According to Unicef, a catastrophic hunger crisis is developing in Gaza, particularly affecting children. Meanwhile, Netanyahu approves military action in Rafah. The news at a glance.
According to the UN Children’s Fund Unicef, 31 percent of children under two years of age in the northern Gaza Strip are acutely malnourished. In January it was 15.6 percent of children, the organization said. In this part of the Gaza Strip, the supply crisis is particularly dire due to the ongoing war between Israel and the Islamist Hamas. Data collected by Unicef and partners in northern Gaza in February showed that 4.5 percent of children in emergency shelters and health centers suffered from severe acute malnutrition. This most severe form of malnutrition is life-threatening if children do not receive immediate therapeutic nutrition and medical attention. However, this is not available locally.
“The speed with which this catastrophic child hunger crisis in the Gaza Strip has developed is shocking, especially when urgently needed help is available just a few kilometers away,” said UNICEF head Catherine Russell, referring to Israel. Since December, UN organizations have been warning of the danger of famine in the Gaza Strip.
Most of the population of the northern and central Gaza Strip has fled to the south of the sealed-off coastal area at the insistence of the Israeli military. Several hundred thousand people remained behind in northern Gaza. Aid deliveries reach them only to a limited extent. The Israeli military repeatedly delays and hinders deliveries to the Gaza Strip. Within the coastal area, military restrictions, hostilities and chaos following the dismantling of order maintained by Hamas make it difficult to transport goods.
But according to Unicef, many children are also starving in other parts of the Gaza Strip. Data collected for the first time in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip showed that 28 percent of children under the age of two were acutely malnourished – ten percent of them were already suffering from severe wasting. Even in Rafah, the place with the best access to aid, the number of acutely malnourished children under two years old has doubled from five percent in January to ten percent at the end of February. The number of severely malnourished children quadrupled from one percent to more than four percent within a month.
Netanyahu approves military operation in Rafah
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has approved plans for a military operation in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, according to his office. In addition to operational operations, the army is preparing to evacuate the civilian population, the statement said.
Top international politicians, including Chancellor Olaf Scholz, strictly reject an operation in Rafah out of concern for the well-being of the civilian population. Politicians and aid organizations are demanding plans from Israel as to how and where the approximately 1.5 million people from the Rafah region will be brought to safety before a military operation.
Netanyahu also reiterated the assessment that a proposal from the Islamist Palestinian organization Hamas for a ceasefire in the Gaza war was “unrealistic.” At the same time, it was said that an Israeli delegation would travel to Doha after a security cabinet debate on the Israeli position.
For months, Qatar has been prominently involved in negotiations for a further ceasefire and the release of more hostages from Hamas in return for Palestinian prisoners.
Hamas announced on Thursday that it had presented a new proposal. Among other things, this provides for an end to the fighting in the Gaza Strip, aid deliveries to the population and the release of people kidnapped from Israel in return for the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prisons. The Islamists therefore continue to insist on a withdrawal of Israeli troops from the coastal area, which Israel rejects.
The Arabic television channel Al Jazeera reported on Friday that Hamas had presented a proposal in three phases of 42 days each. Hamas sets the condition that a permanent ceasefire be announced in the second phase – before they release Israeli soldiers. For every Israeli soldier, 50 Palestinian prisoners in Israel should be released, including 30 with life sentences.
On October 7, terrorists from Hamas and other groups abducted around 250 people to the Gaza Strip as part of a massacre in Israel. During a ceasefire in late November, 105 hostages were released. According to government figures, around 100 hostages are still alive.
