RAFAH, Gaza Strip: A report released Thursday by the UN finds that more than half a million people in Gaza are “starving” because of not enough food entering the territory since the outbreak of war more than 10 weeks ago.
“It is a situation where pretty much everybody in Gaza is hungry,” said World Food Program chief economist Arif Husain.
He warned that if the war between Israel and Hamas continues at the same levels and food deliveries are not restored that the population could face “a full-fledged famine within the next six months.”
The report released Thursday by 23 UN and nongovernmental agencies found that the entire population in Gaza is in a food crisis, with 576,600 at catastrophic — or starvation — levels.
UN relief workers on Thursday reported “unbearable” scenes in two hospitals in northern Gaza, where bedridden patients with untreated wounds cry out for water, the few remaining doctors and nurses have no supplies, and bodies are lined up in the courtyard — signs of the worsening humanitarian crisis after 10 weeks of war between Israel and Hamas.
The relief workers spoke after delivering supplies a day earlier to Ahli and Shifa hospitals, which are located in the heart of the north Gaza battle zone where Israeli troops have demolished vast swaths of the city while fighting Hamas militants.
Bombardment and fighting continued Thursday, but with Gaza’s Internet and other communications cut off for a second straight day, details on the latest violence could largely not be confirmed.
Israel says it is in the final stages of clearing out Hamas militants from northern Gaza, but that months of fighting lie ahead in the south. The war sparked by Hamas’ deadly Oct. 7 rampage and hostage-taking in Israel has killed nearly 20,000 Palestinians. Some 1.9 million Gaza residents — more than 80 percent of the population — have been driven from their homes.
With supplies to Gaza cut off except for a small trickle, the World Food Program has said 90 percent of the population is regularly going without food for a full day.
A blast Thursday morning hit the Palestinian side of the Kerem Shalom crossing from Israel into Gaza, forcing the UN to stop its pickups of aid there, according to Juliette Touma, spokesperson of UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees. At least four people were killed, the nearby hospital reported.
Israel had begun allowing aid to enter Gaza through Kerem Shalom only days earlier for the first time in the war, under pressure from the United States to ensure more help gets to Palestinians. Palestinian authorities blamed Israel for the blast, but its cause could not immediately be confirmed.
Only nine of Gaza’s 36 health facilities are still partially functioning — and all are located in the south, the World Health Organization said.
In the north over recent weeks, Israeli forces have raided a series of health facilities, detaining men for interrogation and expelling others. In other facilities, patients who are unable to be moved remain along with skeleton staff who watch over them but can do little beyond first aid, according to UN and health officials
Ahli Hospital is “a place where people are waiting to die,” said Sean Casey, a member of the WHO team that visited the two hospitals Wednesday. Five remaining doctors and five nurses along with around 80 patients remain in Ahli, he said.
All of the hospital buildings are damaged except two buildings were patients are now being kept — the orthopedics ward and a church on the grounds, he said. He described entering the compound, strewn with debris, and a crater from recent shelling in the courtyard. Bodies were lined up nearby, but doctors said it was too unsafe to move them with fighting still outside, he said.
Inside the church, it was “an unbearable scene,” he said. Patients with traumatic wounds were struggling with infections. Others had undergone amputations. “Many patients said they hadn’t changed their clothes in weeks,” he said. “Patients were crying out in pain but were also crying out for us to give them water.”
Hamas fired a large barrage of rockets at central Israel on Thursday, showing its military capabilities remain formidable. There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage, but the rocket attack set off air raid sirens in Israel’s commercial hub of Tel Aviv.
Hamas militants have put up stiff resistance lately against Israeli ground troops, and its forces appear to remain largely intact in southern Gaza, despite more than 2 1/2 months of heavy aerial bombardment across the territory.
Israel has vowed to continue the offensive until it destroys Hamas’ military capabilities and returns scores of hostages captured by Palestinian militants during their Oct. 7 rampage. Hamas and other militants killed some 1,200 people that day, mostly civilians, and captured around 240 others.
The United States, Israel’s closest ally, has continued to support Israel’s campaign while also urging greater efforts to protect civilians.
But in some of the toughest American language yet, Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday said “it’s clear that the conflict will move and needs to move to a lower intensity phase.” The US wants Israel to shift to more targeted operations aimed at Hamas leaders and the tunnel network.
UN Security Council members are negotiating an Arab-sponsored resolution to halt the fighting in some way to allow for an increase in desperately needed humanitarian aid deliveries to Gaza.
A vote on the resolution, first scheduled for Monday, was pushed back again on Wednesday in the hopes of getting the US to support it or allow it to pass after it vetoed an earlier cease-fire call.
The Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Tuesday the death toll since the start of the war had risen to more than 19,600. It does not distinguish between civilian and combatant deaths.
Israel’s military says 137 of its soldiers have been killed in the Gaza ground offensive. Israel says it has killed some 7,000 militants, without providing evidence. It blames civilian deaths in Gaza on Hamas, saying it uses them as human shields when it fights in residential areas.
More than 570,000 people in Gaza now ‘starving’ due to fallout from war: UN report
https://arab.news/yj5qc
More than 570,000 people in Gaza now ‘starving’ due to fallout from war: UN report
- UN relief workers on Thursday reported “unbearable” scenes in two hospitals in northern Gaza
- World Food Program has said 90 percent of the population is regularly going without food for a full day
Military drone attack on Sudan oil field kills dozens and threatens South Sudan’s economic lifeline
- RSF said the oil field in Heglig was attacked a day after they seized the facility near the border with South Sudan
- South Sudanese soldiers were among the dead in the attack by an Akinci drone
JUBA: Dozens of people were killed Tuesday evening in a drone strike near Sudan’s largest oil processing facility carried out by the Sudanese Armed Forces, according to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.
The RSF, which has been fighting Sudan’s military since 2023, said the oil field in Heglig was attacked a day after the RSF seized the facility near the border with South Sudan.
Both sides told The Associated Press that the exact number of dead and wounded could not immediately be confirmed. Local news outlets reported seven tribal leaders and “dozens” of RSF troopers were killed.
South Sudanese soldiers were among the dead in the attack by an Akinci drone, according to the RSF, which condemned the attack as a violation of international law.
Two Sudanese military officials confirmed the drone strike, which they said targeted RSF fighters.
The government of South Sudan’s Unity State confirmed three South Sudanese soldiers were killed. A South Sudanese solider, who witnessed the strike and spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak, estimated 25 people were killed.
South Sudanese commander Johnson Olony said in a statement that South Sudanese forces may have been sent to secure Heglig after its capture. South Sudan’s military spokesperson declined to comment.
South Sudan relies entirely on Sudanese pipelines to export its oil and has seen production repeatedly disrupted by the conflict, worsening its economic crisis.
Sudanese soldiers and oil workers began evacuating Heglig on Monday and the RSF took control of the facility without resistance. By Tuesday, about 3,900 Sudanese soldiers had surrendered their weapons to South Sudanese forces after crossing into Rubkona County, according to Unity State’s information ministry.
Video from South Sudan’s state broadcaster showed tanks, armored personnel carriers and artillery among the weapons handed over.
Thousands of civilians from Sudan began crossing the border into South Sudan on Sunday and were still arriving Wednesday, the South Sudan government said, adding that the exact number was not yet known. South Sudan insists it remains neutral in the conflict despite accusations of siding with the RSF.
Heglig’s capture is the latest in a string of RSF territorial gains, including the October fall of el-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur and the Sudanese army’s last stronghold in Darfur. The war, which began in April 2023, has killed an estimated 150,000 people, displaced millions and triggered multiple famines. Both sides face allegations of atrocities.
The capture of Heglig, a vital state asset, could be a significant bargaining chip for the RSF, analysts said. But the opaque nature of oil finances makes it difficult to determine how much the SAF, RSF or South Sudan will be impacted economically over the short term.
