Keystone-SDA
Humanitarian organizations have alerted to an outbreak of infantile malnutrition in Gaza. Paris, London and Berlin meet in parallel after the announcement by Emmanuel Macron of the upcoming recognition of a Palestinian State.
(Keystone-ATS) A quarter of children aged six months to five years and pregnant and lactating women examined last week in the facilities of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in the Gaza Strip suffer from malnutrition, the NGO said in a statement.
“The deliberate use of hunger as a weapon of war by the Israeli authorities in Gaza has reached unprecedented levels, patients and health professionals suffering from hunger,” she denounced.
Philippe Lazzarini, head of the United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), has also alerted to infantile malnutrition which “explodes” in the besieged Palestinian territory, with one in five children who “suffers from malnutrition in the city of Gaza, and the cases increase every day”.
“The survival mechanisms collapse, access to food and care disappears, and famine begins to settle down silently,” he wrote on X.
“High risk of dying”
“Most of the children that our teams see are emaciated, weak and exposed to a high risk of dying if they do not quickly receive the necessary treatments. More than 100 people, for the vast majority of children, have already died of hunger, “he added.
The war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas plunged the Gaza Strip into a major humanitarian crisis, with access to aid that is always extremely limited.
At the beginning of March, Israel imposed on the Gaza strip a total blockade, very partially softened at the end of May, causing serious shortages of food, drugs and fuel, and arousing increasing criticism of hunger aggravation.
Israel rejects all responsibility and accuses Hamas of diverting aid, which the Palestinian movement denies.
To discuss the situation in Gaza, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced an “emergency interview” on Friday between Paris, London and Berlin and reaffirmed the “inalienable right of the Palestinian people to a state”.
“We will discuss what we can do urgently to stop the massacres and provide the population with the food it desperately needs,” he said in a statement.
French recognition
This “emergency call” comes in the day after the French President of the Paris decision by the French decision to recognize the State of Palestine during the United Nations General Assembly scheduled for September in New York, in the hope of creating a collective dynamic.
The French decision “rewards terror”, castigated Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in reference to the unprecedented attack in Hamas in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, which sparked the war in Gaza.
The vice-president of the Palestine Liberation Organization (OLP), Hussein al-Cheikh, praised this decision in favor of “the establishment of our independent state”.
It is a “positive not”, added Hamas, by calling other countries to follow this example.
Echec of talks
Meanwhile, Israeli bombings continue in Gaza. At Nasser Hospital in Khan Younès (South), an AFP photographer saw bloody wounded, hit while trying to get humanitarian aid, neat on the ground.
The indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas for a ceasefire are in the dead end.
The American emissary Steve Witkoff acted on Thursday the failure of the talks conducted in Doha under Qatari, American and Egyptian mediation, and announced the recall for consultation with the Amécaine team, questioning the good faith of Hamas.
Netanyahu also announced the recall of his negotiators for consultation, “in light of the response” transmitted by Hamas.
Hamas had indicated the day before having responded to a 60 -day truce proposal with an exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners.
The hostage families forum, the main association of relatives of the captives selected in Gaza, expressed its “strong concern” after the reminder of the negotiators, believing that “each passing day reduces the chances of saving the hostages”.
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