Latest news with #humanitariancrisis
The Guardian
2 hours ago
- The Guardian
Collapse of Gaza's water systems may cause ‘devastating drought and hunger'
The collapse of water systems in Gaza is threatening the territory with devastating drought as well as hunger, the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) has warned, amid fresh reports of casualties among desperate Palestinians seeking aid. On Friday, at least 25 people awaiting aid trucks were killed by Israeli fire south of Netzarim in central Gaza, according to local health authorities. More than a hundred Palestinians have died in recent days while trying either to reach aid distribution points managed by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a secretive US- and Israel- backed organisation that recently started to hand out food in the territory, or to offload the limited number of UN and commercial vehicles carrying flour and some other basics. Such reports are difficult to confirm independently but appear corroborated in many details by interviews conducted with witnesses by the Guardian. There were also reports of other casualties on Friday in Israeli airstrikes, with at least 12 people killed in an airstrike on a house belonging to the Ayyash family in the central town of Deir Al-Balah. 'Forty-three martyrs have fallen as a result of the ongoing Israeli bombardment on the Gaza Strip since dawn today, 26 of whom were waiting for humanitarian aid,' Mohammad al-Mughayyir, director of medical supply at the civil defence agency in Gaza, told AFP. Israeli military officials said on Friday that warplanes had attacked 300 'terror targets' in Gaza during the week, including individual militants, weapons caches and positions used to attack Israeli forces. One of the strikes killed a senior militant in the territory who had helped bury the bodies of two hostages seized during the attack led by Hamas into southern Israel in October 2023 which triggered the conflict, they said. Israeli military officials have denied troops have killed Palestinian civilians seeking aid, saying troops have fired at 'suspects' who are believed to pose a threat to them. James Elder, Unicef spokesperson, told reporters in Geneva that 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. 'There have been instances where information [was] shared that a [distribution] 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,' Elder said. The GHF release information about opening hours of sites primarily on Facebook, which many in Gaza cannot access. Food has become extremely scarce in Gaza since a tight blockade on all supplies was imposed by Israel throughout March and April, threatening many of the 2.3 million people who live there with a 'critical risk of famine'. Since the blockade was partially lifted last month, the UN has tried to bring in aid but has faced major obstacles, including rubble-choked roads, Israeli military restrictions, continuing airstrikes and growing anarchy. Many shipments have been stopped by ordinary Palestinians in Gaza and offloaded. There is also an acute shortage of fuel, which is needed for pumps on boreholes and Gaza's sole remaining desalination plant. None has been allowed into Gaza since the collapse of a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel in March. 'We are way below emergency standards in terms of drinking water for people in Gaza,' Elder added. 'Children will begin to die of thirst … Just 40% of drinking water production facilities remain functional.' The UN cut the operating hours of water, sanitation and hygiene facilities in Gaza by a fifth in May to save fuel but reserves built up during the pause in the 20-month war are now almost exhausted, aid officials said. Most of Gaza's wastewater treatment plants, sewage systems, reservoirs and pipes have been destroyed. In March, Israel cut off power supplies to the main desalination plants – a vital source of water for Palestinians in Gaza. Israel hopes the GHF will replace the previous comprehensive system of aid distribution run by the UN, which Israeli officials claim allowed Hamas to steal and sell aid. UN agencies and major aid groups, which have delivered humanitarian aid across Gaza since the start of 20-month-long war, have rejected the new system, saying it is impractical, inadequate and unethical. They deny there is widespread theft of aid by Hamas. On Wednesday, the GHF said it had provided more than 30 million meals to the people of Gaza 'safely and without incident' since it began operating last month. Palestinian militants killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took another 251 hostage during the 7 October 2023 attack. They still hold 53 hostages, fewer than half of them alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals. The death toll in Gaza since the war broke out has reached more than 55,600, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry.
News24
3 hours ago
- Politics
- News24
UNHCR reports record displacement in West and Central Africa
About 12.7 million forcibly displaced and stateless people are in West and Central Africa, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR). This figure reflects a 48% increase since 2020, when the number was 8.6 million, underscoring a worsening forced displacement crisis. 'From conflict to climate shocks, protection risks are rising - particularly for women and children, who represent 80% of the forcibly displaced,' said Abdouraouf Gnon-Konde, the UNHCR's regional bureau director for West and Central Africa. Gnon-Konde said the UN's data also showed that displaced people are 'returning home in increasing numbers where conditions allow'. Nigeria, Burkina Faso and Cameroon are home to more than 80% of the internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the region. Drought, flooding, and chronic violence and insecurity have forced people to seek shelter in other regions within their countries. READ | Does SA have twice as many illegal migrants as Europe? Fact-checking Gayton McKenzie's latest claims According to the United Nations, over one million citizens of the Central African Republic (CAR) were forcibly displaced as of 30 April 2025. That figure, however, is 150 000 fewer than the same period in 2024. The slight improvement is attributed to an increase in voluntary returns. UN-sponsored voluntary returns Chad is providing refuge to almost 780 000 people who have fled Sudan's civil war, with another 250 000 expected to arrive by the end of the year. The country also hosts large numbers of refugees from the Central African Republic to the south and Niger to the west. Each group of displaced people faces unique dangers, and Chad is struggling to host all of them. The United Nations has been sponsoring voluntary returns to countries of origin within West Africa. It said 14 600 refugees returned to countries such as Nigeria, the Central African Republic and Mali from January through April 2025. 'Humanitarian crises are, first of all, political crises,' Alpha Seydi Ba, a UNHCR spokesperson based in Dakar, Senegal, told DW. Unless we are able to make peace, there won't be a situation where the returns are possible. Alpha Seydi Ba Ba said repatriations were carried out whenever and wherever possible and on a voluntary basis. As a result, the UNHCR says resettlement departures rose by 34% in 2024 (4 600 individuals), marking an increase of 1 500 people in the past year. 'I think it's always good news when people are able to go back home,' Ba said. 'Exile, it's not a choice. Being a refugee is not a choice, when someone leaves their home and everything behind.' 'We're seeing those people returning and rebuilding,' Ba said. 'I think it's one of the best things that can happen to the humanitarian person in his career.' 'Migrants become stranded' Although repatriation efforts have yielded some positive results, the UN's regional resettlement quota was reduced by 64% in 2025. To complicate matters, the UNHCR's regional budget overall has been reduced by 50% between 2024 and 2025. 'Our operations are very severely impacted,' Ba said. 'Meaning less food, less shelter, less health care, less clean water, less gender-based protection, which makes overall protection systems or displaced people more fragile,' Ba added. 'That's why the UNHCR in the region is at a tipping point.' 'The number of migrants, be it internally displaced people or migrants, is increasing,' Luisa de Freitas, who leads the Regional Data Hub in Dakar for the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), told DW. 'We are seeing that, overall, more and more people are on the move.' Ben Stansall/AFP Though many people move to foreign countries because of climate disasters, armed conflict or instability, the IOM reports that economic needs are also a key driver of migration. 'Over 70% to 72% of the individuals that we survey at our flow monitoring points in 2024 were there because of labour or economic reasons,' de Freitas said. De Freitas said migration routes had become increasingly dangerous as EU nations and their partners within Africa have sought to stem the flow of migration to Europe. However, this has not deterred migrants from attempting to do so. 'People move when they feel they have no other option,' de Freitas said. 'They will take routes that are less and less travelled. So what is happening is that a lot of these migrants become stranded.' New strategies needed Simply putting up barriers or investing in forced removals of migrants is not the solution. Instead, de Freitas advised European nations to adopt a different approach that fosters and incentivises regular migration, benefiting both home and destination countries. Mohamed Elshahed/Anadolu via Getty Images 'Spain has just launched two initiatives: One to regularise migrants per year, and they've also launched system where Senegalese can apply for temporary travel visas to go and work in Spain,' de Freitas said. Many EU countries desperately need workers in sectors such as agriculture, she added. 'Circular migration allows migration on a temporary basis to address labour shortages in destination countries, while providing migrants with access to employment and education opportunities. 'Basically, try to make migration a win-win situation for both ends,' de Freitas said.
Al Jazeera
4 hours ago
- Health
- Al Jazeera
At least 35 killed in new Israeli attack on Gaza aid seekers
At least 35 Palestinians have been killed and several others wounded by Israeli fire while waiting for humanitarian aid near the Netzarim Corridor, in the central Gaza Strip, sources at al-Awda Hospital told Al Jazeera. Israeli jets also bombed a house west of Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, killing at least eight people and injuring more. Hospitals in Gaza said at least 50 Palestinians were killed by the Israeli army on Friday. Israeli attacks on hungry Palestinians near aid centres have killed hundreds of people since the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) started distributions on May 27. The shadowy Israeli- and United States-backed group tasked with distributing aid supplies has been criticised by the United Nations for its 'failure' to ensure the safe delivery of supplies in Gaza, where aid agencies have warned that the entire population is facing the threat of famine after Israel imposed a total blockade from early March to late May. Ismail al-Thawabta, the director-general of Gaza's Government Media Office, said on Thursday that the total number of aid seekers killed stood at 409, and 3,203 more had been injured. UNICEF warned the Gaza Strip was also facing a man-made drought as its water systems collapsed. 'Children will begin to die of thirst,' spokesperson James Elder told reporters in Geneva on Friday. 'Just 40 percent of drinking water production facilities remain functional.' The UN agency warned that the GHF distribution system was 'making a desperate situation worse'. 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.
The Guardian
5 hours ago
- Health
- The Guardian
Israel, we're begging you: please let aid organisations do our jobs in Gaza
Abed Al Rahman, just a boy, carried the weight of his family's hunger as he stepped into the streets of Gaza in search of bread. He had his father's money, but when he saw the tide of people pushing towards a food distribution site in Rafah, hunger pulled him into their flow. Almost immediately, the site descended into chaos. Gunfire. Drones. Then in a flash, shrapnel from a tank shell ripped through his little body. When I met him at a hospital in Khan Younis – where painkillers, like food, are scarce – the 13-year-old was in agony. 'I have shrapnel inside my body that they couldn't remove,' he told me. 'I am in real pain; since 6am I have been asking for a painkiller.' As he recounted the chaos, his father's composure shattered, and tears rolled down his face. Was he going to lose his son simply because Abed Al Rahman wanted his family to eat? Abed Al Rahman had been trying to get food from a new private and militarised distribution site in Gaza. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) is funnelling aid through a handful of southern sites guarded by private contractors and Israeli soldiers. With so few distribution points, those who can make the trek are forced to travel long, dangerous distances – risking their lives for grossly inadequate amounts of supplies. In the first week of the GHF's operation, there were five mass-casualty events in the vicinity of distribution sites as desperate civilians were met by gun and tank fire. Children have been killed. The UN's aid chief, Tom Fletcher, said the sites made 'starvation a bargaining chip' and were 'a fig leaf for further violence and displacement'. A system that bypasses the UN has, in fact, bypassed humanity. Indeed, politicised aid distribution is unsafe for everyone involved – last week, the GHF said eight of its local team members and volunteers had been killed. And while it's critical that there is a focus on this lethal lack of aid for Palestinians, the daily killing and maiming of children has become an afterthought. This is my fifth mission to Gaza since the horrors of 7 October, and in all that time almost nothing has been done to stop the world's deadliest conflict for children in recent memory. There have been more than 50,000 children reported killed or injured in 20 months. Fifty thousand. On the same morning I met Abed Al Rahman, I spoke with 24-year-old Sheima, also hospitalised. She, too, went to one of the GHF distribution sites. Different day, same story: her family was denied humanitarian aid for months. Consumed by hunger, her father too sick to travel, Sheima reached a site. Again, gunfire. Boxes of food thrown to the dirt. 'I saw dead bodies on the ground,' she told me. 'People stepping over them, just trying to get some food.' In the mayhem, Sheima became entangled in wire – her leg and arm torn open as she tried to flee. She didn't get any food. 'Even though I almost died, I would go again,' she said. 'I'm the eldest in my family – we need food to survive. I wish to die with a full stomach, not from starvation.' These raw testimonials reinforce two critical questions. First, when UN and international non-governmental organisations warehouses outside Gaza are jam-packed with lifesaving supplies, why is there still a lethal lack of humanitarian aid in Gaza? And second, will these few sites run by private contractors solve the crisis? On the first point, after a total blockade on all supplies going into Gaza from early March until 19 May, Unicef and the World Food Programme are now permitted to bring in limited quantities of only a few selected items. Meanwhile, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification warned last month that all 2.1 million Palestinians in Gaza are facing life-threatening food insecurity. Lack of access to clean water has been pushed to lethal levels. Amid incessant bombardments, drastic aid restrictions and mass displacement of the civilian population, the risk of famine is not just possible, but increasingly likely for families in Gaza. From the end of the ceasefire to May this year, malnutrition admissions among children aged under five surged by nearly 150%, with a steep rise in severe cases. This isn't just a trend – it's an urgent warning. And to the second question, can the GHF prevent famine? The reality is, far too little aid is being distributed from far too few distribution points, all amid concerns that families travelling from northern Gaza to reach sites in the south will not be allowed to return. This is not how you avert famine. Before the collapse of the most recent ceasefire, the UN operated a highly effective aid delivery system in Gaza. And during the ceasefire, we were delivering assistance from more than 400 distribution points across the territory. Access to food, safe water, medicines and shelter skyrocketed. Unicef even went door-to-door to reach malnourished children. Unicef continues to call for a ceasefire, protection of children, the release of hostages and full aid access. We know what it takes to deliver for children in emergencies – it is the same in every crisis and every conflict since the second world war. Children need nutritious food at scale, safety, clean water and dignity. Not security operators. Not indiscriminate fire. Not chaos. There is no need to reinvent the wheel. We delivered aid at scale during the ceasefire, and we can do it again. We just need to be allowed to do our jobs. Abed Al Rahman died of his injuries on 17 June 2025, after this article was written. James Elder is Unicef's global spokesperson
Yahoo
6 hours 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."
