Latest news with #GazaStrip
Al Arabiya
26 minutes ago
- Health
- Al Arabiya
Gaza faces a man-made drought as water systems collapse: UNICEF
Gaza is facing a man-made drought as its water systems collapse, the United Nations' children agency said on Friday. 'Children will begin to die of thirst ... Just 40 percent of drinking water production facilities remain functional,' UNICEF spokesperson James Elder told reporters in Geneva. 'We are way below emergency standards in terms of drinking water for people in Gaza,' he added. UNICEF also reported a 50 percent increase in children aged six months to 5 years admitted for treatment of malnutrition from April to May in Gaza, and half a million people going hungry. It said the US-backed aid distribution system run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) was 'making a desperate situation worse.' On Friday at least 25 people awaiting aid trucks or seeking aid were killed by Israeli fire south of Netzarim in central Gaza Strip, according to local health authorities. On Thursday at least 51 people were killed by Israeli gunfire and military strikes, including 12 people who tried to approach a site operated by the GHF in the central Gaza Strip. Elder, who was recently in Gaza, said he had many testimonials of women and children injured while trying to receive food aid, including a young boy who was wounded by a tank shell and later died of his injuries. He said a lack of public clarity on when the sites, some of which are in combat zones, were open was causing mass casualty events. 'There have been instances where information (was) shared that a site is open, but then it's communicated on social media that they're closed, but that information was shared when Gaza's internet was down and people had no access to it,' he said. On Wednesday, the GHF said in a statement it had distributed three million meals across three of its aid sites without an incident. On Friday at least 12 people were killed in an airstrike on a house belonging to the Ayyash family in Deir Al-Balah, taking the day's death toll to 37.
Zawya
31 minutes ago
- Health
- Zawya
Gaza faces a man-made drought as water systems collapse, UNICEF says
Gaza is facing a man-made drought as its water systems collapse, the United Nations' children agency said on Friday. "Children will begin to die of thirst ... Just 40% of drinking water production facilities remain functional," UNICEF spokesperson James Elder told reporters in Geneva. "We are way below emergency standards in terms of drinking water for people in Gaza," he added. UNICEF also reported a 50% increase in children aged six months to 5 years admitted for treatment of malnutrition from April to May in Gaza, and half a million people going hungry. It said the U.S.-backed aid distribution system run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) was "making a desperate situation worse." On Friday at least 25 people awaiting aid trucks or seeking aid were killed by Israeli fire south of Netzarim in central Gaza Strip, according to local health authorities. On Thursday at least 51 people were killed by Israeli gunfire and military strikes, including 12 people who tried to approach a site operated by the GHF in the central Gaza Strip. Elder, who was recently in Gaza, said he had many testimonials of women and children injured while trying to receive food aid, including a young boy who was wounded by a tank shell and later died of his injuries. He said a lack of public clarity on when the sites, some of which are in combat zones, were open was causing mass casualty events. "There have been instances where information (was) shared that a site is open, but then it's communicated on social media that they're closed, but that information was shared when Gaza's internet was down and people had no access to it," he said. On Wednesday, the GHF said in a statement it had distributed three million meals across three of its aid sites without an incident. On Friday at least 12 people were killed in an airstrike on a house belonging to the Ayyash family in Deir Al-Balah, taking the day's death toll to 37.
The National
37 minutes ago
- Health
- The National
'Lame and lethal' aid system claims dozen more lives in Gaza
At least 70 people were killed by Israeli gunfire and military strikes in Gaza on Thursday, the enclave's civil defence spokesman Mahmoud Basal said. Medics earlier reported that 12 people had been killed while trying to approach an aid site operated by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in the central Gaza Strip. The system has been described by a top UN official as 'lame, medieval and lethal' following hundreds of deaths in similar incidents over the past few weeks. Dozens of Palestinians were killed in separate Israeli air strikes in the northern Gaza Strip, medics added. One of those strikes killed at least 12 people, including women and children, near a mosque in the Shati refugee camp in Gaza city, they added. Another eight civilians were killed in Israeli shelling of Gaza city on Thursday, Wafa news agency said. Five of those were killed in an attack on a house in the Zeitoun neighbourhood, and three others when an apartment in the west of the city was hit. Israeli forces also blew up homes east of Jabalia Al Balad in northern Gaza, the agency reported. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli army on Thursday's incidents. In recent days it said it was reviewing reports of civilian casualties. About 100 other people were injured when Israeli drones and military vehicles opened fire in the morning near an aid distribution point in central Gaza, the official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported. At least 338 people have been killed in total while gathering to collect aid from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), according to a tally released by local health authorities on Monday. The recently created US and Israel-backed agency, whose four distribution centres are guarded by private security contractors and surrounded by Israeli forces, began operations in late May to supersede the aid delivery system operated by the UN. Israel said the move prevents the militant group Hamas from taking aid intended for civilians. The centres are regularly overrun by Gazans desperate for food after a nearly three-month total blockade of aid deliveries imposed by Israel in March. Crowds start gathering near the distribution sites before dawn, despite a warning from the Israeli military that these areas are considered combat zones between 6pm and 6am. "Palestinian lives have been so devalued. It is now the routine to shoot and kill desperate and starving people while they try to collect little food from a company made of mercenaries," Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said in a post on X after at least 14 people were killed while waiting for aid on Wednesday. He described GHF as "a lame, medieval and lethal system that is deliberately harming people under the camouflage of 'humanitarian aid'". Dozens killed waiting for aid in Khan Younis "Hundreds of people have been reported killed since the 'Gaza Humiliation Foundation' started operating just over three weeks ago," he said, describing the group's operations as "a lame, medieval and lethal system that is deliberately harming people under the camouflage of 'humanitarian aid'". He called for those responsible for establishing the new system to be held accountable, saying: "Inviting starving people to their death is a war crime." The Palestinian death toll from Israel's war in Gaza passed 55,700 the health ministry said on Thursday and the number injured rose to more than 130,100. The ministry's figures do not distinguish between combatants and civilians, although it says the majority of victims have been women and children. The war began on October 7, 2023, with a Hamas attack on southern Israel in which about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed and about 250 taken hostage.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Health
- Yahoo
As death toll rises, Gazans make life-risking journeys to seek food
By Nidal al-Mughrabi GAZA/CAIRO (Reuters) -Like thousands of other Palestinians in Gaza, Hind Al-Nawajha takes a dangerous, miles-long journey every day to try to get some food for her family, hoping she makes it back alive. Accompanied by her sister, Mazouza, the mother-of-four had to duck down and hide behind a pile of rubble on the side of the road as gunshots echoed nearby. "You either come back carrying (food) for your children and they will be happy, or you come back in a shroud, or you go back upset (without food) and your children will cry," said Nawajha, 38, a resident of Beit Lahiya, in northern Gaza. "This is life, we are being slaughtered, we can't do it anymore." In the past two days, dozens of Palestinians have also been killed by Israeli fire as they tried to get food from aid trucks brought into the enclave by the United Nations and international relief agencies, Gaza medics said. On Thursday, medics said at least 51 people were killed by Israeli gunfire and military strikes, including 12 people who tried to approach a site operated by the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in the central Gaza Strip, the latest in near-daily reports of killings of people seeking food. The Israeli military said there were several attempts by "suspects" to approach forces in the area of Netzarim in the central Gaza Strip, in a manner that endangered them. It said forces fired warning shots to prevent suspects from approaching them, and it was currently unaware of injuries in the incident. In an email, GHF criticized Gazan health officials, accusing them of regularly releasing inaccurate information. GHF said that Palestinians do not access the nearby GHF site via the Netzarim corridor. It did not address questions about whether GHF was aware that such an incident had occurred. Thirty-nine people were killed, meanwhile, in separate Israeli airstrikes in the northern Gaza Strip, medics said. One of those strikes killed at least 19 people, including women and children, in a tent in Shati refugee camp in Gaza City, they added. Another strike killed at least 14 people and damaged several houses in Jabalia, in the north of the enclave, medics said. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli army on those attacks. In recent days, the Israeli military said its forces had opened fire and fired warning shots to disperse people who approached areas where troops were operating, posing a threat. It said it was reviewing reports of casualties among civilians. SLEEPING BY THE ROAD Israel has been channelling much of the aid it is now allowing into Gaza through a new U.S.- and Israeli-backed group, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which operates a handful of distribution sites in areas guarded by Israeli forces. The Gaza health ministry said hundreds of Palestinians have been killed trying to reach GHF sites since late May. The United Nations rejects the GHF delivery system as inadequate, dangerous and a violation of humanitarian impartiality rules. Israel says it is needed to prevent Hamas fighters from diverting aid, which Hamas denies. On Wednesday, the GHF said in a statement it had distributed 3 million meals across three of its aid sites without an incident. The Gaza war was triggered when Palestinian Hamas militants attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Israel's subsequent military assault on Gaza has killed nearly 55,600 Palestinians, according to Gaza's health ministry, while displacing almost the entire population of more than 2 million and causing a hunger crisis. The Norwegian Refugee Council warned on Thursday that more than 1 million people were without adequate shelter, saying equipment such as tents and tarpaulins had been blocked by Israel from entering since March 1. Nawajha returned empty-handed on Wednesday from her journey to find food, flopping down exhausted on the dusty ground outside the tent in Gaza City, where she has been displaced and sheltering with her family. She and her sister have been camping by the road for the past 20 days. They say they try to force their way into the distribution site where trucks carrying aid arrive, but are often outmuscled by men, who sometimes fight over sacks of flour coming off U.N. trucks. "(When) there is no food, as you can see, children start crying and getting angry," said Nawajha. "When we are for three, four kilometres or more on our legs... Oh my... our feet are bruised and our shoes are torn off."
BBC News
an hour ago
- Politics
- BBC News
Israeli military kills 23 Palestinians near aid site in Gaza, witnesses and medics say
Israeli forces have killed 23 Palestinians after opening fire on crowds who had gathered near an aid distribution site, witnesses and medics and drones fired at thousands of people near an aid distribution centre in central Gaza run by the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), the witnesses and medics said.A spokesperson for al-Awda hospital in Nuseirat confirmed that 23 bodies and more than 100 wounded people had been brought there. Images from the hospital showed bodies on the was no immediate comment from the Israeli military. The Hamas-run health ministry says more than 400 Palestinians have been killed in similar incidents since late May. That is when the GHF took over most aid distribution in Gaza in an attempt by Israel to bypass the UN as the main supplier of move followed a complete three-month Israeli blockade during which no food entered the territory, putting the entire population at critical risk of famine according to a UN-backed almost all incidents, witnesses have said that Israeli troops opened fire, although there have also been reports of local armed gunmen shooting at people. On Thursday, at least 12 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces while waiting for aid, according to rescuers and medics. The GHF denied there were any incidents near its site. The Israeli military told Reuters that "suspects" had attempted to approach forces in the area of Netzarim, and that soldiers had fired warning shots. It said it was unaware of any Tuesday witnesses said Israeli forces opened fire and shelled an area near a junction to the east of Khan Younis, where thousands of Palestinians had been gathering in the hope of getting flour from a World Food Programme (WFP) site, which also includes a community kitchen nearby. More than 50 people were killed. The Israeli military said "a gathering" had been identified "in proximity to IDF troops operating in the area" and the incident was under a separate Israeli attack on Friday, a medic with the Palestinian Red Crescent told the BBC that 11 Palestinians were killed and others injured in an Israeli airstrike targeting a home in the al-Ma'sar area west of Deir al-Balah in central said Israeli warplanes struck a two-storey house belonging to the Ayash civil defence officials say Israel has carried out a wave of deadly air strikes on Gaza in recent days, following a brief lull in air operations that coincided with the escalation between Israel and reported on Thursday that at least 77 Palestinians had been killed in such strikes, which heavily targeted the Shati area in western Gaza City. Eyewitnesses reported that Israeli drones fired three missiles at tents and a gathering of civilians near the camp's central market, killing 23 people, including children. Videos circulated on social media showed bodies lying on the ground, among them two children, as people attempted to extinguish sources speculated that the renewed strikes may be linked to the targeting of Hamas security elements who have recently re-emerged across parts of Gaza, attempting to reassert control amid a breakdown in law and order. These movements appear to have been timed with the temporary easing of Israeli aerial surveillance due to the simultaneous military focus on Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken least 55,706 people have been killed in Gaza since then, including more than 15,000 children, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.
