Health Secretary Becerra talks about launch of Medicare drug negotiations

February 1, 2024 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Prescription drug prices have long been a back-and-forth issue between insurers and pharmaceutical companies.

Those who aren’t covered by insurance are usually left with a high bill for much-needed medicines.

The Biden administration has pushed a solution through the Inflation Reduction Act and gave Medicare the power to negotiate prescription drug prices directly with drug companies.

ABC News’ “Start Here” spoke with United States Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra about the negotiations, which started Thursday.

START HERE: Secretary Becerra, thanks for being with us. How is this about to work?

HHS SEC. XAVIER BECERRA: Brad, you hit it right on the money. It’s incredible to believe that for 65 million Americans, we could not try to get the best price. It’s one of those, take it or leave it. The drug company sets the price. And lo and behold, Americans today pay two or three times more than they probably should for those prescription drugs that folks around the world are paying so much less for. So it is now time. And the Inflation Reduction Act, as you said, now gives us a chance.

The president fought for that law and now we’re going to start negotiations. We have submitted our offer to the nine companies that have the 10 drugs that are the first to be negotiated, and we’ll have an out now have a chance to have a back and forth and negotiations.

START HERE: What types of drugs are we talking about?

BECERRA: These are drugs that cover cancer, diabetes, [and] heart disease. [They are] the types of chronic conditions that you and I know that affect so many Americans and cost us so much. These drugs, these 10 drugs alone cost us, the federal government, [and] taxpayers $46 billion in 2022, and they cost folks on Medicare, who are the ones that are getting the drugs, about $3.5 billion out of their own pocket.

START HERE: And these are, like you said, like the 10 most-used drugs in the Medicare system. What is the timeline for how this actually plays out? You guys start talking today. You said you submit your offers today; then what happens?

BECERRA: So the companies have about a month to give us a counteroffer. We then engage them as well and respond to what they’ve said. But by August 1, we have to finish the negotiations and have a price, a negotiated price. That price will then take effect the beginning of January 2026.

START HERE: You mentioned how expensive our drugs are compared to other countries; two and three times higher. Why is that? Is it just because the government can’t negotiate via Medicare, that’s the reason?

BECERRA: Well, I think of it this way. You go into a car dealership to buy a car. Do you pay the price you see on the sticker? Right? Of course, you don’t. You go in there saying, “That sticker price. I know you paid a lot less. Hey. And I also read Consumer Reports. I know that [it] really only costs you this much. And I know that the actual manufacturer gave you, the dealer, a further discount the more you sell, etc., etc. So this is the price I’ll offer you.” Then of course they go into that back room and they come back, and then they offer you a different price and you haggle back and forth until you get a price that you’re willing to live with. And if you say, “I don’t like the price, I’m going to go to the dealer down, down the street.” You try to get the best bargain you can. We could not do that. By law, we were restricted. Now we can do it. That’s why we think we’re going to drive the prices down.

START HERE: By the way, in any real negotiation, like the one you just mentioned, you have to be willing to get up and walk away, right? Is that, is that the case with drugs, though? I mean, is there a chance that there’s going to be a drug no longer covered by Medicare because you guys couldn’t agree on a price?

BECERRA: Well, see, that’s the interesting part. Up until the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, we didn’t have a choice. We had to accept the price that those manufacturers put on the drug, or we wouldn’t have access to it for the millions of Americans who get Medicare. And so now we have a chance to try to negotiate, to get the best price. And by the way, the drug companies aren’t forced to negotiate. They have a choice.

If they want to participate in the Medicare program, they get to continue to sell the drug to anyone they’d like. But if they want to do it through the Medicare program, they have to engage in negotiations with us now on these ten drugs.

START HERE: No, I get it. But say they’re like, it’s this much. And you guys are like, “Well, we’re not paying that.” Is there a chance drugs stop getting covered because you guys didn’t get the deal you wanted?

BECERRA: Well, we believe that by engaging in good faith upfront, negotiations will settle on a good price.

START HERE: Who saves money at the end of all this? This is not the average consumer, right? I’m not on Medicare. Uncle Sam’s not going to negotiate on my behalf. I assume Medicare folks would pay the same amount, maybe out of pocket. They don’t see a sticker price difference. So who actually saves money? Is it taxpayers writ large or something?

BECERRA: So, directly, folks who are on Medicare will benefit by Medicare being able to negotiate for the best fair price, on these drugs. The lower the price is, the more that the Medicare program and many Medicare beneficiaries spend. When the Medicare program saves money, taxpayers save money because taxpayers help cover the cost of the Medicare program for Medicare beneficiaries.

And so at the end of the day, all Americans will benefit by having lower cost on drugs under Medicare. But remember what happened with insulin, which was part of the Inflation Reduction Act, efforts. It has now been lowered to $35 at most per month for the insulin that a Medicare beneficiary needs. It could have been three or four times that amount before Jan. 1 of this year.

Now that the law has kicked in, it’s only $35 a month. But guess what? The manufacturers of insulin have also now moved to reduce the price of insulin for people who aren’t on Medicare, for whom the law didn’t reach.

START HERE: Oh so it changes the ecosystem kind of changes the expectation?

BECERRA: That’s right, that’s right.

START HERE: When do you see that happening? When would the average American actually see a difference? If you think.

BECERRA: Well, they’re already beginning to see the difference right now on insulin. While the price on these drugs that we’re negotiating now won’t actually take effect until the beginning of 2026, everyone will see what happens as of August of this year. And so we’ll see what goes on, but negotiation competition that’s as American as apple pie. And who would be against you trying to negotiate for the best price for your vehicle that you’re going to buy from that dealer?

START HERE: Who would argue with that? Maybe the pharma companies, right? They have said that this will hurt their chances to be competitive. They said it could hurt them having medical breakthroughs. They’ve sued the Biden administration to say that this is unconstitutional. You’ve got GOP, you got Republicans saying that this should not be the way the U.S. does business. What’s your response to that?

BECERRA: You know, I used to be the attorney general of California. I’d say that the fact that I’m being sued probably means I’m doing something right.

START HERE: So you don’t think it’s unconstitutional, though?

BECERRA: Oh, not at all. No, no, no, We see negotiations occurring in the federal government already. The Veterans Administration negotiates drug prices already. Indian Health Services, which is under the Department of Health and Human Services and provides direct care and also purchases drugs, goes through the same process of negotiating for prices. This is not new.

START HERE: And you don’t think that hurts the ability to innovate and be competitive and create the next new huge cancer drug that could affect millions of lives, that this doesn’t actually hinder companies from doing that.

BECERRA: Think of it this way: If we’re now negotiating to get the best price, there will be companies who know they’ll be able to compete with some of the brand-name pharma companies who are able to somehow muscle everyone out of the market. The more competition, the more innovation. The more innovation, the better the price for everyone.

Joshua Schulte, largest leaker of CIA material in history, sentenced to 40 years in prison

February 1, 2024 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Joshua Schulte, who was convicted of orchestrating the largest leak of classified material in CIA history, was sentenced to 40 years in prison Thursday.

Schulte, 35, handed WikiLeaks a trove of CIA cyber espionage tools known as Vault 7, in what federal prosecutors called “some of the most heinous, brazen violations of the Espionage Act in American history.”

On March 7, 2017, WikiLeaks began publishing classified data from the stolen CIA files, the first of 26 disclosures.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

School staffers win $1 million Powerball prize after playing same numbers for years

February 1, 2024 by WDNY Radio

(FLORENCE, Ky.) — A group of current and former staffers at Rector A. Jones Middle School in Florence, Kentucky, are celebrating this week after they played the Kentucky Powerball and won $1 million.

The group calls themselves the “Jones 30” and among them are Sharon Reynolds, Jones’ 7th-grade vice principal, and Michelle Cravens, a 7th-grade guidance counselor.

“Every person that won has walked the halls of Jones at some point in their career. Thirteen of us are still here and 17 of us are in other schools, other districts, or retired,” Reynolds explained to “Good Morning America.”

Cravens said she’s been playing the lottery with her fellow educators for the last couple of years.

“One of our [retired] math teachers was on and off playing the lottery and people would jump in and play with her and then she got it a little bit better organized and she had a group of 30 people that we all put money in,” Cravens told “GMA.” “She’s just been keeping that going for the last two, three years and she’s played the same numbers every week.”

The winning numbers were 7-38-65-66-68.

As for the winning numbers, Reynolds said “three of them were in the 60s” and then she said they “missed the Powerball by like, five digits,” but they plan on playing the lottery again and just might play with the same numbers.

Reynolds and Cravens said they were both very surprised to find out their group lottery ticket was a winner.

“Every week, she sends us a picture of our ticket in a group chat thread so we all see the ticket and know that it’s purchased before the drawing so we know it’s our ticket. And she goes, ‘I think we’ve won,’ and I was like, ‘There’s no way. You’re just messing with me because my birthday is tomorrow,'” Reynolds recalled. “And she goes, ‘No, I really think we won. I need you to double check the numbers.'”

Reynolds double-checked and then after several others learned the numbers matched up, a caravan of the Jones 30 group traveled together Tuesday evening, after school let out, to collect their winnings.

Now that they’ve won big, Cravens said she’s happy to see Jones Middle School get its turn in the spotlight.

“We have a very special population of students here,” the counselor said. “We just want everybody to know that we’re here. … I’m very happy that the world is getting to know Jones Middle School and getting to know our students and that they are getting the exposure that they deserve.”

After they divided the $1 million equally, each member of the Jones 30 received about $33,333, which after taxes, totaled about $24,000.

Cravens said she plans on paying off some debt but that some of her winnings also went to an unexpected expense that recently came up for her.

“I’ve got two small kids and we’ve got a little farm and I just randomly had a pigeon. We have a pet pigeon who had to have emergency surgery so it’s really nice because it paid for all of that,” Cravens said. “The rest of it is just going to clear a lot of my debt and just give me some room to breathe.”

With her winnings, Reynolds said she plans on giving a helping hand to each of her three daughters, one who can benefit from new car tires, another who is getting married, and a third who is currently renovating their home.

“I grew up very poor so to me, this $24,000 is a lot of money,” she said.

Crypto exchange Binance sued by Hamas hostages, Oct. 7 victims’ families for allegedly ‘facilitating terrorism’

February 1, 2024 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — An American woman freed after being held hostage in Gaza and the families of two men killed in the Oct. 7 attack in Israel sued Binance, the leading cryptocurrency exchange, which they accused of providing a funding mechanism for Hamas.

The lawsuit, filed in Manhattan federal court Thursday, also named Iran and Syria and is the first of what could be a torrent of lawsuits over the Hamas attack against Israel that left at least 1,200 Israelis dead, according to Israeli officials.

Among the plaintiffs are members of the Raanan family. Judith Raanan and her daughter, Natalie, were kidnapped and held in Gaza before they were freed in a prisoner exchange in October. Other plaintiffs include the family and estate of Itay Glisko, the 20-year-old New Jersey native and IDF sergeant killed in action during the attack by Hamas.

The lawsuit accused Binance of processing numerous transactions for Hamas between 2017 and 2023, “providing a clandestine financing tool that Binance deliberately hid from U.S. regulators.”

Binance did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.

The company and its former CEO Chengpeng Zhao pled guilty last year to violations of U.S. anti-money laundering laws while agreeing to pay more than $4 billion in fines.

The violations included processing and failing to report “transactions with cryptocurrency wallets that Binance senior executives had knowledge were linked to terrorist groups such as Hamas or Palestine Islamic Jihad,” according to a Department of Justice filing.

Zhao agreed to resign as part of his plea deal and will be sentenced in February where he faces up to 18 months in prison. The company also agreed to enter in a number of anti-money laundering and sanctions compliance programs and retain an independent monitor for the next three years.

“For years, Binance remained willfully blind to the use of its platform by illicit actors, including terrorists, by failing to do any due diligence on the vast majority of its users prior to August 2021,” the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit added, “Incredibly, Binance went out of its way to protect users associated with Hamas and other terrorist groups from regulatory scrutiny, especially if they were ‘VIP users who generated huge profits for Binance.”

The lawsuit, modeled on suits that emerged after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, accused Binance of aiding terror organizations, providing material support to terrorists and sought unspecified damages.

“This needs to be done. These crypto funds are turning a blind eye to all of this illegal activity and now it’s actually facilitating terrorism,” said plaintiff’s attorney Rob Seiden. “We’re doing this to send a message to these crypto institutions: you can’t do this stuff. You have to be more vigilant.”

More than 100 hostages are thought to still be detained in Gaza, according to Israeli officials. Israel’s military response to the Oct. 7 attack has killed at least 27,019 people in the Gaza Strip, according to Gaza’s Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health.

Jennifer Crumbley takes the stand in manslaughter trial tied to son’s school shooting

February 1, 2024 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Jennifer Crumbley, the mother of Michigan school shooter Ethan Crumbley, testified she and her husband often argued with their son about missing school assignments and said her husband struggled to keep a job as her manslaughter trial continued Thursday with her taking the stand in her own defense.

Jennifer Crumbley and her husband, James Crumbley, are each facing four counts of involuntary manslaughter in connection with the school shooting, which was carried out by their then-15-year-old son Ethan. James Crumbley is being tried in a separate trial in March.

Ethan Crumbley has been sentenced to life in prison without parole for killing four students and injuring seven others in November 2021.

One day after Brian Meloche, the man with whom Jennifer was having an affair, took the stand, she admitted to the relationship in her own testimony.

She told the jury that Meloche was a long-time friend who was also a part of the horse community; Jennifer was a regular rider, with her texts to her husband from the horse farm featuring earlier in testimony. She said she saw Meloche an average of once a week and the affair lasted about six months.

Jennifer Crumbley testified that she believes the affair did not cause her to neglect her son in any way, saying the two met in the mornings while her son was at school.

She testified Thursday that she cared about her job and said she enjoyed her work.

Earlier, prosecutors and her defense attorney, Shannon Smith, clashed over admitting evidence Smith previously sought to suppress.

The two sides were at odds over admitting excepts from Ethan Crumbley’s journal, including information about him torturing birds.

The evidence was presented during testimony from Oakland County Sheriff’s Detective Lt. Timothy Willis about what police found in Crumbley’s backpack after the shooting. The journal was found in his backpack, along with roughly 90 loose papers with school assignments, 50 of which the shooter had drawn guns on.

Willis testified there were 22 pages of written information in the journal, all of which referenced a school shooting.

Ethan Crumbley wrote in an entry apparently from before the shooting that he planned to shoot up his school the next day.

“I want to shoot up the school so f—— badly,” one of the excerpts said. “Soon I am going to buy a 9 mm pistol.”

“I’m about to shoot up the school and spend the rest of my life in prison,” the shooter wrote in another excerpt.

In other excerpts, the shooter appeared to be writing about wanting help.

“I want help but my parents don’t listen to me so I can’t get any help,” the shooter wrote.

Police also had concerns on the day of the shooting that there were secondary devices or bombs at other locations around the school, Willis testified.

Washington state experiencing first known outbreak of potentially deadly fungus: Health officials

February 1, 2024 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Washington state is experiencing its first known outbreak of a potentially deadly fungus, according to public health officials.

Four patients in the last month have tested positive for Candida auris, or C. auris, Public Health – Seattle & King County said in a release.

The first case occurred in a patient who had recently been admitted to Kindred Hospital Seattle, which was identified through a proactive screening program.

Additional screenings found two new cases, as well as a case with links to Kindred, who had originally tested negative for C. auris when first admitted, the health department said.

It’s currently unclear what the initial source of the infection is and officials said the investigation is ongoing.

A case of C. auris was identified in July in a patient who was transferred to Kindred from St. Joseph’s Hospital in Pierce County. It’s believed to be the first locally acquired case in Washington state, according to the department.

Health officials said they have been working with the hospital for many months “with the expectation that C. auris would eventually be found in Washington State.”

“Public Health continues to work together with Kindred to help limit spread,” the release said. “This includes keeping patients who test positive for C. auris away from other patients to reduce risk of spread and using specific disinfecting cleaning products effective for C. auris.”

The health department said the hospital is also notifying facilities that received Kindred patients and advising that they screen for the fungus.

Kindred did not immediately reply to ABC News’ request for comment.

C. auris Is a type of yeast that can lead to serious illnesses and spreads easily among patients in health care facilities, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

It’s a relatively new type of fungus, first identified in Japan in 2009, according to the CDC. However, studies conducted since then have found samples of C. auris can be dated back to South Korea in 1996.

C. auris can spread either from person-to-person transmission or by people coming into contact with contaminated surfaces.

Most healthy people do not need to worry about C. auris infections, according to the CDC.

However, those with weakened immune systems or who are immunocompromised, are at risk of hard-to-treat infections as well as elderly patients or hospital patients who have had lines or tubes in their body.

There are strains of C. auris that are drug-resistant, meaning infections caused by the yeast will not respond to multiple antifungal drugs commonly used to treat Candida infections.

Despite this, there is a class of antifungal drugs called echinocandins that can be used and are given intravenously. Echinocandins prevent a key enzyme needed to maintain the cell wall of the fungus, according to the National Institutes of Health. In some cases, multiple high doses may be required, according to the CDC.

More than one in three patients with invasive C. auris infection, meaning it affects the blood, heart, or brain, die, according to the CDC.

To prevent spread, the CDC recommends family members and close contacts of C. auris patients properly sanitize their hands. Health care personnel and laboratory staff are reminded to do the same as well as disinfect a patient room and report cases quickly to public health departments.

Suspects sought after 11-year-old injured in shooting attack by three assailants in Atlanta

February 1, 2024 by WDNY Radio

(ATLANTA) — Police in Atlanta said they are searching for three suspects who chased down and opened fire on an 11-year-old boy, injuring him.

Atlanta police released surveillance footage on Wednesday that captured the incident while asking for the public’s help in identifying the three male suspects.

The incident occurred on Jan. 14. Officers responded to a report of a person shot around 6:18 p.m. local time, Atlanta police said.

Surveillance footage showed the victim running from the three suspects and then hiding near a laundromat. The assailants found him and all three discharged firearms, striking the victim twice, police said. The victim was struck in the left foot and left fibula, according to the police incident report.

The officers found a dozen shell casings at the scene and a pair of sneakers, according to the incident report.

The victim’s family told police that he made it back to his nearby home after the shooting and “fell down,” the report stated. He was transported to an area hospital via an ambulance, police said.

The victim has since been released from the hospital, his mother told Atlanta ABC affiliate WSB-TV.

Two suspects were seen in the surveillance footage wearing all black, while a third was wearing white shoes, black pants and a gray or white hoodie with a black jacket, police said.

The incident remains under investigation. No additional information is being released at this time, a police spokesperson told ABC News.

Police are offering a reward of up to $2,000 for information on the case.

Israel-Gaza live updates: Executive order targets four Israeli settlers involved in attacks on Palestinians in West Bank

February 1, 2024 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — More than 100 days since Hamas terrorists invaded Israel on Oct. 7, the Israeli military continues its bombardment of the neighboring Gaza Strip.

The conflict, now the deadliest between the warring sides since Israel’s founding in 1948, shows no signs of letting up soon and the brief cease-fire that allowed for over 100 hostages to be freed from Gaza remains a distant memory.

Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:

Feb 01, 1:26 PM
Some Gazans say they’re forced to use bird feed in place of flour

The possibility of a “full-fledged famine” looms large across the entire Gaza Strip, humanitarian groups have warned — especially in northern Gaza, where some people there say they’re using bird feed in place of flour to stave off starvation.

Northern Gaza has been largely cut off for months now, according to the United Nations, and aid trucks carrying flour arrive sporadically and are swarmed by hundreds of hungry people.

United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East officials also say Israel provides too few authorizations to make deliveries into some areas and that heavy fighting often makes it too dangerous for aid workers to operate. The aid arriving in northern Gaza has been particularly restricted, the U.N. says. Israel disputes the criticisms.

“For more than two months, we have not received flour due to the difficulty of aid entering and the scarcity of flour in the area,” Sami Abu Sweilem, a 55-year-old father who is sheltering in a UNRWA school in northern Gaza, told ABC News.

“Children almost died of hunger, so we thought of a way to save our children from death,” he said, explaining how he’s been using bird feed and animal fodder in place of precious flour.

Feb 01, 12:00 PM
Executive order targets four Israeli settlers involved in attacks on Palestinians in West Bank

President Joe Biden is expected to sign an executive order Thursday to sanction four Israeli settlers involved in attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank, according to the State Department. The sanctions will prohibit them from accessing the U.S. financial system and property in the U.S. and will block them from receiving financial transactions from U.S. citizens.

The move escalates U.S. posture against the hardline elements in Israeli society amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. In December, the U.S. imposed a visa ban on Israelis linked to violence and unrest in the West Bank that impacted “dozens” of settlers in the Israeli-occupied territory, according to the State Department.

Feb 01, 11:05 AM
Biden to sign executive order targeting Israeli settlers involved in attacks on Palestinians

President Joe Biden is expected to sign an executive order to sanction Israeli settlers involved in attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank, two sources familiar with the plans confirmed to ABC News. The news was first reported by Axios.

The move would escalate U.S. posture against the hardline elements in Israeli society amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

It was not immediately clear how many Israelis would be targeted by the administration’s actions. In December, the U.S. imposed a visa ban on Israelis linked to violence and unrest in the West Bank that impacted “dozens” of settlers in the Israeli-occupied territory, according to the State Department.

Feb 01, 7:40 AM
UNRWA warns operations will be shut down by end of February without funding

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East warned Thursday that it “will most likely be forced to shut down” its operations in the war-torn Gaza Strip and the wider region “by the end of February” if funding does not resume.

Sixteen donor countries, including the United States, have suspended financial support to the U.N. agency over Israel’s allegations that 13 UNRWA staff members were involved in the Hamas-led Oct. 7 terror attack. UNRWA said it is investigating the accusations and that “full accountability and transparency are expected out of this process, should the allegations be substantiated.”

“As the war in Gaza is being pursued unabated, and at the time the International Court of Justice calls for more humanitarian assistance, it is the time to reinforce and not to weaken UNRWA. The Agency remains the largest aid organization in one of the most severe and complex humanitarian crises in the world,” UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said in a statement Thursday. “I echo the call of the U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres to resume funding to UNRWA. If the funding remains suspended, we will most likely be forced to shut down our operations by end of February not only in Gaza but also across the region.”

Feb 01, 6:21 AM
What we know about the conflict

The latest outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that governs the Gaza Strip, has reached the three-month mark.

In the Gaza Strip, at least 27,019 people have been killed and 66,139 others have been wounded by Israeli forces since Oct. 7, according to Gaza’s Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health.

In Israel, at least 1,200 people have been killed and 6,900 others have been injured by Hamas and other Palestinian militants since Oct. 7, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

There has also been a surge in violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Israeli forces have killed at least 297 people in the territory since Oct. 7, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

The ongoing war began after Hamas-led militants launched an unprecedented incursion into southern Israel from neighboring Gaza via land, sea and air. Scores of people were killed while more than 200 others were taken hostage, according to Israeli authorities. The Israeli military subsequently launched retaliatory airstrikes followed by a ground invasion of Gaza, a 140-square-mile territory where more than two million Palestinians have lived under a blockade imposed by Israel and supported by Egypt since Hamas came to power in 2007. Gaza, unlike Israel, has no air raid sirens or bomb shelters.

Some Gazans say they’re forced to use bird feed in place of flour

February 1, 2024 by WDNY Radio

(LONDON) — The possibility of a “full-fledged famine” looms large across the entire Gaza Strip amid the Israel-Hamas war, humanitarian groups have warned — but especially in northern Gaza, where some people there say they’re using bird feed in place of flour to stave off starvation.

Northern Gaza has been largely cut off for months now, according to the United Nations, and aid trucks carrying flour arrive sporadically and are swarmed by hundreds of hungry people.

United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) officials also say Israel provides too few authorizations to make deliveries into some areas and that heavy fighting often makes it too dangerous for aid workers to operate. The aid arriving in northern Gaza has been particularly restricted, the U.N. says. Israel disputes the criticisms.

“Children almost died of hunger, so we thought of a way to save our children from death,” he said, explaining how he’s been using bird feed and animal fodder in place of precious flour.

“I saw one of the displaced people in an area neighboring us with a bag of corn from a store and he told me that he wanted to grind it to make bread. I thought it was a good idea and we tried it,” Abu Sweilem said.

Soon others followed suit, he said, and now it’s even difficult to find animal feed to grind.

Almost all Gazans are now reliant on food aid for sustenance, according to the United Nations. The World Food Programme estimates that 26% of the population in Gaza is now facing starvation. Roughly two-thirds of Gazans relied on food aid before the start of the war, the WFP has said.

“If things continue as they are, or if things worsen, we are looking at a full-fledged famine within the next six months,” Arif Husain, the chief economist for the WFP, told ABC News.

“We were searching for flour and constantly waiting for aid,” Salwa Diab told ABC News on the phone from her refuge at the Gaza Training College in Gaza City. But when the aid never came, she said she was forced to turn her bird feed into bread.

“When I made this bread for the first time, my children thought it was like a normal loaf of bread. They were very happy with it and ate it and were forced to accept its taste,” she said, adding: “When the bread is cold, it becomes so bad that we cannot eat it, unfortunately, but when the children are hungry, they are forced to eat it in order to silence their hunger. For more than a month, I have been making this bread when we have available fodder.”

“The aid that comes very rarely, we know about it through the news,” 42-year-old Khaled Nabhan told ABC News in a phone call from Gaza City.

“People come out onto the streets, either on the coast road or Salah al-Din Street, waiting for the aid to enter,” he said, estimating that the crowds can reach the thousands and adding that people have been injured due to stampeding and gunfire.

“The question now is, when these fodders run out, how will we get flour,” Nabhan asked. “This war has been a quest to escape death, either from bombing or from hunger,” he added.

Israeli officials, who control the routes into Gaza, say they send 200 trucks of food and aid a day into the Gaza Strip. Before the war, 500 trucks were being sent to Gaza, according to UNRWA.

Israeli officials denied accusations they’re not letting enough food into Gaza and blamed the Hamas terrorist group for stealing aid. They said they conduct necessary inspections on the trucks, and also blamed the U.N. and other aid agencies for creating logistical bottlenecks.

The U.N. has disputed the Israeli officials’ claims, saying, on average, far less than 200 trucks are entering Gaza most days. U.N. officials have said excessive Israeli inspections, as well as arbitrary rejections of some aid, frequently hold up deliveries.

“We are getting the average of trucks near 80, 80 trucks per day,” UNRWA spokesman Adnan Abu Hasna told ABC News.

UNRWA has come under fire over the last week, as a dossier from the Israeli military recently revealed new allegations against some UNRWA employees who are accused of being involved in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel. The report obtained by ABC News alleges that 13 UNRWA employees participated in the Oct. 7 attack, including six employees who allegedly infiltrated Israel.

The U.N. condemned the alleged actions and said nine of those workers were fired. Two of the accused workers are reportedly dead and one has not immediately been identified, the U.N. said.

Not long after the allegations were announced Friday, several nations and other organizations, including the U.S. State Department, announced they would pause funding to UNRWA as the investigation continues.

On Monday, a coalition of 20 nongovernmental organizations, including Save the Children, sent out a letter condemning the funding pause, saying innocent Gazans will be left to suffer without aid from UNRWA.

“We are shocked by the reckless decision to cut a lifeline for an entire population by some of the very countries that had called for aid in Gaza to be stepped up and for humanitarians to be protected while doing their job,” the statement read.

UNRWA, which is the primary aid provider in Gaza and shelters about 1.4 million people, has warned that the funding suspension could impact its operations within weeks.

“If funding remains suspended, we will most likely be forced to shut down our operations by end of February,” UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini wrote Thursday on X, formerly known as Twitter.

More than 27,000 people have been killed in Gaza and over 65,000 others injured since Oct. 7, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry. Since then, in Israel, at least 1,200 people have been killed and 6,900 others injured, according to the Israeli prime minister’s office. Israeli officials say 556 Israel Defense Forces soldiers have been killed, including 221 since the ground operations in Gaza began.

Israel-Gaza live updates: UNRWA warns operations will shut down without funding

February 1, 2024 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — More than 100 days since Hamas terrorists invaded Israel on Oct. 7, the Israeli military continues its bombardment of the neighboring Gaza Strip.

Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:

Feb 01, 12:00 PM
Executive order targets four Israeli settlers involved in attacks on Palestinians in West Bank

Feb 01, 11:05 AM
Biden to sign executive order targeting Israeli settlers involved in attacks on Palestinians

The move would escalate U.S. posture against the hardline elements in Israeli society amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Feb 01, 7:40 AM
UNRWA warns operations will be shut down by end of February without funding

Feb 01, 6:21 AM
What we know about the conflict

The latest outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that governs the Gaza Strip, has reached the three-month mark.

In the Gaza Strip, at least 27,019 people have been killed and 66,139 others have been wounded by Israeli forces since Oct. 7, according to Gaza’s Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health.

In Israel, at least 1,200 people have been killed and 6,900 others have been injured by Hamas and other Palestinian militants since Oct. 7, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

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