Health officials claim that as a wave of hunger descends over the Gaza Strip, at least 10 more Palestinians have been starved to death.
Since Israel’s war started in October 2023, there have been 111 deaths from malnutrition, the majority of them in recent weeks.
In the past 24 hours, 34 aid seekers have been killed in Israeli attacks, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health on Wednesday.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 21 children under the age of five have already passed away from malnutrition this year. It claimed that there had been no food deliveries between March and May and that the number of food deliveries had remained subdued.
111 organizations, including Refugees International, the Norwegian Refugee Council, and Mercy Corps, reported in a statement that “mass starvation” was spreading even as supplies for medical needs are hampered by access restrictions for aid organizations outside Gaza.
According to Tareq Abu Azzoum, who was reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, hunger has “ascended to the level of the bombs.” Families are no longer requesting more than they deem necessary.
He claimed that residents of Gaza described an “engineered famine that the Israeli military has orchestrated” as “a slow, painful death playing out in real time.
Israel stopped importing all goods into the country in March, but starting in May, it has started distributing a small amount of aid, largely provided by the contentious Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which is supported by Israel.
Israel, which regulates everything that enters and leaves, is being criticized by the UN and aid organizations, who claim that Israel, which controls everything that enters and leaves, is choking deliveries, while Israeli troops have shot hundreds of Palestinians dead close to aid distribution points since May.
The UN World Food Programme’s director of emergencies, Ross Smith, stated that “we have a minimum set of requirements to be able to operate inside Gaza.” We need no armed actors close to our distribution points, near our convoys, is one of the most crucial points I want to stress.
The few remaining hospitals in Gaza have been transformed into “massive trauma wards” as a result of repeated attacks on aid workers, according to WHO representative for the occupied Palestinian territory Rik Peeperkorn.
Peeperkorn noted that the food shortage is so severe that everyone at their job, including journalists, teachers, and even their own staff, cannot work.
Nour Sharaf, an American physician from al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, also issued a warning that people “are dying of hunger” and “nothing to eat for days.”
She told Al Jazeera, “Doctors sometimes don’t get food, but they still do their jobs,” adding that doctors frequently put in long hours.
Additional journalists were killed.
Gaza City, where the Israeli army claimed to be “intensifying operations,” has remained the target of Israeli strikes in various areas of the region.
Recently, the area has been subject to significant bombardment.
The number of media workers killed in the enclave since October 2023 has increased to 231, according to Gaza’s Government Media Office’s announcement that Tamer al-Za’anin and Walaa al-Jabari were killed by Israel.
According to the statement, al-Za’anin worked as a newspaper editor for a number of media outlets while al-Jabari worked as a photojournalist for others.
According to the White House, US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff will travel to Europe for “very sensitive negotiations” regarding a ceasefire and a release from prison.
According to White House spokesman Karoline Leavitt, Witkoff “will meet with key leaders from the Middle East to discuss the ongoing ceasefire proposal to end this conflict in Gaza and release the hostages.”
Qatar and Egypt are facilitating discussions over a proposal for a 60-day ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, which would include the release of more than 50 of the country’s 50 captives held in Gaza. Washington has stepped in.
Hamas had handed its response to the ceasefire proposal to mediators, according to a Palestinian official familiar with the negotiations and the mediation efforts, but he declined to go into more detail.
Since Israel revoked a ceasefire in March, negotiations have gone through without a resolution.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog stated in a statement that he was assisting soldiers in “intensive negotiations” regarding the release of the captives in Gaza.
Source: Aljazeera
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