When aid planes dropped packages into the sea off the northwest coast of the Gaza Strip, Yusuf Ghaben, a father of nine, decided to swim for them.
I pleaded with him not to go because of his age. I begged him, but he said, ‘Maybe God will provide for us, and we can feed our children Khitam Ghaben, Yusuf’s wife, told Al Jazeera. Dressed all in black, she fought back tears. “He went to feed his little ones.
The wind was strong, creating choppy waves. A number of people waded into the water to grab the aid deliveries and some emerged with boxes in hand. But Yusuf had to be dragged out, as he was unconscious. Once he was pulled from the waves, young men attempted to administer CPR, footage of the incident obtained by Al Jazeera showed. Next to him, his son Jihad yelled in agony, Father Father
Yusuf was one of 12 people who drowned attempting to retrieve aid in as-Sudaniya, off the northwestern coast of Gaza on March 26, according to Palestinian authorities. The people were driven to desperation by a severe famine in the north of the enclave as a result of Israel’s restrictions on aid access, a prospect that humanitarian groups and officials have warned of for weeks.
The Israeli military has killed more than 32,000 Palestinians in its war on Gaza. Many Palestinians have lost family members in air strikes or other military actions.But now people are dying of hunger and disease, too. More than 27 people have starved to death in Gaza in recent weeks, including 23 children, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health. For the 300,000 people in northern Gaza, the worst affected area, widespread famine is on the horizon, if not already there.
International actors have turned to airdrops in attempts to ease the dire humanitarian disaster on the ground. But the aid is nowhere near sufficient, and aid groups have criticised the drops as “symbolic”, as Israel’s allies, including the United States, continue to supply it with offensive arms. The administration of US President Joe Biden, in particular, has to date refused to condition military aid to Israel, despite growing calls from US politicians to do so.
The Ghaben family, who live in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip, live in tragic conditions. Now in the sixth month of the war, the famine has begun to take hold. The lack of food and basic necessities needed to survive daily life has many Palestinians living in utter desperation.
I never imagined it would be my father whom the young men pulled out of the sea. He usually wouldn’t run after aid parcels, Jihad, Yusuf’s son said. “My father was a good swimmer, but the parachutes and their cords are what strangle swimmers. This has happened to many victims of aid parcel drownings, even the most skilled swimmers
My father is gone and will not return. We have been deprived of him,” Anwar, Yusuf’s daughter, said as she wept bitterly. We are afraid because he was the one who protected us. He is gone now.”The situation in northern Gaza is particularly atrocious. Less than one in two aid missions have been allowed into northern Gaza, according to the United Nations. And Israel recently exacerbated this situation by announcing it would not continue to allow aid trucks from the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees UNRWA into the region.
The Israeli siege on Gaza has forced Palestinians to take desperate measures, including eating grass and weeds to stay alive, or, as with Yusuf, putting oneself in danger to provide families with food. And as the situation continues to deteriorate, more will likely die.
The situation has created a lethal cocktail for Palestinians trying to provide for their family’s survival. Facing down hunger, Yusuf may have seen little other choice. An attempt at an aid retrieval has now left a family without a father, a husband, and a provider.
They throw aid into death to kill people. We don’t want it if it’s going to kill us. Children have been orphaned because of it Khitam lamented, tears now running down her face. He left me with three daughters and six sons. How will I raise them without him (Al Jazeera)…[+]

Islamabad, Pakistan: In the 10 days between March 16 and March 26, Pakistan witnessed five different attacks, three in its northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and two in its southwestern Balochistan province, resulting in the deaths of at least 18 people. All five attacks were suicide bombings, in which at least 12 military personnel, five Chinese nationals and one Pakistani citizen died.
While the country has experienced a dramatic surge in violence during the last year, the latest series of attacks, their targets, and the audacity with which they were carried out could signal a new chapter in Pakistan’s fight against armed groups, say analysts.
The last three attacks, coming so quickly in succession, appear to target Chinese interests in Pakistan. First, armed fighters attacked Pakistan’s Gwadar port in Balochistan, which was built with Chinese help. Then, an armed group attacked one of Pakistan’s largest naval bases, also in Balochistan, citing Chinese investment in the region as their motivation. And finally, fighters targeted Chinese engineers working on a Chinese-funded hydropower project in the country’s north, near Besham city.
That pattern has prompted concerns within Pakistan’s security establishment, which believes that attacks on the Chinese in Pakistan is part of a “larger plan” to hurt the economic interests of the country, as well as sabotage ties between the countries, said Iftikhar Firdous, a security analyst and researcher on armed groups.
China is one of Pakistan’s closest allies and has invested $62bn in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor CPEC, an infrastructure project that spans a series of highways linking southwestern China to Gwadar port on the Arabian Sea.
The attack on Chinese workers triggered a sharp response from Beijing. “China asks Pakistan to thoroughly investigate the incident as soon as possible, hunt down the perpetrators and bring them to justice. Meanwhile, we ask Pakistan to take effective measures to protect the safety and security of Chinese nationals, institutions, and projects in Pakistan,” its Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on March 27.
In response, the Pakistani government said it would bring “terrorists, and their facilitators and abettors to justice”, and announced the formation of an investigation team to further examine the attacks. Pakistan and China are close friends and iron brothers. We have no doubt that the Besham terror attack was orchestrated by the enemies of Pakistan-China friendship. Together, we will resolutely act against all such forces and defeat them the Foreign Ministry said in a statement issued a day later.
Chinese interests have also been attacked repeatedly in the past. Two gunmen targeted a convoy of 23 Chinese engineers in Gwadar in August last year, but their attack was foiled by security officials.
But what differentiates the two attacks is that while incidents in Balochistan were readily claimed by rebel secessionist groups, the attack in the north was not claimed by any group.The attacks in Balochistan were claimed by the military wing of the Balochistan Liberation Army BLA, one of the many hardline armed groups seeking to secede from Pakistan.
Balochistan is the country’s largest province by area but also its poorest, despite being rich in natural resources, including oil, coal, gold, copper and gas reserves. This has bred accusations from many in Balochistan that successive Pakistani governments have neglected their concerns while exploiting the province and benefitting “foreigners”. The province has witnessed at least five rebellion movements since the formation of Pakistan in 1947. The government has been accused of initiating a violent crackdown and allegedly killing and disappearing thousands of ethnic Baloch who are suspected of either being rebels or supporting the rebellion.
However, the significant increase in violent incidents in the country in the past two years has coincided with the return of the Afghan Taliban to power in August 2021. In 2023, more than 650 attacks killed nearly 1,000 people, mostly those associated with the security forces.
The groups carrying out attacks include the regional affiliate of the Islamic State, called the Islamic State in Khorasan Province, ISKP ISIS-K and other, more obscure organisations such as Tehreek-e-Jihad Pakistan TJP among others.
The biggest challenge to the the Pakistani state, however, has come from the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan TTP, an armed group formed in 2007 which has targeted civilians as well as law enforcement personnel, resulting in thousands of deaths. (al Jazeera)…[+]