Latest news with #Israel-besieged
The Star
31 minutes ago
- Politics
- The Star
Singapore prepared to recognise State of Palestine in principle; goal is to reach peace, two-state solution
Palestinians climb in the back of a truck on a coastal path west of Beit Lahia, after managing to get aid parcels on July 29, 2025, after aid trucks entered the Israel-besieged Gaza Strip from the northern Zikim border crossing. - AFP SINGAPORE: Singapore is prepared in principle to recognise the State of Palestine, with the key consideration being that such a move should help progress towards peace and a negotiated two-state solution. Singapore envoy Kevin Cheok, in a statement delivered at a UN conference of high-level representatives in New York on Tuesday (July 29), said Singapore is also considering the deployment of a medical team to the region, to help treat patients from Gaza. In the longer term, Singapore is prepared to contribute to the reconstruction of Gaza - once a permanent ceasefire agreement is reached, he added. The three-day United Nations conference on implementing a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians, which ends on July 30, was co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia. Cheok, who is MFA deputy secretary (Asia-Pacific), said Singapore also reiterates its call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. Singapore urges Israel to lift restrictions on delivering humanitarian aid to the region, and calls on Hamas to release all remaining hostages immediately and unconditionally, he said. Cheok said: 'What we are witnessing in Gaza today is heartbreaking. The denial of humanitarian aid is causing starvation and a dire lack of essential medical services. 'The reports of people being shot whilst desperately trying to access food are shocking. This is unconscionable and a violation of international humanitarian law.' - The Straits Times/ANN
Sinar Daily
4 hours ago
- Politics
- Sinar Daily
Food consumption, nutrition indicators in Gaza reached their worst levels
Gaza faces the grave risk of famine as food consumption and nutrition indicators have reached their worst levels since the conflict began. 30 Jul 2025 08:47am Palestinians bring back aid parcels they managed to procure as they walk on a coastal path west of Beit Lahia on July 29, 2025, after aid trucks entered the Israel-besieged Gaza Strip from the northern Zikim border crossing. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP) NEW YORK - United Nations (UN) Secretary-General António Guterres said Gaza faces the grave risk of famine as food consumption and nutrition indicators have reached their worst levels since the beginning of the conflict, the Emirates News Agency (WAM) reported. Gaza faces the grave risk of famine as food consumption and nutrition indicators have reached their worst levels since the conflict began, according to data shared in the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) Alert. Palestinians climb in the back of a truck ona coastal path west of Beit Lahia, after managing to get aid [arcels on July 29, 2025, after aid trucks entered the Israel-besieged Gaza Strip from the northern Zikim border crossing. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP) ''The latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification Alert confirms what we have feared: Gaza is on the brink of famine. "The facts are in - and they are undeniable. Palestinians in Gaza are enduring a humanitarian catastrophe of epic proportions. This is not a warning. It is a reality unfolding before our eyes,'' said the Secretary-General in response to the findings of the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification Alert. ''This nightmare must end,'' he added. The IPC Alert highlights that two out of the three famine thresholds have now been breached in parts of the territory, with the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and UNICEF warning that time is running out to mount a full-scale humanitarian response. Relentless conflict, the collapse of essential services, and severe limitations on the delivery and distribution of humanitarian assistance imposed on the UN have led to catastrophic food security conditions for hundreds of thousands of people across the Gaza Strip. Food consumption - the first core famine indicator - has plummeted in Gaza since the last IPC Update in May 2025. Data shows that more than one in three people (39 per cent) are now going days at a time without eating. More than 500,000 people - nearly a quarter of Gaza's population - are enduring famine-like conditions, while the remaining population is facing emergency levels of hunger. Acute malnutrition - the second core famine indicator - inside Gaza has risen at an unprecedented rate. In Gaza City, malnutrition levels among children under five have quadrupled in two months, reaching 16.5 per cent. This signals a critical deterioration in nutritional status and a sharp rise in the risk of death from hunger and malnutrition. - BERNAMA-WAM More Like This
Hindustan Times
7 hours ago
- Health
- Hindustan Times
Why there hasn't been a formal declaration of famine in Gaza
The leading international authority on food crises said Tuesday that the 'worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out in Gaza." It predicted 'widespread death' without immediate action. Palestinians crowd a coastal path west of Beit Lahia after managing to get aid parcels on July 29, 2025, following the entry of aid trucks to the Israel-besieged Gaza Strip.(AFP) The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or IPC, said Gaza has been on the brink of famine for two years, and that recent developments, including 'increasingly stringent blockades' by Israel, have 'dramatically worsened' the situation. Even though Israel eased a 2 1/2-month blockade on the territory in May, aid groups say only a trickle of assistance is getting into the enclave and that Palestinians face catastrophic levels of hunger 21 months into the Israeli offensive launched after Hamas' Oct. 7 attack. Hundreds have been killed by Israeli forces as they try to reach aid sites or convoys, according to witnesses, health officials and the United Nations' human rights office. The military says it has only fired warning shots. The IPC warning stopped short of a formal declaration of famine. Here's why: The IPC and aid groups says Gaza's hunger crisis is worsening Also read: UK says will recognise Palestinian state unless Israel agrees to ceasefire Gaza's population of roughly 2 million Palestinians relies almost entirely on outside aid. Israel's offensive has wiped out what was already limited local food production. Israel's blockade, along with ongoing fighting and chaos inside the territory, has further limited people's access to food. The UN World Food Program says Gaza's hunger crisis has reached 'new and astonishing levels of desperation." Nearly 100,000 women and children are suffering from severe acute malnutrition, and a third of Gaza's population is going days without eating, Ross Smith, the agency's director for emergencies, said Monday. The Gaza Health Ministry says there have been 82 malnutrition-related deaths in Gaza this month, including 24 children. It did not give their exact cause of death. The ministry, part of the Hamas-run government, is staffed by medical professionals and its figures on war deaths are seen by the UN and other experts as the most reliable estimate of casualties. Famine occurs when these conditions are met The IPC was first set up in 2004 during the famine in Somalia. It includes more than a dozen UN agencies, aid groups, governments and other bodies. Famine can appear in pockets — sometimes small ones — and a formal classification requires caution. The IPC has only declared famine a few times — in Somalia in 2011, and South Sudan in 2017 and 2020, and last year in parts of Sudan's western Darfur region. Tens of thousands are believed to have died in Somalia and South Sudan. It rates an area as in famine when all three of these conditions are confirmed: — 20% of households have an extreme lack of food, or are essentially starving. — At least 30% of children 6 months to 5 years old suffer from acute malnutrition, based on a weight-to-height measurement; or 15% of that age group suffer from acute malnutrition based on the circumference of their upper arm. — 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. Gaza poses a major challenge for experts because Israel severely limits access to the territory, making it difficult and in some cases impossible to gather data. The IPC said Tuesday that data indicate famine thresholds have been reached for food consumption in most of Gaza, and for acute malnutrition in Gaza City. Famine declarations usually come from the UN or governments While the IPC says it is the 'primary mechanism' used by the international community to conclude whether a famine is happening or projected, it typically doesn't make such a declaration itself. Often, UN officials together with governments will make a formal statement based on an analysis from the IPC. But the IPC says once a famine is declared it's already too late. While it can prevent further deaths, it means many people will have died by the time a famine is declared. It's not always clear that hunger is the cause of death Most cases of severe malnutrition in children arise through a combination of lack of nutrients along with an infection, leading to diarrhea and other symptoms that cause dehydration, said Alex de Waal, author of 'Mass Starvation: The History and Future of Famine' and executive director of the World Peace Foundation. 'There are no standard guidelines for physicians to classify cause of death as 'malnutrition' as opposed to infection," he said. When famine occurs, there are often relatively few deaths from hunger alone. Far more people die from a combination of malnutrition, disease and other forms of deprivation. All of these count as excess deaths — separate from violence — that can be attributed to a food crisis or famine, he said. The war has made it hard to get accurate information Israel's offensive has gutted Gaza's health system and displaced some 90% of its population. With hospitals damaged and overwhelmed by war casualties, it can be difficult to screen people for malnutrition and collect precise data on deaths. 'Data and surveillance systems are incomplete and eroded," said James Smith, an emergency doctor and lecturer in humanitarian policy at the University College London who spent more than two months in Gaza. 'Which means that all health indicators — and the death toll — are known to be an underestimation,' he said. Even when famine is declared, the response can be lacking A declaration of famine should in theory galvanize the international community to rush food to those who need it. But with aid budgets already stretched, and war and politics throwing up obstacles, that doesn't always happen. 'There is not a big, huge bank account' to draw on, said OCHA's Laerke. 'The fundamental problem is that we build the fire engine as we respond.' Aid groups say plenty of food and other aid has been gathered on Gaza's borders, but Israel is allowing only a small amount to enter. Within Gaza, gunfire, chaos and looting have plagued the distribution of food. The international pressure led Israel to announce new measures over the weekend, including daily humanitarian pauses in fighting in parts of Gaza and airdrops of food. Israel says there's no limit on how many aid trucks can enter Gaza. UN agencies say Israeli restrictions, and the breakdown of law and order, make it difficult to distribute the food that does come in. 'Only a massive scale-up in food aid distributions can stabilize this spiraling situation, calm anxieties and rebuild the trust within communities that more food is coming,' the World Food Program said. 'An agreed ceasefire is long overdue.'
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First Post
21-07-2025
- First Post
Gaza officials accuse Israel of killing 93 aid seekers, Pope Leo condemns strikes
The UN World Food Programme said its 25-truck convoy carrying food aid 'encountered massive crowds of hungry civilians which came under gunfire' near Gaza City, soon after it crossed from Israel and cleared checkpoints read more Palestinians look at foodstuffs for sale at a makeshift market in the Mawasi area of Rafah, amid a huge spike in prices of already scarce foodstuffs in the Israel-besieged Gaza Strip on July 20, 2025. AFP Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli forces opened fire on crowds of Palestinians trying to collect humanitarian aid in the war-torn Palestinian territory on Sunday, killing 93 people and wounding dozens more. Eighty were killed as truckloads of aid arrived in the north, while nine others were reported shot near an aid point close to Rafah in the south, where dozens of people lost their lives just 24 hours earlier. Four were killed near another aid site in Khan Yunis, also in the south, agency spokesman Mahmud Basal told AFP. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The UN World Food Programme said its 25-truck convoy carrying food aid 'encountered massive crowds of hungry civilians which came under gunfire' near Gaza City, soon after it crossed from Israel and cleared checkpoints. Israel's military disputed the death toll and said soldiers had fired warning shots 'to remove an immediate threat posed to them' as thousands gathered near Gaza City. Deaths of civilians seeking aid have become a regular occurrence in Gaza, with the authorities blaming Israeli fire as crowds facing chronic shortages of food and other essentials flock in huge numbers to aid centres. The UN said earlier this month that nearly 800 aid-seekers had been killed since late May, including on the routes of aid convoys. Like 'hunting animals' In Gaza City, Qasem Abu Khater, 36, told AFP he had rushed to try to get a bag of flour but instead found a desperate crowd of thousands and 'deadly overcrowding and pushing'. 'The tanks were firing shells randomly at us and Israeli sniper soldiers were shooting as if they were hunting animals in a forest,' he added. 'Dozens of people were martyred right before my eyes and no one could save anyone.' The WFP condemned violence against civilians seeking aid as 'completely unacceptable'. Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify tolls and details provided by the agency and other parties. The army says it works to avoid harm to civilians, and that this month it issued new instructions to its troops on the ground 'following lessons learned' from a spate of similar incidents. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Israel on Sunday withdrew the residency permit of head of the OCHA (United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) office in Israel, Jonathan Whittall, who has repeatedly condemned the humanitarian conditions in Gaza. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, in a post to X, accused him of spreading lies about the war in Gaza. Papal call The war was sparked by Hamas's attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, leading to the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures. Israel's retaliatory campaign has killed 58,895 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza. Separately, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday expressed his regret to Pope Leo XIV after what he described as a 'stray' munition killed three people sheltering at the Holy Family Church in Gaza City. At the end of the Angelus prayer on Sunday, the pope slammed the 'barbarity' of the Gaza war and called for peace, days after the Israeli strike on the territory's only Catholic church. The strike was part of the 'ongoing military attacks against the civilian population and places of worship in Gaza', he added. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The Catholic Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Pierbattista Pizzaballa, held mass at the Gaza church on Sunday after travelling to the devastated territory in a rare visit on Friday. 'Expanding' operations Most of Gaza's population of more than two million people have been displaced at least once during the war and there have been repeated evacuation calls across large parts of the coastal enclave. On Sunday morning, the Israeli military told residents and displaced Palestinians sheltering in the Deir el-Balah area to move south immediately due to imminent operations in the area. Whole families were seen carrying what few belongings they have on packed donkey carts heading south. 'They threw leaflets at us and we don't know where we are going and we don't have shelter or anything,' one man told AFP. The displacement order was 'another devastating blow to the already fragile lifelines keeping people alive across the Gaza Strip', the UN OCHA said on Sunday. According to the aid agency, 87.8 percent of Gaza is now under displacement orders or within Israeli militarized zones, leaving '2.1 million civilians squeezed into a fragmented 12 per cent of the Strip, where essential services have collapsed.' STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The army's latest announcement prompted concern from families of hostages held since October 7, 2023 that the Israeli offensive could harm their loved ones. Delegations from Israel and militant group Hamas have spent the last two weeks in indirect talks on a proposed 60-day ceasefire in Gaza and the release of 10 living hostages. Of the 251 hostages taken during Hamas's 2023 attack, 49 are still being held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.
