Mediators struggle as more lives lost in Gaza
PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES: Mediators struggled on Thursday to reach a truce in Israel’s war with Hamas that entered its sixth month with dozens more killed, the famine-threatened Palestinian territory’s Health Ministry said.
The ministry said 83 more people had been killed over the previous day, adding to a toll it says has reached 30,800, mostly women and children.
Fighting began after Hamas fighters mounted unprecedented attacks on southern Israel on October 7 that resulted in about 1,160 deaths, most of them civilians, Israeli figures show.
The militants also took about 250 Israeli and foreign hostages, some of whom were released during a weeklong truce in November. Israel believes 99 of them remain alive in Gaza and 31 have died.
United States President Joe Biden has urged Hamas to accept a ceasefire plan with Israel before the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan begins, as early as Sunday, depending on the sighting of the crescent moon.
But mediators in Egypt have struggled to overcome tough obstacles, while the United Nations has repeatedly warned that famine looms for Palestinians trapped by the fighting.
By late January, the war had damaged around half of all buildings in Gaza and rendered the Hamas-run territory “uninhabitable” for its 2.4 million people, a UN agency said, warning that the impact would only worsen if the conflict continued.
The Health Ministry said on Wednesday 20 people had died of malnutrition and dehydration, at least half of them children. One of the latest victims was a 15-yearold girl who died at Gaza City’s Al-Shifa Hospital, it added.
Only limited aid has reached Gaza’s north.
The UN on Wednesday again cited “access constraints” as among the factors limiting essential water and other services, while US Vice President Kamala Harris has said Israel “must not impose any unnecessary restrictions” on aid delivery.
“Children are dying of hunger related diseases and suffering severe levels of malnutrition,” the World Food Program (WFP) said.
In the wasteland of Jabalia in northern Gaza, Palestinians gathered to receive free meals at a donation point.
“There is no gas to cook our food on. There is no flour or rice,” said Bassam al-Hou, standing beside large, blackened cooking pots among the dusty rubble.
He said children “are dying and fainting in the streets from hunger. What can we do?”
The Health Ministry said more than 100 people were killed in chaos last week when thousands of people swarmed aid trucks. Gaza officials blamed the deaths on Israeli gunfire, while the army insisted most were trampled or run over.
Another truck convoy was diverted by Israeli troops within Gaza on Tuesday night and then stopped by “a large crowd of desperate people who looted the food,” the WFP said.
Such incidents will continue unless aid can “really flood” the north, said James McGoldrick, interim UN humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian Territories.
“We’ve been given the green light” from Israeli authorities to use a military road on the eastern side of Gaza to reach the north, he added.
In Khan Younis, southern Gaza’s largest city, dozens of people went to inspect their homes and take what belongings they could recover after Israeli forces pulled out of the city center, an Agence France-Presse (AFP) correspondent said.
Gaza’s Civil Defense agency said Israeli forces “destroyed all water, sewage, electricity, communications, and road networks” in central Khan Younis.
The army has yet to respond to an AFP request to confirm a withdrawal from the area, but both the army and Hamas authorities said military operations were continuing in the city’s western area.