Six more Palestinians die of starvation in Gaza, including 2 children
Six more Palestinians, including two children, have died of starvation and severe malnutrition in the Israel-blockaded Gaza Strip in the last 24 hours, Gaza’s Health Ministry has said.
Famine-related deaths since October 2023 now stand at at least 393, including 140 children, the ministry added in a statement.
According to the ministry, 115 of the deaths, 25 of them children, occurred after the UN-backed hunger monitoring system Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) formally declared Gaza a famine zone last month.
Constant waves of displacement as families flee south from Gaza City to al-Mawasi
I’m in al-Mawasi in the western part of Khan Younis. The area is 1km (0.6 miles) wide and 12km (7.5 miles) long. This area was designated a “safe zone” for families in Gaza City after the war began, and was recently declared by Israeli forces as a humanitarian area.
This agricultural landscape has become overcrowded with displaced families, with constant waves of displacement coming from Gaza City. We see families taking donkey carts, vans and cars, loaded with their possessions, as they try to escape the bombardment.
But this area is still under constant Israeli attacks. People are battling to ensure their survival.
Surviving in al-Mawasi like ‘living in a piece of hell’, says displaced Palestinian doctor
Al Jazeera has spoken to Omar Hamad, a Palestinian doctor who has been forced to flee Gaza City by the Israeli offensive there. Like many other displaced people, he is now battling to survive amid desperate conditions in al-Mawasi in the south, which he describes as “living in a piece of hell”.
On arriving in al-Mawasi, he said, his family had to find a small patch of land on which to base themselves, and would typically start their mornings by searching for water.
“From the morning, I’m struggling to get the water, in order to let my kids have something to drink,” he said. “Maybe I spend more than two hours, three hours, and I don’t have a bottle of water.”
Food, safety, and psychological wellbeing were all in short supply, he said. “This is the situation, this is what we are talking about, our miserable life.”
Israel systematically destroying Gaza City with impunity
People in the Gaza Strip have one priority, and that is an end to their daily tragedy and suffering that has been unfolding over the past 23 months.
What we’re seeing now is a deliberate tactic by the Israeli military to destroy communities. When we talk about the towers and residential buildings bombed by Israel, for a lot of people, they might just be concrete structures, but they were home to entire communities.
A systematic destruction has been taking place over the past four days, and today a fourth building was bombed. We’re talking about the destruction of surrounding areas as well. A school, a clinic and a number of other facilities in the area have been deserted because of the severe damage they sustained.
So, while the situation is unfolding in the occupied West Bank, things have not changed here on the ground.
The global response has not been sufficient to stop Israel from carrying out this genocide, and that gives Israel the impunity to continue its systematic destruction of Gaza City’s communities.
