logo
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

Yahoo20-07-2025
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.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Famine unfolding across Gaza, says global hunger monitor
Famine unfolding across Gaza, says global hunger monitor

Washington Post

time10 hours ago

  • Washington Post

Famine unfolding across Gaza, says global hunger monitor

BEIRUT — Famine is 'playing out' across Gaza, the world's leading hunger monitor said Tuesday, in its strongest warning yet on the rapidly growing starvation crisis, as images of emaciated children shock the world and there is growing international criticism of Israel's war tactics. The enclave, which has long been reliant on aid as a heavy Israeli and Egyptian blockade took its toll, has been teetering on the edge of famine for two years of conflict, the report from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification said. The situation has 'worsened dramatically' in recent months, with food consumption at its lowest level since the conflict between Israel and Hamas began. 'The worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out in the Gaza Strip,' the IPC alert read. The IPC, a panel developed by the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization, can formally declare a famine only after the completion of a full analysis, which is underway. 'Mounting evidence shows that widespread starvation, malnutrition, and disease are driving a rise in hunger-related deaths,' it said. 'Latest data indicates that Famine thresholds have been reached for food consumption in most of the Gaza Strip and for acute malnutrition in Gaza City.' In recent days, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly denied that there is any starvation in Gaza, describing it as a 'bold-faced lie.' But images, data verified by the globe's leading food crisis monitor, countless warnings by the United Nations and aid agencies, and hundreds of interviews with Palestinian civilians and doctors, show otherwise. At least 147 people have died of malnutrition, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, including 88 children. The number is almost twice as high as it was a month earlier. On Sunday, amid growing international pressure and a domestic political window, Israel said it would ease some of the restrictions in place on allowing aid for the Gazan population — more trucks would be able to enter, secure corridors for their movement would be created, and fighting would pause for 10 hours per day in three major population centers to help with distribution. U.N. officials welcomed the shift in Israeli policy, but they warned that if it is only enacted for one week, as Israeli military officials told them it would be, it would not be enough to reverse the tide of starvation-related deaths. Publicly, the military said the tactical pauses and increased aid into Gaza would last 'until further notice.' But three days in, it is not immediately clear how much of an impact the increased flow of aid into Gaza is having. The Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), the branch of the Israeli military that handles civil affairs in the occupied territories, said that on Monday they allowed 200 trucks to be collected and distributed, 20 pallets of aid to be dropped from the sky and the entry of four fuel tankers. Desperation, though, is so high that convoys have been mobbed by hungry Palestinians and it is not clear how much of the aid has made it to organized distribution areas. The U.N. World Food Program said Tuesday that despite Israel's shift in policy, it is still not being allowed to get the necessary volumes of humanitarian aid into Gaza. 'We have not gotten the authorization, the permission to move in the volumes that we've requested,' Ross Smith, a senior regional program adviser at WFP said at a briefing in Geneva. An area is classified as in famine when it meets three conditions, the IPC explained: at least one in three children must be acutely malnourished; one in five people must be suffering extreme food shortages; and two in every 10,000 people must die daily from starvation or malnutrition and disease. Based on the latest data, which is as of July 25, two famine thresholds have been passed, the IPC said. The Israeli government did not immediately comment on the findings. Between May and July, the proportion of households experiencing extreme hunger has doubled, the alert said. In most areas of the Gaza Strip, the level of food consumption has passed the threshold for famine, it added, and in Gaza City, the threshold has been passed for the number of malnourished children. The Famine Review Committee, an independent body that vets IPC findings, endorsed the alert and said that while 'an extreme lack of humanitarian access' hinders data collection in Gaza, that it is 'clear from available evidence that starvation, malnutrition, and mortality are rapidly accelerating.'

"Worst-case scenario of famine unfolding" in Gaza Strip, food security experts say
"Worst-case scenario of famine unfolding" in Gaza Strip, food security experts say

CBS News

time10 hours ago

  • CBS News

"Worst-case scenario of famine unfolding" in Gaza Strip, food security experts say

The "worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out in the Gaza Strip," the leading international authority on food crises said in a new alert Tuesday, predicting "widespread death" without immediate action. The alert, still short of a formal famine declaration, follows an outcry over images of emaciated children in Gaza and reports of dozens of hunger-related deaths after nearly 22 months of war. The international pressure led Israel over the weekend to announce measures, including daily humanitarian pauses in fighting in parts of Gaza and airdrops. The United Nations and Palestinians on the ground say little has changed, and desperate crowds continue to overwhelm and unload delivery trucks before they can reach their destinations. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or IPC, said Gaza has teetered on the brink of famine for two years, but recent developments have "dramatically worsened" the situation, including "increasingly stringent blockades" by Israel. "Mounting evidence shows that widespread starvation, malnutrition, and disease are driving a rise in hunger-related deaths. Latest data indicates that Famine thresholds have been reached for food consumption in most of the Gaza Strip and for acute malnutrition in Gaza City," the IPC said. "Immediate action must be taken to end the hostilities and allow for unimpeded, large-scale, life-saving humanitarian response. This is the only path to stopping further deaths and catastrophic human suffering." A formal famine declaration, which is rare, requires the kind of data that the lack of access to Gaza and mobility within it have largely denied. The IPC has only declared famine a few times - in Somalia in 2011, South Sudan in 2017 and 2020, and parts of Sudan's western Darfur region last year. But independent experts say they don't need a formal declaration to know what they're seeing in Gaza. "Just as a family physician can often diagnose a patient she's familiar with based on visible symptoms without having to send samples to the lab and wait for results, so too we can interpret Gaza's symptoms. This is famine," Alex de Waal, author of "Mass Starvation: The History and Future of Famine" and executive director of the World Peace Foundation, told The Associated Press. An area is classified as in famine when all three of the following conditions are confirmed: At least 20% of households have an extreme lack of food, or are essentially starving. At least 30% of children six months to 5 years old suffer from acute malnutrition or wasting, meaning they're too thin for their height. And at least two people or four children under 5 per 10,000 are dying daily due to starvation or the interaction of malnutrition and disease. The report is based on available information through July 25 and says the crisis has reached "an alarming and deadly turning point." It says data indicate that famine thresholds have been reached for food consumption in most of Gaza - at its lowest level since the war began - and for acute malnutrition in Gaza City. The report says nearly 17 out of every 100 children under the age of 5 in Gaza City are acutely malnourished. Mounting evidence shows "widespread starvation," the IPC health and other services have collapsed. One in three people in Gaza is going without food for days at a time, according to the World Food Program. Hospitals report a rapid increase in hunger-related deaths in children under 5. Gaza's population of over 2 million has been squeezed into increasingly tiny areas of the devastated territory. The IPC's latest analysis in May warned that Gaza will likely fall into famine if Israel doesn't lift its blockade and stop its military campaign. Its new alert calls for immediate and large-scale action and warns: "Failure to act now will result in widespread death in much of the strip." Israel has restricted aid to varying degrees throughout the war. In March, it cut off the entry of all goods, including fuel, food and medicine, to pressure Hamas to free hostages. Israel eased those restrictions in May but also pushed ahead with a new U.S.-backed aid delivery system that has been wracked by chaos and violence. The traditional, U.N.-led aid providers say deliveries have been hampered by Israeli military restrictions and incidents of looting, while criminals and hungry crowds swarm entering convoys. While Israel says there's no limit on how many aid trucks can enter Gaza, U.N. agencies and aid groups say even the latest humanitarian measures are not enough to counter the worsening starvation. In a statement Monday, Doctors Without Borders called the new airdrops ineffective and dangerous, saying they deliver less aid than trucks. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said no one is starving in Gaza and that Israel has supplied enough aid throughout the war, "otherwise, there would be no Gazans." Israel's military on Monday criticized what it calls "false claims of deliberate starvation in Gaza." Israel's closest ally now appears to disagree. "Those children look very hungry," President Donald Trump said Monday of the images from Gaza in recent Ott contributed to this report.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store