CNN —

Four-year old Razan Abu Zaher gave up her fight for life on Sunday.

She died at a hospital in central Gaza from complications brought on by hunger and malnutrition, according to a medical source. Her skeletal body was laid out on a slab of stone.

At least 76 children in Gaza have died of malnutrition since the conflict began in October 2023, as well as ten adults, the Palestinian health ministry says. According to the World Health Organization, most of these occurred since Israeli authorities imposed a blockade at the beginning of March.

Razan was one of at least four children to succumb in the last three days, the youngest just three months. Over the past 24 hours, 18 deaths have been recorded due to famine in Gaza, the health ministry says, reflecting a deepening crisis in the territory.

CNN first met Razan a month ago. She was already weak with hunger and pitifully thin. Her mother, Tahrir Abu Daher, said then that she had no money to buy milk, which was in any case rarely available.

“Her health was very good before the war, but after the war, her condition began to deteriorate due to malnutrition. There is nothing to strengthen her.”

Razan Abu Zaher pictured in hospital on June 23. CNN

That was on June 23. Razan had already been in hospital for 12 days. She clung on to life for another 27 days.

Razan died amid growing starvation in Gaza, with the flow of humanitarian aid severely reduced since the beginning of March, when Israeli authorities banned convoys from entering Gaza.

That ban was partially lifted at the end of May, but aid agencies say the amounts reaching the territory far too little to sustain the population.

Israel said it was halting shipments of aid into Gaza because Hamas was stealing and profiting from it – an allegation Hamas denies. Israeli agencies also say the United Nations has not picked up aid ready to move into Gaza. The UN in turn has said that Israeli forces frequently deny permission to move aid within Gaza, and that much more is waiting to be allowed in.

The Israeli agency that manages the flow of aid into the Gaza strip, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), said in a statement that the IDF is “working to allow and facilitate the transfer” of humanitarian aid, including food.

“Since the beginning of the hostilities and up to this day, approximately 67,000 food trucks have entered the Gaza Strip, delivering around 1.5 million tons of food,” COGAT said.

“Israel will continue to facilitate the entry of food” into Gaza, COGAT said, “while taking all possible measures to prevent the terrorist organization Hamas from seizing the aid.”

Gaza was heavily dependent on aid and commercial shipments of food before the conflict began in October 2023, and shortages of food, medical supplies, fuel and other necessities have only worsened since.

The scarcity of food since March has sent a rapidly growing number of people to already overwhelmed hospitals.

“Gaza is witnessing the worst phase of famine, which has reached catastrophic levels amid unprecedented international silence,” said Dr. Khalil Al-Daqran, the spokesman for al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital on Sunday, where Razan died.

Al-Daqran said the infants who were now dying had been robbed of their childhood twice, “once by bombing and killing, and again by depriving them of milk and a piece of bread.”

The health ministry said Saturday that an “unprecedented number of starving citizens of all ages are arriving at emergency departments in severe states of exhaustion and fatigue.”

“Hundreds whose bodies have been severely weakened are now at risk of imminent death due to hunger and their bodies’ inability to endure any longer,” the ministry added.

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights – an NGO working in Gaza – reported Sunday that one of its team in Gaza had said: “Our faces have changed and our bodies have wasted away. We no longer recognize each other from extreme emaciation, as if we are slowly fading away and dying.”

Dr. Suhaib Al-Hams, director of Kuwait field hospital in Khan Younis, told CNN that people arriving there were in “dire need of food before medicine, as their bodies have reached a point beyond endurance and are all at risk of death.”

Palestinian children queue for a portion of hot food distributed by a charity kitchen at the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on July 15. Eyad Baba/AFP/Getty Images

“Today, the World Central Kitchen stopped sending meals for the medical staff, they used to send us only rice. Doctors are working 24 hours a day with no food, neither at home nor at the hospital. People are dying of hunger,” Al-Hams said Sunday.

World Central Kitchen confirmed its Gaza teams had run out of ingredients to cook warm meals.

“We served 80,000 meals yesterday [Saturday], emptying the last of our replenished stocks while aid trucks remain stuck at the border.

“This is the second time lack of access to aid has forced our kitchen operations to pause,” it added.

In their desperation, thousands of people risk their lives every day to find something to eat. More than 70 people were reported to have been killed Sunday in northern Gaza as they desperately sought food aid, according to the health ministry, which said they had been shot by Israeli troops.

The Israel Defense Forces said troops in the area “fired warning shots in order to remove an immediate threat posed to them. The IDF is aware of the claim regarding casualties in the area, and the details of the incident are still being examined.”

“An initial review suggests that the number of casualties reported does not align with the information held by the IDF,” it added.

Dr. Mohammed Abu Salmiya, director of Al-Shifa Hospital where many of the casualties were taken, said that “a significant number of civilians, and even medical staff, are arriving in a state of fainting or collapse due to severe malnutrition.”

Nearly 800 Palestinians were killed while trying to access aid in Gaza between late May and July 7, according to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

During that period, OHCHR recorded the killings of 798 people, 615 of whom were killed near sites of the controversial US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). It added that 183 others were killed “on the routes of aid convoys” without giving details on who had been running those convoys.

Palestinian rescuers arrive to evacuate injured people after an Israeli drone reportedly opened fire on civilian gatherings near an aid distribution point on June 1. Eyad Baba/AFP/Getty Images

Dozens more have been killed since, according to the health ministry, including more than 30 in southern Gaza on Saturday.

Tom Fletcher, the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, told the UN Security Council on Thursday that food was running out in Gaza. “Those seeking it risk being shot. People are dying trying to feed their families.”

He said that starvation rates among children had reached their highest levels in June, with more than 5,800 girls and boys diagnosed as acutely malnourished.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Friday it was receiving “deeply troubling reports of malnourished children and adults being admitted to hospitals with little resources available to treat them properly.”

On Saturday, Sarmad Tamimy, a plastic surgeon volunteering with Medical Aid for Palestinians, told CNN: “Honestly, I feel the lucky ones get killed immediately because [of] the horrible horrors that they’re going to face with their extensive injuries, with inadequate nutrition, inadequate medical supplies, infections, maggots, [and] hospital-acquired infections.”

People carry the body of a man who was killed while trying to get a bag of flour after aid trucks entered through the Zikim area in northern Gaza City, 17 June. The slain man was later identified as 20-year-old Muhammad Yousif al-Zaanin, from Beit Hanoun, northern Gaza. Yousef Zaanoun ActiveStills

Israeli forces massacred Palestinians seeking food supplies and sheltering in tents in Gaza during June as an ongoing blockade on fuel left humanitarian operations in the territory on the brink of total collapse by the end of the month.

All fuel retrieved from accessible reserves in Gaza has been allocated, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on 2 July.

“As a result, life-saving services, including health, water and sanitation, telecommunications and protection services are at imminent risk of shutting down,” according to OCHA.

Meanwhile, Israel launched an unprovoked attack on Iran during June, setting off a 12-day confrontation, while settlers attacked Palestinian communities in the West Bank, where families in Jenin, Tulkarm and Nur Shams refugee camps have been repeatedly displaced since the beginning of the year.

Israel continued to destroy structures in those camps, which “remain inaccessible to residents and humanitarian actors,” according to OCHA. “Israeli forces fire at residents who are attempting to return to their homes.”

A man stands next to a Star of David spray-painted by Israeli settlers in the West Bank village of Khalet al-Daba, located in Masafer Yatta near the southern West Bank city of Hebron, 1 June. Residents of the community face imminent forced displacement after the Israeli military razed most of the village and continues to allow settlers to attack, occupy and destroy its orchards. Omri Eran Vardi ActiveStills

As of 2 July, according to the Palestinian health ministry in Gaza, at least 57,012 Palestinians had been killed in the territory since 7 October 2023.

This cumulative figure “includes 223 fatalities who were retroactively added on 2 July 2025 after their identification details were consolidated and approved by a ministerial committee,” the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs stated.

The health ministry said that during that same period, 640 people had been killed and nearly 4,500 injured while trying to access food supplies since 27 May, the date that the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation began operating distribution points.

As of 2 July, more than “714,000 people, or a third of Gaza’s population, [had] been displaced over the past three months,” according to OCHA.

OCHA added that “at least 107 aid workers have been killed since the start of 2025, including nine in the past week, bringing the total to 479 since October 2023, among them 326 UN staff.”

The aid workers killed in June included Ramzi Khader, an employee of the UN Development Program, who perished in an Israeli airstrike on his home in Jabaliya, northern Gaza, on 6 June, along with 36 members of his family, including his wife and six of their children.

A woman searches for an internet signal in a camp for displaced persons on 2 June. Yousef Zaanoun ActiveStills

Aid distribution in Gaza “has become a death trap,” Philippe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestine refugees, stated on 1 June.

At least 32 Palestinians were killed that day and dozens seriously injured while attempting to access food at distribution points set up by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a militarized American-Israeli scheme that began operations during May.

The foundation is “a hodgepodge of Israeli and US intelligence operatives, sketchy finance firms in the US, mercenaries and private military contractors posing as humanitarians,” the former senior UN official Craig Mokhiber told The Electronic Intifada during June.

He referred to them as representing the “final phase of the genocide.”

People mourn over the body of a child who was killed in an Israeli strike, Nasser Medical Complex, Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, 5 June. Abdullah Abu Al-Khair APA images

Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, has said that the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation scheme has allowed Israel to ease international pressure and prolong its genocidal campaign in Gaza.

“The weaponization of food for civilians” and preventing access to life necessities “constitute a war crime and may constitute elements of other international crimes, including genocide,” the UN human rights office warned at the beginning of June.

In an exposé published by Haaretz newspaper on 27 June, Israeli officers and soldiers admitted that they were ordered to shoot at crowds of people gathered near food distribution points.

One unnamed soldier told the paper that people seeking aid are “treated like a hostile force – no crowd control measures, no tear gas – just live fire with everything imaginable: heavy machine guns, grenade launchers, mortars.”

“Then, once the center opens, the shooting stops, and they know they can approach,” the soldier added. “Our form of communication is gunfire.”

Worshippers pray at the ruins of the Albanian mosque in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, in observance of Eid al-Adha, on 6 June. Doaa Albaz ActiveStills

On the second day of June, Israeli forces shot and killed Yousef Fuqahaa, 14, “suddenly and without warning” at an entrance to Sinjil, a village near Ramallah in the West Bank, according to Defense for Children International-Palestine.

The military claimed that the boy threw stones and bottles at soldiers, “an allegation rejected by eyewitnesses,” according to the rights group.

After shooting Yousef, “Israeli forces raided a nearby house that had surveillance cameras and deleted footage of the attack,” DCIP added. Israel is withholding the boy’s body.

Animals are slaughtered on the first day of Eid al-Adha in Gaza City, 7 June. Gaza has a crisis in the availability of livestock due to the Israeli blockade, death of animals in attacks, the destruction of fattening farms, a lack of fodder and a shortage of imported animals. Due to high prices and economic desperation, there is little demand for sacrificial animals and farmers are struggling to sell their livestock. Omar Ashtawy APA images

Two additional Palestinian children were killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank during June.

On 23 June, Ammar Hamayel, 13, was shot in the back by Israeli forces who were “stationed in a concealed position” while walking with a friend near a settlement bypass road next to Kafr Malik, a village near Ramallah, according to DCIP.

Israeli forces assaulted family members and neighbors who attempted to reach the boy and provide aid, and prevented an ambulance crew from assisting the boy, who the rights group said was an outstanding student and winner of local and international Muay Thai competition titles.

“Israeli forces handed over Ammar to a Palestinian ambulance which brought him to the Palestine Medical Complex in Ramallah, where he was pronounced dead,” DCIP added.

On 26 June, an Israeli sniper positioned on the roof of a Palestinian home killed Rayan Houshyeh, 13, during an incursion in al-Yamoun village near Jenin.

According to DCIP, Rayan looked over a wall in an alley “to observe nearby Israeli forces when the sniper opened fire … striking him in the neck, abdomen and thigh.” The sniper fired towards young men who attempted to reach the boy, who was pronounced dead upon arrival to hospital.

Rayan was the 30th Palestinian child killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank during 2025.

Israeli troops observe as Palestinians walk with supplies that they received from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in al-Bureij, central Gaza, 8 June. Moiz Salhi APA images

On 2 June, UN human rights experts demanded the safe passage of passengers aboard the Madleen, a Freedom Flotilla Coalition ship bound for Gaza.

“The people of Gaza have the right to receive aid through their own territorial waters even under occupation,” the experts said, “and the Coalition ship has the right to free passage in international waters to reach the people of Gaza.”

The ship was seized by Israeli forces a week later, on 9 June, and its 12 passengers, who included the prominent climate activist Greta Thunberg and two journalists, were detained in Israel and deported over the next several days.

Agnès Callamard, the head of Amnesty International, said that during its voyage, the Madleen “emerged as a powerful symbol of solidarity with besieged, starved and suffering Palestinians amid persistent international inaction.”

Meanwhile, Egypt detained hundreds of activists who traveled to the country in an attempt to reach Rafah and break the blockade on the Gaza Strip.

An Israeli soldier walks by a body during a raid of the Old City of Nablus in the northern West Bank, 10 June. Two brothers were killed and dozens were injured during the raid. Wahaj Bani Moufleh ActiveStills

On 3 June, the Red Cross said that it “received a mass casualty influx” of patients injured while trying to reach an aid distribution site at its field hospital in Rafah, southern Gaza, earlier that day. Of those cases, 19 were declared dead upon arrival and eight more died shortly thereafter.

It was “the highest number of weapon-wounded patients received in a single incident since the establishment of the field hospital” more than a year ago, the Red Cross added.

At least 27 people were killed and 90 injured when Israeli forces opened fire on a crowd of thousands gathered at dawn near an aid site in Rafah that day, according to Euro-Med Monitor.

The Geneva-based group said within the past week that the Israeli military had killed and injured more than 600 Palestinians near aid distribution centers in areas under its control.

Usama Assaf, 4 years old, receives medical care at his grandmother’s home in Gaza City after losing his entire family in an Israeli airstrike that claimed the lives of his parents and siblings, 10 June. Usama fractured both his legs and his pelvis in the attack. Omar Ashtawy APA images

On 5 June, the World Health Organization warned that Gaza’s health system “is collapsing” with Nasser Medical Complex and Al-Amal Hospital at risk of becoming non-functional due to Israeli military encroachment, attacks and forcible evacuation orders.

The facilities are the last two functioning public hospitals in the Khan Younis area, where most of the Strip’s population is now concentrated. “There are already no hospitals functioning in the north of Gaza,” WHO said.

The following day, on 5 June, the Israeli military fired inside the compound of Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City, killing four journalists.

Thirty people, including four hospital staff, were wounded in the “unprovoked assault against civilians,” according to the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem, which administers Al-Ahli Arab Hospital.

“This is at least the third instance of journalists apparently targeted and killed at hospitals,” according to the UN human rights office, which cited an attack on Nasser Medical Complex in April and an attack at Al-Awda Hospital in December.

A photo taken on 15 June shows buildings damaged by a missile fired from Iran in Bat Yam, central Israel. Chen Junqing Xinhua via ZUMA Press

The UN human rights office said it had verified the killing of 227 Palestinian journalists in Gaza since October 2023.

The “apparent targeting of Palestinian journalists in Gaza, combined with the denial by Israel of access to foreign journalists” appears to be a deliberate policy to “limit the flow of information … and prevent reporting on the impact of [Israel’s] attacks and denial of humanitarian assistance.”

More than 100 press freedom advocacy groups and international news rooms demanded that foreign journalists be granted immediate and unrestricted access to Gaza and the full protection of Palestinian journalists.

Tents serve as temporary shelters for displaced Palestinians in the al-Maqousi area in the northern Gaza Strip, 15 June. Omar Ashtawy APA images

On 10 June, the World Food Program said that it dispatched 59 trucks carrying 930 metric tons of wheat flour destined for northern Gaza but which was “stopped along the way and offloaded by hungry civilians in critical need of food to feed their families.”

The UN food relief agency said that it has only been able to “bring in small amounts of life-saving food and aid” into Gaza since Israel resumed limited humanitarian assistance on 19 May.

“This is largely due to delays or denials of permission for humanitarian movements due to expanded military operations,” the agency added.

Telecommunications were severed in Gaza City and northern Gaza on 10 June. The entire territory experienced telecommunications failure on 12 June after military activity damaged infrastructure.

Connectivity was partially restored on 14 June but three days later, southern and central Gaza experienced a renewed blackout after a fiber was cut along al-Rashid Street.

“This marks the third major disruption within a week – highlighting the extreme fragility of Gaza’s telecommunications infrastructure and the urgent need for sustained safe access for repairs,” according to the Emergency Telecommunications Cluster, a global network of groups providing communications services in humanitarian emergencies.

The cluster added that “severely reduced data speeds and degraded mobile networks continue to undermine humanitarian coordination and prevent civilians from accessing life-saving information and assistance.”

Meanwhile, “telecom providers are facing critical shortages of fuel and engine oil, with limited reserves expected to be completely depleted within days,” the cluster said on 17 June.

“Without immediate resupply, generators powering the infrastructure are on the verge of failure, imminently threatening a total collapse of all communication services,” the cluster added.

Thousands of people walk along al-Rashid Street carrying bags of flour after aid trucks entered through the Zikim area in northern Gaza City, 17 June. Several of those seeking aid were shot by Israeli forces. On the same day, dozens of people were killed and hundreds more were injured at the aid distribution location in Rafah, southern Gaza. Yousef Zaanoun ActiveStills

On 12 June, the Red Cross said that in the previous two weeks, its field hospital in Rafah “has had to activate its mass casualty incident procedure 12 times, receiving high numbers of patients with gunshot and shrapnel wounds.”

It had received 933 cases during that period, including 41 patients declared dead upon arrival. A majority of the patients were trying to reach aid distribution sites when they were injured.

“Medical personnel are struggling to cope with the overwhelming number of patients,” the Red Cross said. “They are working to save patients under constant exposure to stray bullets, endangering the safety of those providing and receiving medical care.”

“Supplies are being used faster than they can be replenished,” the Red Cross added.

An Israeli army sniper is seen through a window during a raid on Balata refugee camp in the northern West Bank, 18 June. The operation involved the storming of homes, arrests and the demolition of a metal workshop. Wahaj Bani Moufleh ActiveStills

On 13 June, the UN Security Council failed to adopt a resolution introduced by Slovenia demanding a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, with 14 member states voting in favor and one member – the United States – voting against, with no abstentions.

Israel’s representative to the UN thanked the US and warned the General Assembly against wasting “more of your time” by holding an emergency meeting triggered by the veto of the resolution. He said that no UN resolution “will stand in our way.”

That same day, on 13 June, Israel launched a surprise and unprovoked attack on Iran, targeting the country’s military leadership and senior scientists.

Iran hit major population centers in Israel in response, destroying entire neighborhoods and exhausting the country’s supply of missile interceptors.

The extent of Iran’s blows to Israeli military targets is not fully known due to military censorship in that country.

The conflagration begun by Israel ended after 12 days following American strikes on three nuclear sites in Iran and a reprisal Iranian strike on a US military base in Qatar.

More than 600 people were killed in Iran while 28 people were killed in Iranian strikes in Israel, including three women and a girl who died when a missile hit a building in Tamra, a Palestinian city near Haifa lacking bomb shelters.

Israelis stand in front of a building damaged by an Iranian missile fired on Ramat Gan near Tel Aviv, 19 June. lia Yefimovich DPA via ZUMA Press

The UN monitoring group OCHA said that since 13 June, following the start of Israel’s offensive in Iran, it had documented “36 incidents whereby Israeli soldiers took over roughly 267 Palestinian homes [in the West Bank] … for periods ranging from several hours to a few days.”

“This has affected at least 1,300 people who in most cases returned to their homes to find their property vandalized,” according to OCHA.

“These include 237 housing units whose residents were temporarily evacuated in the six governorates in the northern West Bank,” OCHA added. Meanwhile, Israel closed most of its checkpoints in and around the West Bank and added new closures after the start of its attack on Iran, resulting in heavy traffic congestion.

Nearly 900 people in Gaza were killed during Israel’s offensive in Iran.

Israeli forces stand next to a plaque honoring Ahmad Abu Arrah, a commander in the armed wing of Hamas who was killed last year, during a raid in the northern West Bank city of Aqaba, 20 June. Wahaj Bani Moufleh ActiveStills

On 14 June, the Red Cross raised alarm over Israeli evacuation orders around Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis in southern Gaza.

There will be no place for patients to receive specialized care if the hospital is forced to shut down, the humanitarian group warned.

In addition to specialized care, Nasser Medical Complex “provides blood bank services” that allow for blood transfusions at the Red Cross Field Hospital in Rafah and “forensic services and management of the dead,” the Red Cross said.

A woman tries to collect food at a community kitchen in Khan Younis as Israel continues to throttle the entry of humanitarian aid, 21 June. Doaa Albaz ActiveStills

At least 70 people were killed and 200 injured when the Israeli military fired tank shells at a crowd of Palestinians waiting for UN food trucks in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, on 17 June.

It was the deadliest incident at an aid site after such mass casualty events near distribution points became an almost daily occurrence when an American-Israeli militarized aid scheme began operating in Gaza on 27 May.

Euro-Med Monitor, a human rights group based in Geneva, said that its field team in Gaza had documented the involvement of a local armed gang collaborating with the Israeli military in deadly attacks on people attempting to reach aid points.

The group said it also “received credible information that a foreign mercenary employed by the US security company overseeing the aid distribution center shot and killed a civilian” near Rafah, in southern Gaza, on 9 June.

People inspect the damage following overnight Israeli strikes on makeshift homes and tents in al-Mawasi, an area of Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, 23 June. Moaz Abu Taha APA images

A few weeks later, the Associated Press reported that it had obtained video and accounts confirming that “American contractors guarding aid distribution sites in Gaza are using live ammunition and stun grenades as hungry Palestinians scramble for food,” even when there was no “threat.”

Two contractors working for the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said that Israel is gathering biometrics and other data via cameras installed at the distribution sites.

Israel is also facilitating the looting of humanitarian aid, fueling hunger and chaos in Gaza, the Palestinian human rights group Al Mezan said in a report published on 14 June.

The escalation of looting throughout May and early June points to “a systematic Israeli policy that weaponizes starvation, deprivation and chaos to further its genocidal campaign,” according to Al Mezan.

Israeli rescue teams operate at the scene of a missile strike on a residential area in Beersheba, southern Israel, 24 June. The national emergency medical service reported at least four people killed and dozens injured in southern Israel. Saeed Qaq ZUMA Press Wire

On 18 June, the UN’s sexual and reproductive health agency UNFPA warned that nearly 11,000 pregnant women in Gaza are reported to be at risk of famine and some “17,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women will need urgent treatment for acute malnutrition over the coming months.”

An estimated “one in three pregnancies are now considered high-risk, and one in five newborns are born preterm or underweight, requiring specialist care that is increasingly unavailable,” the agency added.

More than 190 trucks loaded with urgently needed supplies – including mobile maternity units, ultrasounds and portable incubators for premature infants – have been denied entry into Gaza, according to UNFPA.

Also on 18 June, the UN human rights office called on the Israeli military “to immediately cease its use of lethal force around food distribution points in Gaza, following repeated instances of shooting and killing of Palestinians seeking to access food there.”

People with serious injuries are without access to medical treatment due to Israel’s “almost complete destruction of the health system across Gaza,” the UN human rights office added.

“They face excruciating pain and potential death,” the office added.

Civil order in Gaza has severely deteriorated due to Israel’s attacks, total blockade and targeting of the civilian police force.

“As a result, Palestinians are increasingly facing the inhumane choice of dying from starvation or risking being killed while trying to access the little food that is available,” the UN human rights office said.

Sarah Qannan, 17, from Khan Younis continues her studies inside a tent her family set up over the ruins of their home, 24 June. Sarah is trying to review her lessons in preparation for the tawjihi matriculation exams after she and other students in Gaza were deprived of education for the second consecutive year. Abdallah Alattar APA images

On 20 June, the UN human rights office condemned the killing and possible summary executions “of Palestinian staff associated with the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation by armed men allegedly affiliated with Hamas.”

The human rights office said it had received information that armed men attacked a bus carrying local contractors on 11 June.

“The armed men stripped and beat the workers and shot some of them,” the UN office added. The workers were allegedly tortured and 12 were reportedly killed.

Malnutrition among children in Gaza “is rising at an alarming rate,” the UN children’s fund UNICEF stated on 19 June. The agency said that “5,119 children between 6 months and 5 years of age [were] admitted for treatment for acute malnutrition in May alone.”

Nearly 640 of these children have severe acute malnutrition, “the most lethal form of malnutrition,” UNICEF added.

Cases of acute malnutrition are likely to rise to the highest level since October 2023 unless Israel allows “the large-scale delivery of life-saving aid through all border crossings,” according to UNICEF regional director Edouard Beigbeder.

Huda Abu al-Naja, 12, shows an archive photo of herself while she is treated at Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, 25 June. Huda, who has been displaced to al-Mawasi, suffers from severe malnutrition and a serious wheat allergy, which have worsened due to the ongoing humanitarian crisis. Doaa Albaz ActiveStills

Defense for Children International-Palestine published a report on 24 June “asserting [that] Israeli authorities have deliberately weaponized starvation as a method of genocide.”

This policy has resulted in “the preventable deaths and suffering of Palestinian children in Gaza that will carry negative impacts for generations to come.”

“Doctors Against Genocide contributed a comprehensive section on the devastating medical, developmental and psychological consequences of starvation in children,” DCIP said.

“They warn of long-term and often irreversible effects, including stunted growth, neurological damage, weakened immune systems and permanent cognitive impairment.”

Most families in Gaza were surviving on “just one notoriously poor meal per day” in Gaza, according to OCHA, “while adults routinely skip meals to prioritize children, the elderly, and the ill amid deepening hunger and desperation.”

A truck carrying aid travels through the Sudaniya area northwest of Gaza City under the protection of private guards on 25 June. It was the first time in months that international organizations were able to dispatch aid to distribution points in Gaza City. Yousef Zaanoun ActiveStills

The date 20 June marked the 100th day of a blockade on fuel entering Gaza, which remained in place at the time of publication of this story on The Electronic Intifada.

The same day, James Elder, the spokesperson for UNICEF, warned that without fuel, the desalination plants that remain in operation in Gaza at a reduced capacity “will cease completely.”

“Without fuel, trucking the millions of liters of water to people will stop,” he added. “At major production points, large numbers of donkeys are starting to replace trucks.”

Noting that a donkey cart can “barely carry 500 liters,” compared to the ability to carry 15,000 on a truck, Elder said that “even the donkeys are slowing – there’s barely enough food to keep them moving.”

A boy looks for usable items in the rubble of heavily damaged and collapsed buildings after Israeli attacks on Beach refugee camp in Gaza City, 26 June. Omar Ashtawy APA images

On 19 June, the Norwegian Refugee Council said that three months after Israel broke the truce on 18 March, “the shelter system in Gaza is on the verge of failure.”

More than 680,000 people in Gaza were newly displaced since mid-March as more than 82 percent of Gaza’s territory is under displacement orders or declared no-go zones by the Israeli military.

The Norwegian Refugee Council added that “relentless displacement, access restrictions and the near-total destruction of housing have left hundreds of thousands of people without adequate shelter, and humanitarian actors without the means to assist them.”

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights released a report in June finding that women and girls are disproportionately affected by the lack of basic necessities including clean water and sanitation facilities, as well as an acute lack of privacy and heightened risk of gender-based violence.

Women and girls have resorted to extreme coping mechanisms including limiting the frequency of showers, avoiding drinking water to reduce the need to use toilets or using buckets in tents to relieve themselves, as well as using oral contraceptives continuously to suppress their menstrual cycles.

Palestinians distribute humanitarian aid delivered by international organizations in Gaza City on 26 June. For the first time in months, international organizations were able to distribute some aid to displaced families in Gaza City. The groups worked with dignitaries and influential families to secure the trucks to prevent them from being looted before they reached their destination. Yousef Zaanoun ActiveStills

On 21 June, 49,000 high school students began their school leaving exams, known as tawjihi, in the West Bank and overseas, according to the Palestinian education ministry. Students in Gaza remain unable to sit for their exams for the second consecutive year, affecting more than 76,000 pupils.

The education ministry stated on 23 June that special arrangements would be made for high school students in Gaza to sit for their exams as soon as possible.

However, according to OCHA, “implementation of these plans remains contingent on a ceasefire, the lifting of restrictions on the entry of supplies, including tablets needed for the exams, and the reopening of border crossings.”

Meanwhile, OCHA warned in June that “the right to education of nearly 13,000 students, including more than 6,500 girls, is at threat should the Israeli authorities execute pending demolition orders against 84 schools across the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.”

A funeral is held for three Palestinians who were killed by Israeli forces overnight in the West Bank village of Kafr Malik, 26 June. The three were slain after more than 100 Israeli settlers stormed the village, damaging homes and torching vehicles. A 14-year-old boy from the same village, Ammar Hamayel, was killed two days prior. Avishay Mohar ActiveStills

Israeli settlers attacked Kafr Malik, a Palestinian town near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, on 25 June, leaving three Palestinians dead at the hands of the Israeli military.

According to OCHA, one of those killed “was a 34-year-old Palestinian father of two who, according to community sources, was shot in the head at point-blank range at the entrance to his home” while evacuating his wife and children.

The violent rampage by settlers, who set fire to homes and vehicles, was condemned by Germany, the UK and the European Union.

New construction is seen in the Jewish settlement of Tzofim, east of the West Bank city of Qalqiliya, 27 June. Mohammed Nasser APA images

Also on 25 June, settlers attacked the Bedouin community of Dar Fazaa near Ramallah, causing property damage and smoke inhalation injuries. They also attacked farmers working their land on the outskirts of al-Mazraa al-Sharqiya near Ramallah and obstructed emergency responders from putting out a fire in Asira al-Qibliya near Nablus.

OCHA said that it documented some 740 settler attacks against Palestinians leading to casualties or property damage during the first half of 2025, affecting more than 200 West Bank communities.

“This is a daily average of four incidents, similar to the frequency observed in 2024, the highest year on record of settler incidents that resulted in casualties or property damage,” OCHA added.

Fatima al-Nawajaa stands with her children inside her burnt home after it was attacked by Israeli settlers in Susiya, a village south of Hebron in the West Bank, 27 June. The attack began at 2 am on 25 June while the family was asleep. Due to a lack of water, they were unable to extinguish the fire, and the house continued to burn until all of its contents were destroyed. Mosab Shawer ActiveStills

On 24 June, the UN human rights office and the Norwegian Refugee Council warned that 1,200 Palestinians, including children, in the Masafer Yatta area of Hebron in the West Bank “are at critical risk of forcible transfer.”

Earlier in the month, the Israeli military announced that it would resume military training in a firing zone encompassing 13 communities and the Israeli Civil Administration – a military body – had newly enabled “retroactive dismissal of Palestinian building applications.”

The UN human rights office and the Norwegian group said that “affected structures include homes, schools, clinics, water systems and religious sites, and the demolitions will result in the forced displacement of 200 households, which could amount to forcible transfer.”

Forcible transfer and deportation constitute “a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention and … a war crime,” the human rights office and Norwegian group added.

“It could also amount to a crime against humanity when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack,” they added.

Israeli forces point their weapons at Palestinian residents and photographers during Israeli settlers’ weekly tour of the Old City of Hebron in the West Bank, 26 June. The Israeli army obstructed the movement of Palestinians trying to reach their homes and created fear and terror throughout the city. Mosab Shawer ActiveStills

Also on 24 June, Zahiya Joudeh, 66, was shot in the head and killed while on the roof of her home in Shuafat refugee camp in East Jerusalem. Her family accused the Israeli Border Police of shooting the grandmother while they were operating in the camp.

Israel’s police claimed it was investigating the incident.

Earlier in the month, soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian man during a raid in al-Walaja village near Bethlehem.

“According to eyewitnesses, Israeli soldiers entered an under-construction apartment, handcuffed and blindfolded three Palestinians who were present, and then shots of live ammunition were heard,” according to OCHA. Israel is withholding the man’s body.

In addition to the aforementioned cases, Palestinian fatalities in the West Bank in June include a man who was shot while attempting to enter Israel through an opening in Israel’s annexation wall south of Hebron on 7 June; the killing of a man by undercover forces during a raid in Tammun near Tubas on 10 June; the killing of two brothers during a 30-hour operation in Nablus on 10 June; and the shooting death of a man after he allegedly opened fire at soldiers at Harmesh checkpoint near Jenin on 12 June.

Residents of eastern Gaza evacuate to Gaza City after receiving orders from the Israeli military, 29 June. Omar Ashtawy APA images

Seven Israeli soldiers were killed by a fighter with the Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, in a close-range ambush on a military vehicle in Khan Younis on 24 June.

Video of the stunning ambush released by the Qassam Brigades on Wednesday shows a fighter carrying a rifle running towards the armored personnel carrier, upon which he climbs and drops a shawaz explosive device directly into the cabin. The recording shows the fighter safely withdrawing before the military vehicle becomes engulfed in flames.

Moshe Gafni, a leading figure in the ultra-Orthodox party United Torah Judaism, said “I don’t understand what we’re fighting for and for what purpose” after the deaths of the seven soldiers.

Around a week later, the Israeli military and the Shin Bet spy agency claimed to have killed two Hamas fighters who it said were involved in the ambush in a drone strike.

On 25 June, 12 trucks “carrying essential medical supplies, including blood units” were supported by the World Health Organization for distribution at “priority health service points in Gaza.” It was the first such mission since 2 March and “represents only a fraction of what is needed to meet the overwhelming health needs on the ground,” according to OCHA.

Ayat al-Sardi lives with her family in a temporary shelter in the al-Sabra neighborhood of Gaza City, where she is caring for her surviving newborn son, Mazen, after losing his twin brother Ahmad due to severe malnutrition and a lack of infant formula, 29 June. The twins were born after many years of trying to conceive, making the loss an unbearable shock. Omar Ashtawy APA images

On 27 June, the World Food Program published a food security analysis finding that markets in Khan Younis were running out of most essential food items and that prices for what remains available “continue to increase at an alarming rate.”

Meanwhile, the fee for receiving foreign remittances or for payment with a credit card “has risen to an all-time high of 40 percent, creating an extra burden for the already financially exhausted population in the Gaza Strip.”

Dietary diversity in Gaza has collapsed to its lowest level since October 2023 with people consuming food that is “severely deficient in nutrients.”

An injured person is evacuated from al-Baqa Cafe in western Gaza City after it was targeted in an Israeli airstrike in western Gaza City, 30 June. According to The Guardian, the Israeli military used a US-manufactured, 500 pound bomb when it attacked the crowded beachfront cafe, killing at least 24 people, including a filmmaker, an artist and a 4-year-old child. Omar Ashtawy APA images

According to the World Food Program analysis, the price of wheat flour has increased by 3,000 percent compared to the cost before October 2023 while the price of sugar has increased by 6,310 percent. The cost of one kilo of potatoes is now 100 shekels or around $30 in Gaza City and Deir al-Balah.

The report noted that 29 commercial trucks had been allowed into Gaza carrying non-essential items including “noodles, chocolate and cigarettes.” Reports indicated that “those trucks were only allowed to enter after some tradesmen in Gaza had a deal with the Israeli army to release some of the piling cash money inside of Gaza.”

“The Chambers of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture in the Gaza Strip issued a statement strongly condemning those traders and saying that their actions will contribute to more spikes in the already very high prices in the markets,” the World Food Program added.

People inspect the damage after Israeli attacks on al-Falah School, located in al-Zaytoun neighborhood of Gaza City, 30 June. Classrooms and areas of the school being used as shelters for displaced families were rendered unusable and uninhabitable in the attack. Omar Ashtawy APA images

On 28 June, the UN human rights office said that Israel was continuing to target tents sheltering displaced people in al-Mawasi, “killing entire families, while at the same time ordering Palestinians from other parts of Gaza to move to ‘known shelters,’” referring to al-Mawasi, despite the lack of safety and basic infrastructure.

Al-Mawasi is “almost completely lacking … shelter, water and sewage systems, solid waste removal, latrines and medical facilities.”

Humanitarian agencies “have repeatedly called for Israel to facilitate the access and entry of supplies to Gaza that are urgently required for the construction of shelters,” the UN office added.

The UN human rights office added that “the Israeli military has not publicly provided justification for any of the 112 attacks on tents recorded by our office” and it “could not identify any legitimate military objectives in the vicinity where these attacks took place.”

The Euro-Med Monitor stated on 29 June that “Israeli forces have intensified direct and deliberate attacks on Palestinian civilians, increasingly targeting shelters and tents.”

“These attacks reflect a deliberate policy aimed at forcible displacement and depopulation,” the human rights group added.

Israel is deliberately dismantling “the foundations of life, aiming to annihilate Palestinian society in Gaza and eliminate any prospect of reconstruction,” according to Euro-Med.

Israeli army demolishes Palestinian homes in Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank, 30 June. Mohammed Nasser APA images

On 30 June, 25 organizations – including Doctors Without Borders, Human Rights Watch and Physicians for Human Rights – demanded the release of health workers in Gaza and the West Bank arbitrarily detained by Israel.

“At least 185 healthcare workers from Gaza and the West Bank were estimated to be in Israeli detention as of February 2025,” the organizations said. “The conditions of many of those still detained remain unknown.”

The groups said that “many of those released have reported severe abuse, while some have died in custody,” and that the detentions “are part of a wider assault on Gaza’s health system.”

A wounded man is treated at Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, after the Israeli military attacked Palestinians waiting to receive humanitarian aid in Rafah, southern Gaza, 30 June. Moaz Abu Taha APA images

Palestinian authorities reported on 13 June that a Palestinian from the Tulkarm area of the West Bank died in Israeli custody after he was arrested on 17 May and transferred to an Israeli hospital on 9 June.

“According to the Palestinian Commission of Detainees’ Affairs, his death has raised to 26 the number of Palestinian detainees from the West Bank who have died in Israeli custody since 7 October 2023,” OCHA stated.

Another Palestinian detainee from the West Bank died in Israeli custody on 30 June.

According to Israeli Prison Service data provided to the Israeli human rights group Hamoked, as of June 2025, there were nearly 10,400 Palestinians being held by Israel, including some 3,500 administrative detainees held without charge or trial and more than 2,200 detainees held as “unlawful combatants.”

The data does not include Palestinians from Gaza detained by Israeli forces since October 2023 and about whom no information has been provided.

During June, the Israeli military recovered the bodies of seven Israelis, including a soldier, captured and taken into Gaza on 7 October 2023.

Fifty Israelis and foreign nationals remain in Gaza, including 20 who are believed to still be alive.

Text and production by Maureen Clare Murphy.

Click to expand Image Palestinian children suffering from malnutrition receive treatment at a healthcare center, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, March 4, 2024. © 2024 Mohammed Salem/Reuters

(Beirut, April 9, 2024) – Children in Gaza have been dying from starvation-related complications since the Israeli government began using starvation as a weapon of war, a war crime, Human Rights Watch said today. Doctors and families in Gaza described children, as well as pregnant and breastfeeding mothers, suffering from severe malnutrition and dehydration, and hospitals ill-equipped to treat them.

Concerned governments should impose targeted sanctions and suspend arms transfers to press the Israeli government to ensure access to humanitarian aid and basic services in Gaza, in accordance with Israel’s obligations under international law and the recent International Court of Justice order in South Africa’s genocide case.

“The Israeli government’s use of starvation as a weapon of war has proven deadly for children in Gaza,” said Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine director at Human Rights Watch. “Israel needs to end this war crime, stop this suffering, and allow humanitarian aid to reach all of Gaza unhindered.”

A United Nations-coordinated partnership of 15 international organizations and UN agencies investigating the hunger crisis in Gaza reported on March 18, 2024, that “all evidence points towards a major acceleration of death and malnutrition.” The partnership said that in northern Gaza, where 70 percent of the population is estimated to be experiencing catastrophic hunger, famine could occur anytime between mid-March and May.

Gaza’s Health Ministry reported as of April 1, that 32 people, including 28 children, had died of malnutrition and dehydration at hospitals in northern Gaza. Save the Children confirmed on April 2 the deaths from starvation and disease of 27 children. Earlier in March, World Health Organisation (WHO) officials found “children dying of starvation” in northern Gaza’s Kamal Adwan and al-Awda hospitals. In southern Gaza, where aid is more accessible but still grossly inadequate, UN agencies in mid-February said that 5 percent of children under age 2 were found to be acutely malnourished.

Human Rights Watch in March interviewed a doctor in northern Gaza, a volunteer doctor who has since left Gaza, the parents of two infants who doctors said died of starvation-related complications in both mother and child, and the parents of four other children suffering from malnutrition and dehydration.

Human Rights Watch reviewed the death certificate for one of the children, and photos of two of the children in critical condition that showed signs of emaciation. All had been treated at Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza.

Human Rights Watch health advisers also reviewed verified pictures and videos online of three other evidently emaciated children who died and four others in critical condition who also showed signs of emaciation.

Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, who heads Kamal Adwan hospital’s pediatrics unit, told Human Rights Watch on April 4 that 26 children had died after experiencing starvation-related complications in his hospital alone. He said that at least 16 of the children who died were under 5 months old, at least 10 were between 1 and 8 years old, and that a 73-year-old man suffering from malnutrition had also died.

Dr. Safiya said one of the infants died at just two days old after being born severely dehydrated, apparently exacerbated by his mother’s poor health: “[She] had no milk to give him.”

Click to expand Image N. age 11, is being treated for malnutrition and severe dehydration at Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, Gaza, March 25, 2024. © 2024 Mousa Salem/Anadolu via Getty Images

Nour al-Huda, an 11-year-old girl with cystic fibrosis, was admitted to Kamal Adwan hospital on March 15. Doctors there told her mother that Nour was suffering from malnutrition, dehydration, and an infection in her lungs, and administered her oxygen and a saline solution. “Nour al-Huda now weighs 18 kilograms [about 40 pounds],” her mother told Human Rights Watch. “I can see her chest bones sticking out.”

International humanitarian law prohibits the starvation of civilians as a method of warfare. The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court provides that intentionally starving civilians by “depriving them of objects indispensable to their survival, including willfully impeding relief supplies,” is a war crime.

Since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attacks in Israel, the Israeli government has deliberately blocked the delivery of aid, food, and fuel into Gaza, while impeding humanitarian assistance and depriving civilians of the means to survive. Israeli officials ordering or carrying out these actions are committing collective punishment against the civilian population and the starvation of civilians as a method of warfare, both of which are war crimes.

Israeli government actions that undermine the ability of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) to carry out its recognized role in distributing aid in Gaza have exacerbated the effects of the restrictions.

A doctor who volunteered at the European hospital in Khan Younis in southern Gaza for two weeks in late January said that medical staff were forced to treat patients with limited medical supplies. He described the difficulty of treating malnutrition and dehydration, lacking essential items such as glucose, electrolytes, and feeding tubes. He said that one patient’s mother, desperate for solutions, resorted to crushing potatoes to create a makeshift liquid for tube feeding. Despite its nutritional inadequacy, the doctor said, “I ended up telling my other patients to find potatoes and do the same.”

On January 26, the International Court of Justice, in a case brought by South Africa, ordered provisional measures, including requiring Israel to “take immediate and effective measures to enable the provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian aid” and other actions to comply with the 1948 Genocide Convention. On March 28, the court indicated that Israel had not complied with this order and imposed a more detailed provisional measure requiring the government to ensure the unimpeded provision of basic services and aid in full cooperation with the UN, while noting that “famine is setting in.”

Governments should impose targeted sanctions, including travel bans and asset freezes, against officials and individuals responsible for the continued commission of the war crimes of collective punishment, deliberate obstruction of humanitarian aid and using starvation of civilians as a weapon of war.

Several countries have responded to the Israeli government’s unlawful restrictions on assistance by airdropping aid. The United States also pledged to build a temporary seaport in Gaza. However, aid groups and UN officials have said such efforts are inadequate to prevent a famine. Another attempt to deliver aid by sea was halted after an Israeli attack on aid workers on April 1.

On April 4, the Israeli cabinet agreed to several measures to increase the amount of aid entering Gaza, apparently following pressure from the US government.

“Governments outraged by the Israeli government starving civilians in Gaza should not be looking for band-aid solutions to this humanitarian crisis,” Shakir said. “Israel’s announcement that it will increase aid shows that outside pressure works. Israel’s allies like the US, UK, France, and Germany need to press for full-throttle aid delivery by immediately suspending their arms transfers.”

Starvation in Gaza

Prior to the current hostilities, 1.2 million of Gaza’s then-2.2 million people were estimated to be facing acute food insecurity, and over 80 percent were reliant on humanitarian aid. Israel maintains overarching control over Gaza, including over the movement of people and goods, territorial waters, airspace, the infrastructure upon which Gaza relies, and the population registry. This leaves Gaza’s population, whom Israel has subjected to an unlawful closure for more than 16 years, almost entirely dependent on Israel for access to fuel, electricity, medicine, food, and other essential commodities.

Nonetheless, before October 7, large amounts of humanitarian assistance reached the population. “Before this crisis, there was enough food in Gaza to feed the population,” said WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “Malnutrition was a rare occurrence. Now, people are dying, and many more are sick.”

The WHO reported that the number of children under age 5 who are acutely malnourished has jumped from 0.8 percent before the hostilities in Gaza to between 12.4 and 16.5 percent in northern Gaza. Oxfam said on April 3 that since January, people in northern Gaza have been forced to survive on an average of 245 calories a day, “less than a can of fava beans.”

According to a nutrition vulnerability analysis conducted in March by the Global Nutrition Cluster, a network of humanitarian organizations chaired by UNICEF, 90 percent of children ages 6-23 months and pregnant and breastfeeding women across Gaza faced “severe food poverty,” eating two or fewer food groups each day.

Children with preexisting health conditions are particularly vulnerable to the devastating effects of malnutrition, which significantly weakens immunity. And starvation, even for survivors, leads to lasting harm, especially in children, causing stunted growth, cognitive issues, and developmental delays.

Gaza’s Health Ministry announced on March 8 that about 60,000 pregnant women in Gaza suffered from malnutrition, dehydration and inadequate health care. Poor nutrition during pregnancy harms both the baby and the mother, increasing the risk of miscarriages, fetal deaths, compromised immune system development, growth impacts, and maternal mortality.

Older people are also at particular risk of malnutrition, which increases mortality among those with acute or chronic illnesses. HelpAge International reported that even before October, 45 percent of older people in Gaza were going to bed hungry at least once a week, with 6 percent hungry every night.

The impact on Gaza’s population of the Israeli government’s use of starvation as a weapon of war is compounded by the near-total collapse of the healthcare system. Out of Gaza’s 36 hospitals, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), only 10 are operational, none of them fully, both as a result of the Israeli military’s repeated, apparently unlawful attacks on medical facilities, personnel, and transport, as well as the severe restrictions on the entry of fuel and other supplies.

Accounts from Gaza

On March 19, Andrea De Domenico, head of OCHA in the occupied Palestinian territory, visited Kamal Adwan hospital, where he said about 15 malnourished children arrive daily due to shortages in food, water, and proper sanitation. He described dire conditions at the hospital, noting damage to certain areas and its reliance on a single generator.

Click to expand Image F., age 6, experiencing malnutrition, receives treatment after being evacuated from the northern Gaza Strip to the IMC field hospital in Rafah, Gaza, March 24, 2024. © 2024 Ali Jadallah/Anadolu via Getty Images

Among the cases that Human Rights Watch investigated:

A man from Beit Lahia said his infant son, Abdelaziz, died just hours after his severely malnourished mother gave birth to him in Kamal Adwan hospital on February 24. He shared Abdelaziz’s death certificate with Human Rights Watch, which said that Abdelaziz was born premature. His father said that the hospital staff hooked Abdelaziz up to a ventilator because he was having trouble breathing, but that the ventilator stopped working after the hospital ran out of the necessary fuel a few hours later. “Abdelaziz died immediately,” he said. He expressed concern for his wife, who had been surviving on legumes and canned food, emphasizing their ongoing struggle to access adequate nourishment.

The father of newborn twin girls said that one of his babies, Joud, died at Kamal Adwan hospital on March 2 after suffering from malnutrition, eight days after she was born. He said that he struggled to feed his family prior to the girls’ birth, but that they only had bread to eat, without meat or protein. He said that after the twins’ birth, his wife could not produce milk to breastfeed the girls and that store-bought milk was scarce. He described Joud’s deteriorating condition, saying that her “limbs became very cold, and she was breathing very slowly.” His mother-in-law accompanied Joud to the hospital, where she later passed away. The father expressed concern for the health of the surviving twin.

Fadi, a 6-year-old boy from al-Nasser neighborhood in Gaza City, has cystic fibrosis, a genetic disorder that causes damage to the lungs. Fadi’s mother said that because of the Israeli blockade, she struggled to obtain the necessary medication and provide adequate nourishment. By mid-January, Fadi’s health had deteriorated to the point where he could no longer walk, prompting his hospitalization. “Fadi weighed 30 kilograms [about 66 pounds] before the war, now he is 12 [about 26 pounds],” she said. Fadi was evacuated from Kamal Adwan hospital on March 23 and was receiving treatment at a hospital in Cairo, a relative said on March 28.

Wissam Hammad, the uncle of 5-year-old Muhammad, who has cerebral palsy and is lactose and gluten-intolerant and can only eat blended food, had great difficulties in securing food for him:

Most of his food should be fruit and vegetables, which is what I try to buy. But all I can find and afford are oranges. The problem is that he cannot chew, so we need to break down the food for him. Everything is very expensive.

Dr. Ahmed Shahin, a pediatrician, said that before he could leave Gaza on November 16, Osman, his 14-year-old son with cerebral palsy, who uses a gastrostomy feeding tube, had lost seven kilograms (about 15 pounds) since the beginning of the hostilities because they lacked access to both the specific food he needed—such as vegetables—and electricity to blend his food.

Obstacles to Aid Delivery

Ongoing Israeli bombardment and ground operations, lack of security assurances from Israel, widespread infrastructure damage, and communications disruptions make it difficult to distribute the little aid that does get into Gaza. Humanitarian organizations have reported that Israeli forces have attacked their aid convoys and workers. Israeli forces have also shot at and shelled people congregating to collect aid, killing and injuring hundreds.

An Israeli government spokesperson stated on March 18 that aid entering Gaza faced no limits apart from security concerns. Other officials have blamed the UN for distribution delays and accused Hamas of aid diversion or the Gaza police of failing to secure convoys. On March 29, the Israeli Defense Ministry’s body governing civilian affairs in the Palestinian territories, COGAT, disputed the March 18 UN-supported humanitarian report warning of an imminent famine, and said that it “does not reflect the full situation.” COGAT denied that the Israeli government was purposely starving Gaza’s civilian population. Human Rights Watch wrote to COGAT on April 2 seeking comment on our findings, but did not receive a response as of the time of publication.

However, OCHA reported on April 8 that only one of four food aid missions that require coordination in Gaza were facilitated by Israeli authorities in March. Only nine World Food Programme aid shipments have made it to the north since January 1, the most recent of which was 18 truckloads on March 17. The World Food Programme said at least 300 trucks are needed every day for the north alone.

The United States has resorted to airdropping food into Gaza and plans to build a floating pier at sea to deliver aid, a proposal criticized by 26 nongovernmental organizations, including Human Rights Watch, as “risky, expensive, and ineffective.” UN Humanitarian Coordinator Jamie McGoldrick has stressed that road transport is the only viable solution for increasing aid flow.

The restrictions on aid delivery make accessing food for people requiring a specific diet particularly difficult. Several representatives of humanitarian organizations said that they have been unable to provide food for children on special diets or to reach them. A Palestine Children’s Relief Fund staff member said they could only provide baby formula and could not respond to the needs of children with specific diet requirements. Medical Aid for Palestine said the special food items they had in storage ran out quickly, and since then, they have been unable to find and provide those in need with specialized food items:

Assistance is barely coming in: a quarter of the population is at risk of famine. Under these circumstances, people with disabilities and [people in vulnerable situations] suffer the most. When you speak about food, it’s hard to support people who need a specific diet and medical assistance.

Following an Israeli airstrike in central Gaza on April 1, 2024, which hit three marked vehicles from the international food organization World Central Kitchen and killed seven aid workers from several countries, Cyprus announced that ships carrying around 240 tons of aid for Gaza would turn back. World Central Kitchen, Project Hope, and ANERA, all providers of food aid, suspended their Gaza operations in light of the attack, and the United Arab Emirates paused its involvement in a maritime aid corridor.

Necessary Cookies

This cookie is used to distinguish between humans and bots. This is beneficial for the web site, in order to make valid reports on the use of their web site.

Functional Cookies

Remembers the user’s selected language version of a website.

Performance/Analytical Cookies

Registers a unique ID that is used to generate statistical data on how the visitor uses the website.Used by Google Analytics to throttle request rate.

Accept Reject

Advertising/Marketing Cookies

This cookie is used to collect information on consumer behavior, which is sent to Alexa Analytics. (Alexa Analytics is an Amazon company.)