World
Significant part of Gaza facing ‘famine-like conditions’, WHO says
Thousands of Palestinian children in Gaza have been diagnosed with malnutrition, the World Health Organization (WHO) has said, as Israel continues to severely restrict supplies of food, water, medicine and fuel to the territory.
“A significant proportion of Gaza’s population is now facing catastrophic hunger and famine-like conditions,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters on Wednesday.
“Despite reports of increased delivery of food, there is currently no evidence that those who need it most are receiving sufficient quantity and quality of food.”
Tedros said 8,000 children under five years old have been diagnosed and treated for acute malnutrition in Gaza.
“However, due to insecurity and lack of access, only two stabilisation centres for severely malnourished patients can operate,” the WHO chief added.
Tedros said 32 deaths in the besieged Palestinian enclave have been attributed to malnutrition.
United Nations officials have warned of the risk of famine as Israel continues its war on Gaza. In January, the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to “ensure the delivery of basic services and essential humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza”.
The UN’s top court reasserted that ruling in March, demanding that Israel take “all necessary and effective measures to ensure, without delay… the unhindered provision at scale by all concerned of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance”.
Some of Israel’s closest allies, including the United States, have also called for more aid to enter Gaza and reach people in need.
Last month, Israel seized and shut down the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt, which had served as a major gateway for aid and humanitarian workers.
Last month, International Criminal Court prosecutor Karim Khan requested arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant on charges of alleged war crimes, including using “starvation of civilians as a method of warfare”.
A UN-backed independent commission also accused Israel of inflicting hunger on Palestinians.
“In relation to Israeli military operations and attacks in Gaza, the Commission found that Israeli authorities are responsible for the war crimes of starvation as a method of warfare, murder or wilful killing, intentionally directing attacks against civilians and civilian objects, forcible transfer, sexual violence, torture and inhuman or cruel treatment, arbitrary detention and outrages upon personal dignity,” the panel said in a report on Wednesday.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said earlier this week that Israel has taken “important steps” in recent months to remove obstacles to aid delivery in Gaza, but he acknowledged that it “can and must do more”.
“It is crucial to speed up the inspection of trucks and reduce backlogs; to provide greater clarity on – and shorten the list of – prohibited goods; to increase visas for aid workers and to process them more quickly,” he said at a Gaza aid conference in Jordan on Tuesday.
Blinken, who announced $404m in new assistance to Palestinians, also called for “clearer, more effective channels” to protect humanitarian workers from military operations.
Israeli attacks have killed at least 270 aid workers in Gaza, including seven World Central Kitchen employees in April – an incident that sparked global outrage.
Aid organisations have been stressing that even the inadequate aid that gets into Gaza often fails to reach people who need it most because of the Israeli offensive.
“The US’s latest humanitarian package for Gaza is a welcome step,” the International Rescue Committee said on Wednesday. “However, the effective delivery of any financial package depends wholly on unfettered access for aid and the ability for aid workers to operate seamlessly.”
Beyond Gaza, the WHO’s Tedros highlighted a growing health crisis in the occupied West Bank, where Israeli forces have killed hundreds of people since the outbreak of the war.
“WHO has documented 480 attacks on healthcare in the West Bank since the seventh of October last year, resulting in 16 deaths and 95 injuries,” he said.
In one major incident, undercover Israeli forces raided a hospital in Jenin and killed three people inside the medical centre.
Israeli strikes overnight and into Thursday killed a family of six and a Hamas spokesman in the Gaza Strip.
A strike hit the tent where Abdel-Latif al-Qanoua was staying in the Jabaliya area of northern Gaza, killing him, according to Basem Naim, another Hamas official.
Another strike near Gaza City killed four children and their parents, according to the emergency service of Gaza’s Health Ministry.
Israel ended its ceasefire with Hamas last week, launching a surprise wave of strikes that killed hundreds of Palestinians. It has vowed to escalate the offensive if Hamas does not release hostages, disarm and leave the territory.
Hamas has said it will only release the remaining 59 hostages — 24 of whom are believed to be alive — in exchange for a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal.
Search efforts remain underway for four U.S. Army soldiers who went missing while training in Lithuania, leaving behind a sunken military vehicle, a NATO spokesperson clarified Wednesday, despite earlier claims that they were deceased.
NATO said the search is “ongoing” and that the fate of the missing “is still unknown,” according to a statement posted on X.
“This is still early news so we do not know the details,” NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte told reporters in Warsaw. “This is really terrible news and our thoughts are with the families and loved ones.”
Asked Wednesday evening by reporters if he had been briefed about the missing soldiers, President Donald Trump said, “No, I haven’t.”
Few details surrounding the incident were immediately provided by U.S. officials.
A U.S. official would say only that the four soldiers were involved in a training accident, The Associated Press reported. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, would not comment on the status of the soldiers.
The soldiers were conducting scheduled tactical training near Pabradė, a town north of the capital Vilnius, when they went missing, U.S. Army Europe and Africa public affairs in Wiesbaden, Germany, said in a statement.
The missing M88 Hercules armored recovery vehicle carrying the four soldiers was later found in a body of water in a training area during a search by the U.S. Army, Lithuanian Armed Forces and other Lithuanian authorities.
FOREIGN NATIONALS FLYING DRONES OVER US MILITARY SITES RAISES ‘ESPIONAGE’ CONCERN: EXPERT
Eurocopters Tiger of the German Army take part in Lithuanian-German military exercises at a training range in Pabrade, north of the capital Vilnius, Lithuania, on May 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis, File)
The soldiers, all from the 1st Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division — a unit stationed at Fort Stewart in Georgia, went missing during the scheduled tactical training, according to the statement.
Recovery efforts are underway by U.S. Army and Lithuanian Armed Forces and civilian agencies.
Search efforts for the soldiers continue, and the 3rd Infantry Division is keeping the soliders’ families informed on the status of search efforts.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with our Raider Brigade Soldiers and Families during the search for our four missing Dogface Soldiers in Lithuania,” the division wrote in a Facebook post on Wednesday.
Further updates about the search for the missing soldiers would be provided as information becomes available, the U.S. military said.
BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS MISSING AND MURDERED UNIT INVESTIGATING ALLEGED MILITARY BASE KILLING
The training ground in Pabradė is located less than 6 miles from the border with Belarus.
“I would like to personally thank the Lithuanian Armed Forces and first responders who quickly came to our aid in our search operations,” Lt. Gen. Charles Costanza, the V Corps commanding general, said in a written statement. “It’s this kind of teamwork and support that exemplifies the importance of our partnership and our humanity regardless of what flags we wear on our shoulders.”
Lithuania, a member of NATO, has often had tense relations with Russia, a key ally of Belarus, since declaring independence from the Soviet Union in 1990. Latvia and Estonia, the other Baltic countries that broke away from the Soviet Union, have had similarly chilly ties with Russia.
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Relations soured further over Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda has been one of the most outspoken supporters of Ukraine in its fight against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s forces.
Fort Stewart did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
French President Emmanuel Macron welcomed his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday evening in Paris to prepare a summit of the ‘Coalition of the Willing’, a group of countries ready to provide Ukraine with long-term security guarantees.
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