GENEVA: Doctors Without Borders on Thursday accused Israel of having deliberately restricted food and aid in Gaza, creating a &quot;manufactured malnutrition crisis&quot; with particularly devastating impacts on infants and pregnant and breastfeeding women. The report also examined what it said was the harm done by the US- and Israeli-backed private organization set up last year to largely replace UN distribution of aid in Gaza. The medical charity, known by its French acronym MSF, based its case on an analysis of the situation between late 2024 and early 2026 at four health facilities it supports in the Gaza Strip. That analysis showed significantly higher levels of prematurity and mortality among infants born to malnourished mothers, and spikes in miscarriages, it said. MSF linked these outcomes with Israel&#39;s blockade of essential goods and attacks on civilian infrastructure, including medical facilities. &quot;Insecurity, displacement, restrictions on aid, and limited access to food and medical care have had devastating consequences for maternal and newborn health,&quot; the charity said in a statement. The situation remained &quot;extremely fragile&quot;, despite a ceasefire in place since last October after two years of devastating conflict, it warned. MSF called on the Israeli authorities to allow the unhindered entry of assistance and supplies into Gaza immediately. &quot;The malnutrition crisis is entirely manufactured,&quot; Merce Rocaspana, MSF&#39;s medical referent for emergencies, said in the statement. Before the war in the Palestinian territory erupted following Hamas&#39;s unprecedented attack inside Israel on October 7, 2023, &quot;malnutrition in Gaza was almost non-existent&quot;, she said. Malnourished women giving birth&nbsp;MSF said it had collected data from more than 200 mothers and newborns receiving treatment in neonatal intensive care units at hospitals in Khan Yunis and Gaza City between last June and January. Its analysis found that more than half of the women were affected by malnutrition at some point during their pregnancy. A quarter of them were still malnourished during delivery. The impact was clear: 90% of the babies born to malnourished mothers were born prematurely and 84% had low birth weight, the analysis found. &quot;Neonatal mortality was twice as high among infants born to mothers affected by malnutrition compared with those born to mothers without malnutrition,&quot; MSF said. The medical charity also examined data from 513 infants under six months of age admitted to outpatient therapeutic feeding programs in Khan Yunis between Oct. 2024 and Dec. 2025. Of them, &quot;91% were at risk of poor growth and development&quot;, it said. By last December, 200 of the infants were no longer in the program, but fewer than half had been cured, it found. Seven percent of them had died, it added. &nbsp;&#39;Militarized and deadly&#39; Infants are not the only ones going hungry. Between January 2024, when the first cases of child malnutrition were reported in Gaza, and February 2026, MSF said it had admitted 4,176 children under 15 years old -- 97 percent of them younger than five for acute malnutrition programs. During the same period, 3,336 pregnant and breastfeeding women were enrolled in ambulatory programs, it said. Thursday&#39;s analysis also highlighted the impact of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation a US and Israeli-backed private organization set up last year to largely replace UN distribution of aid in Gaza. MSF pointed out that by late May 2025, food distribution points in Gaza had dropped from around 400 to four under GHF, which disbanded last November. The food distribution points were &quot;militarized and deadly&quot;, warned Jose Mas, head of the MSF emergency unit. During the period GHF was functioning, MSF said that facilities it supported in Gaza had seen &quot;a sharp increase in patients seeking care due to violence perpetrated at food distribution points and malnutrition linked to deprivation of food&quot;. MSF teams had also observed a high number of miscarriages during this period, it said.

Displaced children carry food packets being distributed by Palestinian sisters Lina Zeid and Aya Zeid as a charity in the Al-Tuam area, west of Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on May 6, 2026.

Middle East

Doctors Without Borders says Israel’s aid restrictions in Gaza created a 'manufactured malnutrition crisis,' causing severe harm to infants, pregnant women, and civilians seeking food aid.

MSF says Israel has 'manufactured malnutrition crisis' in Gaza

RAMALLAH:&nbsp;Palestinians in the West Bank and a central area of Gaza began voting Saturday in municipal elections in a first vote since the Gaza war, marked by a narrow political field and widespread disillusionment. Nearly 1.5 million people are registered to vote in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, as well as 70,000 people in Gaza&#39;s Deir el-Balah area, according to the Ramallah-based Central Elections Commission. Polling stations opened at 7 am (0400 GMT). AFP footage from Al-Bireh in the West Bank and Deir el-Balah in Gaza showed election officials in polling stations as Palestinians came to cast ballots. Most electoral lists are aligned with president Mahmud Abbas&#39;s secular-nationalist Fatah party or running as independents. There are no lists affiliated with Fatah&#39;s archrival Hamas, which controls nearly half of the Gaza Strip. In most cities, Fatah-backed tickets will run against independent lists headed by candidates from factions such as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (Marxist-Leninist). Israeli occupation&nbsp; Mahmud Bader, a businessman from the northern West Bank city of Tulkarem, where two adjacent refugee camps have been under Israeli military control for over a year, said he would vote despite having little hope for meaningful change. &quot;Whether candidates are independent or partisan, it has no effect and will have no effect or benefit for the city,&quot; he told AFP. &quot;The (Israeli) occupation is the one that rules Tulkarem. It would only be an image shown to the international media -- as if we have elections, a state or independence.&quot; In many cities, including Nablus and Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian Authority, only one list has been submitted, meaning it wins automatically without needing a vote. Polling stations in the West Bank will close at 7 pm, while polls in Deir al-Balah will close at 5 pm to facilitate counting in daylight due to the lack of electricity in the war devastated strip, the elections commission told AFP. UN coordinator Ramiz Alakbarov commended the commission for organising a &quot;credible process&quot;. &quot;Saturday&#39;s elections represent an important opportunity for Palestinians to exercise their democratic rights during an exceptionally challenging period&quot;, Alakbarov said in a statement ahead of polls. &#39;Confirmation of existence&#39;Gaza, which has been under Hamas control since 2007, will see its first vote since the legislative elections of 2006, which the movement won. Abbas&#39;s Palestinian Authority is holding elections only in Deir el-Balah &quot;as an experiment (to test its own) success or failure, since there are no post-war opinion polls&quot;, Jamal al-Fadi, a political scientist at Cairo&#39;s Al-Azhar University, told AFP. Deir el-Balah was chosen as it was one of the only places in Gaza where &quot;the population has remained largely in place and not been displaced&quot; by more than two years of war between Hamas and Israel, Fadi said. Farah Shaath, 25, was excited to vote for the first time. &quot;Although it is unlike any election in the world, it is a confirmation of our continued existence in the Gaza Strip despite everything,&quot; she told AFP. The election commission says it has recruited polling staff from civil society organisations and hired &quot;a private security company to secure polling centres&quot; for the Gaza vote, spokesman Fareed Taamallah told AFP. But a source from the commission in Gaza, who asked to remain anonymous, said that &quot;Hamas police insisted on securing the electoral process in Deir al-Balah&quot;. The source added that &quot;this will be done by deploying unarmed security personnel in civilian clothing around polling centres&quot;, which number 12 in Deir el-Balah.

Nearly 1.5 million people are registered to vote in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, as well as 70,000 people in Gaza's Deir el-Balah area, according to the Ramallah-based Central Elections Commission.

Palestinians vote in first elections since Gaza war

GENEVA: More than $71 billion will be needed over the next decade for recovery and reconstruction in war-ravaged Gaza, according to an EU-UN assessment published Monday. After more than two years of Israel&#39;s war in the Palestinian territory, &quot;recovery and reconstruction needs are estimated at around $71.4 billion&quot;, said the final Gaza Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment developed by the United Nations and the European Union, in coordination with the World Bank.

More than $71 billion will be needed over the next decade for recovery and reconstruction in war-ravaged Gaza, according to an EU-UN assessment published Monday

Over $71B needed over next decade to rebuild Gaza: UN-EU assessment

KHAN YUNIS: In southern Gaza, aid workers are meticulously assembling fiberglass homes meant to shelter thousands of Palestinians still displaced six months after a ceasefire started between Israel and Hamas. Nearly two million people in Gaza are living in makeshift shelters, and the humanitarian situation remains dire, according to aid agencies.The fiberglass units are designed to offer a modicum of relief &mdash; homes with slightly more comfort than a tent vulnerable to the coastal winds that hit Gaza. Alessandro Markic, head of the United Nations Development Programme office in Gaza, initiated the plan. He said families &ldquo;are facing extremely difficult conditions.&rdquo; Roughly 4,000 units are planned in the Al-Mohararat area, west of Khan Younis. Workers assemble walls, install small windows, and lay roofs for families who try to settle in with rugs and cushions inside. &ldquo;These are very basic and temporary solutions, while we continue to plan for recovery and reconstruction,&rdquo; Markic said. The homes, he added, &ldquo;provide more dignity, privacy, and protection during the winter.&rdquo; Some Gazans were visibly relieved to have an alternative to the tents where most displaced people continue to live. Nasma Sharab has moved into one unit with her sons, and affirmed it was &ldquo;better&rdquo; than a tent. The fiberglass homes &ldquo;don&rsquo;t constantly blow away in the wind,&rdquo; she said. But, she added, &ldquo;it&rsquo;s a temporary solution while we wait for reconstruction to begin and for people to be able to go back to their homes.&rdquo; Among those who remain in a tent is Ali Abu Nahl, in Beit Lahia in northern Gaza, after being displaced to the center and south of the territory with his children and grandchildren. His house was destroyed during the devastating conflict that erupted with the Hamas attacks on Israel in October 2023. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s been half a year since the bombing stopped, but in Gaza, the war doesn&rsquo;t end when the strikes stop,&rdquo; he said.

Six months after a ceasefire, displaced Palestinians in Khan Younis are moving into fiberglass shelters built by aid workers, offering modest protection from harsh conditions while thousands still await reconstruction, stability, and a return to permanent homes.

In Gaza, fiberglass homes aim to offer more ‘dignity’ for displaced

RAMALLAH: Israel has approved the establishment of 34 new settlements in the occupied West Bank, according to Israeli media reports and the watchdog Peace Now, which said the decision was taken &quot;secretly&quot; in early April. &quot;The security cabinet secretly decided to establish 34 new settlements,&quot; Peace Now said in a statement released late on Thursday.The 34 settlements come on top of 68 others already approved since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu&#39;s right-wing government came to power in 2022. The decision has not been officially published by any government body, and the defence ministry, in charge of settlements in the occupied West Bank, declined to respond to AFP&#39;s questions. &quot;We are not addressing this issue,&quot; a spokesperson for the ministry told AFP. According to news channel i24News, 10 of the 34 settlements are already existing outposts, which are illegal under Israeli law, but will now be retroactively legalised under the decision. The remaining 24 are yet to be built. All settlements are illegal under international law. News website Ynet reported that military chief Eyal Zamir warned during the security cabinet meeting that took place on April 1 that the army could &quot;collapse&quot; because of increasing demands on its manpower. That included the legalisation of dozens of outposts, granting them official settlement status and therefore for protection from Israeli troops. Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967. Excluding east Jerusalem, more than 500,000 Israelis now live there in settlements, among some three million Palestinians. Settlement expansion has been a policy under successive Israeli governments since 1967, but has accelerated significantly under the current Netanyahu-led coalition, widely regarded as one of the most right-wing in Israel&#39;s history. Rights groups say approvals of new settlements, land seizures and settler violence have further increased since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023.

Israel has approved the establishment of 34 new settlements in the occupied West Bank, according to Israeli media reports and the watchdog Peace Now, which said the decision was taken "secretly" in early April.

Israel approves 34 new West Bank settlements

GAZA CITY: A Gaza hospital said clashes and Israeli airstrikes killed at least 10 people on Monday near a school sheltering displaced people in the center of the Palestinian territory. The incident is the latest to shake a fragile US-backed ceasefire that has been in place since October 10 and has largely halted the war between Israel and Hamas. &quot;At least 10 people were killed and dozens injured, including six in critical condition, by Israeli shelling and clashes east of Al-Maghazi camp&quot; in the center of the territory, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital said in a statement. Gaza&#39;s civil defense agency confirmed the death toll. A Palestinian witness told AFP that the violence began with clashes between gunmen from an anti-Hamas militia, allegedly backed by Israel, and some residents in the school who were backed by Hamas fighters. The anti-Hamas gunmen had come to arrest some residents, the witness said, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons. &quot;Clashes broke out when residents and Hamas members tried to confront the (anti-Hamas) militiamen,&quot; he said. &quot;Shortly after, Israeli forces bombed the area near the school and also opened heavy fire,&quot; he said. The Israeli military said it was looking into the reports. It remains unclear how many of the victims were killed by airstrikes and how many died in the clashes. Israel and Hamas continue to accuse each other of violating the truce. Israel has continued to carry out strikes in Gaza during the ceasefire, targeting what it says are Hamas fighters. Since the ceasefire began, at least 723 Palestinians have been killed, according to Gaza&#39;s health ministry. The United Nations considers these figures reliable. The Israeli military says it has lost five soldiers in Gaza during the same period.

Incident is the latest to shake a fragile US-backed ceasefire that has been in place since October 10 and has largely halted the war between Israel and Hamas; since the ceasefire began, at least 723 Palestinians have been killed.

Gaza hospital says clashes, Israeli strikes kill 10

RIYADH: Islamic nations, including Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Indonesia, lambasted on Thursday the approval of a death penalty bill for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, saying the move threatens &quot;regional stability&quot;. Foreign ministers released the statement from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Indonesia, Pakistan, Qatar, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates. &quot;This legislation constitutes a dangerous escalation, particularly given its discriminatory application against Palestinian prisoners, and stressed that such measures risk further exacerbating tensions and undermining regional stability,&quot; the joint statement read. Under the law passed by Israel&#39;s parliament late on Monday, Palestinians convicted by military courts of carrying out deadly attacks classified as &quot;acts of terrorism&quot; will face the death penalty&nbsp;as a default sentence. The United Nations and European Union have criticized the law, while the United States came out in support of &quot;Israel&#39;s sovereign right to determine its own laws&quot;. Because Palestinians in the territory are automatically tried in Israeli military courts, the measure effectively creates a separate and harsher legal track. In Israeli civilian courts, the law allows for either death or life imprisonment for those convicted of killing with the intent to harm the state.

FILE: From left to right: Syria's President Bashar Assad, Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, as they follow Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (Front R) and Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi (Back R)

Europe

Asia

"This legislation constitutes a dangerous escalation, particularly given its discriminatory application against Palestinian prisoners, and such measures risk further exacerbating tensions and undermining regional stability," the joint statement released by Islamic nations read.

Islamic states condemn Israel over death penalty law

UNITED NATIONS: The Gaza envoy for US President Donald Trump&#39;s new &quot;Board of Peace&quot; initiative urged UN Security Council members to pressure Hamas to disarm, as part of a ceasefire to end over two years of war. &quot;I ask the council members to use all means at their disposal to urge Hamas and all Palestinian factions to accept this framework without delay,&quot; said Nickolay Mladenov, a veteran Bulgarian diplomat named the board&#39;s high representative for Gaza. &quot;Every hour, every day wasted carries a human cost and further erodes the process for credible and lasting peace,&quot; he told a Security Council meeting on the Palestinian conflict. Trump&#39;s administration, along with Qatar and Egypt, negotiated a ceasefire in October to halt two years of devastating war in Gaza. In January, Washington said it was moving into the second phase of the peace plan that calls for the disarmament of Hamas. It also calls for the gradual retreat of Israeli forces and the deployment of an international stabilizing force. But despite the reduced violence, Israeli strikes have at times continued, resulting in hundreds of deaths since the ceasefire, and Hamas has refused to disarm under conditions it says are imposed by Israel. &quot;The laying down of arms by militant groups would represent a decisive break from cycles of violence that have defined life in Gaza for decades,&quot; Mladenov said. Trump&#39;s Board of Peace has promised a wave of reconstruction and investment aid for Gaza in case of a lasting truce. Since then, at least 72,000 people have died in Gaza in an Israeli military offensive, according to the territory&#39;s health ministry, whose figures are considered reliable by the United Nations. Also at the meeting, the UN Resident Coordinator Office&#39;s deputy special coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Ramiz Alakbarov, warned of a &quot;heightened level of violence in the West Bank.&quot; Violence between Israeli settlers and Palestinians in the West Bank risks &quot;further displacing Palestinian communities,&quot; he said.

A Palestinian man gestures as he stands in the remains of a burnt-out home following a reported attack by Israeli settlers in the village of Deir al-Hatab, east of the city of Nablus, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on March 23, 2026 (AFP).

Americas

The Gaza envoy for US President Donald Trump's new "Board of Peace" initiative urged UN Security Council members to pressure Hamas to disarm, as part of a ceasefire to end over two years of war.

Trump's 'Board of Peace' Gaza envoy urges Hamas to disarm 'without delay'

JERUSALEM: Israel said it would reopen a crossing into Gaza on Tuesday to allow for the &quot;gradual entry of humanitarian aid&quot; into the territory. The Kerem Shalom crossing was closed on Saturday when Israel and the United States began striking Iran, which sparked reprisals from Tehran. The decision to reopen it was made &quot;in accordance with a security assessment,&quot; said COGAT, the Israeli defense ministry body responsible for civil affairs in the Palestinian territories. The Israeli-controlled Kerem Shalom crossing sits at the intersection between the Gaza Strip, Israel and Egypt. Israel on Saturday announced the closure of all crossing points into Gaza as a &quot;security&quot; measure, including Rafah on the border between the Palestinian territory and Egypt. The Rafah crossing, the only gateway for Gazans to the outside world that does not pass through Israel, had reopened for the movement of people on February 2, nearly two years after Israeli forces seized control of it during the war with Hamas. US President Donald Trump warned Monday that his attack on Iran could extend longer than a month, as the war spread with Israel bombarding Lebanon while Tehran targeted Israel and Gulf countries that host US bases.

US President Trump warns his attack on Iran can extend longer than a month, as the war spreads with Israel bombarding Lebanon while Tehran targets Israel and Gulf countries that host US bases.



Israel says will reopen a Gaza aid crossing today

GAZA CITY: Gaza&#39;s civil defence ministry said Israeli strikes killed at least five people on Friday. Violence has continued in the Palestinian territory despite a US-brokered truce that entered its second phase last month, with Israel and Hamas trading accusations of violating the agreement. The civil defence agency, which operates as a rescue force under Hamas authorities, told AFP that an air strike in the early hours of Friday morning killed at least two people and seriously injured one in central Gaza. A drone strike in the south of the strip shortly after midnight killed three and injured several more people, the agency added. Under the terms of the ceasefire, which took effect on October 10, Israeli troops withdrew to positions behind a so-called &quot;Yellow Line&quot;, though they remain in control of more than half of the territory. Gaza&#39;s health ministry, which operates under Hamas authorities, has previously said at least 601 people had been killed since the truce began. The Israeli military says at least four of its soldiers have been killed in the same period. Media restrictions and limited access in Gaza have prevented AFP from independently verifying casualty figures or freely covering the fighting.

A minimum of 5 Palestinians were killed by the IDF according to Gaza's civil defence

Articles tagged with "Gaza"