CAIRO/GENEVA: Since Israel shut a vital corridor into famine-stricken northern Gaza before escalating its ground offensive this month, community kitchens and health clinics have closed and vital flows of food have slowed, residents and UN agencies say.
The Zikim Crossing was shut on September 12, days ahead of an Israeli ground offensive on Gaza City in the north of the territory, prompting warnings from aid agencies.
Since then, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) told Reuters it had not managed to bring any supplies through Zikim, previously the route for half its food deliveries into Gaza.
There has been a reduction of about 50,000 daily meals in northern Gaza compared to 109,000 daily meals before Zikim closed, as some kitchens in Gaza City serving free meals shut, according to Amjad Al-Shawa, head of the Palestinian NGOs Network.
Residents say conditions are getting worse. Hundreds of thousands have been displaced by the latest offensive, though others have stayed put despite Israeli evacuation orders, citing fears about security and hunger if they move.
“The situation is becoming more difficult,” said Um Zaki, a mother of five who has stayed in Sabra, Gaza City, describing rising food prices and increasing scarcity. “People who sell things like food...have left to the south,” she said.
Ismail Zayda, a 40-year-old with a week-old baby girl and two young boys displaced from Gaza City to a camp near the coast, said he was making ends meet with canned supplies.
“There are no vegetables at all,” he said.
Gaza City municipality says it also faces a worsening water crisis, with supplies meeting less than 25 percent of daily needs. Fuel shortages and security risks have curtailed water deliveries.
Israel says there is no quantitative limit on food aid entering Gaza and accuses Hamas, which it has been at war with for nearly two years, of stealing aid — accusations the Palestinian militant group denies.
COGAT, the arm of the Israeli military that oversees aid flows into the enclave, said humanitarian aid to the northern Gaza Strip continues and that it seeks to expand the capacity of Kissufim crossing into central Gaza threefold.
COGAT said around 300 aid trucks, mostly carrying food, have entered Gaza daily in recent weeks, and that it was coordinating transfer of fuel for desalination facilities and water wells. When asked if Zikim would open, it said the entry of trucks would be facilitated “subject to operational considerations.”
Israel says responsibility for distributing aid in Gaza lies with international agencies, which COGAT said it was trying to help.
However, the WFP said it faced logistical challenges moving food from southern to northern Gaza due to congestion on the sole access road.
OCHA said Israel had denied 40 percent of requested movements to northern Gaza in the 10 days after Zikim’s closure.
“Zikim being closed makes famine, to those who are left behind, even more deadly,” said Ricardo Pires, spokesperson for UN children’s agency UNICEF in Geneva.
“Children are literally wasting away in front of our eyes while the world normalizes their suffering,” he said.
A global hunger monitor confirmed last month that famine had taken hold in Gaza City and was likely to spread, a finding disputed by Israel.
Those needing treatment for malnutrition have few options.
Four health facilities in Gaza City have shut down so far this month, according to the World Health Organization, and the UN says some malnutrition centers have also closed. Hospitals in southern Gaza cannot absorb more patients fleeing.
A spokesperson at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza’s Deir Al-Balah, Khalil Al-Dakran, told Reuters it was at capacity and lacked medicines, supplies, and fuel.
Mass displacement from the north is also straining food stocks in Khan Younis and Deir Al-Balah in southern Gaza — areas at risk of famine, said Antoine Renard, WFP Palestine country director.
Aid route closure worsens shortages in famine-struck northern Gaza
https://arab.news/2rzex
Aid route closure worsens shortages in famine-struck northern Gaza
- Residents say food is scarcer and more expensive since the Zikim Crossing was shut on September 12
- Treatment options for malnourished are shrinking with health facilities shutting down
2 US service members and one American civilian killed in ambush in Syria, US Central Command says
- The attack is the first to inflict casualties since the fall of Syrian President Bashar Assad a year ago
DAMASCUS, Syria: Two US service members and one American civilian have been killed and three other people wounded in an ambush on Saturday by the Daesh group in central Syria, the US Central Command said.
The attack is the first to inflict casualties since the fall of Syrian President Bashar Assad a year ago.
Central Command said in a post on X that as a matter of respect for the families and in accordance with Department of War policy, the identities of the service members will be withheld until 24 hours after their next of kin have been notified.
Shots were fired at Syrian and US forces on Saturday during a visit by American troops to a historic central town, leaving several wounded, Syria’s state media and a war monitor said.
The shooting took place near Palmyra, according to the state-run SANA news agency, which said two members of Syria’s security force and several US service members were wounded. The injured were taken by helicopters to the Al-Tanf garrison near the border with Iraq and Jordan.
SANA said the attacker was killed, without providing further details.
A US defense official told The Associated Press that they are aware of the reports and did not have any information to provide immediately. The official spoke on condition of anonymity for not being authorized to speak to the media.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least three Syrian security members were wounded as well as several Americans. It added that the attacker was a member of the Syrian security force.
The US has hundreds of troops deployed in eastern Syria as part of a coalition fighting the Daesh group.
Last month, Syria joined the international coalition fighting against Daesh as Damascus improves its relations with Western countries following last year’s fall of President Bashar Assad when insurgents captured his seat of power in Damascus.
The US had no diplomatic relations with Syria under Assad, but ties have warmed since the fall of the five-decade Assad family rule. The interim president, Ahmad Al-Sharaa, made a historic visit to Washington last month where he held talks with President Donald Trump.
Daesh was defeated in Syria in 2019 but the group’s sleeper cells still carry out deadly attacks in the country. The United Nations says the group still has between 5,000 and 7,000 fighters in Syria and Iraq.
US troops, which have maintained a presence in different parts of Syria — including Al-Tanf garrison in the central province of Homs — to train other forces as part of a broad campaign against Daesh, have been targeted in the past. One of the deadliest attacks occurred in 2019 in the northern town of Manbij when a blast killed two US service members and two American civilians as well as others from Syria while conducting a patrol.
