At least 798 Palestinians killed in Gaza's hunger queues

Gaza has become the dystopian setting of some macabre Hunger GamesThe UN confirmed this Friday that at least 798 Palestinians have been killed in the Strip in the last six weeks while collecting food for their starving families. The UN and NGOs that have been working in Gaza for decades. Israelis killed at least 10 Palestinians and wounded 60 when they fired on a crowd in Rafah, in the south of the Strip, according to Ahmed al-Farra, head of the pediatrics service at Nasser Hospital, where the victims arrived, citing UN sources. The victims and Gaza health authorities warn that the GHF system is "inherently unsafe" and violates the basic principles of impartiality in humanitarian aid. The UN and NGOs that have been working in Gaza for decades have denied that any incidents have occurred at its facilities, although videos provided by its own staff confirm otherwise.

According to the spokesperson for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, most of the deaths and injuries during aid distributions were caused by gunfire, which has required an investigation. "These are atrocious crimes in which people queue to get essential items like food." The GHF has stated that it has distributed more than 70 million meals in five weeks, and that humanitarian actors have seen the aid "looted by Hamas or criminal gangs." In contrast, the UN World Food Programme has explained that many of its food trucks have been intercepted by "hungry civilian communities."

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) also warned this Friday that its teams in Gaza are seeing "an unprecedented increase in acute malnutrition," and that the cases it has treated at its clinic in Gaza City have quadrupled since May.

The UN has also warned of the crisis caused by the Israeli fuel blockade, which is disrupting essential services, such as the few hospitals that remain operational, water treatment plants, and Civil Protection vehicles. Although its teams were able to bring 150,000 liters of gasoline to the Strip in the last two days, they warn that "it is only a small proportion of what is needed to maintain vital operations" and that they were unable to reach the hospitals in the northern part of the Strip, where the Israeli offensive is most brutal. Of the fifteen humanitarian operations the UN attempted to coordinate on Thursday, the Israeli army only allowed six. "Critical missions such as the evacuation of vulnerable people from high-risk areas, the withdrawal of vehicles, or the inspection of medical equipment could not be carried out," humanitarian officials warn.

No ceasefire

Israel intensified its bombing this week, while negotiations for a ceasefire, which were supposed to be finalized during Netanyahu's visit to the United States, continue behind the scenes. But the Israeli prime minister has managed, as intended, to meet with Donald Trump without reaching an agreement, which according to the US president could be announced next week. Qatari mediators have warned that an agreement will still take time, because the positions remain very far apart: Hamas, which has expressed its willingness to release 10 of the 50 hostages it is holding in Gaza., demands guarantees that Israel will not return to attack after the 60-day truce, as happened in March. And Israel demands the total expulsion of the Islamist organization from the Strip.

Meanwhile, skepticism reigns in Gaza. "They say there will be a truce, but it's all lies," Abdulsamea Alnajar, a taxi driver displaced to the south of the Strip, explains by phone to ARA. "Wake up and end this war of death, hunger, and genocide once and for all," he concludes.