Gaza starvation deaths mount as famine crisis draws global alarm
GAZA CITY
Hospitals in Gaza have recorded 15 deaths, including those of four children, due to starvation and malnutrition over the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of people who have died of hunger to over 100 during the 21-month-long war in the Palestinian enclave.
More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces while trying to access food in Gaza since the U.S.- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation started operations, the United Nations said Tuesday.
"As of July 21, we have recorded 1,054 people killed in Gaza while trying to get food; 766 of them were killed in the vicinity of GHF sites and 288 near UN and other humanitarian organizations' aid convoys," U.N. human rights office spokesman Thameen Al-Kheetan told AFP, stating the victims had been "killed by the Israeli military".
The rising toll has triggered renewed international calls for the Israeli government and military to allow aid access and delivery.
The Health Ministry's announcement of 15 starvation-related deaths came after doctors reported 23 similar fatalities in the previous two days.
That brings the total number of hunger-related deaths to 101, including 80 children, since Israel launched its war on Gaza in Oct. 2023. The death is part of a growing number of malnutrition-related deaths in the besieged enclave, where food remains scarce and aid deliveries remain largely blocked by Israel.
"The last lifelines keeping people alive are collapsing," U.N. chief Antonine Guterres' spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.
The World Food Program (WFP) also noted that hunger in Gaza has reached alarming levels, as a third of the population “is not eating for multiple days in a row,” said Ross Smith from the agency.
The agency estimated that one in four people in Gaza now faces famine-like conditions.
“Doctors, nurses, journalists, humanitarians — among them, UNRWA staff are hungry. Many are now fainting due to hunger and exhaustion while performing their duties,” U.N.’s Palestinian refugee agency head Philippe Lazzarini said.
More than two dozen Western countries called for an immediate end to the war in Gaza, saying suffering there had "reached new depths.”
After more than 21 months of fighting that have triggered catastrophic humanitarian conditions for Gaza's more than 2 million people, Britain, France, Australia, Canada and 21 other countries, plus the EU, said in a joint statement that the war "must end now."
"The suffering of civilians in Gaza has reached new depths," the signatories added, urging a negotiated ceasefire and the free flow of much-needed aid.
In another development, AFP management has announced plans to evacuate its journalists working in Gaza, following a warning from the journalists’ association over the risk of starvation.
“We have lost colleagues to war and imprisonment, but never to hunger,” its statement said.
"Their lives are in danger, and we therefore urge the Israeli authorities to allow their immediate evacuation along with their families," French news agency management wrote on X.
A rare criticism also came from within Israel, as the Israeli Medical Association called on the country’s military and government officials to ensure the entry of medical supplies and basic humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip.
"This is required both by medical ethics and morality and by international humanitarian law,” the association said in a statement.
The starvation-related deaths and mounting calls came as Israeli troops for the first time pushed into areas of a central Gaza city where several aid groups are based, in what appeared to be the latest effort to carve up the Palestinian territory with military corridors.
Deir al-Balah is the only Gaza city that has not seen major ground operations or suffered widespread devastation in 21 months of war, leading to speculation that the Hamas militant group holds large numbers of hostages there.
The main group representing hostages’ families said it was “shocked and alarmed” by the incursion and demanded answers from Israeli leaders.
