GAZA – International aid organisations are issuing urgent warnings of mass starvation in Gaza, as the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is forced to suspend all emergency food and nutrition aid for 1.3 million people in the territory by the end of July due to critical funding shortfalls. The WFP’s decision comes amid escalating violence and record levels of hunger, with its food and nutrition stocks now completely exhausted.
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza reported on Friday that nine more people had died of malnutrition, bringing the total number of such deaths since the war began to 122. The WFP states that “malnutrition is surging with 90,000 women and children in urgent need of treatment,” adding that almost one in three people in Gaza are now going days without eating. The UN has reported that hospitals are admitting individuals in severe exhaustion from lack of food, and people are collapsing in the streets.
Israel, which controls the entry of all supplies into Gaza, maintains there are no restrictions on aid and attributes any malnutrition to Hamas. An Israeli security official indicated on Friday that air-drops of aid might be permitted in the coming days, a method aid agencies have previously cautioned is inefficient.
Mounting international concern has led Germany, France, and the UK to jointly call on Israel to “immediately lift restrictions on the flow of aid” into the territory. Their statement urged an immediate end to the “humanitarian catastrophe” and the war itself, stressing that “withholding essential humanitarian assistance to the civilian population is unacceptable.” UN Secretary-General António Guterres expressed profound dismay at the “level of indifference and inaction we see by too many in the international community.” He also stated that over 1,000 Palestinians had been killed trying to access food since May 27, when the US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) began distributing supplies as an alternative to the UN-led system.
In a significant development, Anthony Aguilar, a US security contractor who worked for the GHF in May and June 2025, told the BBC on Friday that he had “without question… witnessed war crimes” during that time. Aguilar, a retired soldier, alleged that he saw the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) and US contractors using live ammunition, artillery, mortar rounds, and tank fire on civilians at food distribution sites. He stated, “In my entire career, I have never witnessed the level of brutality and use of indiscriminate and unnecessary force against a civilian population until I was in Gaza at the hands of the IDF and US contractors.” The GHF has “categorically” denied these claims, describing Aguilar as “a disgruntled former contractor who was terminated for misconduct a month ago.”
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