Gaza Famine Crisis Deepens as Starvation Deaths Surpass 100, Aid Access Blocked
GAZA CITY — The humanitarian crisis in Gaza has reached a grim milestone, as hospitals reported 15 more deaths from starvation and malnutrition in the past 24 hours — including four children — pushing the official hunger-related death toll past 100 since Israel launched its war on the Palestinian territory in October 2023.
The Gaza Health Ministry confirmed the total now stands at 101 starvation-related deaths, the vast majority of them children, as severe food shortages grip the besieged enclave.
According to the United Nations, over 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces while attempting to access food — a staggering number that includes 766 deaths near Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) sites and another 288 near UN and other aid convoys. U.N. human rights spokesperson Thameen Al-Kheetan said all were killed by Israeli military action.
With food supplies collapsing and aid access increasingly obstructed, international alarm is growing.
“The last lifelines keeping people alive are collapsing,” said U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres’ spokesperson, Stéphane Dujarric. The World Food Program warned that one-third of Gaza’s population is now going multiple days without eating, with one in four facing famine-like conditions.
Doctors, journalists, and humanitarian workers — including UNRWA staff — are reportedly fainting from hunger while carrying out their duties. Philippe Lazzarini, head of the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency, said Gaza is in the grip of “catastrophic deprivation.”
In a rare rebuke from within Israel, the Israeli Medical Association called on the government and military to allow entry of basic humanitarian aid, citing international law and medical ethics.
Global condemnation is mounting. In a joint statement, more than two dozen Western nations, including Britain, France, Australia, and Canada, alongside the European Union, urged an immediate end to the war. “The suffering of civilians in Gaza has reached new depths,” the statement read.
Meanwhile, French news agency AFP has begun evacuating its staff from Gaza following warnings that journalists face imminent starvation. “We have lost colleagues to war and imprisonment — never to hunger,” AFP said.
Israeli troops also advanced for the first time into parts of central Gaza’s Deir al-Balah, home to key aid groups and thousands of displaced civilians, prompting new concerns about access and escalating conflict.
