Palestinian boy Ata Mai drowns in muddy water flooding his Gaza tent camp as aid organisations blocked by Israel
WARNING: Disturbing content
A Palestinian child drowned in the muddy water in his tent in Gaza.
Seven-year-old Ata Mai drowned when floodwaters engulfed his tent camp in Gaza City last Saturday, UNICEF said on Thursday.
Footage emerged of rescue teams trying to pull his body out of the muddy waters by pulling his ankle, the only visible part of his body.
Video from Civil Defense teams shown on Al Jazeera showed rescue teams advancing towards Mai’s waterlogged camp, surrounded by the rubble of bombed buildings.
Later, the body is seen wrapped in a muddy cloth and put into the ambulance.
The young boy lived with his younger siblings and family in a camp of about 40 tents. They had lost their mothers in the war before.
Mai is the latest child death reported in Gaza as storms and cold weather worsen already brutal living conditions; UNICEF reported that at least six children, including Mai, died from weather-related causes.
UNICEF also said a four-year-old child died in a collapsed building as heavy rains and flooding caused buildings damaged by Israeli shelling to collapse.
Gaza Ministry of Health announced that three children died of hypothermia.
“Teams visiting displacement camps reported appalling conditions that no child should endure, with many tents blown up or completely destroyed,” said Edouard Beigbeder, regional director of UNICEF’s Middle East and North Africa division.
All this comes as Israel blocks dozens of aid agencies from providing aid to the displaced population.
Humanitarian organizations such as Doctors Without Borders and CARE had their licenses revoked after they refused to comply with Israel’s updated registration rules.
“Despite the ceasefire, the needs in Gaza are great, and yet we and dozens of other organizations have been and will continue to be prevented from bringing life-saving essential aid,” said Shaina, communications advisor for the Norwegian Refugee Council.
The new regulations include ideological requirements and disqualify organizations that call for a boycott against Israel, deny the October 7 attack, or express support for any of the international cases brought against Israeli soldiers or leaders.
Israel says the new conditions are to stop Hamas from working with aid groups or siphoning aid; Some aid groups dismiss these concerns.
Some aid groups say they have not submitted the list of Palestinian personnel as requested by Israel, out of fear they will be targeted by Israel and because of data protection laws in Europe.
“This comes from a legal and security perspective. We have seen hundreds of aid workers killed in Gaza,” Low said.
The decision means aid groups will have their licenses revoked on January 1, and if they are in Israel they must leave by March 1. Aid groups will be able to appeal the decision, according to the Israeli Ministry of Diaspora Affairs.
COGAT, the Israeli defense agency that oversees humanitarian aid to Gaza, said the organizations on the list contribute less than one percent of the total aid going to the Gaza Strip and that aid will continue to come from more than 20 organizations that have received permission to continue operating in Gaza.
But Médecins Sans Frontières said Israel’s decision would have a disastrous impact on its work in Gaza, where they support about 20 percent of hospital beds and a third of births. The organization also denied Israeli accusations against its personnel.
Angelina Jolie visited the Rafah border
Actor and activist Angelina Jolie met with Red Crescent members on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border gate.
On Friday, he visited a hospital in the nearby city of Arish to speak with Palestinian patients, according to Egyptian officials.
Jolie said of Gaza: “What needs to happen is clear: the ceasefire must continue, and access must be maintained, safely and urgently increased so that aid, fuel and critical medical supplies can be transported quickly and consistently in the required volumes.”
Raids on the Yellow Line and West Bank
A shaky 12-week ceasefire between Israel and Hamas has largely ended large-scale Israeli bombardment of Gaza.
But Palestinians are still killed by Israeli fire almost every day, and the humanitarian crisis shows no signs of abating.
Nearly all of the population of more than two million have lost their homes, and most live in squalid tent camps with little protection from bad weather.
Three Israeli soldiers have been confirmed dead as a result of militant attacks or explosive detonations in Gaza since the ceasefire ended.
A Palestinian group representing those abducted by Israeli forces said Israeli forces had captured about 50 Palestinians in the West Bank, most of them at their homes.
The Palestinian Prisoners Association said Israeli soldiers arrested and interrogated many of them on Thursday night.
The group, an official body within the Palestinian Authority, said most of the arrests occurred in the Ramallah area.
“These operations were accompanied by widespread raids, harassment and attacks on detainees and their families, as well as extensive acts of vandalism and destruction of citizens’ homes,” the group said.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the raid.
The association says Israel has arrested 7,000 Palestinians in the West Bank and Jerusalem this year, and 21,000 since the war began on October 7, 2023.
The number of people captured from Gaza is not made public by Israel.
Many deaths occurred near the Yellow Line, the cease-fire border between the Gaza Strip, more than half of which is still under Israeli army control, and the rest of the area where the majority of the population lives.
Nine-year-old Youssef Shandaghi died in Jabaliya in northern Gaza, not far from the so-called Yellow Line.
Two officials from Gaza Shifa Hospital, Director Mohammed Abu Selmiya and General Manager Rami Mhanna, said that the child was killed as a result of Israeli gunfire coming from across the Yellow Line. Abu Selmiya referred to the report of the doctor who received Shandaghi’s body. The Israeli army announced that it had no information about the incident.
The hospital said a 10-year-old girl was killed and one person was injured as a result of Israeli fire near the Yellow Line in Gaza City.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the incidents but said troops operating near the Yellow Line would target anyone who approached or threatened soldiers.
According to medical personnel and witnesses, Israeli soldiers open fire almost daily on Palestinians who get too close to the Yellow Line, often killing or wounding some.
The Israeli army acknowledged that some civilians, including young children, were killed.
According to the Ministry of Health, 416 Palestinians have been killed and 1,142 Palestinians have been injured in Gaza since the ceasefire began.
The total number of Palestinians killed in the war is at least 71,271.
—via AP
