©Reuters. Smoke rises following an Israeli attack as Palestinians fleeing northern Gaza from the Israeli military offensive move south amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas in the central Gaza Strip on 15 March 2024. REUTERS/Ahmed Zakot
2/3
DOHA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) – The main United Nations aid agency working in Gaza said on Saturday that acute malnutrition was rising fastest in the north of the enclave as Israel prepared to send a delegation to Qatar for fresh ceasefire talks. fire.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said one in three children under 2 in northern Gaza is now severely malnourished amid growing pressure on Israel over the looming famine in the besieged enclave.
Israel said on Friday it would send a delegation to Qatar for further talks with mediators after its enemy Hamas presented a new proposal for a ceasefire with hostage and prisoner swaps.
The delegation will be led by the head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, David Barnea, a source close to the talks said, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seeking to convene the security cabinet to discuss the proposal before the talks begin.
Efforts to secure a ceasefire before Islam’s holy month of Ramadan began a week ago have repeatedly failed, with Israel saying it plans to launch a new offensive in Rafah, the last relatively safe city in tiny, crowded Gaza after five months of war.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who is starting a two-day visit to the region, expressed concern about an assault on Rafah, saying there was a danger it could result in “many terrible civilian casualties.”
The conflict began on October 7, when Hamas sent fighters into Israel, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and seizing 252 hostages by Israeli counts.
Israel’s land and air campaign has killed more than 31,500 people, mostly women and children, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.
The assault also devastated the enclave’s built environment, forcing nearly all residents to abandon their homes, leaving much of the land in rubble and triggering a major food crisis that has alarmed even Israel’s allies.
Western countries have called on Israel to do more to enable aid, with the UN saying it has faced “enormous obstacles” including crossing closures, burdensome checks, restrictions on movement and unrest inside Gaza.
Israel says it places no limits on humanitarian aid for civilians in Gaza and blames the slow delivery of aid on the inability or inefficiency of UN agencies.
Air and sea aid deliveries to Gaza have begun, but aid agencies say these do not replace the arrival of supplies by land.
A first delivery to Gaza from World Central Kitchen, pioneering a new shipping route via Cyprus, arrived on Friday and was unloaded, the charity said, with another ship ready. The United States and Jordan said they carried out an airdrop on Saturday.