There is not only Yazan Al Kafarna, who appeared in the photos pale and emaciated with skeletal limbs, who died on Monday and about whom the Palestinian envoy to the United Nations, Riyad Mansour, spoke two days ago. Many more children are at risk of dying from lack of food, joining the 15 children who have already starved to death in Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza, where food shortages are greatest. One of the people most at risk is Ahmed Qannan, who is not yet three years old: before the Israeli military offensive he weighed 12 kg, today he weighs half that. With sunken eyes, skin and bones, very weak, Ahmed lies in a cot at the Al Awda health center in Rafah, on the border with Egypt, cared for by an aunt. The children around him are no better off. Like Ahmed, they desperately need calories, vitamins and protein, but finding even a packet of cookies in Israeli-attacked Gaza is a challenge.
Ahmed SalemMothers are malnourished and cannot breastfeed their babies. We can't help them, we don't have a formula
DESPITE IT, The food is there near Rafah, on the other side of the border, on the Egyptian side, where the trucks are stopped that are unable to enter Gaza and their supplies from the Red Crescent, the United Nations and others to deliver cargo prepared to international parties. Speaking to Portal, a nurse at Al-Awda center, Diaa Al-Shaer, said the number of children suffering from malnutrition and a range of diseases related to poor nutrition had reached unprecedented numbers. “We will have to contend with a large number of patients suffering from malnutrition,” he warned. Newborns don't fare any better, explains Dr. Ahmad Salem from Kamal Adwan ICU. “The mothers are malnourished themselves and cannot breastfeed their children. We are out of artificial milk.” Adele Khodr, regional director of Unicef, the U.N. children's agency, said she understands “the feeling of helplessness and desperation among parents and doctors when they realize that life-saving help is just a few kilometers away but out of reach is.” It must be unbearable. Another UN agency, UNRWA, which has been targeted by Israel for weeks over alleged “collusion with Hamas”, reported yesterday through its Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini that one in six children under the age of two in the northern Gaza Strip are “severely malnourished”.
NEGATIVE PRESSURE, Israel has decided to allow humanitarian aid to Gaza by sea, Channel 13 TV reported yesterday. According to the findings, the Emirates will finance aid shipments to Cyprus, where they are subject to inspection by Israeli officials. From there the ships will sail to Gaza and unload the goods on the coast. The first flotilla will leave for Cyprus in the next few days, hoping to reach Gaza at the start of Ramadan, which begins on March 10 or 11. However, the ceasefire remains the real path to ending the massacres of civilians and providing regular supplies to the population of Gaza, most of whom have been displaced in recent months at the behest of the Israeli army. Hamas negotiators remained in Cairo for the third day of ceasefire talks, but last night the gap between the Islamic movement and Israel appeared unbridgeable. The war cabinet led by Netanyahu has not sent a delegation to Egypt; it first wants a list from Hamas with the names of around 130 Israeli hostages in Gaza. The Palestinian organization says it is unable to provide these because the hostages are spread over a large area and are being held by different groups. Israel reiterates that it is only interested in a temporary ceasefire during which the hostages would be released. Hamas reiterates that any agreement must lead to a permanent end to hostilities and the return of displaced people to the north.
THE BROKERS The Egyptians deny the news of close agreements spread by some media, saying that Israel and Hamas are sticking to their positions and insisting on the demands that have so far prevented an agreement. However, a Hamas spokesman, Bassem Naim, claims that his group has submitted a draft ceasefire agreement and is now waiting for a response from Israel. Another Hamas member, Osama Hamdan, specifies that without a final ceasefire in Gaza, no Israeli hostage will be released. The Netanyahu government responds that his country is “making every effort to reach an agreement and is now waiting for a response from Hamas.” US President Joe Biden is once again siding with Israel. “The hostage deal is only in the hands of Hamas… there was a rational offer. “The Israelis agreed… We will know in a few days whether that will happen,” the US president told reporters before arriving in Maryland Boarded Air Force One.
THE ARMED FORCES Israeli forces killed a 16-year-old Palestinian teenager at a crossroads in Huwara in the West Bank yesterday after a knife attack that injured a soldier. At least 358 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli soldiers and settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem since October. During the same period, at least 12 Israelis were killed in Palestinian attacks. In Lebanon, four people were killed in an Israeli airstrike against the Shiite movement Hezbollah in the southern regions of the country.