Gaza Food Distribution Chaos, New COVID-19 Vaccine Guidelines, Children Of ISIS

0:02Israeli 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.

0:45The older the children get, the more likely that they're going to buy into the ideology there. Stay with us. We've got the news you need to start your day.

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1:44This time, his most recent expose puts him head to head with a powerful family that rules Tulsa, meaning only one thing. He must be on to something big. FX's The Lowdown. All new Tuesdays on FX. Stream on Hulu. This message comes from Schwab. Everyone has moments when they could have done better, like cutting their own hair or forgetting sunscreen, so now you look like a tomato. Same goes for where you invest. Level up and invest smarter with Schwab. Get market insights, education, and human help when you need it. Learn more at schwab.com. Today marks the 600th day of Israel's war in Gaza in response to the October 7th attack.

2:27In 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 Batraou in Dubai. Hello, Aya. Thanks for joining us once again. Thanks, Michelle.

3:00Could 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. is that thousands of hungry people overran one of these fenced-in areas where American contractors were standing guard to distribute boxes of food.

3:34Witnesses 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.

4:06Israel 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.

4:27He 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. And what's Israel saying about all this? Well, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended the system. He says it's working. Very hard for Hamas to steal it, especially because we guard these positions.

4:58Well, we tried the first one. We're going to put many today. There was some loss of control momentarily. Happily, we brought it back under control. We're going to put many more of these. But one thing to note, too, Michelle, is that he says the aim is not just to keep aid from Hamas, but to push the entire population south. And Israel says from there, people can be relocated out of Gaza. And so what do we know about the situation now? Are people getting food? Most people in Gaza are living off just one meal a day. It's mostly just lentil soup. Aid groups are being blocked by Israel from bringing aid in at scale.

5:30And these aid organizations like the U.N. and others are refusing to take part in this new plan, saying it's politicizing aid. The Trump administration, though, says it supports the plan and says the UN and other aid groups are wrong to criticize it. They say 8000 boxes of food were distributed yesterday, although it's unclear how much of that was actually just taken in the mayhem. You know, each box feeds around five to six people for just three and a half days. But again, people have to walk for miles south to get this food. No food also has reached Gaza City. None of these distribution sites are in the north.

5:58And so, you know, you have several trucks of food just yesterday night carrying food intended for Gaza City for the first time in months taken by hungry crowds in central Gaza right off the trucks. That is NPR's Aya Batrawa. Aya, thank you. Thank you, Michelle.

6:22The federal government is no longer recommending that healthy pregnant women and healthy children routinely get vaccinated against COVID-19. Federal health officials say this change makes sense at this point in the pandemic. Independent experts have a different view. NPR health correspondent Rob Stein is with us now with the details. Good morning, Rob. Good morning, Michelle. So this seems to represent a big change. Do we have any more details about this? Yes, that's a huge change. But no, we don't have a lot of details, unfortunately. That's because all we know is what federal officials said during a 58-second video the Department of Health and Human Services posted on X.

6:58Here's HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in that video. I couldn't be more pleased to announce that as of today, the COVID vaccine for healthy children and healthy pregnant women has been removed from the CDC recommended immunization schedule. He was flanked in that video by Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Martin McCary and National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya, who basically both seconded Kennedy's decision without much explanation. And federal officials didn't answer any specific questions from NPR or a request for follow-up interviews. So to this point, they didn't explain the decision at all?

7:38Well, Kennedy says that there was no evidence that repeated boosters help healthy kids, kids with no risk factors. And FDA Commissioner McCary agreed. Here's what he said. There's no evidence healthy kids need it today. And most countries have stopped recommending it for children. And, you know, while that might be true, in this country, this change still is raising a lot of concerns among independent experts. OK, well, say more about that if you would. What are those concerns? Well, one big one is that the decision appears to have been made without going through the normal process of getting input from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's independent advisors.

8:16They've been mulling over this very question and are scheduled to meet next month to review all the evidence and make recommendations about this. And beyond that, outside experts are worried what this means for the health and safety of pregnant people, kids, and their families. Okay, so let me ask you about that. Do healthy pregnant women and kids still need regular COVID boosters, and what if they want them? Well, one big question is, will insurance companies still pay for the shots, and will people be able to afford it if they don't? Because if the vaccines aren't recommended, insurance companies may very well not pay for them.

8:49You know, most healthy older kids are at low risk for serious complications from COVID, and most parents haven't been getting their kids vaccinated, But some parents still want to immunize their kids, you know, to protect them against even mild disease and long COVID and from bringing the virus home to vulnerable family members like, you know, grandma and grandpa. And pregnant women are at very high risk of serious complications from the virus. And that's not all. Their newborn babies are in great danger of getting really sick from COVID. And they're too young to get the shots themselves. The only way to protect them is to vaccinate their moms while they're pregnant so the babies can get antibodies in the womb.

9:28I talked about this with Dr. Naima Joseph from the Boston Medical Center. She advises the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. You know, it really preys upon pregnant people because they're just trying to make the best decisions for themselves, for their babies, for their families. And, you know, she says this puts pregnant people in a really sticky situation. That is NPR health correspondent Rob Stein. Rob, thank you. You bet, Michelle. Nice to be here.

10:00There is a new government in Syria, but it is facing an old problem. Ever since ISIS collapsed in Syria, tens of thousands of relatives of those ISIS fighters have been held in huge desert camps. They're mostly children. The United States wants to reduce the population of the camps and get those kids out. Sasha Pfeiffer of NPR's investigations team has met two young boys who recently left the camps. And she's with us now to tell us more about all this. Sasha, good morning. Thanks for joining us. Thank you. Good morning, Michelle. So tell us about these camps and tell us what the conditions there are like.

10:33These are massive, primitive tent camps in northeast Syria. They hold about 35 ,000 people at this point from more than 60 countries. It's mainly the wives and widows of ISIS militants and their kids. They're officially called displacement camps, but they essentially function as detention centers, barbed wire, little health care or schooling, high rates of violence. And some of the women there are still loyal to ISIS, so the camps are not considered safe places. So if that's the case, what's the motivation to let people out? The camps are considered a humanitarian catastrophe. So some countries feel an obligation to end that situation by taking back their citizens.

11:14And Michelle, there's also a concern that if people remain there, especially kids, they could become a new generation of terrorists. One person I spoke with who worries about that kind of radicalization is a former U.S. ambassador named Peter Galbraith. He has helped get many kids out of those camps, and here he is. The older the children get, the more likely that they're going to buy into the ideology there. And that's why it is so urgent to get the children out. And Michelle, the current Trump State Department calls it a high priority, its words, to try to shrink these camps. I will note that some European countries have resisted taking back ISIS family members, even kids, because they were their safety risk.

11:55But the U.S. says the greater risk is leaving them there and that these children are innocent victims of mistakes made by their parents. What does happen to people when they are able to leave the camps? In the case of adults, they get repatriated to their home countries and sometimes end up being prosecuted for their involvement with ISIS. The two kids I met are fortunate because they have grandparents in the U.S. Their dad grew up in Minnesota. When he was 18, he quietly left his family and joined ISIS after being recruited on social media. Then he became a father while he was overseas. Eventually, he surrendered and was jailed, and his children got put in these Syrian camps we're talking about.

12:33And the kids, where are they now? They're 8 and 10 years old, living with their grandparents outside Minneapolis. Getting them back to the U.S. took a lot of work by the American government. But the U.S. considers this family a model for how to help clear out those camps and keep families together. This is their grandfather, Ahmed, who asked that we not use his last name because he's concerned about the security of his family. They love us more than anybody else because they know that we take care of them and we spoil them. We want to erase anything bad in their memories. May God help us, you know, to achieve that.

13:12And Sasha, now I want to know what happened to the parents. The mother was supposedly killed in Iraq. That's according to the father. The father now says he is remorseful for having joined ISIS. He pleaded guilty to a terrorism charge, and he's now serving a 10-year U.S. federal prison sentence. Once he's out of prison, his parents say they want him to live with them and their grandkids all under one roof. And when I visited their house, I saw what looked like a busy, chaotic, happy home. You know, kids finally getting a normal childhood. That's NPR's Sasha Pfeiffer. Sasha, thank you so much. You're welcome.

13:47And that's up first for Wednesday, May 28th. I'm Michelle Martin. And I'm Stephen Skeep. You just heard Sasha Pfeiffer bringing us reporting about children in Syrian detention camps. If you want to hear more about those children and the Minnesota family that brought its relatives home, listen to Consider This, which is our sister podcast from All Things Considered. Today's episode of Up First was edited by Carrie Kahn, Rebecca Davis, Barry Hardiman, H.J. Mai, and Alice Wolfley. It was produced by Zia Butch, Nia Dumas, and Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Nisha Hainas, and our technical director is Carly Strange.

14:20We hope you'll join us again tomorrow.

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