Majed Abu Ramadan says 29 Palestinian children, elderly people killed as hunger grips bombarded enclave.At least 29 children and elderly people have died from “starvation-related” deaths in the Gaza Strip in recent days, the Palestinian health minister says, warning that thousands more are at risk as limited aid begins trickling into the bombarded enclave.
Majed Abu Ramadan told reporters on Thursday that earlier comments by the United Nations aid chief to the BBC that 14,000 babies could die without desperately needed food aid were “very realistic”, but could be an underestimation.
Israel has allowed limited deliveries of humanitarian aid into Gaza amid a wave of international condemnation of its 11-week total blockade on the territory, which spurred warnings of mass famine.
But UN officials have said the humanitarian aid entering Gaza is “nowhere near enough” to meet the needs of the population in the war-torn enclave.
About 90 aid trucks entered Gaza on Thursday, but Abu Ramadan said “very few shipments went inside Gaza”. The aid that was allowed in was limited to “flour for bakeries”, he added. Advertisement
The president of the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS), Younis al-Khatib, also said Palestinians have yet to receive any supplies so far. “No civilian has received anything yet,” al-Khatib told reporters.
He said most of the aid trucks are still at the Karem Abu Salem crossing, known as Kerem Shalom to Israelis, in southern Gaza.
[Al Jazeera]
As limited deliveries enter the Strip, the Israeli military has continued to launch attacks across the enclave, with medical sources telling Al Jazeera that at least 51 Palestinians have been killed since dawn on Th …
