UN body says over 1,000 have been killed seeking food in Gaza since May as hunger crisis worsens

By WAFAA SHURAFA SAMY MAGDY and TIA GOLDENBERG Associated Press DEIR AL-BALAH Gaza Strip AP More than Palestinians have been killed since May while trying to get food in the Gaza Strip mostly in the vicinity of aid sites run by an Israeli-backed American contractor the United Nations human rights office stated Tuesday Israeli strikes killed people across Gaza according to local wellness officers Desperation is mounting in the territory of more than million which experts say is at peril of famine because of Israel s blockade and ongoing -month offensive A breakdown of law and order has led to widespread looting and contributed to chaos and violence around aid deliveries Related Articles US says it s leaving UN cultural agency UNESCO again only years after rejoining At present in History July First solo around-the-world flight X says French accusations of evidence tampering and fraud are politically motivated US envoy doubles down on advocacy for Syria s cabinet and criticizes Israel s intervention Israeli forces push into parts of a central Gaza city that the war had largely spared Gaza s Vitality Ministry which is part of the Hamas-run cabinet and staffed by clinical professionals revealed Tuesday that people including children have died in current days from starvation It did not provide precise diagnoses but people in hunger crises often die from a combination of malnutrition illness and deprivation Israel eased a month blockade in May allowing a trickle of aid in through the longstanding U N -run system and the newly created Gaza Humanitarian Foundation or GHF an American contractor Aid groups say it s not nearly enough Israel accuses Hamas of siphoning off aid without providing evidence of widespread diversion and blames U N agencies for failing to deliver food it has allowed in In a comment GHF rejected what it stated were false and exaggerated statistics from the U N saying the deadliest incidents have been linked to U N aid convoys I do it for my children Dozens of Palestinians lined up on Tuesday outside a charity kitchen in Gaza City hoping for a bowl of watery tomato soup The lucky ones had a few chunks of eggplant floating in theirs As supplies ran out people holding pots pushed and shoved to get to the front Nadia Mdoukh a pregnant woman who was displaced from her home and lives in a tent with her husband and three children explained she worries about being shoved or trampled and about heat stroke as daytime temperatures hover above degrees Farhenheit C I do it for my children This is famine there is no bread or flour she stated We take this soup and it does not come with rice or anything The U N World Food Effort says Gaza s hunger dilemma has reached new and astonishing levels of desperation Ross Smith the agency s director for emergencies described reporters Monday that nearly women and children are suffering from severe acute malnutrition and a third of Gaza s population is not eating for multiple days in a row Over killed seeking food Of the people killed while trying to get food since late May were killed while heading to sites run by the Israeli- and U S -backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation according to the U N human rights office The others were killed when gunfire erupted around U N convoys or aid sites Thameen al-Kheetan a spokesperson for the U N rights office says its figures come from multiple reliable sources on the ground including medics humanitarian and human rights organizations He declared the numbers were still being verified according to the office s strict methodology Palestinian spectators and fitness representatives say Israeli forces regularly fire toward crowds of thousands of people heading to the GHF sites The military says it has only fired warning shots and GHF says its armed contractors have only fired into the air on a insufficient occasions to try to prevent stampedes Palestinians mourn their relatives killed from an Israeli army bombardment of Gaza at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City Tuesday July AP Photo Jehad Alshrafi The U N has refused to work with the GHF saying its model violates humanitarian principles and puts lives at liability A joint comment from Western-aligned countries on Monday condemned the the drip feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians including children seeking to meet their majority of basic requirements of water and food The Israeli cabinet s aid delivery model is dangerous fuels instability and deprives Gazans of human dignity read the comment which was signed by the United Kingdom France and other countries friendly to Israel The Israeli regime s denial of essential humanitarian assistance to the civilian population is unacceptable Israel and the United States rejected the comment blaming Hamas for prolonging the war by not accepting Israeli terms for a ceasefire and the release of hostages abducted in the Oct terrorist attack that triggered the fighting Hamas has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States Canada and the European Union Hamas has declared it will only release the remaining hostages in return for a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal Israel says it will keep fighting until Hamas has been defeated or disarmed Strikes on tents sheltering displaced people Israeli strikes killed at least people across Gaza on Tuesday according to local wellbeing bureaucrats as Israel pushed on with a new incursion in the central city of Deir al-Balah an area that had largely been spared heavy fighting A Palestinian man carries the body of a child killed in an Israeli airstrike on Gaza at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City Tuesday July AP Photo Jehad Alshrafi One strike hit tents sheltering displaced people in the built-up seaside Shati refugee camp in Gaza City killing at least people according to Shifa Hospital which received the casualties The Israeli military disclosed it was not aware of such a strike by its forces The dead included three women and three children Dr Mohamed Abu Selmiya director of the hospital recounted The Associated Press Thirty-eight other Palestinians were wounded he commented The strike tore apart tents and left a few of the dead lying on the ground according to footage shared by the Wellness Ministry s ambulance and urgency operation An overnight strike that hit crowds of Palestinians waiting for aid trucks in Gaza City killed eight hospitals reported At least were wounded according to the Palestinian Red Crescent The Israeli military had no immediate comment on that strike Israel blames the deaths of Palestinian civilians on Hamas because they operate in densely populated areas Israel renewed its offensive in March with a surprise bombardment after ending an earlier ceasefire Talks on another truce have dragged on for weeks despite pressure from U S President Donald Trump Time to end this nonsense Hamas abducted people in the Oct terrorist attack that triggered the war and killed around people Fewer than half of the hostages still in Gaza are maintained to be alive More than Palestinians have been killed during the war according to Gaza s Physical condition Ministry Its count does not distinguish between militants and civilians but the ministry says more than half of the dead are women and children The U N and other international organizations see it as the majority reliable source of material on casualties In Jerusalem top church leaders called on the international society to help bring an end to the war after making a rare visit to Gaza last week Latin Patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa left and Greek Orthodox Patriarch Theophilos III greet each other before attending a press conference following their visit to the Gaza Strip in Jerusalem Tuesday July AP Photo Mahmoud Illean Their visit came after Gaza s only Catholic church was struck by an Israeli shell in an attack that killed three people and wounded including a priest who had developed a close friendship with the late Pope Francis The strike drew condemnation from Pope Leo XIV and Trump and prompted statements of regret from Israel which noted it was an accident It is time to end this nonsense end the war Latin Patriarch Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa informed reporters Pizzaballa and Greek Orthodox Patriarch Theophilos III revealed they witnessed a Gaza that was almost totally destroyed They reported they saw older people women and boys totally starved and hungry and called for urgent humanitarian aid Every hour without food water medicine and shelter causes deep harm Pizzaballa reported It is morally unacceptable and unjustifiable Magdy announced from Cairo and Goldenberg from Jerusalem Associated Press writer Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed