In Gaza, six children are said to have lost their lives after becoming malnourished and dehydrated. The situation is critical for several children.
All these children are said to have stayed at Kamal Adwan and al-Shifa hospitals.
This is reported by the Hamas-controlled health authorities in Gaza, according to AFP.
At the same time, the health authorities state that the number of dead in the Gaza Strip has increased to more than 30,000.
Several tens of Palestinians are said to have been killed and injured while they were waiting for food, reports say Al Jazeera.
Israel launched a counterattack on Gaza the day after Hamas entered Israel on the seventh of October. On the Israeli side, 1,139 people died.
Here, Palestinians stand in a food queue in Rafah.
Photo: Ibraheem Abu Mustafa / Reuters
Big challenges
At least half a million people are now at risk of starvation in the Gaza Strip.
According to the UN, one in six children in northern Gaza under the age of two is acutely malnourished naudhjelpskontor OCHA. .
At the same time, there are big challenges in getting help.
The head of USAID says that Israel must open more gates for emergency aid and get a dramatic increase in vital humanitarian aid.
– It’s about life and death, says Samantha Power.
– We have far too few lorries coming in, says Save the Children’s international manager, Nora Ingdal, to NRK.
Palestinians wait for emergency aid outside Gaza City.
Photo: Mahmoud Essa / AP
– Chaotic situation
She explains that people are now so desperate that it is impossible to distribute emergency aid in an orderly manner.
The situation has become lawless and chaotic.
– It’s everyone’s fight against everyone. People just throw themselves at the help, says Ingdal.
She says that even if a lot of emergency aid were to come in, many children would still die.
– Children have been starving for so long. They are so exhausted. They have so little to go on. There is so little resilience left in these children, says Ingdal.
The international manager of Save the Children says that the situation in Gaza is so desperate that people throw themselves at the little emergency aid that comes in.
Photo: Nora Lie/Save the Children
The World Food Program says that no humanitarian organization has been able to deliver food in northern Gaza for more than a month, and claims that Israel is denying access.
Neighboring Jordan has coordinated the delivery of emergency aid from the air over southern Gaza.
Negotiating a ceasefire
Emergency aid organizations report that there is no time to lose.
A lasting ceasefire must be in place so that massive emergency aid can come in.
– The borders must be opened, not just to Rafah, but to all of Gaza, says Ingdal.
Children in a burnt-out car in the border town of Rafah.
Photo: – / AFP
Negotiators from Egypt, Qatar and the United States have tried to negotiate a six-week ceasefire, and hope that it can happen at the start of the Muslim holiday of Ramadan, around the tenth of March.
Handing over some Israeli hostages in exchange for the release of several hundred Palestinian prisoners is to be part of the proposal.
Probably 99 of the Israeli hostages are still alive in the Gaza Strip.
Israel is unlikely to agree to Hamas’s demand to leave Gaza. An agreement could mean that Israeli forces withdraw from cities and populated areas, reports AFP.
2024-02-29 07:52:19
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