30/07/2025

WEDNESDAY | JULY 30, 2025

9

Famine unfolding in Gaza

NO BOUNDARY FOOD CENTRES TO BE SET UP LONDON: US President Donald Trump said on Monday that food centres will be set up in Gaza where “people can walk in without boundaries” as he admitted publicly that “real starvation” is going on in the besieged enclave. “We can save a lot of people. I mean, some of those kids – that’s real starvation stuff. I see it, and you can’t fake that. So we’re going to be even more involved,” he told a joint news conference with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. “Before we do anything, we have to get the kids fed.” He said Israel has “a lot of responsibility” for the food situation. Starmer described the images of starvation as CANBERRA: Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has described Israel’s denial of starvation in Gaza as “beyond comprehension”. He criticised claims by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel’s Deputy Ambassador to Australia Amir Meron that there is no starvation in Gaza. While there is a caveat on any information provided by Hamas, it is Israel that has prevented journalists from getting in, Albanese said. In a post on social media on Monday, Netanyahu said that there is no starvation in Gaza, nor a policy of starvation in Gaza. Meron reportedly told journalists that Israel does not recognise any famine or starvation in the Gaza Strip. – Bernama DUTCH TRAVEL BAN ON ISRAELI MINISTERS AMSTERDAM: The Dutch government will summon Israel’s ambassador to the Netherlands to denounce the “unbearable and indefensible” situation in Gaza and has imposed travel bans on two far-right Israeli ministers, it said in a letter. Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich will no longer be allowed to enter the Netherlands, which accuses them of repeatedly inciting violence and calling for an “ethnic cleansing” of the Gaza strip. The government said it supported the EU’s recommendation to curb Israeli access to its flagship research funding programme and said it would press for European trade sanctions if Israel was found to be in breach of its agreement with the EU on increasing aid supplies. – Reuters IRAN DENIES CLAIM IT GAVE HAMAS ORDERS TEHRAN: Iran said it had not interfered in negotiations aimed at securing a ceasefire in Gaza, after President Donald Trump claimed Tehran had issued “orders” to Hamas. Trump said the Iranians had “interjected in this last negotiation” between Israel and Hamas, which ended last week. Iran dismissed Trump’s remarks as baseless. Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei called the claim “a form of projection and evasion of responsibility and accountability”. He said Hamas negotiators “do not need the intervention of third parties” as the group pursues the interests of the oppressed people of Gaza. – AFP “intolerable”. – Bernama ‘DENIAL BEYOND COMPREHENSION’

ROME: Famine is “now unfolding” in Gaza, with thousands of children malnourished and hunger-related deaths on the rise among the youngest, a UN-backed monitor warned yesterday. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification Initiative (IPC) said that air drops over Gaza will not be enough to avert the “humanitar ian catastrophe”. “The worst-case scenario of fam ine is now unfolding in the Gaza Strip,” said the UN-backed group of organisations, used as a monitor to gauge malnutrition. “Immediate, unimpeded” humanitarian access into Gaza was the only way to stop rapidly rising “starvation and death”, it said. The IPC issued its warning “alert” after days of aid groups sounding the alarm over hunger related deaths in Gaza. Israel imposed a total blockade on Gaza on March 2 after ceasefire talks broke down. In late May, it began allowing a small trickle of aid to resume, amid warnings of a wave of starvation. The IPC said its latest data shows that “famine thresholds” have been reached in “most of the Gaza Strip”. Hunger-related deaths of young children, it said, were rising. “Over 20,000 children have been admitted for treatment for acute malnutrition between April and mid-July, with more than 3,000 severely malnourished.” Children under the age of five were dying of hunger, “with at least 16 reported deaths since July 17”, IPC said. o Air drops not enough, says monitor TEL AVIV: Two Israeli human rights organisations said on Monday Israel was committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, the first major voices in Israeli society to level the strongest possible accusation against the state, which vehemently denies it. Rights group B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights Israel released their reports at a press con ference in Jerusalem, saying Israel was carrying out “coordinated, delib erate action to destroy Palestinian society in the Gaza strip”. “The report we are publishing today is one we never imagined we would have to write,” said Yuli Novak, B’Tselem’s executive director. “The people of Gaza have been displaced, bombed and starved, left completely stripped of their human ity and rights.” The report published by Physicians for Human Rights Israel focused on damage to Gaza’s health care system. It said: “Israel’s actions have destroyed Gaza’s healthcare infra

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Palestinians gathering to receive food from a charity kitchen in Gaza City on Monday. – REUTERSPIC

ians, air drops will be insufficient to “reverse the humanitarian catastro phe”, warned the IPC. Delivering food by road is “more effective, safer and faster”, it wrote, also warning that the most vulner able suffering from acute malnutri tion, including children, “need access to consistent life-saving treat ment” to recover. “Without immediate action, star vation and death will continue to spread rapidly and relentlessly,” it warned. The IPC alert did not amount to a new famine classification, it said,

The group warned that “unim peded lifesaving humanitarian access” was the only way to stop the growing number of deaths. “Failure to act now will result in widespread death in much of the Strip,” it said. Over the weekend Israel declared a “tactical pause” in army operations in parts of Gaza, saying more than 120 truckloads of food were allowed in, with some coun tries – such as Jordan and the UAE – dropping food into the besieged ter ritory. But besides posing a risk to civil structure in a manner that is both calculated and systematic.” A spokesperson for the Israeli government called the allegation made by the rights groups on Monday “baseless”. “There is no intent, (which is) key for the charge of genocide ... it sim ply doesn’t make sense for a country to send in 1.9 million tonnes of aid, most of that being food, if there is an intent of genocide,” said spokesper son David Mencer. Israel’s military also rejected the findings as “baseless”. It said it abides by international law and takes unprecedented measures to prevent harm to civilians while Hamas uses them as “human shields”. Israel’s military offensive has killed nearly 60,000 people in Gaza, reduced much of the enclave to ruins and displaced nearly the entire population of more than two million. The 1948 Genocide Convention defines genocide as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or relig ious group”. – Reuters

but was intended to draw attention to the crisis based on “the latest available evidence” through July 25. A more thorough so-called “advisory”, in which the group issues its classifications, is under way and will be published as soon as possi ble, it said. In May, the IPC said there was a “risk of famine” in Gaza. The UN-backed group of organi sations and institutions issues an internationally-agreed definition for famine that is used to gauge the level of acute malnutrition in coun tries. – AFP

“Mounting evidence shows that widespread starvation, malnutri tion, and disease are driving a rise in hunger-related deaths,” it said. Israeli groups accuse state of genocide

Novak (left) presented the report. – REUTERSPIC