.
'For NRC and many others no relief has entered for 142 days. Not one truck. Not one delivery,' Egeland wrote on X. He noted that 85 percent of aid trucks never reach their destination because of looting or other issues fuelled by the Gaza starvation crisis.The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, which Israel has banned from operating in the Palestinian territory, including in occupied East Jerusalem, said it had 'enough food for the entire population of Gaza' waiting at the border crossing in Egypt.
'Open the gates, lift the siege and allow UNRWA to do its work,' the organisation said on X.
Wave of attacks
At least 116 Palestinians were killed in Gaza on Saturday as Israel continued its ruthless onslaught, bombing tents for the displaced and homes across the enclave.
Four bodies were recovered from the site of Israeli strikes on Bani Suheila near southern Khan Younis, sources at Nasser Hospital told Al Jazeera.
At least one person was killed by an Israeli drone attack on a tent housing displaced Palestinians in Khan Younis.
Further north, Israel struck a residential home in the town of az-Zawayda in central Gaza, killing the director of the Nuseirat police, Colonel Omar Saeed Aql, along with 11 of his family members, according to the Interior Ministry.
In Gaza City, three people were killed in two Israeli air attacks on the Zeitoun neighbourhood, according to a source at al-Ahli Hospital.
Also in the city, five people were killed in an Israeli air attack on the Tal al-Hawa neighbourhood, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent.
Medical sources said two people were killed in Israeli shelling in the Jabalia an-Nazla neighbourhood, in northern Gaza.
Israeli forces also opened fire on and arrested three Palestinian fishermen off the Gaza coast, according to the Palestinian Prisoners' Media Office.
The Israeli military has maintained a naval blockade on Gaza since 2007, when Hamas took over the enclave, which has been tightened since the start of the war in October 2023.
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Doctors in Gaza are fainting while trying to save their starving patients
Doctors in Gaza are fainting while trying to save their starving patients

CNN

time4 hours ago

  • CNN

Doctors in Gaza are fainting while trying to save their starving patients

Dr. Mohammad Saqer is hungry. So ravenous that he sometimes struggles to keep upright while treating his desperately ill patients at the Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza. On Thursday, he fainted while working at the ward. And then, moments after recovering, he returned to finish his 24-hour shift. 'My fellow doctors caught me before I collapsed and gave me IV fluids and (sugar). There was a foreign doctor who had a packet of Tango juice and prepared it for me. I drank it immediately,' Dr. Saqer told CNN. 'I am not diabetic – this was hunger. There's no sugar. There's no food.' As Gaza's hunger crisis deepens, the very people who are trying to keep the gravely malnourished population alive are suffering along with their patients. Dr. Saqer said the number of his colleagues who have fainted at work has risen rapidly in recent days, with doctors and nurses across multiple departments collapsing from hunger and exhaustion. Dr. Fadel Naim, a surgeon and the director of the Al-Ahli Al-Arabi hospital, in the north of the Strip, told CNN that many of his colleagues have also fallen over from hunger and malnutrition, including two who collapsed during surgeries this week. 'Since I am the director of the hospital, one of my tasks is to find food for the staff … we aren't getting enough food. If we have one meal a day, we are lucky, and most people (at the hospital) are working 24/7 – it's very hard to continue like that,' Dr. Naim said. The firsthand testimonies of the two doctors tally with what a group of more than 100 international humanitarian organizations said earlier this week, when they warned that they were 'witnessing their own colleagues and partners waste away before their eyes.' Dr. Saqer is the director of nursing at the Nasser Hospital, but like other medics there, he gets just one small plate of rice to eat each day. 'We are physically drained, and we are required to treat patients who are equally drained. Exhausted people treating other exhausted people, the hungry treating the hungry, the weak treating the weak,' he said. The ward treating malnourished children at Nasser Hospital where Dr. Saqer works is full of babies that are so skinny, they no longer look human. The bones in their faces, spines and ribcages appear to be protruding from under their skin. Their long, thin limbs resemble limp noodles, barely moving. A CNN video filmed on Friday shows many of them crying, but some are so weak they are no longer even capable of that. They just lie in their cots or on mattresses placed on the floor and observe the world around them with eyes that look enormous on their emaciated faces. Several have bloated stomachs – the tell-tale sign of malnutrition. The mothers desperately trying to feed them are skinny themselves. They too look exhausted and terrified. One of them, Yasmin Abu Sultan, spoke to CNN as she was trying to feed her daughter Mona with a syringe. 'She needs fruits. We need to feed her vegetables but there's nothing … mothers used to breastfeed. We didn't rely on formula, now most mothers depend on it due to lack of food. It's impossible for women to breastfeed without food,' she said. Another mother, Najah Hashem Darbakh, said that while the doctors gave her daughter Sila Darbakh supplements, there was no formula available for her. She needs the milk because she is suffering from chronic diarrhea and dehydration. 'I told them I need milk. They said, you can go and try to get milk yourself if you can, but here in this room alone, four children have died from malnutrition. I'm terrified my daughter will be the fifth.' Yet at least babies Mona and Sila Darbakh are in a hospital where they can get some medical attention – albeit not nearly enough. Another mother who spoke to CNN, Hidaya Al Mtawwaq, lives in a tent near the Al-Ahli Al-Arabi hospital in Gaza City with her son Mohammad. He is three years old and weighs just six kilograms (13 lbs) — down from nine kilograms (20lbs) just a few months ago. 'He can't stand on his feet, and he can't move like before, all because of the famine and lack of food,' she told CNN. Al Mtawwaq has taken Mohammad to several hospitals and has always been told the same — he urgently needs nutritional supplements that are not available in Gaza. All she can get for his is a little bit of milk — and even that is becoming extremely difficult. Al Mtawwaq said her husband has been killed in the war. 'I struggle just to afford a can of milk for him. I'm truly exhausted. Exhausted, exhausted.' All of Gaza's 2.1 million people are now food insecure, without reliable access to enough affordable, nutritious and healthy food, the UN said this week. According to Gaza's health ministry, 900,000 children are going hungry, and 70,000 already show signs of malnutrition. The situation is worsening by the hour. Doctors Without Borders said Thursday that the rates of severe malnutrition in children under five in its clinics have tripled in the last two weeks alone. Dr. Naim said children born during the war are especially vulnerable to health problems caused by malnutrition. 'Those who are two or three years old have grown up in unhealthy conditions, with weakened immunity and allergies. They suffer from problems in brain development and motor function, and these issues will persist into the future, even if they survive the hunger,' he told CNN, adding that he feels that Gaza has been abandoned by the world. 'As peaceful Palestinian people, we are being collectively punished … (US) President (Donald) Trump must take a strong stance, especially as he claims to be a man of peace and committed to achieving peace.' Like all of his colleagues, Dr. Saqer said he keeps thinking about his family while treating his patients. Because in Gaza, doctors can never be sure that the next casualty coming through their door won't be someone dear to them. 'We are working, sadly, with our minds on our families, who are starving,' he told CNN, adding that when his wife told him this week that there was no food, he went to the market, trying to buy some. 'Flour is now priced like gold in Gaza. I bought two kilograms (4.4 lb), just enough for three days, for 310 shekels ($92),' he said. According to the International Monetary Fund, the average daily wage in Gaza was just under $13 per day in 2021, the latest available data. Humanitarian organizations have long been warning about the risk of famine in Gaza. The territory has always been dependent on humanitarian aid, but the flows of food and other necessities have been severely restricted by Israel following the October 7, 2023 terror attacks that Hamas launched from Gaza. There have been periods during the war when no food was allowed into Gaza and while aid is currently trickling in, there isn't enough of it and even the little that does get through is not reaching those who need it the most. Finding food is becoming increasingly dangerous. The UN said this week that more than 1,000 people have been killed by Israeli forces while seeking food since late May, when the controversial Israel- and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, began operating. The director general of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday that Palestinians in Gaza are suffering from man-made 'mass starvation' because of Israel's decision to block aid. Israel has rejected the accusation and earlier this week, Israeli Minister of Heritage Amihai Eliyahu went as far as claiming that 'there is no hunger in Gaza' – despite the overwhelming evidence. Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid denounced Eliyahu's remarks as a 'moral attack and public diplomacy disaster.' Dr. Saqer said he had not seen his wife and children in three months, because he is needed at the hospital non-stop. Casualties can arrive any minute of any day, so he needs to be nearby even during his very limited down-time. The situation in Gaza is now 'beyond what the human mind can grasp,' he added. Amid the carnage and suffering, the doctors at Nasser have only each other to turn to. 'We try to encourage each other, reminding one another that this profession is rooted in humanity, and under no circumstances can we abandon our duty or the oath we took,' Dr. Saqer said.

Doctors in Gaza are fainting while trying to save their starving patients
Doctors in Gaza are fainting while trying to save their starving patients

CNN

time4 hours ago

  • CNN

Doctors in Gaza are fainting while trying to save their starving patients

The Middle East Food & health Israel-Hamas warFacebookTweetLink Follow Dr. Mohammad Saqer is hungry. So ravenous that he sometimes struggles to keep upright while treating his desperately ill patients at the Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza. On Thursday, he fainted while working at the ward. And then, moments after recovering, he returned to finish his 24-hour shift. 'My fellow doctors caught me before I collapsed and gave me IV fluids and (sugar). There was a foreign doctor who had a packet of Tango juice and prepared it for me. I drank it immediately,' Dr. Saqer told CNN. 'I am not diabetic – this was hunger. There's no sugar. There's no food.' As Gaza's hunger crisis deepens, the very people who are trying to keep the gravely malnourished population alive are suffering along with their patients. Dr. Saqer said the number of his colleagues who have fainted at work has risen rapidly in recent days, with doctors and nurses across multiple departments collapsing from hunger and exhaustion. Dr. Fadel Naim, a surgeon and the director of the Al-Ahli Al-Arabi hospital, in the north of the Strip, told CNN that many of his colleagues have also fallen over from hunger and malnutrition, including two who collapsed during surgeries this week. 'Since I am the director of the hospital, one of my tasks is to find food for the staff … we aren't getting enough food. If we have one meal a day, we are lucky, and most people (at the hospital) are working 24/7 – it's very hard to continue like that,' Dr. Naim said. The firsthand testimonies of the two doctors tally with what a group of more than 100 international humanitarian organizations said earlier this week, when they warned that they were 'witnessing their own colleagues and partners waste away before their eyes.' Dr. Saqer is the director of nursing at the Nasser Hospital, but like other medics there, he gets just one small plate of rice to eat each day. 'We are physically drained, and we are required to treat patients who are equally drained. Exhausted people treating other exhausted people, the hungry treating the hungry, the weak treating the weak,' he said. The ward treating malnourished children at Nasser Hospital where Dr. Saqer works is full of babies that are so skinny, they no longer look human. The bones in their faces, spines and ribcages appear to be protruding from under their skin. Their long, thin limbs resemble limp noodles, barely moving. A CNN video filmed on Friday shows many of them crying, but some are so weak they are no longer even capable of that. They just lie in their cots or on mattresses placed on the floor and observe the world around them with eyes that look enormous on their emaciated faces. Several have bloated stomachs – the tell-tale sign of malnutrition. The mothers desperately trying to feed them are skinny themselves. They too look exhausted and terrified. One of them, Yasmin Abu Sultan, spoke to CNN as she was trying to feed her daughter Mona with a syringe. 'She needs fruits. We need to feed her vegetables but there's nothing … mothers used to breastfeed. We didn't rely on formula, now most mothers depend on it due to lack of food. It's impossible for women to breastfeed without food,' she said. Another mother, Najah Hashem Darbakh, said that while the doctors gave her daughter Sila Darbakh supplements, there was no formula available for her. She needs the milk because she is suffering from chronic diarrhea and dehydration. 'I told them I need milk. They said, you can go and try to get milk yourself if you can, but here in this room alone, four children have died from malnutrition. I'm terrified my daughter will be the fifth.' Yet at least babies Mona and Sila Darbakh are in a hospital where they can get some medical attention – albeit not nearly enough. Another mother who spoke to CNN, Hidaya Al Mtawwaq, lives in a tent near the Al-Ahli Al-Arabi hospital in Gaza City with her son Mohammad. He is three years old and weighs just six kilograms (13 lbs) — down from nine kilograms (20lbs) just a few months ago. 'He can't stand on his feet, and he can't move like before, all because of the famine and lack of food,' she told CNN. Al Mtawwaq has taken Mohammad to several hospitals and has always been told the same — he urgently needs nutritional supplements that are not available in Gaza. All she can get for his is a little bit of milk — and even that is becoming extremely difficult. Al Mtawwaq said her husband has been killed in the war. 'I struggle just to afford a can of milk for him. I'm truly exhausted. Exhausted, exhausted.' All of Gaza's 2.1 million people are now food insecure, without reliable access to enough affordable, nutritious and healthy food, the UN said this week. According to Gaza's health ministry, 900,000 children are going hungry, and 70,000 already show signs of malnutrition. The situation is worsening by the hour. Doctors Without Borders said Thursday that the rates of severe malnutrition in children under five in its clinics have tripled in the last two weeks alone. Dr. Naim said children born during the war are especially vulnerable to health problems caused by malnutrition. 'Those who are two or three years old have grown up in unhealthy conditions, with weakened immunity and allergies. They suffer from problems in brain development and motor function, and these issues will persist into the future, even if they survive the hunger,' he told CNN, adding that he feels that Gaza has been abandoned by the world. 'As peaceful Palestinian people, we are being collectively punished … (US) President (Donald) Trump must take a strong stance, especially as he claims to be a man of peace and committed to achieving peace.' Like all of his colleagues, Dr. Saqer said he keeps thinking about his family while treating his patients. Because in Gaza, doctors can never be sure that the next casualty coming through their door won't be someone dear to them. 'We are working, sadly, with our minds on our families, who are starving,' he told CNN, adding that when his wife told him this week that there was no food, he went to the market, trying to buy some. 'Flour is now priced like gold in Gaza. I bought two kilograms (4.4 lb), just enough for three days, for 310 shekels ($92),' he said. According to the International Monetary Fund, the average daily wage in Gaza was just under $13 per day in 2021, the latest available data. Humanitarian organizations have long been warning about the risk of famine in Gaza. The territory has always been dependent on humanitarian aid, but the flows of food and other necessities have been severely restricted by Israel following the October 7, 2023 terror attacks that Hamas launched from Gaza. There have been periods during the war when no food was allowed into Gaza and while aid is currently trickling in, there isn't enough of it and even the little that does get through is not reaching those who need it the most. Finding food is becoming increasingly dangerous. The UN said this week that more than 1,000 people have been killed by Israeli forces while seeking food since late May, when the controversial Israel- and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, began operating. The director general of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday that Palestinians in Gaza are suffering from man-made 'mass starvation' because of Israel's decision to block aid. Israel has rejected the accusation and earlier this week, Israeli Minister of Heritage Amihai Eliyahu went as far as claiming that 'there is no hunger in Gaza' – despite the overwhelming evidence. Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid denounced Eliyahu's remarks as a 'moral attack and public diplomacy disaster.' Dr. Saqer said he had not seen his wife and children in three months, because he is needed at the hospital non-stop. Casualties can arrive any minute of any day, so he needs to be nearby even during his very limited down-time. The situation in Gaza is now 'beyond what the human mind can grasp,' he added. Amid the carnage and suffering, the doctors at Nasser have only each other to turn to. 'We try to encourage each other, reminding one another that this profession is rooted in humanity, and under no circumstances can we abandon our duty or the oath we took,' Dr. Saqer said.

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