Israel orders new evacuations in northern Gaza, where UN says 1 in 6 children are malnourished

Israel ordered new evacuations from parts of Gaza City on Tuesday as a study led by the UN childrens agency found that one in six children are acutely malnourished in the isolated and largely devastated north of the territory where the city is locatedThe report finds deepening misery across the territory where Israels air and ground offensive launched in response to Hamas Oct 7 attack has killed over 29000 Palestinians obliterated entire neighborhoods and displaced more than 8037 of the populationIsrael has vowed to expand the offensive to the Gaza Strips southernmost city of Rafah where more than half of the territorys population of 23 million has sought refuge from fighting elsewhere Many have crowded into sprawling tent camps and overflowing UNrun shelters near the Egyptian borderOn Tuesday the military ordered the evacuation of the Zaytoun and Turkoman neighbourhoods on the southern edge of Gaza City an indication that Palestinian militants are still putting up stiff resistance in areas of northern Gaza that the Israeli military said had been largely cleared weeks agoResidents said there have been airstrikes and heavy ground fighting in eastern parts of Gaza City over the past two days ldquoThe situation is very difficult said Ayman Abu Awad who lives in Zaytoun We are trapped inside our homesrdquoA POTENTIAL EXPLOSION OF PREVENTABLE CHILD DEATHSThe report by the Global Nutrition Cluster an aid partnership led by the UN childrens agency UNICEF says more than 9037 of children under five in Gaza eat two or fewer food groups a day known as severe food poverty A similar percentage are affected by infectious diseases with 7037 experiencing diarrhea in the last two weeksMore than 8037 of homes lack clean and safe water with the average household having one litre quart per person per day according to the report released MondayIn Gazas southernmost city of Rafah where most humanitarian aid enters the acute malnutrition rate is 537 compared to 1537 in northern Gaza which has been isolated by the Israeli military and largely cut off from aid for months Before the war the rate across Gaza was less than 137 the report saidldquoThe Gaza Strip is poised to witness an explosion in preventable child deaths which would compound the already unbearable level of child deaths in Gazardquo UNICEF official Ted Chaiban said in a statementA UN report in December found that Gazas entire population of 23 million Palestinians is in a food crisis with a quarter of the population facing starvationIsrael says it does not restrict the import of humanitarian supplies but aid groups say delivery within Gaza has been severely hampered by Israeli road closures ongoing fighting and the breakdown of law and order as Israeli strikes have targeted the Hamasrun police forceThe UN agency for Palestinian refugees the main provider of aid in Gaza said earlier this month that Israel was holding up a food shipment that could feed over a million people Israel accused 12 employees of the agency of taking part in the Oct 7 attack without providing evidence That led several donors to freeze vital funding for the agency even after it fired the workers and launched an independent investigationNO END IN SIGHT TO MONTHSLONG WARThe war began when Hamasled militants burst through Israels formidable border defenses and rampaged across communities in southern Israel killing some 1200 people mostly civilians and taking around 250 hostageThe militants are still holding some 130 captives around a fourth of whom are believed to be dead after most of the rest were released in a prisonerhostage exchange last yearIsrael responded to the attack with one of the deadliest and most destructive military campaigns in recent history in the tiny coastal enclave which has been under an Israeli and Egyptian blockade since Hamas seized power from rival Palestinian forces in 2007The United States Israels top ally says it is still working with mediators Egypt and Qatar to try to broker another ceasefire and hostage release agreement But those efforts appear to have stalledGazas Health Ministry said on Monday that the Palestinian death toll had risen to 29092 since the start of the war with around twothirds of the fatalities being women and children More than 69000 Palestinians have been wounded overwhelming the territorys hospitals less than half of which are even partially functioning The ministry does not distinguish between civilian and combatant casualties in its countIsrael says it has killed over 10000 Palestinian militants but has provided no evidence for its count The military says it tries to avoid harming civilians and blames the high civilian death toll on Hamas because the militant group fights in dense residential neighbourhoods The military says 237 of its soldiers have been killed since the start of the ground offensive in late OctoberThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its 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