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SvennoJ on 05 May 2025
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Palestine Foreign Ministry welcomes pope’s ‘final gift’ to Gaza

As we’ve been reporting, the late Pope Francis asked that one of his popemobiles be turned into a health clinic for the children of Gaza. The State of Palestine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that Pope Francis was “a true messenger of peace and justice”.

“Palestine has lost a loyal friend and a steadfast supporter of our people’s rights,” the ministry said in a post on X.

“He departed this world while calling for an end to the crimes of genocide, displacement, and annexation committed against our people, at a time when the world failed to protect the children of Gaza,” it added.


Gaza hospitals receiving children suffering with malnutrition every day

You can only find food on agricultural lands, like green crops, for example. The quantity of vegetables available remains very limited, and the farmers are selling them at very high prices.

Palestinians in Gaza say most of them depend on hot meal kitchens and eateries, most of which have collapsed and closed because they are out of stock. There are no other options left for them. Food distributions have ended.

Some families are saying that they are spending days now without even a single meal for their children. Doctors are saying that they are receiving malnutrition cases every single day as a result of families unable to feed their children.

We’re talking about the worst blockade since this war started. The situation is crippling, and [Gaza] is on the verge of collapsing.


Israeli quadcopters shot at Palestinian rescuers

One of the latest Israeli attacks was on a house in the Tuffah neighbourhood in the eastern part of Gaza City. One person is confirmed dead in the strike on a residential building, but as many as 25 people are still trapped under the rubble.

No one is able to reach those people who are trapped because Gaza’s Civil Defence force and emergency workers are not allowed to reach the area. According to the Palestinian rescuers, they attempted to reach the area but Israeli quadcopters fired at them, forcing them to retreat.


Gaza death toll rises

At least 23 Palestinians have been killed and 119 injured in Israeli attacks across Gaza in the past 24 hours, according to the enclave’s Health Ministry. Nine bodies of people killed in previous Israeli attacks were also recovered over the past day, it added.

Israel’s war on Gaza has killed 52,567 people and wounded 118,610 others since October 7, 2023, the ministry statement on Telegram said. At least 2,459 Palestinians were killed and 6,569 others wounded since Israel broke the ceasefire on March 18 this year, it added.


‘Complete limbo’: Gaza’s morgues unable to identify thousands of dead bodies

Thousands of unidentified bodies have been brought to Gaza’s morgues, which, without access to DNA testing, are forced to bury them without names.

“The situation is devastating for their families on so many levels,” said Maha Hussaini, strategy director of the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor.

“I know families who have been looking for their sons for around a year. They go to the morgues, they go to the hospitals, they go to mass graves. They sometimes go to the rubble and dig with their bare hands.”

“These families are left in limbo, complete limbo,” she told Al Jazeera from Gaza City.

With hundreds of Palestinians killed across Gaza every week – and 11,000 more already missing and presumed dead – the need for a sophisticated identification process in the Strip is “overwhelming”, added Hussaini.

But Israel is not even letting in heavy equipment to retrieve bodies from the rubble, let alone equipment to identify them, she said, calling it part of a strategy to “keep the situation unlivable”.