A two-month-old Palestinian boy has died from starvation in northern Gaza, according to media reports, days after the United Nations warned of an “explosion” in child deaths due to Israel’s war on the besieged enclave.
The Shehab news agency said Mahmoud Fattouh died at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City on Friday.
Footage, verified by Al Jazeera, shows the emaciated infant gasping for breath in a hospital bed.
One of the paramedics who rushed the boy to the hospital says Mahmoud died from acute malnutrition.
“We saw a woman carrying her baby, screaming for help. Her pale baby seemed to be taking his last breath,” the paramedic says in the video.
“We rushed him to hospital and he was found to be suffering acute malnutrition. Medical staff rushed him into the ICU. The baby has not been fed any milk for days, as baby milk is totally absent in Gaza.”
Mahmoud’s death came as the Israeli government – which launched its assault on Gaza following attacks by Hamas fighters in October – continues to ignore global appeals to allow more aid into the Palestinian enclave.
At least 29,606 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s war on Gaza, while 69,737 have been wounded since October 7. The revised death toll in Israel from the October 7 attacks stands at 1,139.
The UN says some 2.3 million people in Gaza are now on the brink of famine.
Israel, which cut off all supplies of food, water and fuel into Gaza at the start of the war, opened one entry point for humanitarian aid in December. But aid agencies say stringent checks by Israeli forces and protests by far-right demonstrators at the Karem Abu Salem crossing, known by Israelis as Kerem Shalom, have hampered the entry of food trucks.
When the supplies do get through to Gaza, aid workers say they are not able to pick up the goods or distribute them because of a lack of security, caused in part due to Israel’s targeted killings of policemen guarding the truck envoys.
The situation is particularly desperate in northern Gaza, which has been almost completely cut off from aid since late October.
Doctors there have described the situation as “beyond catastrophic”.
Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, the head of Kamal Adwan Hospital in north Gaza, said he was seeing “many” deaths among children, especially newborns.
“Signs of weakness and paleness are apparent on newborns because the mother is malnourished,” Abu Safiya told Al Jazeera. “Unfortunately many kids have died in the past weeks … if we don’t get the proper aid urgently, we will be losing more and more to malnutrition.”
Head of Kamal Adwan hospital in Gaza Dr Hussam Abu Safiya says that there is a steep rise in malnutrition cases amongst children, especially newborns ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/7sCwvI7aMM
Despite the dire situation, UN agencies have not been able to provide help.
The World Food Programme tried to resume deliveries to northern Gaza last Sunday but announced a suspension two days later, citing Israeli gunfire and a “collapse of civil order”. It said its teams witnessed “unprecedented levels of desperation” in the north, with hungry Palestinians mobbing trucks to get food.
The agency said it was working to resume deliveries as soon as possible and called for better security for its staff as well as “significantly higher volumes of food” and the opening of crossing points for aid directly into northern Gaza from Israel.
The UN has meanwhile said its assessments indicate that 15 percent, or one in six, children below two years of age in northern Gaza were acutely malnourished.
“The Gaza Strip is poised to witness an explosion in preventable child deaths, which would compound the already unbearable level of child deaths in Gaza,” said Ted Chaiban, UNICEF’s deputy executive director for humanitarian action, in a statement last week.
“We’ve been warning for weeks that the Gaza Strip is on the brink of a nutrition crisis. If the conflict doesn’t end now, children’s nutrition will continue to plummet, leading to preventable deaths or health issues which will affect the children of Gaza for the rest of their lives and have potential intergenerational consequences,” he said.
Before the war, only 0.8 percent of children below five in Gaza were considered acutely malnourished, the UN said.
“Such a decline in a population’s nutritional status in three months is unprecedented globally.”
Israel denies accusations it is blocking aid deliveries as UN says people are at risk of starvation in the besieged strip.
Before Israel’s war, most of the 2.3 million Palestinians living in Gaza were already dependent on humanitarian assistance.
After four and a half months of a total siege, compounded by an intense bombing campaign, the situation is dire.
Access to aid has been a major aspect of the conflict. First, Israel blocked it, then it maintained tight control over deliveries, and now it is accusing United Nations agencies of failing to distribute it.
At the same time, its forces attack the besieged strip from the air, ground and sea.
So, what mechanisms are in place for Israel to ensure food and humanitarian assistance reaches the millions of people the UN says are at risk of starvation?
Presenter: Mohammed Jamjoom
Guests:
Andreas Krieg – Associate professor of security studies at King’s College London
Sarah Davies – Spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross in Israel and the Occupied Territories
Raymond Johansen – Secretary-general of Norwegian People’s Aid, and a former Norwegian state secretary for foreign affairs
At least one dead as Israeli forces open fire on crowd of hungry Palestinians waiting for aid convoy in northern Gaza.
At least one Palestinian man has been killed and many others wounded in northern Gaza after Israeli forces opened fire on desperate crowds waiting for food aid, according to witnesses and videos.
Footage verified by Al Jazeera shows Palestinians on Monday fleeing to take cover along a ruined coastal road in northern Gaza – which has been almost completely cut off from aid amid Israel’s ongoing war – as the heavy sound of gunfire rings out.
The videos also show clouds of grey fumes from smoke bombs billowing as thousands of Palestinians gathered in the area west of Gaza City.
At least one person was killed in the incident, according to witnesses who shared images of a man splayed on the ground with a wound to his head.
The Wafa news agency said at least 10 people were also injured in the attack.
Victims and witnesses told Al Jazeera the Israeli attack was unprovoked.
“I went down,” one man said at a hospital where he had been rushed to for treatment. “I heard gunshots then and I don’t know what happened.”
Another man said he only went to the area to get flour.
“We want to feed our children… just like everyone else so we went to get some flour. But then we were shot at, shells were fired and tanks advanced at us,” he said.
The attack is the second of its kind in as many days and comes amid a rapidly deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza, where the United Nations has warned of famine-like conditions affecting some 2.3 million people.
The footage from Monday also shows Palestinian children rushing to scoop up flour from the ground after one sack broke open.
Despite the desperate situation, Israel – which controls entry points into Gaza – has refused to allow more aid in.
Several UN agencies on Monday warned that the “alarming” lack of food and water as well as the spread of disease could lead to an “explosion” of child deaths in Gaza.
“We’ve been warning for weeks that the Gaza Strip is on the brink of a nutrition crisis,” said Ted Chain, UNICEF’s deputy executive director for humanitarian action.
“If the conflict doesn’t end now, children’s nutrition will continue to plummet, leading to preventable deaths or health issues which will affect the children of Gaza for the rest of their lives and have potential intergenerational consequences.”
According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, at least 29,092 Palestinians, most of them women and children, have been killed in Israeli attacks since October 7. Another 69,028 have also been wounded.
Palestinians risked their lives trying to get aid in Gaza City as Israeli soldiers opened fire on the starving crowd, gathered in hopes of receiving an aid parcel to feed themselves and their families.
As the war continues, the UN agency warns tens of thousands of children will ‘likely die’ without more aid.
At least 700,000 children in Sudan are likely to suffer from the worst form of malnutrition this year, and tens of thousands could die, the United Nations children’s agency has warned.
A 10-month war in Sudan between its armed forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has devastated the country’s infrastructure, prompted warnings of famine and displaced millions of people inside and outside the country.
“The consequences of the past 300 days means that more than 700,000 children are likely to suffer from the deadliest form of malnutrition this year,” James Elder, spokesperson for UNICEF, told a press conference in Geneva on Friday.
“UNICEF won’t be able to treat more than 300,000 of those without improved access and without additional support. In that case, tens of thousands would likely die.”
Elder defined the most dangerous form of malnutrition as severe acute malnutrition, which makes a child more likely to die from diseases such as cholera and malaria. He said 3.5 million children were projected to suffer severe acute malnutrition.
UNICEF provides “ready-to-use therapeutic food”, or RUTF, a life-saving food item that treats severe wasting in children under five years old, to Sudan.
Elder said there had also been a “500 percent increase” in just one year in murders, sexual violence and recruitment of children to fight.
“That equates to terrifying numbers of children killed, raped or recruited. And these numbers are the tip of the iceberg,” he said, reiterating the urgent need for a ceasefire, and for more aid.
‘Lethal combination’
Catherine Russell, the executive director of UNICEF, echoed Elder’s comments.
The “lethal combination of malnutrition, mass displacement, and disease” is quickly growing, she warned in a statement.
“We need safe, sustained, and unimpeded humanitarian access across conflict lines and across borders – and we need international support to help sustain the essential services and systems that children rely on for survival,” she said.
UNICEF is appealing for $840m to help slightly more than 7.5 million children in Sudan this year, but Elder deplored the lack of funds collected in previous appeals.
“Despite the magnitude of needs, last year, the funding UNICEF sought for nearly three-quarters of children in Sudan was not forthcoming,” Elder said.
The UN on Wednesday urged countries not to forget the civilians caught up in the war in Sudan, appealing for $4.1bn to meet their humanitarian needs and support those who have fled to neighbouring countries.
Half of Sudan’s population – approximately 25 million people – need humanitarian assistance and protection, while more than 1.5 million people have fled to the Central African Republic, Chad, Egypt, Ethiopia and South Sudan, according to the UN.
“The world needs to stop turning a blind eye,” he said. “Where is our collective humanity if we allow this situation to continue.”
Seoul, South Korea – At the Malaysia International Halal Showcase last September, an unlikely sight caught the attention of many attendees.
Nestled among the booths from Muslim-majority countries such as Indonesia and Kuwait, a kiosk representing pork-loving, hard-drinking South Korea beckoned visitors to check out halal products ranging from seaweed laver to sanitary pads.
“The halal food market is a blue ocean with great potential for growth,” Lee Yong Jik, the head of the food export division at South Korea’s Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, told Al Jazeera.
After taking the worlds of film, TV and pop music by storm, South Korea is setting its sights on the global halal industry, which caters to the dietary rules and lifestyle requirements of some 1.8 billion Muslims around the world.
Halal is not easily associated with traditionally homogenous South Korea, where the Muslim community is estimated to number fewer than 200,000 people, or less than 0.4 percent of the population.
But surging demand for Korean cuisine and snacks in Southeast Asia, where Korean pop culture has a devoted and growing fanbase, has turned Korean exporters onto a potentially lucrative opportunity.
Muslims’ spending on halal food alone reached $1.27 trillion in 2021 and is projected to reach $1.67 trillion by 2025, according to research firm DinarStandard.
South Korea’s government has been keen to encourage businesses to capitalise on the trend, providing assistance ranging from food ingredient analysis to subsidies for certification fees and promotional events to connect buyers and suppliers.
In 2015, then-President Park Geun-hye signed an agreement with the United Arab Emirates to promote businesses in new markets, including halal food.
In Daegu, South Korea’s fourth-largest city, local authorities have spearheaded a “Halal Food Activation Project” aimed at increasing the number of halal-certified companies in the city tenfold and tripling exports to $200m by 2028.
Daegu Mayor Hong Joon-pyo recently described the halal market as an opportunity that “cannot be ignored”.
Korean food giants such as CJ CheilJedang have rolled out halal products for their Muslim customers [Ahn Young-joon/AP]
Lotte Foods, CJ CheilJedang, Daesang and Nongshim are among the Korean food giants to have rolled out halal-certified products from kimchi to rice cakes.
Last year, South Korea began exporting halal Korean native beef, known as hanwoo, for the first time after receiving the go-ahead from Islamic affairs officials in Malaysia.
Samyang Foods, one of South Korea’s leading food manufacturers, exports halal products to 78 countries, including its wildly popular “Buldak Ramen” instant noodles.
Samyang’s sales of halal products reached $200m in 2022, accounting for about 45 percent of total exports. Sales in 2023 were expected to reach about $270m.
Samyang has “consistently recognised the importance of the Muslim market” and has been actively working to promote “K-food” globally, a company spokesperson told Al Jazeera.
Apart from the food industry, players in the so-called “K-beauty” sector have also cashed in on the trend.
Cosmetics manufacturer Cosmax, which has its headquarters in Seoul, has been producing halal products at its facilities in Indonesia since 2016.
Despite the growing market, gaining halal certification can seem daunting for many businesses, especially smaller firms.
“The first step is to determine if your product is halal and if it is, then assess whether you actually need halal certification,” Saifullah Jo, chairman of the Korea Halal Association (KOHAS), told Al Jazeera.
A South Korean national who converted to Islam, Jo founded an Islamic consultancy firm for Korean companies and has translated a book about halal into Korean.
“Just because a company requests certification, doesn’t mean we will grant it. Some people come to us seeking certification for things that may technically be certifiable but it’s not always practical,” said Jo, whose organisation is one of South Korea’s four halal certification bodies.
“We need to consider the audience and the genuine necessity for certification.”
KOHAS is one of South Korea’s four halal certification bodies [Raphael Rashid/Al Jazeera]
While alcohol, blood, pork and animals not properly slaughtered in the name of God, and meat from animals that died before slaughter, are considered haram, or prohibited, even seemingly innocuous items like rice and mineral water can be candidates for halal certification.
“The complexities arise in the production processes. For example, when rice is separated from husks in the milling process, the machinery involved may utilise lubrication and some oils may contain animal-derived ingredients,” Jo said.
“This causes cross-contamination and presents a challenge for ensuring the final product is halal-compliant.”
To make matters more complicated, Indonesia, home to the world’s largest Muslim population, last year announced that food companies would from October be required to obtain halal certification within the country.
In November, the South Korean and Indonesian governments reached an agreement to exempt agricultural and food products from certification in the Southeast Asian country so long as they have received the halal label from two of South Korea’s certifiers.
While South Korea has made no secret of its ambitions to forge business connections with the Muslim world, social attitudes towards Muslim people and Islamic culture are often not so friendly.
“Muslims in South Korea are viewed at best with apathy and, at worst, with fear,” Farrah Sheikh, an assistant professor at Keimyung University who specialises in Islam in South Korea, told Al Jazeera.
Sheikh said some Koreans view halal products as a conduit for Islam to “invade” Korean society.
In Daegu, where officials are aggressively pursuing the Muslim market, plans to construct a small mosque have encountered fierce opposition from residents and conservative Christian groups.
In August last year, rapporteurs of the United Nations Human Rights Council expressed “serious concern” to the South Korean government over its alleged failure to address the campaign against the mosque, which included the display of pig heads outside the construction site and banners describing Islam as “an evil religion that kills people”.
After the government began promoting the halal industry in 2015, several Christian groups began warning about the potential “Islamification” of South Korea, an alleged influx of Muslims and concerns about security risks associated with halal food, leading the government to issue an explanatory document to dispel misinformation and rumours.
In 2016, the proposed construction of an industrial zone for the production of halal-certified products in the western city of Iksan fell through due to opposition from Christian groups.
That same year, a brand of potato chip made in Malaysia attracted controversy over halal certification on its packaging, which was later removed without explanation.
In 2018, South Korea witnessed a wave of protests against the arrival of several hundred Muslim asylum seekers from Yemen. During the same year, plans for a prayer room at the Winter Olympic Games were cancelled, following vehement protests by anti-Muslim campaigners.
Negative attitudes towards Muslims and Islam are not uncommon in South Korea [Raphael Rashid/Al Jazeera]
For Muslims actually living in South Korea, halal products can be difficult to find.
While there are restaurants offering halal food, they are primarily clustered in Seoul and other large cities with substantial Muslim communities.
With little in the way of halal products available on supermarket shelves, some Muslim residents have resorted to re-importing halal-certified “made in Korea” instant noodles for their consumption.
Asked about the lack of halal products in South Korea, Samyang Foods said there was insufficient domestic demand to support a market at present.
“However, as the number of Muslim visitors and residents in Korea increases, interest in halal products is growing. Samyang Food is also reviewing the marketability of selling halal products in the Korean market to make it more convenient for domestic Muslim consumers to purchase halal products,” a spokesperson said.
Sheikh, the Keimyung University professor, said Korean companies could not be blamed for wanting to cash in on a lucrative market.
“However, when we see Korean attitudes towards Muslim refugees, or as we have seen in Daegu, we have a clear discrepancy and a big social problem,” he said, adding that South Korea must improve its attitude towards Muslims if it wants to better target markets overseas.
Saifullah Jo of KOHAS said he sees a bright future for Korea’s halal industry despite the challenges.
“Looking at it from the Korean industry’s standpoint, we are aware of the potential, and we should move swiftly. One of Korea’s key strengths is its ability to adapt rapidly,” he said, adding that a growing halal market could promote tolerance and understanding.
“Despite some negative minds, we are thinking positively about going into this new market, and Koreans are learning as well. It helps us open up culturally.”
From the deepening conflict in Myanmar as a result of the 2021 coup to North Korea’s record years of weapons testing and confrontations in the South China Sea, it has been a busy year in the Asia Pacific.
Here are some of our most-read and must-reads from our original reporting in 2023.
Myanmar
More than two years since the generals seized power in a coup in February 2021, civilians found themselves caught in an escalating conflict, and targeted by a military notorious for its brutality.
Starting with satellite imagery of five villages burned to ashes in the country’s Sagaing region, Zaheena Rasheed and Nu Nu Lusan gathered evidence from villagers and witnesses to piece together what had happened.
“We have been working so hard for generations to build these houses and own this land, but they burned our homes and our grain in just one day,” one farmer told them. “They want us to become so poor that we do not resist them. I think they believe that if we are left with nothing, we would not resist. But they are wrong.”
At the end of October, three ethnic armed groups formed an alliance to begin a major offensive against the military in northern Shan state along the border with China.
Emily Fishbein, Jaw Tu Hkawng and Zau Myet Awng found Operation 1027, as the offensive was dubbed, sparking renewed optimism among anti-coup forces as the armed groups notched up early gains.
They have since made further advances from Shan state across to western Rakhine state despite a ferocious response from the military.
The fighting has worsened the humanitarian situation for many civilians, with local relief agencies providing assistance in the absence of an international response.
In Rakhine’s Minbya, a Rohingya woman told Al Jazeera she was living in fear amid relentless shelling and artillery fire.
“We can’t get out of Minbya right now. The fighting is all around,” she said in November. “I can hear bombing and gunfire every day, but I don’t know where they’re fighting. There’s no internet and the phone also often doesn’t work. I worry about everything.”
Rakhine has long been a troubled state. Home to the mostly Muslim Rohingya, it was where the military launched a brutal crackdown that sent hundreds of thousands of people fleeing into neighbouring Bangladesh in 2017.
Cyclone Mocha caused devastation in Myanmar’s western Rakhine state [File: Sai Aung Main/AFP]
Many of those who remain are forced to live in camps where their movements are restricted.
These areas were hit in May by Cyclone Mocha, the most serious storm to hit Myanmar since Cyclone Nargis killed thousands of people in 2008.
Hpan Ja Brang, working with Emily Fishbein, were the first to report in international media of the devastation wreaked by the storm, especially in the Rohingya camps. You can read their report here.
Surge in trafficking
The Myanmar crisis has also had an increasing effect regionally – not just as a result of the generals’ refusal to carry through on promises to end the violence made to fellow members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), but because the instability is driving criminality.
Kevin Doyle travelled up to northern Thailand and the so-called Golden Triangle where seizures of drugs including methamphetamine and heroin have soared since the coup.
Chris Humphrey, meanwhile, who is based in Hanoi, found a surge in the number of Vietnamese being trafficked into Myanmar and forced to work as sex slaves or in scam call centres.
And Alastair McCready went to Laos where he discovered the supply of methamphetamine had grown so much that it had become cheaper than beer.
The crisis in Myanmar has increased the regional drugs trade [Alastair McCready/Al Jazeera]
Vietnam
Hanoi-based Chris Humphrey heard foreigners were being held in Vietnamese detention long after they had completed their prison sentences. The reason? Unpaid court fines and compensation to the victims of their crimes.
At the time the story was published, nationals from countries including Malaysia, Cambodia, South Africa and Nigeria were being held beyond their sentences in sometimes horrific conditions.
“It’s terrible. It is prison after prison,” Nigerian Ezeigwe Evaristus Chukwuebuka told Al Jazeera. “I was seriously humiliated, locked up in a dark, stinky, small room without a toilet, and my legs locked up in bars for two weeks.”
Indonesia
For 30 years until May 1998, Indonesia was ruled by strongman Soeharto.
His departure, amid mass protests, brought new freedoms for Indonesia’s more than 200 million people, particularly its ethnic Chinese minority who had long endured government-sponsored discrimination and were often targeted for their perceived wealth.
Randy Mulyanto and Charlenne Kayla Roeslie spoke to five Indonesians of Chinese descent to find out more about those times and how things had changed.
Iskandar Salim told them that he used to struggle with his identity – feeling like he was not Indonesian enough but not fully Chinese either. Now, he is proud to define himself.
“I can simply say, ‘I am Indonesian, more specifically Chinese Indonesian’,” Iskander told Al Jazeera. “In the end, our identity is ours to decide and define.” Find out more here.
Staying in Indonesia, after Aisyah Llewellyn heard that school children had been caught up in tear gas fired by police at protesters on the island of Rempang – not too far from Singapore – she went there to find out what was going on.
She discovered a controversial plan for a Chinese factory to make glass for solar panels and develop a massive eco-city. The problem? Thousands of residents would have to move to make way for it.
“This is my home and this is where I want to die,” 80-year-old Halimah told Al Jazeera. “I love this place more than anything.”
You can learn more about the villagers and their determination to stop the project here.
A year after the tragedy at the Kanjuruhan football stadium in Malang, Llewellyn flew to the city to speak to the families of some of the 135 people who died.
The stadium has been demolished and will be redeveloped but the struggle to reform Indonesian football will not be so simple. You can read that piece here.
Phillip Mehrtens was taken captive by Papuan independence fighters in February [The West Papua National Liberation Army via Reuters]
And finally, the kidnapping of New Zealand pilot Phillip Mehrtens by an armed group fighting for independence in Papua drew renewed international attention to the long-running conflict in the resource-rich region.
Here’s the story from Kate Mayberry. Mehrtens is still being held captive.
Military developments
Military developments were a key focus of the year, with North Korea testing a record number of weapons as it stepped up efforts to modernise its armed forces.
In September, leader Kim Jong Un made a rare trip out of his country, boarding his armoured train on a mission to visit Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Vostochny Cosmodrome.
Putin agreed to help Kim build satellites and officials showed off Russia’s military technology, In November, North Korea put its first spy satellite into the air – after three failed launches – and is promising more for 2024.
Experts say it continues to fund such activities by illicit means – from hacking to money laundering (you can read more on the ghostly North Korean restaurants that continue to trade in Laos here). The big question is what North Korea is giving Russia in return for its help. Weapons, probably.
Kim argues he needs to develop his country’s arsenal because the United States is deepening its military and political relationship with South Korea. The US, meanwhile, says it has to work more closely with Seoul and its allies because of the increasing threat from Pyongyang.
It is a similar story in the South China Sea, where Beijing has come into multiple confrontations with Manila in the Second Thomas Shoal and Scarborough Shoal.
To much concern in Beijing, the situation has pushed the Philippines closer to the US. Zaheena Rasheed travelled to the country to find out why. You can read that story here.
China
2023 was the year China emerged from years of isolation as a result of its zero-COVID strategy.
That policy meant relentless testing, isolation or quarantine camp. Erin Hale discovered months after the policy was lifted that many of the vast camps remained.
Meanwhile, in this story, Frederik Kelter reported many Chinese had struggled to recover from the trauma of zero-COVID and the abrupt decision to drop it following unprecedented protests.
“So many people suffered under the zero-COVID policy and so many people died when it ended,” Evelyn Ma told Al Jazeera.
The famous Kampung Baru Mosque’s bubur [Lai Seng Sin/AP Photo]
We also took a closer look at China’s growing influence in the Solomon Islands and the curious case of a shipment of what were said to be “replica” weapons from China.
The Asia Pacific is home to a wide variety of religions, from Buddhism to Christianity and Islam.
Raphael Rashid looked at how plans for a tiny mosque in the South Korean city of Daegu triggered a wave of virulent Islamophobia, which saw pig heads left rotting outside the building and protesters holding pork barbecues. You can read more on that story here.
We also reported on how Beijing is asserting control over religions, from Catholicism to Islam.
As Theresa Liu, a Chinese Catholic who follows the church in Rome, told Al Jazeera: “The government is trying to control everything about our religion – how our churches look, who our priests are, the way we pray. I think different religious groups all over China are having trouble with the government.”
People wave Chinese and Hong Kong flags, as Pope Francis arrives to attend the Holy Mass in Ulaanbaatar, in Mongolia in September [Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters]
On a lighter – or should it be heavier – note, Marco Ferrarese profiled the Taiwanese death metal band Dharma. Their unique selling point – their lyrics are actually Buddhist verses and nuns join them on stage.
In Malaysia, meanwhile, Ramadan is known for unique dishes that can only be found during the Muslim fasting month. One of them is bubur lambuk from the Masjid Jamek Kampung Baru Mosque.
Ushar Daniele and Bhavya Vemulapalli joined the mosque’s volunteer chefs to find out the secret to the creamy porridge’s popularity.
The humanitarian crisis in Gaza continues to worsen after more than two months of Israeli bombing and forced displacement of people to the enclave’s south.
On Sunday, hungry and desperate Palestinians were seen jumping onto aid trucks in order to get food and other supplies in Gaza’s Rafah area near the border with Egypt.
Dozens of Palestinians surrounded the aid trucks after they drove in through the Rafah crossing with Egypt, forcing some to stop before climbing aboard, pulling food and water boxes down, and carrying them off or passing them off to crowds below.
Some trucks appeared to be guarded by masked people carrying sticks.
“The humanitarian situation has become very desperate, not only for the residents of Rafah city but also for the one million displaced Palestinians here who are becoming hungry, thirsty and traumatised as the war pounds on,” said Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Rafah.
Mahmoud said the amount of aid being allowed inside the strip is not enough and has forced the Palestinians into a “survival mode”.
“People are without anything – without a home, without access to food, without water and without medical supplies,” he said.
“So, the scenes at Rafah crossing are a natural response: When people starve to death, when they are hungry, this is what we will see happening.”
‘Desperate for food’
The United Nations this week warned that people in Gaza are so “desperate for food” that they are stopping aid trucks and immediately eating what they find.
Philippe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA who visited the strip recently, said the residents, despite their long and difficult history of suffering under Israeli siege, have “never, ever experienced” hunger of this kind.
“I saw it with my eyes that people in Rafah have started to decide to help themselves directly from the truck out of total despair and eat what they have taken out of the truck on the spot,” Lazzarini said on Thursday.
Palestinians loot a humanitarian aid truck in Rafah on Sunday [Fatima Shbair/AP Photo]
On the same day, Carl Skau, the deputy head of the UN World Food Programme (WFP), confirmed that nearly half of the people in Gaza are starving, with no idea where their next meal is coming from.
The WFP said half of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million is starving as the Israeli military’s assault on the southern part of the enclave expands and people are cut off from supplies.
Drone footage from southern Gaza on Sunday showed volunteers from the Gaza Emergency Relief prepare a giant stew.
Aid deliveries crossing into Gaza via Rafah, the sole entry point on the Egyptian border, are only a fraction of pre-conflict levels, despite the surge in needs.
Aid coming through the border crossing has been slow to deliver what the Gaza Strip population needs because of delays from truck inspections.
Rafah is sheltering more than 12,000 people per square kilometre, housing an estimated 85 percent of people displaced across Gaza since the attacks began on October 7.
That day, Hamas launched a surprise incursion on Israeli territory, killing some 1,140 people and taking another 240 captives.
Israel’s bombardment has since killed 18,787 people and injured another 50,897, while thousands are believed to be buried under the rubble.
A massive explosion took place overnight in the Geneina district of Rafah, with two people killed and residential homes targeted and destroyed, said Al Jazeera’s Mahmoud.
“A large number of injured have been brought to the Kuwaiti hospital here,” he said. “We are talking about more than 50 people injured.”
The world produces enough food to feed all of its 8 billion people, yet hundreds of millions go hungry every day.
There is no shortage of food being produced globally. Yet, more than 735 million people faced chronic hunger in 2022.
The United Nations has called for urgent humanitarian action to save lives and livelihoods. It has warned the target of ending hunger by 2030 might not be reached.
Communities across Africa are also facing their worst food crises in four decades. But the funding of aid programmes that tackle food insecurity is declining.
So, if the world has enough to feed its people, why do so many nations suffer from food insecurity and hunger?
They may weigh a maximum of 500 grammes (one pound) and only grow to 10 centimetres (four inches), but the farming of giant snails is proving to be big business in the Ivory Coast.
Considered a delicacy for their tasty flesh, the giant snails are also used to make cosmetics manufactured from their slime and shells.
But nearly 90 percent of the West African country’s forests have disappeared over the last 60 years, something which, together with the widespread use of pesticides, has decimated wild snails’ natural habitat.
Most forest has been lost to agricultural production in the world’s top producer of cocoa – to the detriment of the creatures that naturally thrive in a hot, humid environment.
As wild snail numbers have steadily fallen, farms that specialise in breeding them have increasingly sprung up. There are some 1,500 in the humid south alone.
A popular appetiser in the Ivory Coast, the snails are bred on farms such as one of many in the town of Azaguie, some 40km (25 miles) north of the commercial capital, Abidjan.
Inside some 10 brick and cement containers topped with mesh lids is a layer of earth and another of leaves.
Between the two slither thousands of snails, juveniles and breeders – some much larger than those found in Europe.
The gastropods are watered and fed every two days.
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