Independent Online News
Amid reports that the Israeli military stormed Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City on Monday in search of Hamas fighters, UN humanitarians warned that new food insecurity data indicates that famine could happen “anytime”.
“Famine is projected to occur anytime between now and May 2024 in the northern governorates,” the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said, upon publication of a new Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report on Gaza.
Attacks on buildings in Gaza where terrified civilians are sheltering are “abhorrent and must stop immediately”, a top UN humanitarian official insisted on Thursday following a direct hit on a United Nations training centre.
The death toll from intensified fighting “in the area” of the training centre in the southern city of Khan Younis in recent days has risen to 12 confirmed fatalities and 75 injured – 15 critically – said Thomas White, Deputy Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres has urged countries to avoid an escalation in the situation in the Red Sea, where Houthi rebels in Yemen have been attacking commercial vessels amid the ongoing war in Gaza.
The UN chief’s appeal came a day after the United States and the United Kingdom, with the support of other countries, launched airstrikes across multiple parts of Yemen in response.… Read the rest
UN humanitarians repeated dire concerns for civilians caught up in the war in Gaza on Tuesday, amid reports of continued Israeli bombardment of the southern towns of Deir al Balah, Khan Younis and Rafah, direct clashes on the ground and the firing of rockets overnight by Palestinian armed groups into Israel.
Continuing airstrikes were reported across Gaza on Wednesday and “intense ground battles” between Israeli forces and Palestinian fighters in refugee camps in central areas that have reportedly left many dead.
Airstrikes and missiles struck dwellings and public buildings on Tuesday including Al-Amal hospital in Khan Younis killing five, among them a five-day-old baby, reports indicate.