Baby dies after family unable to find milk in northern Gaza
A two-month-old child, named Mahmoud Fattouh, has died of malnutrition in Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, the Wafa news agency is reporting, citing medical sources. Baby Mahmud died after his family was unable to find milk and basic supplies.
A paramedic who helped Mahmud’s parents bring him to the hospital says, “We saw a woman carrying her baby, screaming for help. Her pale baby seemed to be taking his last breath.” The paramedic says that they rushed Mahmud to hospital where he was taken to the ICU with acute malnutrition but didn’t survive.
Gaza City is in the northern Gaza Strip, where almost no food has been delivered since the beginning of the year, and UNRWA and the WFP have both now suspended aid activities.
No milk for babies in Gaza: Paediatrician
Moaz Al Majida, a paediatrician in Gaza, says that nursing mothers are unable to lactate as their health worsens, affecting the health of their babies. “Children are also eating food that lacks essential nutrients for their growth,” Al Majida added.
Earlier this week, a new analysis from UNICEF and other aid organisations said that “a steep rise in malnutrition among children and pregnant and breastfeeding women in the Gaza strip poses grave threats to their health”.
“The Gaza Strip is poised to witness an explosion in preventable child deaths which would compound the already unbearable level of child deaths in Gaza,” said UNICEF’s deputy executive director for humanitarian action and supply operations, Ted Chaiban.
Norway mourns human rights lawyers killed in Gaza
Norway’s embassy in Palestine has shared a social media post mourning the deaths of two Palestinian human rights lawyers killed in Gaza. Norway described Nour Naser Abu Al-Nour and Dana Yaghi as two “brilliant young lawyers” who worked with the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), defending women’s rights.
PCHR said that Dana Yaghi was killed along with 40 others by an Israeli air strike on her family home in Deir el-Balah, on Thursday. Two days earlier, “Israeli warplanes killed our colleague Nour Abu Nour along seven members of her family, including her two-year-old daughter,” PCHR added.
We mourn Palestinian Human Rights Defenders Nour Naser Abu Al-Nour and Dana Yaghi, killed with their families in attacks on Rafah and Deir Al-Balah. Both were brilliant young lawyers working for Norway’s partner @pchrgaza, defending women’s rights pic.twitter.com/ADwjUkwcbG
— Norway in Palestine (@NorwayPalestine) February 24, 2024
Rafah under wide bombardment
Rafah today has been under wide military bombardment. We’ve been seeing that residential flats today have been targeted in central Rafah. At least eight Palestinians have been reported killed. Alongside that, another air strike targeted agricultural land on the eastern side of the Rafah district. And within the past few hours, we have seen more explosions in the eastern parts of Rafah where another house has been targeted.
Palestinians carry a body following Israeli bombardment in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Saturday
‘Increased airstrikes in Rafah’ hurting ‘overstretched’ aid efforts: UNRWA
The latest situation report from the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, has said that “increased airstrikes in Rafah have heightened fears for the already “overstretched humanitarian operations” in the southern Gaza city. UNRWA also said that thousands of Palestinians are still fleeing to Rafah after weeks of “intense fighting in and around” neighbouring Khan Younis.
The report comes as Israeli forces have killed at least seven people, including a child, in an attack on central Rafah. Rafah has become densely overcrowded with almost 1.5 million people sheltering there, according to UNRWA. Rafah is also the only location through which aid trucks are entering the Gaza Strip but UNRWA says fewer than 35 trucks entered the besieged enclave on average per day last week.
On Friday, UNRWA spokesperson Adnan Abu Hasna told Al Jazeera that the agency is no longer able to provide assistance in northern Gaza.
