Israeli operation in Gaza expanding to seize ‘large areas,’ defense minister says
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(LONDON) — Israel’s renewed military operation in the Gaza Strip “is expanding to crush and cleanse the area of terrorists and terrorist infrastructure and seize large areas that will be annexed to the security zones of the state of Israel,” Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement on Wednesday.
The minister said that a “large-scale evacuation of the Gazan population from the fighting areas” is accompanying the expanded military campaign in the strip.
“I call on the residents of Gaza to act now to eliminate Hamas and return all the kidnapped,” Katz added. “This is the only way to end the war.”
Israel renewed its assault on neighboring Gaza in March after a pause of nearly two months, during which time 33 Israeli hostages were released by Hamas in exchange for some 1,800 Palestinian prisoners, according to The Associated Press.
Israel is demanding the immediate release of all remaining hostages — consisting of 59 people, 24 of whom are still believed to be alive — who were abducted to Gaza during the Hamas-led surprise attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement that he ordered renewed strikes after Hamas refused Israeli demands to free half of the remaining hostages as a precondition for extending the ceasefire, the first phase of which expired on March 1. The bombardment resumed with “full force,” the prime minister said on March 18, adding that further negotiations “will continue only under fire.”
Israel’s renewed operations in Gaza sparked condemnation from regional powers including Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan. Israeli government spokesman David Mencer said the resumption was “fully coordinated with Washington.”
Israeli leaders have consistently expressed their intention to fully destroy Hamas and remove the Palestinian militant group from power in Gaza. Israel intends to retain security control over the territory as part of any post-war settlement, Netanyahu, Katz and other top officials have said.
Katz last month also announced the creation of a new directorate within the Israeli Ministry of Defense to facilitate the “voluntary emigration” out of strip. The directorate’s work aligns with U.S. President Donald Trump’s suggestion that Palestinians be resettled outside of Gaza, Katz said in February.
Palestinian, United Nations and human rights organizations have suggested that the U.S.-Israeli resettlement policy is akin to “ethnic cleansing.” Israel has denied such allegations.
Gaza has been devastated by the war that was sparked by the Oct. 7 terror attack, in which some 1,200 people were killed in Israel, according to the Israeli government.
Israel’s subsequent operations in Gaza have killed more than 50,300 people and injured more than 114,000, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run Ministry of Health. More than 1,000 people have been killed since the resumption of Israeli strikes on March 18, the ministry said.
ABC News’ Morgan Winsor contributed to this report
(LONDON) — Israel’s decision to halt all humanitarian aid from crossing into Gaza is entering its third month.
The Israeli government said the blockade is to pressure Hamas to release the remaining 59 hostages, including the remains of those who have died, and to accept a new proposal to extend phase one of the ceasefire deal, which ended on March 18.
Israel’s Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) wrote in a post on X in late April that humanitarian personnel have been allowed to enter and exit Gaza to support humanitarian efforts in the strip.
But multiple doctors and international aid workers told ABC News that water, food, medicine and medical supplies are running low, and in some cases running out completely.
Children are becoming malnourished, diseases are at risk of spreading and those who are injured cannot be treated properly, the workers said.
“If nothing is done, if food is not brought in, if water is not brought in, if vaccines are not brought in at scale — we’re already in a catastrophe, and we’re going to have way more children dying [from] preventable causes,” Jonathan Crickx, chief of communication for UNICEF Palestine, told ABC News.
A Trump administration official told ABC News there is a no-yet-finalized plan to administer the delivery of humanitarian aid in Gaza, starting with fewer than half a dozen distribution sites set up throughout the enclave.
The Israel Defense Forces did not immediately return ABC News’ request for comment.
Children becoming malnourished
The lack of food entering Gaza is one of the most severe problems the strip is facing, according to aid workers.
Osama As, the lead for quality, evidence and learning with the Mercy Corps Gaza Emergency Response Program, said the situation “is getting worse day after day, especially in relation to food” because most people in Gaza depend on humanitarian aid and community kitchens for food.
He said most families survive on one meal a day, and that most food available is canned food and bread.
“I never imagined that we would reach this point. Most people cannot afford the remaining items, which are either like canned foods and few quantities of vegetables which are produced locally here in Gaza,” As, who is based in Gaza, said. “The prices are very high, so I think most people cannot afford these kinds of items to buy from the local market.”
Dr. Ahmed Alfar, head of the pediatrics department at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, said he has seen many examples of malnourished children over the past two months.
One example he gave is a baby girl named Siwar, who was born four months ago. At birth, she weighed 2.5 kilograms, or 5.5 pounds.
Four months later, she should be weighing about 5 kilograms, or 11 pounds. Instead, she is only about 6 pounds, according to Alfar.
Alfar said the mother is unable to lactate and the family does not have much money, so they have been unable to feed Siwar milk, just sweetened water.
“That means in four months she gained just 200 grams, and this is unbelievable,” he told ABC News in Arabic. “She was a full-term baby. She was delivered vaginally. Her health was completely normal. … We called it one of the most severe [cases of] malnutrition. Now Siwar is facing a severe, critical situation.”
Similarly, Crickx, from UNICEF Palestine, who is currently in Al Mawasi, in southern Gaza, said he visited Nasser Hospital this week and met a 4-year-old boy named Osama.
Crickx said Osama should weigh 15 to 16 kilograms, about 33 to 35 pounds. Instead, he weighs 8 kilograms, or 17.5 pounds, Crickx said.
He said UNICEF and its partners have a small number of ready-to-use therapeutic foods to treat malnutrition, but they are running out. UNICEF has already run out of food meant to address the first signs of malnutrition.
“[Osama] has, really, the skin on the bones, and he was healthy before the beginning of this terrible war,” Crickx said. “So, we are now in a situation where children are hungry, they are little by little being affected more and more by acute malnutrition, acute severe malnutrition. And if nothing is done, we fear that the worst will happen to them.”
Community kitchen workers told ABC News if the border crossings remain closed, markets will close, and ingredients will run out. Some food relief organizations have already closed.
In late April, the United Nations’ World Food Programme said it had delivered its last remaining food stocks to hot meal kitchens in Gaza, and it expected to fully run out of food in the coming days. Additionally, the nonprofit group World Central Kitchen (WCK) announced on Wednesday that it had run out of supplies and ingredients needed to cook meals or bake bread in Gaza.
WCK said it has trucks loaded with food and cooking fuel that have been ready to enter Gaza since early March as well as additional food and equipment ready to be shipped from Jordan and Egypt.
“In recent weeks, our teams stretched every remaining ingredient and fuel source using creativity and determination. We turned to alternative fuels like wood pallets and olive husk pellets and pivoted away from rice recipes that require more fuel in favor of stews with bread,” WCK said. “But we have now reached the limits of what is possible.”
Risk of spreading disease
The blockade has also had an impact on the spread of disease in Gaza, aid workers said.
Overcrowding in tent camps — along with a lack of clean water, hygiene products and poor sanitation — puts Gazans at risk of contracting infectious diseases, they said.
Limited supplies of soap and hygienic products “will continue to lead to escalation in skin manifestations of diseases like scabies,” Dr. Aqsa Durrani, a pediatrician who was recently on assignment in Gaza with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), or Doctors Without Borders, told ABC News.
It’s unclear how many infections have been diagnosed over the past two months but a study from April 2024 estimated 55,400 cases of scabies and lice outbreaks among children under age five who were displaced.
Limited clean drinking water and overcrowded camps has also led to a rise in diarrheal diseases. A report from the Institute for Palestine Studies estimates at least half of cases recorded as of Jan. 2024 have been among children under 5 years old.
Crickx said a majority of children are affected by chronic watery diarrhea, which can lead to serious complications for babies and toddlers.
There has also been a rise in vaccine-preventable diseases in Gaza including hepatitis A, chickenpox, measles and polio.
Aid workers say the blockade imposed by Israel has halted the delivery of vaccines, such as the oral polio vaccine to Gaza, leaving residents vulnerable to diseases.
“Even in these terrible conditions, we have pregnant women and babies still being born in this community and population of 2 million people,” Durrani said. “And so, we need more vaccinations as well vaccines.”
Hospitals running out of supplies to treat injured
Since Hamas launched its surprise terrorist attack in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and Israel responded by declaring war, thousands have reportedly been killed or injured. Israel has said its goal is to destroy Hamas and that it attempts to minimize civilian casualties as often as possible.
More than 15 months into the conflict, Hamas and Israel reached a ceasefire deal. The ceasefire saw the withdrawal of some Israeli forces to allow more aid to get in and the release of some of the hostages.
However, resumption of hostilities in mid-March led to an increase in injuries, Crickx said. UNICEF estimates that more than 500 children have been killed since March 18 and more than 1.250 children have been injured.
Durrani — who worked as medical activity manager for MSF at a field hospital in Deir al Balah in central Gaza from the end of February until the end of April — said she saw injuries caused by air strikes, fires after air strikes and from large cooking fires.
“Because there’s no cooking gas, people are burning household items and trying to cook over large open flames,’ she said. “So, we also saw children with burns due to those flames, as well as scald burns from children who had been waiting in food distribution lines, and the jostling of the food items would then lead to them being injured from hot food.”
What’s more, burn victims or those who are injured can take longer to heal due to malnourishment. They can also be at risk of infections or skin graft failure.
Durrani explained that poor wound healing can be associated with poor nutrition, which resulted in some pediatric burn patients developing infections.
“Not only was our staff hungry, but we also had no food for our patients, including our pediatric patients,” Durrani said. “Other than just being harrowing from a human perspective, it’s also, from a medical perspective, really impacts the way that people can heal from these injuries, and these types of burns.”
“Not even being clear that we will have enough antibiotics to treat the infection if the patients develop infections,” she continued. “In the face of also not having enough surgical materials or concern that we may run critically low on anesthesia supplies if they need to go back to the [operating room].”
In conversations with doctors this week, Crickx said hospitals are experiencing shortages of anesthetics and anticoagulants. There is also a lack of medical supplies to fix bones when they suffer fractures, he said.
Durrani said her team was forced to ration medications, including painkillers, antibiotics and critical surgery supplies. They often had to perform painful procedures and wound dressing changes without any pain control.
She said she didn’t want to cause pain by removing dressings without proper pain control, but if the dressings aren’t removed, then it could lead to infections for patients.
“We’re being forced to make impossible decisions like that, which is unconscionable, given that just miles away there are trucks and trucks full of food and supplies and medications and nutritional sources,” she said. “For me personally, this is the first time that I had to look patients in the eye and say I didn’t have something that I know is just miles away.”
ABC News’ Shannon Kingston and Diaa Ostaz contributed to this report.
(LONDON) — A Russian ballistic missile strike on the northeastern Ukrainian city of Sumy killed at least 34 people on Sunday morning, emergency services said, as many there celebrated Palm Sunday.
“The enemy struck the civilian population again,” acting Mayor Artem Kobzar wrote on Telegram. Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said that at least 34 people — including two children — were confirmed killed, with 117 others injured, including 15 children. Two missiles struck the center of the city, authorities said.
A day after the massive attack, President Donald Trump repeated familiar talking points blaming Ukraine for Russia’s invasion, and claiming his predecessor and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy “did an absolutely horrible job in allowing this travesty to begin.”
“The War between Russia and Ukraine is Biden’s war, not mine,” he said in a post on Truth Social on Monday, echoing remarks he made to reporters on Sunday. “I just got here, and for four years during my term, had no problem in preventing it from happening.”
Trump added that Russian President Vladimir Putin “respected” him, and said he is “working diligently to get the death and destruction to stop” though did not directly mention the current peace negotiations.
The Sumy City Council said the strike hit multiple buildings, including residential ones. “On this bright day of Palm Sunday, our community suffered a terrible tragedy,” Kobzar wrote.
Andriy Yermak, the head of Ukraine’s presidential office, said the missiles used cluster munitions, which spray smaller sub-munitions over the target area. “A cluster munition missile is something the Russians do to kill as many civilians as possible,” Yermak wrote on Telegram. “The strike on the city of Sumy is a deliberate shelling of civilians.”
Zelenskyy said on Telegram that the “terrible strike” hit “an ordinary city street, ordinary life: houses, educational institutions, cars on the street.”
“And this is on a day when people go to church: Palm Sunday, the feast of the lord’s entry into Jerusalem,” he added. “Only a scoundrel can act like this. Taking the lives of ordinary people. My condolences to the relatives and friends. A rescue operation is underway now. All necessary services are working.”
“A tough reaction from the world is needed,” Zelenskyy wrote. “The United States, Europe, everyone in the world who wants an end to this war and murders. Russia wants exactly this kind of terror and is dragging out this war. Without pressure on the aggressor, peace is impossible.”
“Talks have never stopped ballistic missiles and air bombs,” Zelenskyy said. “We need the kind of attitude towards Russia that a terrorist deserves.”
Foreign leaders and officials condemned the strike. Among them was Trump, who told reporters on Sunday that the attack was “terrible,” adding, “I was told they made a mistake, but I think it’s a horrible thing. I think the whole war is a horrible thing.”
French President Emmanuel Macron said in a post to X, “Everyone knows: this war was initiated by Russia alone. And today, it is clear that Russia alone chooses to continue it — with blatant disregard for human lives, international law, and the diplomatic efforts of President [Donald] Trump.”
“Strong measures are needed to impose a ceasefire on Russia,” Marcon added. “France is working tirelessly toward this goal, alongside its partners.”
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk described the incident as, “The Russian version of a ceasefire.”
Keith Kellogg, Trump’s Ukraine envoy, wrote on X that the strike “by Russian forces on civilian targets in Sumy crosses any line of decency. There are scores of civilian[s] dead and wounded. As a former military leader, I understand targeting and this is wrong. It is why President Trump is working hard to end this war.”
ABC News’ Natalia Popova, Natalia Kushnir and Victoria Beaule contributed to this report.
(GAZA) — As the humanitarian crisis in Gaza continues to unfold, video showed children sitting in lines waiting for food on the side of the road on Tuesday.
Two million people in the Gaza Strip face “extreme hunger and famine without immediate action,” the World Food Programme said last week.
The children gathered by a community kitchen, waiting with their empty pots, according to the video verified by ABC News.
In the scramble for hot food, a child was scalded after hot soup was spilled on him, the video shows. The child is seen crying in pain as someone pours water on him. Another video showed a child scooping up flour spilled on the ground mixed with dirt.
“The children of Gaza need protection,” UNICEF, the U.N. agency for children, said in a statement on Tuesday. “They need food, water, and medicine. They need a ceasefire. But more than anything, they need immediate, collective action to stop this once and for all.”
Last week, more than a dozen World Food Programme trucks were looted in southern Gaza while en route to WFP supported bakeries.
“These trucks were transporting critical food supplies for hungry populations waiting anxiously for assistance. Hunger, desperation, and anxiety over whether more food aid is coming, is contributing to rising insecurity,” the WFP said in a statement.
The Israeli government had been implementing a blockade on all humanitarian aid being sent into Gaza since March 2. The blockade was instituted to pressure Hamas to release the remaining hostages, Israel said.
Humanitarian groups and the United Nations have distanced themselves from the new plan to distribute aid into Gaza that began last week. Aid trucks started slowly re-entering Gaza last week, according to the U.N. and the Gaza Government Media Office.
“WFP cannot safely operate under a distribution system that limits the number of bakeries and sites where Gaza’s population can access food. WFP and its partners must also be allowed to distribute food parcels directly to families — the most effective way to prevent widespread starvation,” the WFP said last week.
The Israeli blockade on humanitarian aid entering the Gaza Strip has caused widespread malnutrition and conditions likely to lead to famine, according to the U.N. and other international aid organizations.
One in five people in Gaza, about 500,000 people, faces starvation, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification platform said on May 12, according to the U.N. Of those, 71,000 children need treatment for acute malnutrition, according to the report.
Dr. Feroze Sidhwa, an American physician who volunteered in Gaza in 2024 and last month, spoke at the U.N. on Wednesday, describing the day Israel broke the ceasefire in March as the day he “witnessed the most extreme casualty event of my career.” He said he had 221 trauma patients in his care.
Sidhwa also criticized the controversial new aid plan for Gaza, which he said constitutes a “weaponization and politicization of aid.”
“If this continues, there will be no Palestinian doctors left — no one to care for the sick and wounded,” Sidwha said. “No Palestinians left to rebuild the health care system. We are losing a generation before our eyes, condemning patients to die from hunger, disease and despair — deaths that could have been prevented.”
