More than half a million people in Gaza – a quarter of the population – are suffering from famine, according to a report released Thursday by the United Nations and other organizations. The high number of deaths and injuries is causing alarm around the world.
Gaza Strip –
The number of Palestinians killed in the war between Israel and Hamas exceeds 20,000, health officials in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip say.
The figure, which represents nearly 1% of Gaza's population, reflects the enormous cost of the war, which has displaced more than 85% of Gaza's population and devastated large areas of Gaza in just 11 weeks.
According to a report, more than half a million people in Gaza – a quarter of the population – are suffering from starvation Report issued Thursday by the United Nations and other organizations.
Despite the urgency of the situation, the Security Council of The UN postponed On Thursday evening, after several days of negotiations at the highest level, the vote on a resolution to send humanitarian aid took place again.
The United States, which has veto power, has rejected calls for an immediate ceasefire and a transfer of sole responsibility for inspecting humanitarian aid shipments to the United Nations. For security reasons, Israel insists that it must have the ability to control the movement of materials.
The United States says it supports a modified version of the resolution that calls for “creating the conditions” for a ceasefire rather than an immediate cessation of hostilities. Other countries favor stricter wording and say they need to consult with their governments for the vote, now scheduled for Friday.
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Martin Griffiths, UN humanitarian affairs director, lamented global inaction.
“That such a brutal conflict could last so long despite widespread condemnation, physical and psychological impact and mass destruction is an indelible stain on our collective conscience,” Griffiths wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
Despite calls for a ceasefire, Israel has said it will continue its offensive until the destruction of Hamas, which has ruled the Gaza Strip for 16 years.
Israeli forces say there will be more fighting for months in the southern Gaza Strip, an area where most of Gaza's 2.3 million residents live, much of which was ordered to attack the northern part of the territory in the early stages of the war to leave.
Since then, evacuation orders have pushed people into increasingly restricted areas in the south as Israeli forces focus on Khan Younis, Gaza's second-largest city. The Israel Defense Forces announced Thursday evening that it would send more ground troops, including combat engineers, to Khan Younis to fight Hamas militants on the ground and in their tunnels.
On Friday, the Israeli military ordered tens of thousands of residents to leave their homes in and around Burej, an urban refugee camp located in territory where Israel had initially urged people to leave.
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The air and ground campaign also continued in the north, although Israel says it is in the final stages of driving out Hamas militants from there.
Mustafa Abu Taha, a Palestinian farmer, said ground fighting and shelling continued in Shijaiyah, a district of Gaza City, adding that many areas were already inaccessible due to massive damage from airstrikes.
“They attack everything that moves,” he said, referring to the Israeli forces.
In the town of Rafah, on the border with Egypt, a bomb attack on a house killed six people, including a young boy, according to Associated Press journalists who saw the bodies at a hospital. Rafah is one of the few places in Gaza that does not require evacuation, but is bombed by Israel almost daily.
Gaza's Health Ministry said Friday that it had documented 20,057 war-related deaths. The count does not differentiate between civilians and combatants. He previously said that about two-thirds of those killed were women or minors. He added that 53,320 Palestinians had been injured.
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Israel declared war after Hamas militants stormed Israeli territory on October 7, massacring about 1,200 people – mostly civilians – and kidnapping about 240.
Israel blames Hamas for the high number of civilian casualties, saying the group attacked and then hid among residential areas.
Israel says 139 of its soldiers have been killed in combat during its ground offensive and that it has killed thousands of Hamas militants, including about 2,000 in the last three weeks, although it has provided no evidence.
Meanwhile, telephone and internet services were gradually restored on Thursday following the recent 35-hour power outage.
The numerous telecommunications disruptions have prevented the delivery of humanitarian aid in Gaza.
Hunger among the population is even worse than the crises of recent years in Afghanistan and Yemen, said Thursday's report, which warned that the risk of famine “increases with each passing day” and attributes this to not enough aid is getting into the country. Ribbon.
“It can’t get any worse,” said Arif Husain, an economist at the World Food Program. “I have never seen anything on this scale happening in Gaza, and at such speed.”
The war has also led to the collapse of Gaza's health system.
According to the health organization, only nine of the 36 medical facilities are partially functional and all are in the south.
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The agency reported a sharp increase in infectious diseases in Gaza, including a fivefold increase in cases of diarrhea, particularly among young children, compared to the situation before the conflict. He added that respiratory infections, meningitis, skin irritations, scabies, lice and chickenpox had increased.
“Because of the collapse of the health system, people facing a deadly combination of hunger and disease have few options,” he says.
WHO officials report “unbearable” situations in two hospitals in northern Gaza: incapacitated patients begging for water in their beds, the few remaining doctors and nurses have no equipment or supplies, and bodies are piling up in the yard.
Israeli forces have stormed several medical facilities in the north in recent weeks, detaining men for questioning and expelling others.
On Thursday, soldiers raided a Palestinian Red Crescent medical center in the Jabaliya refugee camp, taking paramedics and ambulance drivers with them, the group said. On Friday, the Red Crescent said the army had released some of the medics, including women, but eight remained detained and their whereabouts were unknown.
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