Deir al -Balah, Gaza Strip (AP) – Aid groups have a new alarm on the blockade of Israel of The Gaza Strip ravaged by warWhere he prohibited the entry of all foods and other products for more than six weeks. Thousands of children have become unhappy, and most people barely eat one meal a day while stocks decrease, says the United Nations.
The warning came while the Israeli strikes during the night and Thursday killed at least 27 people, including at least six women and 15 children.
The Gaza humanitarian aid system “faces the total collapse,” warned the chiefs of 12 independent aid organizations in a joint declaration. They said many groups had closed operations because Israel resumed the bombing last month made it too dangerous.
No food, fuel, medication or any other supply has entered Gaza since Israel imposed its blockade on March 2. He has renewed his bombing on March 18breakup A ceasefireAnd Seized of large parts of the territorySaying that it aims to push Hamas to publish more hostages. Hundreds have been killed and more than 400,000 Palestinians were forced to flee their shelters in the last of multiple trips.
Latest attacks
A strike in the southern city of Khan Younis killed a family of 10 people, including five children, four women and a man, according to Nasser Hospital, who received the bodies. The strikes in the north of Gaza killed two other couples with nine children, according to the Indonesian hospital.
A later strike hit a school housing displaced people in the northern Jabaliya district, killing three people and a child. The explosion left the walls in rubble and classrooms scattered with debris, charred mattresses and dispersed foods of food.
The Israeli army strikes houses, shelters and public spaces daily, claiming that it targets activists from Hamas and blame militants for civilian dead because they operate there. He says he is trying to limit civilian victims. There was no immediate comments on the latest strikes.
Almost all depend on charity kitchens
The United Nations Humanitarian Bureau, known as OCHA, said that almost all 2 million Gaza people are now counting on charities, who can only prepare a million meals a day. Meals mainly consist of rice or pasta without fresh vegetables or meat.
Other food distribution programs have closed the absence of supplies, and the United Nations and others aid groups sent their remaining actions to charities.
On the markets – the only other place to find food in Gaza – prices are spiral and shortages are widespread, with fresh food almost nonexistent. As a result, humanitarian aid is the main food source for 80% of the population, the World Food Program said in its monthly report for April.
“The Gaza Strip is now probably faced with the worst humanitarian crisis of the 18 months” since the start of the war, said OCHA.
“Children eat less than one meal a day and find it difficult to find their next meal,” said Bushra Khalil, Policy Head in Oxfam. “Everyone purely eats food. … Malnutrition and famine pockets are definitively occurring in Gaza.”
The water is also rare, with Palestinians standing in long lines to fill jerry cans of the trucks. Omar Shatat, an official with a local public water service, said that people have fallen to six or seven liters per day, well below the amount that United Nations estimates are necessary to meet the basic needs.
More hungry children, and more difficult to reach
In March, more than 3,600 children were newly admitted for treatment for acute malnutrition, against around 2,000 in the previous month, according to the OCHA, which said that “the rapid deterioration of the nutritional situation is already visible”.
Aid groups are also less able to treat children with malnutrition due to Israeli air strikes and ground operations. Humanitarian workers could only reach 22,300 children under the age of 5 with nutrient supplements in March, down 70% compared to the previous month. Only about 100 of the original original treatment sites still work, said OCHA.
“The humanitarian workers were forced to watch people suffer and die while wearing the burden impossible to relieve exhausted supplies, while facing the same fatal conditions themselves,” said almond Bazerolle, emergency coordinator in Gaza for doctors without borders.
“It is not a humanitarian failure-it is a political choice, and a deliberate assault against the capacity of a population to survive, made with impunity,” she said in a statement.
Israeli bombing endangered humanitarian workers
A survey of 47 aid groups revealed that 95% of them have reduced or fully interrupted operations, mainly because the bombing made it too dangerous, according to the joint declaration of humanitarian organizations, which included the Norwegian refugee council, Oxfam, except children, care and medical aid to the Palestinians.
Israel has largely stopped coordinating with humanitarian groups for their movements in Gaza. This means that humanitarian workers have no assurance that the military does not hit them. COGAT, the military agency responsible for coordinating Gaza aid, acknowledged the system stopping, which had been in place before the ceasefire.
Since mid-March, Israeli fires have struck staff or facilities from at least 14 organizations, and a 60 worker have been killed, according to the press release. The International Committee of the Red Cross said Thursday that one of its facilities had been struck by an explosion the day before, the second time in three weeks, the organization had been struck.
“When our staff and our partners, our convoys, our offices, our warehouses are bombed, the message is noisy and clear: even a rescue aid is no longer protected,” said the 12 aid organization leaders. “It’s unacceptable.”
Israel says that the blockade is a pressure tactic
The Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Wednesday that the blockade was one of the “central pressure tactics” against Hamas, that Israel accuses of siphoning aid to maintain his rule. Humanitarian workers deny that there is an important diversion of aid, saying that the distribution closely monitors.
Israel demands that Hamas released more hostages at the start of the brand new ceasefire and finally accepts to disarm and leave the territory. Katz said that even after Israel will continue to occupy large “safety zones” inside Gaza.
Hamas currently holds 59 hostages, 24 of which are supposed to be alive. He indicates that he will only return to them in exchange for the release of more Palestinian prisoners, a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and a sustainable truce, as provided for in the cease-fire contract now defined in relation to the beginning of this year.
Hani Almadhoun, co-founder of Gaza Sou Kitchen, said her kitchen has food for about three weeks.
“But food is defined in a loose way. We have pasta and rice but nothing beyond that. No fresh products. There are no chicken or beef,” he said. Up to one in five of those who come to his kitchen for food leave empty-handed, he said.
The war began when activists led by Hamas attacked southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mainly civilians and removing 251. Most hostages have since been released in cease-fire or other agreements. Of the 59 hostages still in captivity in GazaIsrael thinks that 35 are dead.
Israel’s offensive has since killed more than 51,000 Palestinians, mainly women and children, according to The Gaza Ministry of Health, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. The war has destroyed large parts of Gaza and most of its food production capacities. The war has moved around 90% of the population, with hundreds of thousands of people living in tent camps and bombed buildings.
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Khaled and Keath reported Cairo.
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