Palestinians in northern Gaza eating extract of leaves
Palestinian activist Mansour Shouman says the situation in Gaza is getting worse.
“In the north there is famine right now. I had a friend text me saying, ‘We are eating the extract of the leaves of the trees just in order to provide us with nutrients,’” Shouman, who was in Gaza until March, told Al Jazeera.
“All they have up north is flour that is coming in through the very little residual aid that has been left off the American pier that is coming through land crossing points in the north.”
Shouman called for the land crossings to open as quickly as possible to allow the thousands of trucks full of aid from people who donated to organisations worldwide to enter.
US temporary aid pier ‘just a distraction’
Mansour Shouman says that even after the $230m US temporary aid pier was working, there were only about 29 trucks allowed into the Israeli military-controlled zone, so much of the aid is still on the beach.
“100 percent of the focus should have been on the land borders opening,” he told Al Jazeera, adding that the pier and efforts to airdrop aid were “just a distraction”.
“We need real change, we need an immediate ceasefire, we need permanent opening of the different land borders to the aid, and we need security for the people of Gaza as soon as possible.”
Israeli forces’ attacks have disabled 10,000 people: NGO
The Palestinian NGO Network Rehabilitation Sector says an estimated 10,000 people have developed various disabilities due to Israeli attacks on Gaza, Wafa news agency reported.
Tens of thousands of disabled individuals have fled since the start of the war. The Israeli destruction of infrastructure, roads, and rehabilitation centres has restricted movement and access to services for disabled people, diminishing their ability to evacuate safely, the statement said.
The group said that failure to accommodate disabled-friendly shelters, along with overcrowding, poses another challenge in accessing already scarce services. Disabled people are especially vulnerable to malnutrition and chronic illnesses, significantly increasing their risk of mortality, it said.
‘Situation is getting worse’
The situation is escalating in multiple areas in the Gaza Strip as the level of bombardment has gone up.
Starting from the central area, at least four Palestinians have been killed after a residence was targeted in the Bureij refugee camp. Bureij has been a centre for evacuees who fled Rafah – now they are taking shelter in central Gaza that has been widely targeted in the past 24 hours.
Israel is also upscaling its military operations in the southern part of Gaza, in Rafah, in an area called al-Mawasi, close to the Shakoush neighbourhood, where Palestinians have generally been taking refuge. Fifteen Palestinians have been killed since dawn today in Rafah and within the past couple of hours, three killed have been brought to hospital after being hit with a drone missile.
Here in the central areas of the Gaza Strip, intelligence operations are ongoing through surveillance drones, while in the north, the situation is absolutely grim. The operation in the Shujaeya neighbourhood continues. More victims have fallen, alongside other Palestinians killed in the al-Manara neighbourhood in Gaza City, where people had been fleeing from Shujaeya heading to the western part of the city.
The situation is getting worse, with at least 40 Palestinians killed in the past 24 hours and more than 220 others wounded.
