GAZA – More than 100 international aid organisations and human rights groups are warning of mass starvation in Gaza, urging governments worldwide to take immediate action. Signatories to a joint statement, including Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), Save the Children, and Oxfam, report that their colleagues and the people they serve are “wasting away” due to severe food shortages.
The warning comes as Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry announced another 10 Palestinian deaths from malnutrition in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of such fatalities across the territory to 43 since Sunday. The United Nations has also reported that hospitals are admitting individuals in a state of extreme exhaustion due to lack of food, with others collapsing in the streets.
Israel, which controls the entry of all supplies into the territory, has rejected the organisations’ statement, accusing them of “serving the propaganda of Hamas.” Israel imposed a total blockade on aid deliveries to Gaza at the start of March and resumed its military offensive against Hamas two weeks later, following the collapse of a two-month ceasefire. It stated its intention to pressure the armed group to release its remaining Israeli hostages.
Although the blockade was partially eased after nearly two months, amid warnings of a looming famine from global experts, the shortages of food, medicine, and fuel have reportedly worsened. Humanitarian organisations claim that with supplies “totally depleted,” aid workers are now joining food queues, “risking being shot just to feed their families.” Reports of Palestinians being killed while seeking food have been almost daily since late May, including an incident on Saturday where at least 32 people were killed by Israeli gunfire near two aid distribution points in southern Gaza.
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