Starvation

Israel called an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council on Tuesday to demand the release of its emaciated hostages, including one seen digging his own grave. Their plight drew widespread sympathy -- but the 2 million Palestinians starving in Gaza got even more. Not only the Palestinians but most council members blamed the Israeli government and military for the two-month blockade of Gaza and failure to allow enough food into the conflict-wracked territory, where its health ministry has reported over 100 deaths from starvation, including many children. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, who flew to New York to attend the council meeting, accused Russia and other unnamed council members as well as the international media of perpetuating "so many lies". He pointed to Hamas and Islamic Jihad's starvation of hostages taken during the October 7, 2023, attacks in southern Israel "while the terrorists enjoy meat, fish and vegetables". Saar insisted that Israel is facilitating "huge

More than 100 charity and human rights groups said Wednesday that Israel's blockade and ongoing military offensive are pushing Palestinians in the Gaza Strip toward starvation, as Israeli strikes killed another 29 people overnight, according to local health officials. Meanwhile, the Trump administration's Mideast envoy, Steve Witkoff, was set to meet with a senior Israeli official about ceasefire talks, a sign that lower-level negotiations that have dragged on for weeks could be approaching a breakthrough. Experts say Gaza is at risk of famine because of Israel's blockade and the offensive launched in response to Hamas' October 7, 2023, attack. The head of the World Health Organization said Gaza is witnessing a deadly surge in malnutrition and related diseases, and that a large proportion of its roughly 2 million people are starving. Israel says it allows enough aid into the territory and faults delivery efforts by U.N. agencies, which say they are hindered by Israeli restrictions a

An aid ship loaded with some 200 tons of food set sail Tuesday from Cyprus to Gaza, the international charity behind the effort said. The shipment is a test for the opening of a sea corridor to supply aid to the territory, where starvation is spreading five months into the Israel-Hamas war. World Food Kitchen, the charity founded by celebrity chef Jos Andrs, posted on the X social media platform that a ship set sail on Tuesday. Associated Press live footage showed it being towed out of a harbor in the port city of Larnaca. The United States has separately announced plans to construct a sea bridge near Gaza in order to deliver aid, but it will likely be several weeks before it is operational. The 5-month-old war triggered by Hamas' Oct. 7 attack into Israel has killed over 30,000 Palestinians and driven some 80% of Gaza's 2.3 million people from their homes. The U.N. says a quarter of the population is starving. The attack that sparked the war killed some 1,200 people, and militants

More than 25,000 people could face starvation in conflict-plagued parts of West Africa next year, a United Nations official warned Friday. Federico Doehnert of the World Food Program said violence and the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine are largely driving the threat to people in Nigeria, Mali and Burkina Faso. "One of the most striking things is that where we already had issues with severe food insecurity last year, this year we're seeing a further deterioration Doehnert said in Dakar while presenting findings from the latest food security report by regional governments, the U.N. and aid groups. The cross-border region between Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger is the epicenter of West Africa's escalating humanitarian crisis, which is compounded by climate change, severe floods and droughts placing more than 10 million people in need of assistance, the U.N. said in a statement this week. Doehnert said nearly 80% of people facing catastrophic hunger - som

The U.N. food chief warned Thursday that the world is facing a global emergency of unprecedented magnitude, with up to 345 million people marching toward starvation and 70 million pushed closer to starvation by the war in Ukraine. David Beasley, executive director of the U.N. World Food Program, told the U.N. Security Council that the 345 million people facing acute food insecurity in the 82 countries where the agency operates is 2 times the number of acutely food insecure people before the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020. He said it is incredibly troubling that 50 million of those people in 45 countries are suffering from very acute malnutrition and are knocking on famine's door. What was a wave of hunger is now a tsunami of hunger, he said, pointing to rising conflict, the pandemic's economic ripple effects, climate change, rising fuel prices and the war in Ukraine. Since Russia invaded its neighbour on Feb. 24, Beasley said, soaring food, fuel and fertilizer costs have driven 70

With the country facing one of its worst food crises, about 2 in 3 children in Afghanistan - or 12 million - whose families depend on farming to survive, are struggling to get enough food to eat daily

The Indian state has been weak, and remains weak. But our expectations from it remain strong

Civil society activists disagreed with the investigations and questioned the findings on grounds that all evidences weren't considered before arriving at the conclusion