Hunger grips north of war-torn Gaza Strip amid ongoing talks
US, Arab and other mediators have voiced hope a deal can be reached before Ramadan Dire food shortages sent hundreds of Palestinians fleeing northern Gaza on Sunday as Israel’s war against Hamas raged on despite stuttering efforts toward a ceasefire and h
Desperate families in the north of the besieged war zone have been forced to scavenge for food as fighting and looting have stopped humanitarian aid trucks from reaching the devastated area. “I came on foot from north Gaza,” said one of them, Samir Abd Rabbo, 27, who arrived with his one-year-old daughter at the Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip. “I can’t describe the kind of starvation spreading there.” Without milk, he said, he had tried to feed his baby girl bread made from animal feed, which she was unable to digest. “Our only hope is God, there is nobody else to help.”
Close to the main battlefront, in the far-southern Rafah region, alarm has grown among 1.4 million Palestinians of a looming ground invasion feared to bring more mass civilian casualties.
US, Arab and other mediators have voiced hope a deal can be reached before the start of Ramadan on March 10 or 11, depending on the lunar calendar. Israeli warnings of a Rafah ground invasion have sparked deep concern, and questions about where the Palestinians now living there would flee to in the devastated territory.
UN and other aid agencies have repeatedly warned that “nowhere is safe” in Gaza.
Neighboring Egypt has kept its border closed to a mass refugee flight, arguing it will not help facilitate any Israeli operation to push
Palestinians out of Gaza.
But satellite images show it has also built a walled enclosure next to Gaza, in an apparent effort to brace for the arrival of large numbers of refugees.
Gaza’s humanitarian crisis has meanwhile spiraled, with the UN World Food Programme reporting “unprecedented levels of desperation.”
Some residents have resorted to eating scavenged scraps of rotten corn, animal fodder, the meat of slaughtered horses, and even leaves from trees.
Inside Israel, public pressure has grown on Netanyahu — both from the desperate families of hostages taken by Hamas, and from a resurgent anti-government protest movement.
Thousands again rallied in Tel Aviv’s “Hostages Square” Saturday night to demand swifter action. “We keep telling you: Bring them back to us, and no matter how!” said Avivit Yablonka, 45, whose sister Hanan was kidnapped during the Oct. 7 attack.
Nearby, protesters were blocking streets and calling for Netanyahu’s government to step down as police deployed water cannon and mounted officers to disperse them. “They are not choosing the right path for us, whether it’s the economy, whether it’s peace with our neighbors,” charged one protester, software company CEO
Moti Kushner, 54. “It looks like they never want to end the war.” Meanwhile, an Israeli soldier seized by Hamas militants during their Oct. 7 attack was killed the same day and his body is being held in Gaza, the army and a campaign group said on Sunday.
The Israeli army confirmed the death of Sergeant Oz Daniel, 19, while the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said his remains are held in the Palestinian territory. “Oz’s body is still held captive by Hamas,” the forum said in a statement.
Daniel was a guitar player who “believed in the power of music to change the world,” the forum said. During the attack, Palestinian militants abducted around 250 Israelis and foreigners to the Gaza Strip. Around 130 are still held captive there. This includes 31 who are believed dead, among them six soldiers, according to Israeli figures.
Desperate families in the besieged war zone have been forced to scavenge for food as fighting and looting have stopped humanitarian aid trucks from reaching the devastated area.