Gaza’s ‘paper-weak children’ describe human tragedy

UN officials and aid workers on the ground in Gaza have warned of a ‘cruel death by starvation’ in the besieged area, citing children ‘weak as paper’ from hunger and malnutrition.

The warning comes at a time when international pressure is mounting for a ceasefire during talks in Qatar.

The UN Security Council on Monday passed a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire after months of Israeli aggression.

Hamas has rejected the latest proposal for a cease-fire deal as it wants an agreement on a permanent cease-fire, while Israel says it is only willing to consider a “temporary pause” in the fighting.

After six months of war, aid workers say time is running out fast for the 1.1 million Palestinians who are either on the brink of famine or already facing it.

James Elder, a UNICEF spokesman in Gaza, described his experience of seeing incubators full of ‘paper-thin’ babies and underweight babies born to malnourished mothers at a hospital north of the Strip.

James Elder said: ‘Life-saving aid is being blocked. Lives are being lost here. I saw children who were so severely malnourished that they looked like structures.’

Speaking to The Independent from the European Gaza Hospital near the city of Khan Younis, one of Israel’s worst ground offensives, veteran humanitarians said the situation in Gaza was ‘unfathomable’.

According to him: ‘Only words like ‘paper thin’ can be used for such people. Arvind Das, head of the Gaza team of the International Rescue Committee (IRC), said that there are children and women who have no flesh on their bodies and their injuries (in Israeli bombing) make the rehabilitation process more complicated. becomes

“He and his colleagues can usually administer supplements and drips to the malnourished but we have nothing to give them,” he told The Independent.

Dr. Constantina Elia Kredi, an anesthetist who works with emergency medical technicians (EMTs) at the hospital, described the situation in Gaza as ‘unimaginable’, saying, ‘The original capacity of this hospital was only 200 beds and at the time There are a thousand patients here. There are about 22,000 people who have been displaced from other parts of Gaza and have taken shelter in the corridors and in tents inside the hospital.

The hospital’s orthopedic surgeon, Dr Hussam Bashir, said medical supplies were so low that they sometimes lacked even bandages for surgery.

Arvind Das, who has spent decades managing emergency responses in Afghanistan and Syria, as well as South Sudan, Sudan, Central African States and Iraq, said he had never seen a “catastrophe” like the recent Gaza one anywhere in the world.

He warned that even if a ceasefire were to be reached, all access routes to Gaza would need to be opened immediately to deal with the “severe” crisis.

Arvind Das told The Independent: ‘I thought I had seen the worst destruction and the worst conditions but seeing (Gaza) I can no longer claim that. My heart is breaking.’

According to him: ‘The situation is rapidly deteriorating. I have not seen such a serious crisis anywhere else in the world. The war must be stopped immediately and permanently. We have no time to lose. This is a complete failure of humanity.’

United Nations agencies have accused Israel of limiting aid to Gaza, calling it a possible war crime, but Israel has vehemently denied it.

Since the October 7 operation by Hamas, in which approximately 1,200 people were killed and around 250 were taken prisoner, there is no end in sight to the Israeli offensive in Gaza. Hamas still holds 134 prisoners.

Medical experts say that more than 32,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel’s barbaric bombardment on the 42-kilometer strip, most of them women and children.

Israel’s indiscriminate bombardment has reduced much of the Gaza Strip to ruins, displacing many of its residents and creating a massive food crisis.

On Tuesday, an expert told the United Nations Human Rights Council that he believed Israel’s actions amounted to genocide. He called on the countries of the world to immediately impose sanctions on Israel and impose an arms embargo.

Aid is being dropped by planes in devastated Gaza (Reuters)

“There are reasonable grounds to believe that the Geneva Commission’s threshold for the crime of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza has been applied,” said Francesca Albany, the UN special representative for human rights in the occupied territories.

Israel’s diplomatic mission in Geneva, which did not attend the session, rejected their findings. “Instead of finding the truth, these special envoys are trying to fit weak arguments, which is a distorted version of the truth,” the Israeli mission said.

Despite claims by several UN aid agencies that Israel is using hunger as a weapon by withholding essential aid.

But it is under increasing pressure to open more aid access routes to Gaza. Currently, two land crossings are open to the south of Gaza and none to the north, where civilians are precariously dependent on airdrops and extremely limited aid deliveries from the south.

Arvind Das, referring to IRC medical teams packed with patients in hospitals, said the 30,000 displaced group said that since October 7, the Israeli army had carried out more than 400 attacks on medical facilities and medical staff in Gaza. Which means every single hospital is affected.

Citing the Palestinian Ministry of Health, he said at least 340 healthcare workers had been killed in Israeli strikes and more than 160 had been detained.

There are also reports of allegations that healthcare workers have been tortured. Israel also denies allegations of targeting civilians and medical personnel in attacks and torture.

Arvind Das said he visited a shelter for internally displaced people in Deir al-Balah, the center of Gaza, which was a vocational training center before the war and had the capacity to house only 500 people. He saw that there were 80,000 people inside and 30,000 people outside.

According to him: ‘There was one toilet for every 700 people. Each person had only 1.5 square meters of space and women were forced to give birth in this crowd.’

He said that hepatitis and other viral diseases are spreading and that water and malnutrition are now common.

On Tuesday, the UN humanitarian office, OCHA, called on Israel to end the UN agency UNRWA’s embargo on food deliveries to northern Gaza. UNRWA is also the main UN agency providing aid and working in Gaza.

Israel said on Monday it would stop working with UNRWA in Gaza, blaming the aid agency for perpetuating the conflict. It has accused 12 of UNRWA’s 13,000 staff of being involved in Hamas attacks.

The agency said Israel had told it it would no longer allow food convoys into northern Gaza and that such requests had been rejected since March 21.

UNRWA also said it did not have the funds to run its operations until the end of May after many donors stopped funding.

OCHA spokesman Jens Larke told a UN briefing in Geneva: ‘This decision must be annulled. You cannot claim to follow these international provisions of law when you block UNRWA food convoys.’

Meanwhile, negotiations for a cease-fire are continuing in Doha, but according to initial reports, the cease-fire agreement has been put in jeopardy due to Hamas’ demand for an end to the permanent war and Israel’s anger over the UN resolution.

A Palestinian woman and a girl flee Gaza City (AFP)

The resolution, which calls for the release of all hostages held in Gaza but does not make it subject to a ceasefire, was approved by the Security Council after Israel’s closest ally, the United States, abstained from voting.

Hamas has since rejected the latest proposal, saying that unless Israel agrees to a more permanent ceasefire, withdraws its forces from Gaza and releases hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, including militants. Will not.

Israel’s foreign minister told Army Radio on Tuesday that the resolution was a signal to encourage Hamas to allow international pressure to end the war without concessions.

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who angrily recalled an Israeli delegation from Washington, said it showed Hamas was not interested in continuing negotiations for a deal.

For weeks, the sides have been negotiating a possible truce of about 42 days, during which about 40 Israeli prisoners would be released in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.

Israel says it is willing to consider only a temporary pause in the fighting, while Hamas wants any deal to result in a permanent end to the war.

Netanyahu’s office said Hamas’s demands were based on “delusion”, suggesting the Palestinians were not interested in a deal. Hamas has accused Israel of impeding negotiations while continuing its military offensive.

British Foreign Secretary Andrew Mitchell joined world leaders in welcoming the UN resolution calling for a ceasefire as an ‘important step’. The UK government is also pushing to ensure that it is implemented as soon as possible.

Labour’s shadow foreign secretary, David Lammy, called it a ‘turning point’ in efforts to end the fighting in Gaza.

As Arvind Das said, the fighting must stop immediately and the access points to Gaza must be opened immediately to avoid the worst disaster.

According to him: ‘It is a stain on humanity. Regardless of your politics, it is very painful to see women and children and people dying and suffering like this. I have not seen this before.’

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