March 6, 2024 Newborns die of hunger and mothers struggle to feed their children as Israel's siege condemns Gazans to starvation Sana Noor Haq, Ibrahim Dahman, AbdulQader Sabbah and Abeer Salman | |
|
A Palestinian child suffering from malnutrition receives treatment at a healthcare center in Rafah, in southern Gaza, on March 4. Children and mothers are among those most at risk of severe malnutrition. (Mohammed Salem/Reuters) |
Anwar Abdul Nabi perches on the edge of a bed at the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza. Her eyes are sunken with grief. The young mother tenderly holds the fingers of her daughter, Mila. Just minutes ago, the 7-year-old girl died of starvation. "My daughter was taken into to God's mercy, because of the lack of calcium, potassium and oxygen," Nabi told CNN on Monday, as she cried into the arms of an elderly relative. "Suddenly, everything dropped, because she was not eating anything with iron, or eggs. She used to eat eggs every day before the war. Now nothing. She passed away." As Israel's severe restrictions on aid entering the Gaza Strip drain essential supplies, displaced Palestinians told CNN they are struggling to feed their children. Starving mothers are unable to produce enough milk to breastfeed their babies, doctors say. Parents arrive at overwhelmed health facilities begging for infant formula. In northern Gaza, people rush to grab aid from infrequent humanitarian drops. Health workers say they cannot offer life-saving treatment to malnourished Gazans because Israel's bombardment and siege has crushed the medical system. The Ministry of Health in Gaza said Tuesday that since the beginning of the war, 364 health workers had been killed; 269 medical staff arrested; 155 health facilities "destroyed," and 155 ambulances "targeted." CNN cannot independently confirm the numbers due to the lack of international media access to Gaza. Israel launched its military offensive in Gaza after the militant group Hamas killed at least 1,200 people and kidnapped more than 250 others in southern Israel on October 7. Since then, Israel's attacks on Gaza have killed at least 30,717 Palestinians and wounded another 72,156 people, according to the Ministry of Health in the enclave, while its siege has drastically diminished vital supplies and left the enclave's population of some 2.2 million people exposed to high levels of acute food insecurity or worse, according to the Integrated Food Security and Nutrition Phase Classification (IPC), which assesses global food insecurity and malnutrition. At least 18 Palestinians have starved to death in northern Gaza, Dr. Ashraf Al-Qudra, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Health, said on Wednesday. The youngest baby who died of starvation in the enclave was one day old, according to Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan hospital. The true number could be even higher, as limited access to northern Gaza has hindered the ability of aid agencies to fully assess the situation there. UN experts accused Israel of "intentionally starving" Palestinians in Gaza. Israel insists there is "no limit" on the amount of aid that can enter Gaza, but its inspection regime on aid trucks has meant that only a tiny fraction of the amount of food and other supplies that used to enter Gaza daily before the war is getting in now. Children, mothers at risk One-year-old Watin, in northern Gaza, has grown tired and weak from dehydration. Instead of drinking baby formula, she is surviving on one to two dates a day. "She is only taking one meal," said her father, Ikhlas Shehadeh, who struggles to scavenge enough food to feed his baby girl. "She spent a long time without any milk. This child is suffering from the inability to move," he told CNN on Tuesday. "We do not know what to do." The babies of thousands of women "who are due to give birth in the next month in the Gaza Strip are at risk of dying," the UNICEF State of Palestine Humanitarian Situation report said on Tuesday. At least 5,500 pregnant women "do not have access to prenatal or postnatal check-ups because of bombings and need to flee for safety," the report said. "Anxiety is also leading to premature births," the report added, citing the United Nations Population Fund (UNPF.) The report also said over 90% of children "aged 6-23 months and pregnant, breastfeeding women face severe food poverty with access to two or fewer food groups per day." Food shortages are reportedly the worst in northern Gaza, where Israel concentrated its military offensive in the early days of the war. Child malnutrition in the region is about three times higher than in southern Gaza, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Screenings at health facilities there have previously found at least one in six children under the age of two are acutely malnourished, said Richard Peeperkorn, WHO representative for the territory. He warned those figures are "likely to be greater today." Pregnant and breastfeeding women also face "grave threats to their health" caused by malnutrition, the Global Nutrition Cluster, an alliance of NGOs, reported in February. Dr. Muhammad Salha, acting director of Al-Awda Hospital, in northern Gaza, told CNN medical workers are treating cases of dehydration, gastroenteritis, and hepatitis among women and children. "There are babies who died in their mothers' wombs, and surgeries were performed to remove the dead fetuses," he said on Monday. "Mothers are not eating because of the conditions we are living in, and this affects the infants … There are causes of many children suffering from dehydration and malnutrition, leading to death." Israel's bombardment has forcibly displaced at least 1.7 million Palestinians, according to the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Many of those who fled the fighting are crammed into overwhelmed shelters without basic sanitation, leading to the spread of infections. Malnourished children, especially those with severe malnutrition, are at greater risk of dying from illnesses like diarrhea and pneumonia, according to the World Health Organization. Another doctor in northern Gaza, Ahmad Salem, said patients in intensive care and neonatal units were dying from malnutrition and a lack of oxygen, which are difficult to administer amid fuel shortages. "We suffer from starvation of mothers," the medical worker in the Kamal Adwan Hospital told CNN. "We cannot find an alternative to mother's milk, which leads to the death of those children." |
Anwar Abdul Nabi, a young mother whose 7-year-old daughter, Mila, had died of malnutrition minutes earlier. Israel's siege on Gaza has consigned Palestinians in the enclave to deadly starvation. (CNN) |
'We have become like dogs' Footage obtained by CNN shows scores of desperate civilians clambering over each other to grab ration packs from aid drops in northern Gaza. On Tuesday, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt sent 42 tons of medical supplies and food via airplanes in the region, the Emirati Ministry of Defense said. The US military said it had, alongside the Royal Jordanian Air Force, parachuted more than 36,800 meals into northern Gaza that day. But human rights groups criticized the drops as inefficient and a degrading way of getting aid to Gazans, urging Israeli authorities to lift controls on land crossings into the enclave. Melanie Ward, the CEO of the UK-based NGO, Medical Aid for Palestinians, urged Israel to "immediately open all crossings into Gaza for aid workers to assist those in need." "Only safe and unfettered access for aid and aid workers, the lifting of the siege, and an immediate ceasefire can end starvation in Gaza," she said in a statement on Saturday. Even when aid does make it into the strip, collecting it can be dangerous. Israeli forces opened fire on people waiting for aid on Monday in northern Gaza, eyewitnesses told CNN, in an incident that took place shortly before midnight at the Kuwait Roundabout on Rasheed Street in Gaza City. CNN has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for comment. Last Thursday, at least 118 people were killed while trying to access food aid in Gaza City in one of the worst single tragedies of the war so far. Palestinian health officials said Israeli troops had used live fire as hungry and desperate Palestinian civilians were gathering around food trucks, with Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations, referring to the incident as an "outrageous massacre." The Israeli military said it first opened fire with warning shots for crowd control, before firing on "looters" who came toward them. Most of the dead were killed by ramming as aid truck drivers tried to escape the gunfire and chaos, eyewitnesses and the IDF both said. CNN is unable to independently confirm the figures. Faraj Abu Naji, whose sister gave birth to twin girls a week ago, managed to obtain just three cartons of milk for his newborn nieces in an aid drop in northern Gaza. He told CNN that he injured his foot while trying to buy flour along Al-Rashid Street. "We thank God that there is humanitarian aid being dropped from Jordanian and Emirati planes," he said on Tuesday. "I try as much as possible to obtain milk from the planes that drop aid so that we can provide milk for my nieces for as long as possible. "Planes are dropping aid on northern Gaza, and we have become like dogs, running after a bone." |
|
|
More on the Israel-Hamas war |
- Ceasefire-hostages deal: Hamas "will continue negotiations" to reach a ceasefire in Gaza, the group said Wednesday, saying it has "shown flexibility" in talks, as it accused Israel of evading "the obligations of the agreement" being discussed. In a statement, Hamas reiterated its demand for a permanent ceasefire, the return of displaced persons, Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza strip, and provision of aid to the people of Gaza. Negotiators have been gathered in Cairo since Sunday for talks on a deal, but Israel did not send a delegation, an Israeli official told CNN. US President Joe Biden said a potential ceasefire "is in the hands of Hamas."
- Gantz in US: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was "quite direct and quite frank" about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza during his meeting with Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz, said State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller. Blinken also pressed for Israel to open another crossing for humanitarian aid to enter Gaza, Miller added. Gantz, a political rival of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was in the US visiting top Biden administration officials, before heading to London to meet UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron on Wednesday. An Israeli official said earlier that Gantz is not representing Israel on his trip.
Also read: - A Palestinian gravedigger who's overseen half of Gaza's burials says there is no space left to accommodate the interminable flow of bodies.
- The UN agency for Palestinian refugees on Monday accused Israel of detaining and torturing some of its staffers, coercing them into making false confessions about the agency's ties to Hamas.
- A large group of protesters gathered outside the US Embassy in Tel Aviv on Tuesday, calling for Biden's help with securing a ceasefire deal in Gaza that would see Israeli hostages freed.
|
|
|
Aid workers say that not enough relief is entering the besieged Gaza Strip, leading the US over the weekend to airdrop some 36,800 meals into northern Gaza. But with more than half a million people in Gaza on the brink of famine, some see the meals as just a small drop in the ocean, especially as the US is seen as one state that can exert pressure on its Israeli ally. "We're dropping some food, and we're dropping the bombs and the tanks and the bullets and everything else at the same time," Kathy Boyl, an American protester in Washington, DC, told CNN Saturday. Watch the report with CNN's Becky Anderson here. |
|
|
Egypt's currency plunges by nearly 50% as central bank hikes interest rate, IMF extends loan Egypt on Wednesday signed an agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to extend the current $3 billion loan deal to $8 billion. The agreement comes after Egypt's Central Bank (CBE) raised interest rates by 600 basis points and letting the Egyptian pound's (EGP) exchange rate "be determined by market forces." "The unification of the exchange rate is crucial," said the CBE, "as it facilitates the elimination of foreign exchange backlogs following the closure of the spread between the official and the parallel exchange rate markets." The massive interest rate hike was followed by a currency devaluation that slashed the Egyptian pound by 43%, from EGP 32 on Tuesday to around 46 against the US dollar on Wednesday. - Background: Egypt has been suffering from hard currency shortages amid a painful financial crisis that has left the North African country trapped in a cycle of borrowing, which analysts say is unsustainable. Egypt's last $3 billion loan agreement with the IMF in 2022, which analysts say was heavily influenced by Gulf Arab countries, had demanded that Egypt eventually adopt a flexible exchange rate and put stakes in several key state enterprises up for sale. Analysts saw Gulf states, mainly the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, as some of the keenest buyers of these state assets.
- Why it matters: This is the Egyptian pound's fourth devaluation since early 2022. It comes weeks after Egypt signed a megadeal deal with longtime creditor the UAE to develop a prime stretch of its Mediterranean coast on the Ras El Hekma peninsula that would bring $35 billion of investments to the indebted country over the next two months.
Watch the report here with CNN's Becky Anderson. Israel sells record $8 billion in bonds despite the war Israel has raised a record $8 billion in its first international bond sale since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, the country's finance ministry said Wednesday. Some 400 different investors from 36 countries took part in the sale, the ministry added, noting that demand for the offering reached $38 billion, "the highest demand ever in the history of the State of Israel." Accountant General Yehli Rotenberg described the sale as a success and "an unprecedented expression of confidence by the world's largest international investors in the Israeli economy." Strong appetite for Israeli debt comes even as Moody's delivered the country's first ever credit rating downgrade last month, citing elevated political risk and a deterioration in public finances stemming from the war. - Background: Moody's Investors Service last month downgraded Israel's debt rating from A1 to A2, underscoring the economic damage of the country's war with Hamas, which has resulted in thousands of human casualties and stoked geopolitical tensions around the world. While an A2 rating is still considered investment grade, the downgrade likely makes it more expensive for Israel to borrow money.
- Why it matters: This is Israel's first international bond sale since October 7, and comes as Israel's economy plunges by more than 19% as the war and its expenses take their toll.
Iran executed more than 800 people in 2023, human rights groups say Executions in Iran have spiked by 43% in 2023 compared to the previous year, the Norway-based Iran Human Rights NGO (IHRNGO) and the France-based Together Against the Death Penalty (ECPM) have claimed in a joint report, adding that the NGO documented a total of 834 executions last year, the highest number in more than 20 years. At least 22 of those executed were women, the NGO said, the highest number of women executed in eight years. Reasons for the executions included drug-related charges, security-related charges, adultery and blasphemy, the NGO said, adding that seven people were hung in public spaces. CNN has reached out to the Iranian government for comment. - Background: Iran has long ranked among the world's top executioners. But the regime began taking capital punishment to new levels when it started handing down death sentences to those related to nationwide protests that rocked the country in September 2022, which were sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody.
- Why it matters: The damning report comes after Iran recorded the lowest electoral turnout since the Islamic Republic's founding in 1979, sparked by what analysts say is diminished faith in government and widened crackdown on dissent.
|
|
|
| You are receiving this newsletter because you signed up for Meanwhile in the Middle East.
To stop receiving this newsletter, unsubscribe or sign up to manage your CNN account | |
® © 2024 Cable News Network. A Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All Rights Reserved.
1050 Techwood Drive NW, Atlanta, GA 30318 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
