Gaza: Famine 'almost inevitable' with health system 'on its knees', UN and WHO warn

TNA’s live coverage of the latest from the war on Gaza concludes for today. Join us again at 0800 GMT for updates from the besieged Palestinian enclave.

 South Africa said on Friday the killing of Palestinians awaiting aid in Gaza breached the World Court's provisional orders in a legal case in which Pretoria has accused Israel of committing genocide in the coastal enclave.

Gaza health authorities said on Thursday Israeli forces had killed over 100 Palestinians trying to reach a relief convoy.

Israel blamed most of the deaths on crowds that swarmed around aid trucks, saying most victims were trampled or run over though an Israeli official said Israeli troops had "in a limited response" later fired on crowds they felt posed a threat.

"South Africa condemns the massacre of 112 Palestinians and the injury of hundreds more as they sought life-saving aid," South Africa's Department of International Relations and Cooperation said in a statement.

"This latest atrocity is another breach of international law and in breach of the binding provisional orders of the International Court of Justice (ICJ)."

In a case brought by South Africa, the ICJ in January ordered Israel to take all measures within its power to prevent its troops committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and to report back on what steps it was taking in a month's time.

A UN team visiting a Gaza hospital Friday reported seeing "a large number of gunshot wounds" among dozens of Palestinians being treated after Israeli troops opened fire at a food aid point.

UN staff, the first to visit Gaza's north in more than a week, spent just over two hours at Al-Shifa hospital, where they delivered medication and fuel.

The visit comes in the wake of more than 100 deaths on Thursday, according to the territory's health ministry, after Israeli forces opened fire on a crowd scrambling for food aid from a truck convoy in northern Gaza.

"Al-Shifa hospital has reportedly admitted more than 700 people who were injured yesterday, about 200 of whom are still being hospitalized," said Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for the UN secretary-general.

They also received the bodies of more than 70 people killed in the incident, hospital staff told the team which was comprised of representatives from the UN Humanitarian Office (OCHA), WHO and UNICEF.

Among the injured, the team reported "there was a large number of gunshot wounds," Dujarric said, although he added that he did not know whether the representatives were able to examine the bodies of those killed.

According to the area's health ministry, the death toll stood at 115, with some 760 injured.

US President Joe Biden said Friday he was "hoping" for a ceasefire deal in the Gaza conflict by the Muslim holy month of Ramadan but agreement was still not sealed.

"I'm hoping so, we're still working real hard on it. We're not there yet," he told reporters at the White House when asked if he expected a deal by Ramadan, which will start on March 10 or 11, depending on the lunar calendar.

"We'll get there but we're not there yet- we may not get there," Biden added, without elaborating, as he headed to his helicopter to spend the weekend at the presidential Camp David retreat.

Biden had said at the beginning of this week that he expected a deal by Monday for a six-week halt in the devastating conflict, but has steadily walked back the timeline.

The 81-year-old Democrat announced earlier Friday that the United States would soon start airdropping aid to Gaza, a day after dozens of desperate Palestinians were killed rushing an aid convoy.

Biden has said the incident could complicate talks, but would not comment Friday on what was holding up a deal, adding: "I'm not going to tell you that because that'll get involved in the negotiations."

Israeli forces have claimed an attack on a number of Hezbollah military sites in the Lebanese border town of Ramyeh and stated that one Hezbollah member was killed.

The Israeli military also released video footage that was said to be of  it said to be the attack.

UNRWA has warned the significant decline in water supply that has led to severe dehydration, especially in northern Gaza, among Palestinian residents.

"Since the war began [UNRWA] has delivered +23million litres of water to people in #Gaza But over 1/4 of water wells have been destroyed & the water supply is at only 7% of pre-war levels Food & water are basic needs," UNRWA wrote in a post on X.

"For the sake of humanity, #Gaza needs an immediate ceasefire.The stark decline in water has pushed many Gaza residents, particularly in the north, to the point of severe dehydration.

"In recent days, at least six Palestinian children have died from either dehydration, starvation or poisoning, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry."

Since the war began, @UNRWA has delivered +23million litres of water to people in #Gaza

But over 1/4 of water wells have been destroyed & the water supply is at only 7% of pre-war levels

Food & water are basic needs. For the sake of humanity, #Gaza needs an immediate ceasefire. pic.twitter.com/LH9fkN9Woo

— UNRWA (@UNRWA) March 1, 2024

Samantha Power, the US government’s top aid agency chief, emphasises the impact of Israeli settler attacks, after releasing footage on her social media account of a destroyed Palestinian youth centre in the occupied West Bank, following another settler-led targeted incident.

“Repeated attacks by extremist Israeli settlers have forced its doors to close and sent shock waves of fear through the community, Power wrote on X.

“This violence is intolerable and must stop.”

This youth center in the West Bank was once a place where thousands of Palestinians came together. Repeated attacks by extremist Israeli settlers have forced its doors to close and sent shock waves of fear through the community. This violence is intolerable and must stop. pic.twitter.com/nEG2qSpNZg

— Samantha Power (@PowerUSAID) March 1, 2024

US senator Bernie Sanders called on the US to intervene in pressuring Israel to allow more aid into Gaza. 

“The United States, which has helped fund the Israeli military for years, cannot sit back and allow hundreds of thousands of innocent children to starve to death,” Sanders said in a statement.

“As a result of Israeli bombing and restrictions on humanitarian aid, the people of Gaza are facing an unprecedented humanitarian disaster. Whether Netanyahu’s right-wing government likes it or not, the United States must immediately begin to airdrop food, water, and other lifesaving supplies into Gaza,” Sanders added.

The statement by Sanders came before US president Joe Biden announced that the US will begin sending humanitarian aid drops. 

The United States has got to say loudly and clearly to Netanyahu and his right-wing government: You are not getting another nickel of U.S. taxpayer money to murder women and children in Gaza. pic.twitter.com/dIhLjKJX2d

— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) March 1, 2024

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell refers to UNRWA as "irreplaceable" as he announced continued funding by the European bloc for the agency.

“By continuing to fund it, the EU acknowledges UNRWA as an irreplaceable actor,” Borrell said in a social media post.

"I commend [UN] efforts to investigate the allegations against UNRWA and call on Israeli authorities to provide evidences."

Today the disbursement of the next €50M tranche to @UNRWA was announced.

In line with the request by many EU Member States, I expect the next tranches to be disbursed with the urgency required by the humanitarian crisis within the coming weeks.

— Josep Borrell Fontelles (@JosepBorrellF) March 1, 2024

Staffers of US president Joe Biden is said to meticulously plan his public appearances in order to reduce "disruptions from pro-Palestinian protests", according to NBC News.

According to the US outlet, the report states that his team is aiming to make any public events smaller by not disclosing the exact location beforehand and not attending college campuses.

President Joe Biden said Friday that the United States would start to deliver relief supplies from the air into Gaza, a day after the deaths of more than 100 Palestinians at an aid convoy.

"We need to do more, and the United States will do more," Biden told reporters at the White House at the start of a meeting with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

"In the coming days we're going to join with our friends in Jordan and others in providing air drops of additional food and supplies," Biden said in the Oval Office.

The United States would also look at the "possibility of a marine corridor" to deliver large amounts of aid into Gaza, where residents face dire shortages of food, water and medicine, Biden said.

The US president added that he would "insist" that ally Israel, which has pounded the Palestinian territory since the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel, let in more aid trucks.

"No excuses, because the truth is aid flowing to Gaza is nowhere near enough. Innocent lives are on the line and children's lives are on the line," Biden added.

During his remarks Biden twice said Ukraine, but aides confirmed he meant Gaza.

Biden said Thursday's aid convoy deaths happened because Gazans were "caught in a terrible war, unable to feed their families -- and you saw the response when they tried to get aid."

Biden added that "hopefully we'll know shortly" on the progress of negotiations towards a six-week ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

The United States has backed Israel since the October 7 attacks and supplied it with weapons, but it has also urged its ally to reduce Palestinian civilian deaths, saying they are much too high.

The United States is going to redouble efforts to open up a maritime corridor into Gaza to bring "hopefully large amounts" of humanitarian aid by sea, White House spokesman John Kirby said on Friday.

A maritime corridor would be on top of efforts to expand delivery of aid by land and Washington will "continue to push Israel to facilitate more trucks going in and more routes being opened" into Gaza, Kirby told a briefing.

President Joe Biden is expected to announce on Friday his intention to order a military air drop of humanitarian aid into Gaza, four US officials told news agency Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The officials declined to discuss exact timing of the expected US air drop of aid into Gaza, although two officials said it could happen in the coming days.

At least 576,000 people in the Gaza Strip - one quarter of the enclave's population - are one step away from famine, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

A humanitarian disaster is unfolding in the Gaza Strip, particularly the north, after nearly five months of an Israeli air and ground campaign that has ruined swathes of the crowded coastal strip and pushed it to the edge of famine.

With people eating animal feed and even cactuses to survive, and with medics saying children are dying in hospitals from malnutrition and dehydration, the UN has said it faces "overwhelming obstacles" getting in aid.

David Deptula, a retired US Air Force three-star general who once commanded the no-fly zone over northern Iraq, said air drops are something the US military can effectively execute.

"It is something that's right up their mission alley," Deptula told Reuters.

"There are a lot of detailed challenges. But there's nothing insurmountable."

The UK on Friday called for "an urgent investigation and accountability" after the deaths of more than 100 Palestinians during an aid delivery in Gaza.

"The deaths of people in Gaza waiting for an aid convoy yesterday were horrific," Foreign Secretary David Cameron said.

"There must be an urgent investigation and accountability. This must not happen again," he said.

He said the incident could not be separated from the "inadequate aid supplies", calling the current situation "simply unacceptable".

"Israel has an obligation to ensure that significantly more humanitarian aid reaches the people of Gaza," he added, calling on it to open more crossings and eliminate bureaucratic obstacles.

"This tragedy only serves to underscore the importance of securing an immediate humanitarian pause," Cameron said.

The deaths of people in Gaza waiting for an aid convoy yesterday were horrific.

Read my full statement below. pic.twitter.com/2ZJe9JvrZp

— David Cameron (@David_Cameron) March 1, 2024

Nicaragua has filed a case at the International Court of Justice against Germany for giving financial and military aid to Israel and for defunding the UN Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA), the UN's top court said on Friday. 

PRESS RELEASE: #Nicaragua institutes proceedings against #Germany and asks the #ICJ to indicate provisional measures https://t.co/RtdImbNben pic.twitter.com/UdsKZmDdxS

— CIJ_ICJ (@CIJ_ICJ) March 1, 2024

Four more children have died of "malnutrition and dehydration" in war-torn Gaza, the health ministry said on Friday, the latest such reported deaths as famine warnings mount.

The deaths occurred at Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said in a statement, noting that the number of child "malnutrition and dehydration" deaths now totalled 10.

Earlier Friday, a spokesman for the UN humanitarian agency OCHA told reporters that "if something doesn't change, a famine is almost inevitable" in Gaza.

"Once a famine is declared, it is too late for too many people," said the spokesman, Jens Laerke.

The Israeli army is reportedly in need of 7,000 new soldiers in order to bolster its army, half of which would be transferred to maintain its war efforts in Gaza, the Israeli outlet Ynet reported. 

Earlier this week, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said all parts of Israeli society, especially the ultra-Orthodox, to be drafted into the military and referred to it as a matter of “national need”.

"To attain the goals of the war, to handle the threats from Gaza, from Lebanon, from Judea and Samaria, and to prepare for the emerging threats from the east, we need unity and partnership in decisions about our future," Gallant said in a news conference on Wednesday.

The bodies of three more Palestinians killed while waiting for aid near Gaza City on Thursday morning have been found recovered, Gaza’s Health Ministry spokesman said on Friday.

This brings the overall death toll from the Israeli attack on aid-seekers to 115, with 760 wounded, the ministry said.

Seven hostages who have been held in Gaza were killed as a result of the Israeli military's bombardment of the enclave, Abu Obaida, the spokesperson for Hamas' armed wing al-Qassam brigades said on Friday.

It was not immediately clear when the seven died.

The Jordanian army says it has carried out three airdrops of food aid in several areas in northern Gaza, Al Jazeera reported.

Israel’s Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) said Jordan airdropped 48 packages of aid.

Jordan and Egypt have airdropped aid in recent days while the US and Canada said they were considering playing a similar role.

Israel has yet to submit evidence backing its claims that 12 UNRWA staff members took part in the October 7 attacks.

Diplomats who saw the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) preliminary report said that it contained no new evidence from Israel since the initial presentation of the claims in January, which were also not backed by any proof.

UN spokesperson, Stephane Dujarric, also confirmed that the investigation has yet to receive any corroborating material from Israel.

Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said on Friday that Egypt is hopeful that talks initiated by Qatar can agree a cessation of hostilities in Gaza before the start of the upcoming fasting month of Ramadan.

"We are hopeful that we can reach a cessation of hostilities and exchange of hostages. Everyone recognizes that we have a time limit to be successful before the start of Ramadan," Shoukry said at the Antalya Diplomacy Forum in Turkey.

Famine in the Gaza Strip is almost inevitable unless the Israel's war in Gaza changes, the United Nations said Friday.

The UN and other humanitarian actors have not yet declared a state of famine in Gaza, despite worsening conditions in the Palestinian territory since the war started with the Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7.

However, "once a famine is declared, it is too late for too many people", said Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN humanitarian agency OCHA.

"We have to look at what more and more voices, more and more loudly, are saying about the food security situation acros the Gaza Strip, in particular in the north," said Laerke.

"If something doesn't change, a famine is almost inevitable on the current trends."

"We don't want to get to that situation and we need things to change before that," he told a briefing in Geneva.

People in the Gaza Strip are risking their lives to find food, water and other supplies such is the level of hunger and despair amid the unrelenting Israeli assault, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday.

"The system in Gaza is on its knees, it's more than on its knees," WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier told reporters in Geneva. "All the lifelines in Gaza have more or less been cut."

Lindmeier said this had created a "desperate situation", as seen on Thursday, when more than 100 people seeking humanitarian aid in Gaza were killed.

"People are so desperate for food, for fresh water, for any supplies that they risk their lives in getting any food, any supplies to support their children, to support themselves," Lindmeier said.

While aid is reaching southern parts of the Gaza Strip, it is too slow to avert a hunger crisis even there. Aid barely makes it to northern areas that are further from the main border crossing and only accessible through more active battle fronts.

"The food supplies have been cut off deliberately. Let's not forget that," Lindmeier said.

A member of Iran's Revolutionary Guards navy serving as a military adviser in Syria was killed in a suspected Israeli strike on Friday, Iran's official news agency IRNA reported.

Other Iranian media reports said Reza Zarei was killed along with two fighters from Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah group.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards have scaled back deployment of their senior officers in Syria due to a spate of deadly Israeli strikes and were relying more on allied Shi'ite militia to preserve their sway there, Reuters reported in February.

Israel usually does not comment on repeated reports of raids on Syria.

Palestinian factions including rivals Hamas and Fatah said on Friday they would pursue "unity of action" in confronting Israel after representatives met at Russia-hosted talks.

The meeting in Moscow on Thursday brought together Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Fatah and other Palestinian groups for talks on the war in Gaza and an eventual post-war period.

It came on the heels of the resignation of the Palestinian Authority government, which is led by Fatah and based in the occupied West Bank.

Outgoing prime minister Mohammad Shtayyeh called for intra-Palestinian consensus as he announced the resignation, and some analysts said the development could pave the way for a government of technocrats that could operate in the West Bank and Hamas-run Gaza after the war.

Arab and Western leaders have been pushing for reforms to the Palestinian Authority as they discuss possible reconstruction efforts.

Israel is reportedly launching attacks on the outskirts of Jabal Balat, in the Chihine and Ramyah areas, Lebanon’s National News Agency said on Friday, amid escalating tensions in the region. is reporting attacks on the outskirts of Jabal Balat, in the Chihine and Ramyah areas.

Israel also launched strikes on the town of Aita al-Shaab, the agency reported.

EU chief Ursula von der Leyen Friday declared herself "deeply disturbed by images from Gaza," where authorities say 112 Palestinians were killed after Israeli troops opened fire during an aid delivery.

"Every effort must be made to investigate what happened and ensure transparency," the European Commission president posted on X. The EU's top diplomat Josep Borrell earlier denounced the incident as a "carnage."

The Brazilian government said on Friday that the killing of over 100 people seeking humanitarian aid in Gaza shows that Israel's military action in Gaza has no "ethical or legal limits," once again calling for an immediate ceasefire in the conflict.

"Humanity is failing the civilians of Gaza. And it's time to prevent further massacres," Brazil's foreign ministry in a statement

An Israeli strike on a villa on Syria's coast Friday killed three people, including an Iranian military adviser, a monitor said, in the third consecutive day of Israeli attacks on Syria.

Three violent explosions shook the centre of Banias, on the Mediterranean, during the strike at dawn on the villa that sheltered "a group affiliated with Iran", said the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The building was destroyed, killing the Iranian military adviser and two other non-Syrians who were with him, said the Observatory, which relies on a network of sources inside Syria.

On Thursday, Israel killed a Hezbollah fighter in a strike on Syria, close to the Lebanese border, the Observatory said, hours after similar attacks.

Israel has launched hundreds of air strikes on targets in Syria since civil war broke out in 2011. The strikes have mainly targeted Iran-backed forces including militants from Lebanon's Hezbollah movement as well as Syrian army positions.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on Friday asked Israel to conduct a thorough investigation into the deaths of more than 100 Palestinians during an aid delivery in northern Gaza.

"The Israeli army must fully investigate how the mass panic and shooting could have happened," Baerbock wrote on X, formerly Twitter, also calling for a "humanitarian ceasefire".

The health ministry in Gaza said on Friday the wartime death toll had reached 30,228 after 193 new fatalities were recorded in the previous 24 hours.

The ministry also said 920 injuries were tallied in the same period in the besieged territory, bringing the total wounded from Israel's nearly five-month-old war in Gaza to 71,377.

The UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian territories Francesca Albanese has paid tribute to a toddler who succumbed to the famine that has gripped the war-hit Gaza Strip, in a post on X on Friday.

Albanese mourned Anhar, a baby girl aged 4,5 months, who died of starvation on Tuesday after being "reduced to skin and bones".

Toddler Anhar from north Gaza had puffy cheeks & bright eyes. 4.5 months of Israel assault turned him into skin & bones. He died of starvation on Tuesday.
I can’t even begin to process the horror his parents may have gone through being unable to feed him.
(via @muhammadshehad2) pic.twitter.com/Wk9LtF6evM

— Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt (@FranceskAlbs) March 1, 2024

"I can't even process the horror her [sic] parents may have gone through being unable to feed her [sic]," she added.

"May she rest in peace, the peace she hasn't had in her brief passage on earth".

France is demanding an independent inquiry into the deaths of over 100 Palestinians during an aid delivery in the northern Gaza strip, Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne said Friday.

"We will ask for explanations, and there will have to be an independent probe to determine what happened," Sejourne told the France Inter broadcaster after Israeli troops opened fire on Palestinians scrambling for food aid in the shocking incident, which has drawn widespread condemnation.

France would not apply "double standards" to the ongoing war, Sejourne said, adding: "France calls things by their name".

"This applies when we designate Hamas as a terrorist group, but we must also call things by their name when there are atrocities in Gaza."

If an investigation should conclude that the Israeli shooting was a war crime, "then obviously this becomes a matter for the judiciary", he said.

Sejourne also said the thought of people dying of hunger in Gaza was "unbearable" for France.

Veteran left-wing politician George Galloway won a vote to become the new lawmaker for the English town of Rochdale on Friday, vowing to be a thorn in the side for the opposition Labour Party before a national election it is tipped to win.

After running a pro-Palestinian campaign, Galloway won over many of Rochdale's Muslim community by attacking both Labour and Britain's governing Conservatives for supporting Israel in its war in the besieged Gaza Strip, making a foreign conflict the major issue - unusual in a by-election when local concerns usually dominate.

"Keir Starmer, this is for Gaza," Galloway said during his victory speech, referencing the Labour Party leader.

At least three Palestinians have been killed by an Israeli bombing of a school housing displaced people in Khan Younis' Hamad Town, Al Jazeera Arabic reported on Friday.

10 others were also injured in the attack, while the victims were taken to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah, in central Gaza.

The UN Security Council in New York on Thursday failed to issue a press statement directly blaming the Israeli army for the Al-Rashid Street massacre in northern Gaza, despite a request to do so by Algeria.

According to a diplomatic source familiar with the matter, the US objected to placing responsibility on Israeli forces by name in relation to the killing of Palestinians who had gathered to obtain aid.

After leaving the meeting, Deputy US Ambassador to the United Nations Robert Wood said that Washington "does not have all the facts on the ground – that’s the problem."

He claimed that there are contradictory reports and the US is trying to gather all the facts, including regarding the "circumstances around how people died".

China said on Friday it "strongly condemns" the killing of scores of Palestinians during an aid delivery in the northern Gaza Strip.

"China is shocked by this incident and strongly condemns it," foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said.

"We express our grief for the victims and our sympathies for the injured."

Israeli troops in the northern Gaza Strip opened fire on Palestinians scrambling for food aid on Thursday, killing over 100 people in an incident drawing global condemnation.