This horrific incident sums up much of the horror of the moment in Gaza, a region devastated by the Israeli military campaign that followed Hamas' deadly October 7 attack on southern Israel. Observers and journalists on social media described the scene as a “flour massacre.” Overcrowded and nearly destroyed hospitals in Gaza accommodated a new influx of hundreds of wounded civilians, many of them dead The officials told my colleagues that their injuries were caused by gunfire.
More than 30,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the ongoing war began. Hunger and disease stalk the land and push countless Gazans into desperate daily searches for food and water, which could end in the scenes we witnessed on Thursday. The bulk of Gaza's population of more than two million faces the prospect of starvation – a situation that represents the fastest decline in the population's nutritional status ever recorded. According to aid workers. Children are starving at the fastest rate the world has ever known.
Aid groups point to Israel's restriction of aid flows to the Strip as the main driver of the crisis. Some prominent Israeli officials They openly advocate obstruction of these aid transfers. “We must be clear: civilians in Gaza are falling ill from hunger and thirst due to Israel’s entry restrictions,” Jan Egeland, head of the Norwegian Refugee Council, said in an email statement after a recent visit to Gaza. “Life-saving supplies are being deliberately withheld, and women and children are paying the price.”
Hopes are fading for an imminent diplomatic breakthrough that could lead to Hamas's release of its remaining hostages and a cessation of hostilities. It emerged this week that the Biden administration may be considering airdrops to Gaza, given the delays and difficulties in providing vital food and other goods through land crossings. Some analysts can't help but do so Consider the paradox The United States is dropping supplies to residents looking for relief after months of Israeli attacks with American-made munitions. Such actions “will mostly ease the consciences of senior US officials whose policies contribute to the ongoing atrocities and risk of famine in Gaza.” Scott Paul saidOxfam's director of humanitarian affairs said in a statement.
A number of senior UN officials expressed concern on Thursday. “I am horrified by reports that hundreds of people were killed and injured while transporting aid supplies west of Gaza City today,” said Martin Griffiths, the UN’s top humanitarian official. “Life is being drained from Gaza at a terrifying speed.”
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned of an “unknown number of people” – believed to be in the tens of thousands – lying under the rubble of buildings destroyed by Israeli strikes. Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said about one in 20 people in Gaza were now dead or injured in comments he made in Geneva. He also detailed the suffering of the living.
“All people in Gaza are at imminent risk of starvation. Almost everyone drinks salty, polluted water. Healthcare across the territory is barely functioning,” he said. “Just imagine what this means for the wounded and people suffering from outbreaks of infectious diseases. In northern Gaza, where operational space for humanitarian action is almost zero, many are believed to be already suffering from hunger. “And throughout other parts of Gaza, humanitarian aid has become extremely difficult – this is not only dangerous, it is also inhumane.”
Perhaps the most painful thing in all of this is the plight of Gaza's children. There are countless tales of infants and children wasting away without adequate food and dying from it Poisoning as a result of eating animal feedWhich some people replace in their diets in the absence of flour. UNICEF, the United Nations children's agency, estimated in February that about 17,000 children in Gaza were unaccompanied or separated from their families. A generation of Palestinian children will suffer the effects of war, the destruction of their homes and schools, and the profound trauma of dodging bombs while grieving the loss.
“Since the beginning of the war, aid agencies have issued warning after warning about the horrific toll they are taking on children,” my colleague Neha Masih wrote in an article about what happened to young people in the region. “Nearly 10 percent of Gaza’s children under the age of five suffer from acute malnutrition. … About 1,000 children lost one or both legs, according to UNICEF. Save the Children says that of those who remained physically unharmed, “They are suffering from serious psychological trauma.”
Seema Jilani, a senior technical advisor for emergency health at the International Rescue Committee, recently returned from a stint working in emergency departments in Gaza's hospitals. “This war is creating a generation of orphans who currently do not have access to education, cannot access school, cannot access play or educational development, and cannot access health and hygiene services,” Lamsih said. “It's a very bleak picture and a very bleak future.”
