Two children and a woman were crushed to death on Friday as a crowd of Palestinians pressed to get bread from a bakery in the Gaza Strip, amid a worsening food crisis in the war-torn region, medical officials said.
The bodies of two girls, aged 13 and 17, and the 50-year-old woman were taken to Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Hospital in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, where a doctor confirmed that they died of asphyxiation due to the crowds at the Hopital. -Banna bakery. Video from The Associated Press showed their bodies next to each other on the floor in the hospital morgue.
According to Israeli official figures, the flow of food into the Gaza Strip has fallen to near the lowest level of the nearly 14-month war over the past two months. U.N. and aid officials say hunger and desperation are growing among Gaza’s population, almost all of whom rely on humanitarian aid to survive.
Some bakeries in Gaza were closed for several days last week due to a shortage of flour. AP footage taken last week after they reopened showed large crowds of people huddled together, shouting and pushing, at a bakery in Deir al-Balah.
Palestinians across the Gaza Strip rely heavily on bakeries and charity kitchens, with many only able to secure one meal a day for their families.
Abdel Kareem Hana / AP
In Lebanon, thousands of displaced people began returning to their homes this week ceasefire was declared between Israel and the militant group Hezbollah.
Many found their homes in ruins after heavy Israeli airstrikes leveled entire neighborhoods in eastern and southern Lebanon and the southern suburbs of Beirut over the past two months. Nearly 1.2 million people have been displaced.
The ceasefire was the first major sign of progress in the region since the war began over a year ago, sparked by Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. But it does not address the war’s devastating consequences. war in Gaza. For the Palestinians in Gaza and the families of hostages held in the area, the ceasefire marked another missed opportunity to end the fighting that has lasted almost fourteen months.
According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, more than 44,000 people have been killed and more than 104,000 injured. Israel has destroyed large parts of Gaza and displaced almost all 2.3 million people.
Gaza is in anarchy, says the UN
The United Nations said Friday that the Gaza Strip has descended into anarchy, with rising hunger, rampant looting and rising numbers of rapes in shelters as law and order collapses.
Palestinians are suffering “on a scale that must be seen to be truly understood,” Ajith Sunghay, head of the UN Human Rights Office in the Palestinian Territories, said in a statement after his latest visit to the devastated Palestinian territory.
“This time I was particularly alarmed by the widespread hunger,” Sunghay told a media briefing in Geneva, via video link from Amman.
“The failure of public order and security worsens the situation with rampant looting and fighting over scarce resources.
“The anarchy in Gaza that we warned about months ago is here,” he said. “Completely predictable, completely predictable. And as with all the death and destruction I have seen on my previous trips to Gaza, completely preventable.”
As the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took effect Wednesday, President Joe Biden said his administration would do so soon launch “one more push” with international partners to reach a deal to end the war in Gaza.
Mr. Biden, who has less than two months left in office, said in a social media post on Wednesday that his administration would work with Israel and other partners in the region in the coming days to “achieve a ceasefire in Gaza with the [Israeli] hostages released and an end to the war without Hamas in power.”
