Famine Spreading To New Gaza Areas, Warns UN

(MENAFN- Gulf Times) There is a "narrow window" to prevent famine from spreading further in Gaza, a top UN official said Sunday, calling on Israel to allow unimpeded aid delivery in the territory, where it is fighting Palestinian resistance group Hamas.
According to a global hunger monitor, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are already experiencing or at risk of famine in areas including Gaza City, the enclave's largest urban centre, where Israel has launched a new offensive against Hamas.
"There is a narrow window - until the end of September - to prevent famine from spreading to Deir al Balah (in central Gaza) and Khan Younis (southern Gaza). That window is now closing fast," said United Nations aid chief Tom Fletcher.
COGAT, the Israeli defence agency that deals with humanitarian issues, said Sunday that over the past week aid from more than 1,900 trucks, most supplying food, was distributed in Gaza.
Israel last month launched an assault on the outskirts of Gaza City and its forces are now just a few kilometres from the city centre, where it issued warnings over the weekend to civilians to evacuate high rise buildings it says are being used by Hamas, before bombing them.
Overnight, strikes killed 14 people across the city, local health officials said, including a strike on a school in southern Gaza City sheltering displaced Palestinians.
At least 50 Palestinians were killed across the Gaza Strip since early Sunday, as Israeli airstrikes and ground attacks continue to target various areas of the besieged enclave.
Senior Hamas official Basem Naim said the group would not disarm but would release all hostages if Israel ended the war and withdrew all its forces from Gaza, reiterating Hamas' long-standing position.
Israel's army said it bombed a Gaza City residential tower after issuing evacuation orders, just hours after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the military was "deepening" its assault on the Gaza Strip's key urban centre.
Israel has not publicly announced the start of a major offensive to seize the city, which Netanyahu's cabinet approved last month, but the military has intensified bombings and operations in the area for weeks, in a bid to step up pressure on Hamas.
Hamas has denied using residential buildings for military purposes.
The high-rise was the third such residential tower to be struck in as many days.
The strike on Al-Roya Tower left one person dead, the Al-Quds hospital said in a statement.
"We are deepening the manoeuvre on the outskirts of Gaza City and within Gaza City itself," Netanyuahu said at the start of Sunday's cabinet meeting.
On Friday and Saturday, the air force had levelled two other residential high-rises under the same claim that Hamas had used them as observation points.
Netanyahu said that around 100,000 residents had already left Gaza City.
Trump issues 'last warning' to Hamas
US President Donald Trump Sunday issued what he called his "last warning" to Hamas, urging the Palestinian resistance group to accept a deal to release hostages from Gaza. "The Israelis have accepted my Terms. It is time for Hamas to accept as well," Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform. "I have warned Hamas about the consequences of not accepting. This is my last warning, there will not be another one!"
Israel's N12 News reported on Saturday that Trump has put forth a new ceasefire proposal to Hamas.
Under the deal, Hamas would free all the remaining 48 hostages on the first day of the truce in exchange for thousands of Palestinian prisoners jailed in Israel and negotiate an end to the war during a ceasefire in the enclave, according to N12 famine Gaza starving Gaza Genocide UN

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