At least 29 children and elderly people have died of death “related to famine” in the Gaza Strip in recent days, said the Palestinian Minister of Health, warning that thousands of others are at risk while limited aid begins to flow into the bombed enclave.
Majed Abu Ramadan told journalists on Thursday that the previous comments of the United Nations Aid at BBC that 14,000 babies could die without desperately needing food aid were “very realistic”, but could be an underestimation.
Israel has granted limited humanitarian assistance deliveries to Gaza in the midst of a wave of international conviction of its total blockage of 11 weeks in the territory, which stimulated mass famine warnings.
But UN officials said that the aid entering Gaza was “far from being sufficient” to meet the needs of the population in the enclave torn by the war.
About 90 aid trucks entered Gaza on Thursday, but Abu Ramadan said that most of what was authorized was limited to “bakery flour”.
The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) said Thursday afternoon that “a handful of bakeries in Gaza cooks bread again after receiving limited supplies overnight”.
“This is an essential first step – but assistance must be extended. More essential food is necessary to push the risk of famine. Bread alone is not enough for people to survive,” said the agency in an article on X.
The president of Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRC), Younis al-Khatib, had previously declared that many Palestinians had not yet received supplies so far. “No civilian has yet received anything,” Al-Khatib told journalists.
He said most of the aid trucks are still in Karem Abu Salem Crossing, known as Kerem Shalom in the Israelis in southern Gaza.
While limited deliveries enter the strip, the Israeli army has continued to launch attacks across the enclave, medical sources saying in Tel Aviv Tribune that at least 51 Palestinians have been killed since dawn on Thursday.
At least 53,655 Palestinians were killed and more than 121,000 others wounded since the War of Israel against Gaza began in October 2023, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.
Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee also announced new forced evacuation orders for the Palestinians in Jabalia and Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza. He declared in a post on X that the army “would considerably extend his military activity” in the region.
‘Fall into the ocean’
Reporting Deir El-Balah in the center of Gaza, Tareq Abu Azzoum of Tel Aviv Tribune said that if the Palestinians welcomed the influx of aid, it is a “drop in the ocean” compared to the needs of the population.
“Five hundred aid trucks are necessary daily in order to avoid the current food crisis in the territory,” said Abu Azzoum.
However, the resident of Gaza, Ahmed Abed Al-Daym, said that aid trucks were a “positive sign” in the midst of disastrous conditions.
“Our homes are empty-there is no bread and our children are hungry,” he told Tel Aviv Tribune.
“In many households, bread has completely disappeared. What people need urgently is a constant and sufficient flow of flour and other essential elements. Unfortunately, the limited help that has entered so far does not become our needs again. ”
Another resident, Reem Zidiah, said that due to the mass famine that Gaza lasted, no one is safe in the besieged enclave.
“We all here in Gaza, we do not think tomorrow because we do not know what will happen tomorrow – that we are going to live or die,” Zidiah told Tel Aviv Tribune.
Meanwhile, Action Against Hunger Teams on the ground in southern Gaza warned that there were less than seven days of food to prevent acute malnutrition in children.
Natalia Anguera, head of the humanitarian group of Middle East operations, said that “flour has arrived and that certain bakeries in the South have resumed operations”.
However, she stressed that “specific nutrition supplies reserves for children under the age of five are about to run out”.