New York [US], April 23: Violent incidents in Gaza have reached their highest weekly level since a ceasefire took effect in October, the United Nations said on Tuesday.
The number of incidents, including shootings, shelling and attacks, rose 46% in the week of April 12 to 18 compared with the previous week, a spokesman for UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said.
The figure marked the highest weekly total since the truce began, spokesman Stephane Dujarric added. The Israeli military said it was reviewing the comments when asked for a response.
Israel's military continues to control around half of the Gaza Strip, while the Islamist group Hamas has reasserted control over the remaining areas.
Hamas has insisted that Israel halt attacks in the enclave and allow increased humanitarian aid before moving to a second phase of a Gaza peace plan proposed by US President Donald Trump. The group has continued to reject provisions in the plan calling for its disarmament.
Since the ceasefire began, more than 760 Palestinians have been killed in the coastal territory, according to the Hamas-run health authority.
Meanwhile, in the neonatal unit of Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, newborns are fighting to survive during what doctors describe as an unprecedented rise in congenital anomalies linked to the conditions of war.
Two-week-old Ahmed is already showing signs of excess fluid in the brain. Sharing his unit is Suheir, two months old, born with multiple deformities affecting his mouth and ears, and Osama, also two months, with a hole in his heart and enlarged ventricles in his brain.
Osama's mother, Najia Zu'rub, has not left the hospital since he was born.
"I became pregnant with him during the war, and the pregnancy was exhausting due to the lack of food," she said.
"I didn't even have safe drinking water and was living in inadequate tents. The doctors explained that his condition is not genetic. He is my first child, and there is no family history of such conditions."
Zaher Al-Whaidi, director of the Health Information Unit at the Palestinian Health Ministry, attributed the surge to five factors: widespread hunger, decline in healthcare services, overcrowding, contaminated drinking water and the effects of ongoing air strikes.
Last year, at least 457 neonatal deaths were reported, "a 50 percent increase compared to before the war", Al-Whaidi said.
Source: Qatar Tribune