Gaza Food Distribution Chaos, New COVID-19 Vaccine Guidelines, Children Of ISIS
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What happened at the food distribution site in Gaza?
Israeli forces fired shots at a food distribution site in Gaza. People at risk of starvation had overrun the place. What does the incident say about a new U.S.-backed system to distribute aid?
I'm Steve Inskeep with Michelle Martin, and this is Up First from NPR News. The United States updated its COVID-19 vaccine guidelines. The shot is no longer recommended for children or pregnant women who are otherwise healthy. Health experts had given different advice. So what does this mean for you and your family?
And thousands of children of ISIS fighters are stuck in Syrian detention camps. The U.S. government wants to get them out because officials think the longer they stay, the higher the chances of radicalization.
The older the children get, the more likely that they're going to buy into the ideology there.
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Today marks the 600th day of Israel's war in Gaza in response to the October 7th attack. In the war since then, tens of thousands of people have been killed, including hundreds more from Israeli airstrikes in the past several days.
Yesterday, Israel implemented its new U.S.-backed plan to control the distribution of aid in Gaza, but the rollout has led to chaos. Witnesses say people were shot by Israeli forces as hungry crowds swarmed a site where food was being distributed. Israel says it fired warning shots.
Joining us now to tell us what happened and more about this new plan is NPR correspondent Aya Batraoui in Dubai. Hello, Aya. Thanks for joining us once again.
Thanks, Michelle.
Could you just start by telling us what happened in Gaza at this distribution site yesterday?
Yeah, there are these two fenced-in areas that were created for people to walk to several miles and pick up parcels of food. And so this comes after nearly three months of total blockade by Israel with no food entering the territory and experts saying hundreds of thousands of people are now facing starvation. So what happened on the first day of this new distribution system backed by the U.S.,
What are the new COVID-19 vaccine guidelines?
is that thousands of hungry people overran one of these fenced-in areas where American contractors were standing guard to distribute boxes of food. Witnesses say the contractors fled, and the crowds just took everything they could, even scrap metal. The contractors in a statement say they fell back, according to protocol. Witnesses say an Israeli helicopter then opened fire in the area, dispersing the crowd. Israel says its troops fired warning shots. Hospital officials tell NPR nearly 50 people were wounded and three were killed as a result of the gunfire.
Was there any system in place before the crowd swarmed this site?
Well, in a statement, Hamas says this incident reflects Israel's failure to manage the humanitarian crisis that it deliberately created. Israel says its aim is to keep aid from Hamas. But we spoke to witnesses on the ground who were at this scene who said there was no screening at all. Anyone could just take the boxes of food. Abu Mahmoud Abaza, who was at the site to get food, told NPR about the scene, and he says it was chaotic. He says there was no distribution system. It was chaos. He says nobody asked for IDs or anything. He says people are hungry and there has to be a better way to get food. So again, unlike how the UN distributes food or used to distribute food in centers across Gaza with IDs and lists of families in need, the system had none of that. There were no screenings or lists and no clarity on who decides who gets the aid and who doesn't.
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