‘Starvation is knocking on every door’ in Gaza: UN
Cindy Riechau |
A six-week-old baby is among 15 people who have died of starvation in the Gaza Strip in the past 24 hours, local health officials say, with malnutrition killing Palestinians faster than at any point in the 21-month war.
The family of the Gaza City child, Yousef, could not find baby formula to feed him, his uncle Adham al-Safadi said.
“You can’t get milk anywhere, and if you do find any it’s $US100 for a tub,” he said.
Three of the other Palestinians who died of hunger over the last day were also children.
Israeli forces have killed nearly 60,000 Palestinians in air strikes, shelling and shooting since launching their assault on the Gaza Strip in response to attacks on Israel by the Hamas militant group that killed 1200 people and captured 251 hostages in October 2023.
Palestinian officials say dozens are now also dying of hunger.
The Gaza Strip’s food stocks have run down since Israel cut off all supplies to the territory in March and then lifted that blockade in May with new measures it says are needed to prevent aid from being diverted to militant groups.
Israel’s military has responded to accusations by the World Health Organization that its forces attacked the UN agency’s facilities in central Gaza and detained staff members.
The military said soldiers came under fire in the city of Deir al-Balah on Monday and returned fire in the direction the shots originated. However, the military did not specify whether the gunfire came from WHO premises in Deir al-Balah.
The WHO said that a staff accommodation facility was attacked on Monday and that a central warehouse had been damaged in a separate incident on Sunday.
According to a report by Israeli news outlet Ynet, citing a military spokesperson, the army is aware of claims that a residential complex housing WHO employees was struck. The report added that, according to the military, no agency staff were injured.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) publicly confirmed that several individuals were detained in Deir al-Balah on suspicion of “involvement in terrorism.” It did not clarify whether those detained were WHO employees or their relatives, as the UN agency said.
Most of those detained were released following on-site questioning, the army said.
The IDF did not comment on one individual who, according to the WHO, remains in custody.
WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said male WHO staff and their male relatives had been handcuffed, stripped, searched at gunpoint, and interrogated on site.
Responding to the claim, the Israeli military said: “At times during field questioning, it is necessary for individuals suspected of terrorist activity to temporarily remove parts of their clothing in order to ensure that they are not concealing explosive belts or other weapons.”
Suspects are treated in accordance with international law, the military added.
Ghebreyesus also said that women and children related to WHO staff had been forced to flee.
The Israeli military said it had warned civilians to leave the area prior to its operation.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres said he was “appalled that UN premises have been struck, among them facilities of UN Office for Project services and World Health Organization, including WHO main warehouse”.
“This is despite all parties having been informed of the locations of these UN facilities. These premises are inviolable and must be protected under international humanitarian law without exception,” Guterres told the UN Security Council in New York.
Guterres described the situation as a “horror show, in the level of death and destruction without parallel in recent times”.
“Malnourishment is soaring. Starvation is knocking on every door, and now we are seeing the last gasp of a humanitarian system built on humanitarian principles. This system is being denied the conditions to function, denied the space to deliver, denied the safety to save lives,” Guterres said.
with reuters
DPA
