March 7, 2024 Israel-Hamas war

Parents in Gaza are being forced to ration food among their starving children, a Palestinian aid worker warned Thursday, as Israel’s siege condemns civilians to severe hunger and officials warn of a deadly surge in child malnutrition.

Some adults in Gaza are subsisting on just one mug of coffee a day, rationing whatever food they have among their children, said Mahmoud Shalabi, who is the senior program manager of the nongovernmental organization Medical Aid for Palestinians.

Shalabi recounted seeing a Gazan father at a market buying chips for his two children.

"I remember him saying, 'This is for your breakfast and lunch, so make sure you calculate your portions properly, because I have nothing left. And this is your food for the day,'" the aid worker said.

"Everybody I know in Gaza Strip has lost weight. The average weight loss ranges between 10 to 15 kilograms (about 22 to 33 pounds). Some people have even exceeded 20 kilograms of weight loss," he continued.  

Markets in northern Gaza have nothing but nuts and spices left to sell, according to Shalabi. "We don't have any rice left in the market," he said. "No lentils, no beans — nothing."

Chef José Andrés, founder of the nonprofit World Central Kitchen, has been instrumental in getting aid to hungry people in Gaza.

Andrés told CNN's Jim Acosta that the organization plans to build 100 kitchens across the strip, but "we need a constant flow of food, constant flow of water, and this unfortunately is not happening."

World Central Kitchen was able to airdrop 48,000 meals into Gaza, Andrés said, but the operations are expensive and require a lot of coordination.

Andrés added that he hopes to hear US President Joe Biden say in his State of the Union address Thursday night that "the humanitarian crisis should stop."

"Food and water is a universal right ... no person should be going hungry. I hope that he will push for a ceasefire. I hope, yes, he can say we need to be protecting our partner Israel, but you can be also be protecting the men and woman and children of Palestine today," he said.

Watch the interview:

The Turkish Red Crescent sent its largest aid ship to Gaza Thursday, carrying about 3,000 tons of aid, according to a statement on X from the organization.  

"This ship is the largest ship we have ever sent. These aid supplies, such as container kitchens, food, clothes and medicine, will be a great morale boost for the people of Gaza," Turkish Red Crescent President Fatma Meriç Yilmaz wrote on X, formerly Twitter. 

This is the largest of the seven aid ships Turkey has sent to Gaza. It will depart Thursday to the Egyptian port of Al-Arish. From there, the aid will be loaded in trucks for Gaza, she said. 

In addition to the ships, Turkey has so far sent 12 aid planes during the war in Gaza, according to Turkey's state media Anadolu Agency.

Remember: A growing number of children in Gaza are dying of starvation and dehydration, according to the World Health Organization and Palestinian officials, amid desperate conditions due to Israel’s throttling of aid and destruction of the besieged enclave.

The United Nations warns Gaza is on the brink of famine, and Israel faces increasing pressure to allow more aid into the strip.

The children in Gaza who survived bombardment "may not survive a famine,” World Health Organization (WHO) chief Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus has warned amid reports of surging cases of child malnutrition in the enclave.

The WHO director-general gave the warning in a social media post on Wednesday, accompanied by a video testimony from a doctor based at the pediatric unit in the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza.  

“Malnutrition plays a major role in the number of children that come to us and the number of deaths,” Dr. Imad Dardonah said in the video. 

Dardonah said doctors in his hospital cannot treat 50% to 60% of malnutrition cases they are receiving, adding that their only recourse is to provide the children with a saline or sugar solution. 

At least 20 people have died due to malnutrition and dehydration since the war began in Gaza, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza. Of those who have died 15 of them are children, the Ministry of Health said.

Jamie McGoldrick, a UN humanitarian coordinator who just returned from a two-day trip to Gaza, warned Thursday that hunger there has reached “catastrophic levels.” 

Lebanon has recirculated its “vision” aimed at ending hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel to mediating countries this week, a Lebanese government official told CNN.  

The official who spoke on the condition of anonymity said the Lebanese vision, first presented at the UN Security Council in January, calls for a “full and balanced implementation” of UN resolution 1701 that ended the war in 2006.  

It also calls for Hezbollah and Israel to adopt a “full and immediate cessation of hostilities,” including Israeli attacks by air, land and sea, the source said. Upon full cessation, Israel would withdraw its forces from Southern Lebanon, including disputed areas like the Shebaa Farms. In parallel, Hezbollah and any armed factions would withdraw from the area between Lebanon’s Litani River and the border with Israel, and only troops of the Lebanese Armed Forces [LAF] would be present there. 

Given Lebanon’s struggling economy, its partners in the international community, including the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) would need to help support that plan financially, the official added. 

The official confirmed that while Hezbollah is not at the negotiating table, the Lebanese government is “regularly in discussions” with the group. 

A ceasefire deal in Gaza that would see Israeli hostages freed and the first break in the fighting in more than three months is unlikely to happen by the start of Ramadan which the Biden administration had been aiming for, according to sources familiar with the negotiations.

Negotiators had hoped to have a draft agreement this week after days of meetings in Cairo, “but it won’t happen,” said one diplomat familiar with the discussions who described the last few days of talks as “very hectic.”

Two American officials agreed that the prospects are not promising of Israel and Hamas agreeing to the temporary truce by the start of the Muslim holy month early next week.

A failure to achieve a deal in the next few days would come after weeks of President Joe Biden and administration officials saying an agreement needs to be in place by Ramadan to avoid escalation of the five-month war. He warned Tuesday that without a ceasefire by then the region could become "very, very dangerous."

Israel has also warned that if the Israeli hostages being held in Gaza aren’t home by Ramadan they will launch a military offensive into Rafah in southern Gaza where around 1.5 million Palestinians are trying to seek safety from the fighting. 

CNN's Mostafa Salem contributed to this report.

An Israeli official told CNN they think Hamas is playing "a game," after the militant group claimed not to know which hostages are alive.

The official spoke to CNN shortly before news broke that a Hamas delegation had left Cairo, where talks were taking place. Israel did not send a negotiating team to Cairo. 

The official, who asked not to be named discussing high-stakes ceasefire and hostage negotiations, was responding to comments from a high-ranking Hamas official earlier in the week.

The fate of the hostages is a key sticking point in negotiations. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has demanded Hamas provide a list of hostages and their status; Naim’s response appears to deadlock the talks. 

What we know: Israel believes there are still 130 hostages from the October 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel being held in Gaza, of whom at least 31 are dead. There are also four Israeli hostages from before October 7, of whom Israel believes two are alive and two are dead. 

Israeli officials are holding top-level meetings Thursday, including a security cabinet meeting at an earlier time than usual, but the Israeli official did not believe a breakthrough was imminent. 

A Hamas delegation left Cairo on Thursday after days of talks with no obvious breakthrough in negotiations aimed at reaching a ceasefire in exchange for hostage releases. 

Egypt state-run Al Qahera news, citing a senior source, said that the delegation had left to consult on the proposals and that negotiations would resume next week.

Sticking points: Without Israel agreeing to a permanent ceasefire, Hamas will not agree to a deal over hostages, a highly placed source in the militant group told CNN on Sunday.

At least three sticking points remain before Hamas will agree upon a deal, the source said. These are:

On Wednesday, Hamas reiterated its demand for a permanent ceasefire, the return of displaced people, Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, and the provision of aid to Gazans.

Israel has branded as “false claims” assertions by the UN’s World Food Programme that an aid convoy trying to reach people in northern Gaza was turned away by authorities.

“As for the false claims regarding the WFP, we regret that some international aid organizations misjudge the enormous efforts of the State of Israel.”

On Tuesday, the WFP said their 14-truck convoy was turned away by Israeli authorities after a three-hour wait at the Wadi Gaza checkpoint.

The UN agency said it was their first attempt to resume aid deliveries to the northern strip since February 20.

The Israeli government agency overseeing humanitarian aid to the enclave confirmed Thursday that some supplies intended for northern Gaza were not delivered, but did not provide further details.