内容摘要：Petrona licks her lips in front of her meat-flavored cake during her third birthday celebration at a park in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Sunday, April 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

Petrona licks her lips in front of her meat-flavored cake during her third birthday celebration at a park in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Sunday, April 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

“It’s essentially engineered scarcity,” Jonathan Whittall, interim head in Gaza of the U.N. humanitarian office, said last week.after Israel slightly eased its nearly three-month blockade of the territory last month. The groups say Israeli restrictions, the breakdown of law and order and widespread looting make it extremely difficult to deliver aid to Gaza’s roughly 2 million Palestinians.

Experts have warned that the territoryif more aid is not brought in.The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251. They are still holding 58 hostages, around a third believed to be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals.

Israel’s military campaign has killed over 54,000 people in Hamas-run Gaza, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many of the dead were civilians or combatants. The offensive has destroyed vast areas, displaced around 90% of the population and left people almost completely reliant on international aid.appeared to stumble Saturday when Hamas said it had sought amendments to a U.S. ceasefire proposal that Israel had approved, and the U.S. envoy called that “unacceptable.”

Mediators Qatar and Egypt in a joint statement Sunday said they continued “intensive efforts to bridge the gaps in viewpoints” and hoped for “a swift agreement for a temporary ceasefire lasting 60 days, leading to a permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.”

Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writer Tia Goldenberg in Tel Aviv, Israel, contributed to this report.Solutions abroad can be translated to the U.S., experts believe. For example, many European countries make it easier to get prenatal and postpartum care that involves both doctors and non-physicians like midwives, said Dr. Laurie Zephyrin, a senior vice president at the nonprofit Commonwealth Fund who studies maternal care across nations.

Marie Jean Denis, left, is examined by Jennie Joseph, lead midwife and clinic director at the Commonsense Childbirth clinic. (AP Photo/John Raoux)Marie Jean Denis, left, is examined by Jennie Joseph, lead midwife and clinic director at the Commonsense Childbirth clinic. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

Joseph’s organization — called Commonsense Childbirth — is a smaller-scale example of that type of care.It has clinics, a birthing center and training for health professionals. The midwives who run the program welcome vulnerable patients that other practices turn away, such as those who are uninsured or haven’t had prenatal care until late in pregnancy.