‘Far too late’

Desperate
Palestinians clutching pots and plastic buckets scrambled for rice at a charity
kitchen in Gaza City on Saturday, a day after the United Nations declared a
famine in the territory that has been reduced to rubble.
AFP footage from Gaza's
largest city, which Israel plans to seize as part of an expanded military
offensive, showed women and young children among the chaotic jostle of dozens
clamouring and shouting for food.
One young
boy used his hands to scrape a few leftover grains from the inside of a cooking
vat. Another young girl sat on the edge of a tent and scooped rice from a
plastic bag on the ground.
"We have no home left,
no food, no income... so we are forced to turn to charity kitchens, but they do
not satisfy our hunger," said Yousef Hamad, 58, who was displaced from the
northern city of Beit Hanoun.
Further south at a charity
kitchen in Deir el-Balah, 34-year-old Umm Mohammad said the UN's declaration of
a famine had come "far too late".
The children are
"staggering from dizziness, unable to wake up because of the lack of food
and water," she said.
The UN officially declared a
famine in Gaza on Friday, blaming the "systematic obstruction" of aid
by Israel during more than 22 months of its aggression.
The Rome-based Integrated
Food Security Phase Classification Initiative (IPC) said famine was affecting
500,000 people in Gaza governorate, which covers about a fifth of the
Palestinian territory including Gaza City.
'MORAL DUTY'
Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the report as "an outright lie".
On Saturday, the head of the
UN agency for Palestinian refugees said it was "time for the government of
Israel to stop denying the famine it has created in Gaza".
"All of those who have
influence must use it with determination & a sense of moral duty,"
UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini posted on X.
The IPC projected that the
famine would expand to Deir el-Balah and Khan Yunis governorates by the end of
September, covering around two-thirds of Gaza.
Israel, meanwhile, kept up
its bombardment of the Palestinian territory, with AFP footage showing heavy
smoke billowing above the Zeitun district of Gaza City as Palestinians picked
through the wreckage of buildings.
'FEEL LIKE END IS NEAR'
The spokesman for Gaza's
civil defence agency, Mahmud Bassal, called the situation in the Sabra and
Zeitun neighbourhoods "absolutely catastrophic", describing the
"complete levelling of entire residential blocks".
"We are trapped here,
living in fear, with nowhere to go. There's no safety anywhere in Gaza.
Movement now leads to death," said Ahmad Jundiyeh, 35, who was displaced
to the northern outskirts of Zeitun.
"We constantly hear the
sound of bombing... we hear fighter jets, artillery shelling and even drone
explosions," he told AFP by telephone.
"We're extremely afraid
-- it feels like the end is near."
Defence Minister Israel Katz
vowed on Friday that Israel would destroy Gaza City as it has other parts of
the territory if Hamas did not agree to disarm, release all remaining hostages
in the territory and end the assault on Israel's terms.
Residents of Gaza City said
the Israeli strikes targeting the area had been relentless for days.
"Let them come and see
what's happening to us here on the ground in Zeitun district. We have been
ruined," said Aymen Daloul, a 53-year-old from Gaza City whose home had
been destroyed.
"We shall sleep on the
streets as if we were cattle. Have mercy on us."
Mahmud Abu Saqer, 24, said
there had been a quickening exodus of residents ever since Israel announced its
plans to seize Gaza City.
"Just this morning, more
than 500 to 600 families left, and yesterday thousands left," he said.
"The sounds of explosions since morning are forcing everyone to
leave."
Hamas's October 2023 attack
that sparked the onslaught resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly
civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Israel's offensive has killed
at least 62,622 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to figures from
the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza that the United Nations considers
reliable.
The civil defence spokesman
Bassal said Israeli strikes and gunfire across Gaza on Saturday killed at least
51 people.
Media restrictions in Gaza
and difficulties accessing swaths of the Palestinian territory mean AFP is
unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by the civil
defence agency or the Israeli military.
















