Dr. Sanjay Gupta details life-threatening hunger in Gaza
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CNN
28 minutes ago
- CNN
Five-month-old baby dies in mother's arms in Gaza, a new victim of escalating starvation crisis
A 5-month-old Palestinian baby suffering from severe malnutrition died in her mother's arms in Gaza Friday, one of the latest victims of a starvation crisis that has generated international outrage but continues to deepen. The girl – Zeinab Abu Halib – died Friday as her mother tried to get her to a hospital in southern Gaza. 'Zeinab has been in and out of the hospital for the last three months,' her mother, Israa Abu Halib, told CNN on Saturday. 'I had to walk for more than 30 minutes as there is no transportation… The dirt road was so long, the weather was so hot, but I kept walking even though I was hungry and didn't have water.' 'Suddenly I felt that she stopped moving and breathing; her body became heavier,' Abu Halib said. 'I don't know what to say anymore. How many innocent babies like Zeinab should be starved to death so the world wakes up?' she asked. Zeinab 'died from complications of severe malnutrition,' said Dr. Munir al-Boursh, Director General of the Ministry of Health, in a post on X. 'She was left to waste away until she became skin over bones…Over 260,000 children under the age of five in Gaza are suffering from malnutrition,' al-Boursh said. The health ministry said Friday that 122 people had died from malnutrition in Gaza since the conflict began in 2023, including 83 children. The majority of those deaths have occurred since early March, when Israel refused to allow aid deliveries into Gaza to continue. Although the ban was partially lifted in late May, aid agencies say the volume of aid being distributed is nowhere near what Gaza needs and malnutrition has spread. The NGO Doctors Without Borders said that a quarter of children aged 6 months to 5-years-old and pregnant or breastfeeding women screened last week at its Gaza facilities were malnourished. It said the number of people it was treating for malnutrition has quadrupled since May 18.
Boston Globe
an hour ago
- Boston Globe
No proof Hamas routinely stole UN aid, Israeli military officials say
Now, with hunger at crisis levels in the territory, Israel is coming under increased international pressure over its conduct of the war in Gaza and the humanitarian suffering it has brought. Doctors in the territory say that an increasing number of their patients are suffering from -- and dying of -- starvation. More than 100 aid agencies and rights groups warned this past week of 'mass starvation' and implored Israel to lift restrictions on humanitarian assistance. The European Union and at least 28 governments, including Israeli allies like Britain, France, and Canada, issued a joint statement condemning Israel's 'drip-feeding of aid' to Gaza's 2 million Palestinian residents. Advertisement Israel has largely brushed off the criticism. David Mencer, a government spokesperson, said this past week that there was 'no famine caused by Israel.' Instead, he blamed Hamas and poor coordination by the United Nations for any food shortages. Advertisement Israel moved in May toward replacing the UN-led aid system that had been in place for most of the 21-month war in Gaza, opting instead to back a private, American-run operation guarded by armed US contractors in areas controlled by Israeli military forces. Some aid still comes into Gaza through the United Nations and other organizations. The new system has proved to be much deadlier for Palestinians trying to obtain food handouts. According to the Gaza Health Ministry, almost 1,100 people have been killed by gunfire on their way to get food handouts under the new system, in many cases by Israeli soldiers who opened fire on hungry crowds. Israeli officials have said they fired shots in the air in some instances because the crowds came too close or endangered their forces. The military officials who spoke to The New York Times said that the original UN aid operation was relatively reliable and less vulnerable to Hamas interference than the operations of many of the other groups bringing aid into Gaza. That's largely because the United Nations managed its own supply chain and handled distribution directly inside Gaza. Hamas did steal from some of the smaller organizations that donated aid, as those groups were not always on the ground to oversee distribution, according to the senior Israeli officials and others involved in the matter. But, they say, there was no evidence that Hamas regularly stole from the United Nations, which provided the largest chunk of the aid. A Hamas representative did not immediately respond to requests for comment. An internal US government analysis came to a similar conclusion, Reuters reported Friday. It found no evidence of systematic Hamas theft of US-funded humanitarian supplies, the report said. Advertisement 'For months, we and other organizations were dragged through the mud by accusations that Hamas steals from us,' said Georgios Petropoulos, a former UN official in Gaza who oversaw aid coordination with Israel for nearly 13 months of war. The senior military officials and others interviewed by the Times spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly on behalf of the military or government. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office did not immediately respond to requests for comment. In a statement, the military said that it has been 'well documented' that Hamas has routinely 'exploited humanitarian aid to fund terrorist activities.' But the military did not dispute the assessment that there was no evidence that Hamas regularly stole aid from the United Nations. The Israeli government and military have often clashed over how to conduct the war in Gaza. Early last year, top commanders urged a cease-fire with Hamas to secure the release of hostages. Netanyahu's government instead expanded the ground operation in southern Gaza. Israel used the rationale that Hamas steals aid when it cut off all food and other supplies to Gaza between March and May. In March, after a cease-fire between Hamas and Israel collapsed, Netanyahu said: 'Hamas is currently taking control of all supplies and goods entering Gaza,' and he declared that Israel would prevent anything from entering the territory. That blockade, and problems with a new aid system that launched in May, brought hunger and starvation in Gaza to the current crisis levels. For most of the war, the UN was the largest single source of aid entering Gaza, according to data from the Israeli military unit that oversees policy in the territory. Advertisement Now, the new aid system is managed instead by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a private American company led by a former CIA agent. It was intended to eventually replace international aid organizations and the UN role. But it has only a few distribution hubs, compared with hundreds under the former UN-run operation. The new system's rollout at the end of May was quickly followed by near-daily episodes of deadly violence near distribution sites. Desperate and hungry Palestinians must go to the few aid distribution sites located in areas controlled by Israeli forces. The hours of operation are limited and supplies run out, so crowds arrive early, with some walking for miles to get there. Since May 19, when Israel allowed emergency supplies to resume entering Gaza after its two-month blockade, half of the aid has been distributed by the United Nations and international organizations, with the other half coming through the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the Israeli military says. Petropoulos welcomed the notion that some Israeli officials had recognized the UN-led aid system as effective during the war. But he said he wished that endorsement had come much sooner. 'If the UN had been taken at face value months ago, we wouldn't have wasted all this time and Gazans wouldn't be starving and being shot at trying to feed their families,' he said. This article originally appeared in
CNN
an hour ago
- CNN
Five-month-old baby dies in mother's arms in Gaza, a new victim of escalating starvation crisis
The Middle East Food & healthFacebookTweetLink Follow A 5-month-old Palestinian baby suffering from severe malnutrition died in her mother's arms in Gaza Friday, one of the latest victims of a starvation crisis that has generated international outrage but continues to deepen. The girl – Zeinab Abu Halib – died Friday as her mother tried to get her to a hospital in southern Gaza. 'Zeinab has been in and out of the hospital for the last three months,' her mother, Israa Abu Halib, told CNN on Saturday. 'I had to walk for more than 30 minutes as there is no transportation… The dirt road was so long, the weather was so hot, but I kept walking even though I was hungry and didn't have water.' 'Suddenly I felt that she stopped moving and breathing; her body became heavier,' Abu Halib said. 'I don't know what to say anymore. How many innocent babies like Zeinab should be starved to death so the world wakes up?' she asked. Zeinab 'died from complications of severe malnutrition,' said Dr. Munir al-Boursh, Director General of the Ministry of Health, in a post on X. 'She was left to waste away until she became skin over bones…Over 260,000 children under the age of five in Gaza are suffering from malnutrition,' al-Boursh said. The health ministry said Friday that 122 people had died from malnutrition in Gaza since the conflict began in 2023, including 83 children. The majority of those deaths have occurred since early March, when Israel refused to allow aid deliveries into Gaza to continue. Although the ban was partially lifted in late May, aid agencies say the volume of aid being distributed is nowhere near what Gaza needs and malnutrition has spread. The NGO Doctors Without Borders said that a quarter of children aged 6 months to 5-years-old and pregnant or breastfeeding women screened last week at its Gaza facilities were malnourished. It said the number of people it was treating for malnutrition has quadrupled since May 18.
