Israeli officials have claimed Hamas is responsible for fabricating ‘cynical’ reports of mass starvation in Gaza despite warnings from the United Nations and more than a hundred international NGOs that Palestinians are beginning to die of hunger.

Gaza’s population of more than two million people is facing severe shortages of food and other essentials after some 21 months of war – particularly after Israel enacted a more than two-month-long blockade of the embattled Strip from March until May.

The UN in June condemned Israel’s ‘weaponisation of food’ in Gaza and called it a war crime, and on Monday, the UK, France and more than twenty other Western-aligned countries issued labelling Israel’s operations ‘unacceptable’.

Then on Tuesday, the UN’s human rights office reported Israeli forces had killed more than 1,000 Palestinians trying to get food at aid distribution points since the US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) started its operations in late May.

GHF rejected what it said were ‘false and exaggerated statistics’ from the United Nations.

That was followed this morning by the publication of an open letter signed by some 111 aid agencies, including Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and Oxfam, warning that ‘mass starvation’ was spreading in Gaza.

In response, an Israeli security official speaking on condition of anonymity told The Times of Israel that the Israeli Defence Forces ‘have not identified starvation (in Gaza) at this current point in time’ and accused Hamas of peddling starvation rumours as part of a pressure tactic amid the ongoing hostage negotiations.

‘This is a cynical and timed move aimed at creating international pressure on Israel,’ the official said, as an IDF spokesperson released footage of what he said was 950 food trucks parked in Gaza.

Palestinians gather to receive food in Khan Yunis, Gaza amid shortages of aid

Smoke rises over Khan Yunis after an Israeli attack on southern Gaza, on July 22, 2025

Palestinian boy Mosab Al-Debs, 14, who is malnourished according to medics, lies on a bed at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, July 22, 2025

IDF Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani shared a clip to social media that purported to show the trucks and large quantities of aid waiting in Gaza, declaring that it was up to ‘international organisations’ to pick up and distribute the aid to civilians

Today’s statement, signed by 111 international organisations, declared that Gazans were ‘wasting away’ due to the lack of nourishment after 21 months of war.

‘With supplies now totally depleted, humanitarian organisations are witnessing their own colleagues and partners waste away before their eyes.

‘The government of Israel’s restrictions, delays, and fragmentation under its total siege have created chaos, starvation, and death,’ it read.

Israel says humanitarian aid is being allowed into Gaza and accuses Hamas of exploiting civilian suffering, including by stealing food handouts to sell at inflated prices or shooting at those awaiting aid.

It has also accused the UN and international NGOs of not distributing aid appropriately.

Earlier this week, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) – an Israeli military body responsible for organising aid deliveries to Gaza – said that some 950 trucks worth of supplies are waiting on the Palestinian side of the Kerem Shalom and Zikim crossings.

IDF Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani shared a clip to social media that purported to show the trucks and large quantities of aid waiting in Gaza, declaring that it was up to ‘international organisations’ to pick up and distribute the aid to civilians.

The UN claims that COGAT refuses its requests to access and distribute the aid, pointing out that any aid convoys that do not have hard-to-obtain approvals come under fire from the IDF.

It comes after the US- and Israeli-backed GHF took control of aid delivery operations in late May after Israel lifted its months-long blockade of the Gaza Strip.

Reports from eyewitnesses and Gaza’s civil defence agency, as well as several video clips shared to social media, have provided evidence of Palestinians being shot at as they crush into GHF-administered distribution points.

Of the 1,054 people killed while trying to get food since late May, 766 were killed while heading to GHF sites, according to the UN human rights office, which said it compiled the figures from various on-the-ground sources and aid organisations.

The report from the UN came after 28 Western-aligned countries, including the UK, condemned in a joint statement what they called the ‘drip feeding of aid’ to Palestinians in Gaza and said it was ‘horrifying’ that they had been killed while seeking aid.

‘The Israeli government’s aid delivery model is dangerous, fuels instability and deprives Gazans of human dignity,’ the countries’ foreign ministers said in a joint statement. ‘The suffering of civilians in Gaza has reached new depths.’

Israel and the United States rejected the statement, blaming Hamas for prolonging the war by not accepting Israeli terms for a ceasefire and the release of hostages abducted in the militant-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023.

Hamas has said it will release the remaining hostages only in return for a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal. Israel says it will keep fighting until Hamas has been defeated or disarmed.

Thousands of Palestinians struggling with hunger in Gaza flock to the Zakim area in the north of the region to receive aid in Gaza on July 22, 2025

Smoke rises after an explosion in Gaza, as seen from the Israeli side of the Israel-Gaza border, July 22, 2025

Palestinians wait to receive food from a charity kitchen, amid a hunger crisis, in Gaza City, July 23, 2025

The UN claims that COGAT refuses its requests to access and distribute the aid currently waiting in Gaza, pointing out that any aid convoys that do not have hard-to-obtain approvals come under fire from the IDF

The director of Al-Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza, told AFP reporters on Tuesday that almost two dozen children had been recorded dead due to starvation in the past three days.

‘Twenty-one children have died due to malnutrition and starvation in various areas across the Gaza Strip,’ Mohammed Abu Salmiya said, adding that new cases of severe malnutrition were arriving at Gaza’s remaining functioning hospitals ‘every moment’.

Later Tuesday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called Gaza a ‘horror show’ with ‘a level of death and destruction without parallel in recent times’.

The Gaza Health Ministry, which is part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals, said the total number of deaths from starvation in the past three days was counted at 101 people, including 80 children, but these statistics could not be verified.

Israel does not allow international press into Gaza, but some media organisations have struck freelance deals with Palestinian journalists to cover the ongoing war inside the embattled territory.

AFP is currently working with four Pulitzer prize-nominated photographers inside Gaza, but the team say it has been forced to scale back its coverage due to the lack of food.

AFP journalist Omar Al-Qattaa poses for a picture in the Gaza Strip on December 26, 2024. AFP journalists in the Gaza Strip said Tuesday that chronic food shortages are affecting their ability to cover Israel’s conflict with Hamas militants

Men walk carrying sacks of flour that were taken from a raided truck carry sacks of flour after raiding a truck that was carrying foodstuffs, in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on July 22, 2025

Palestinians mourn for their relatives those who were killed in Israeli airstrike in Gaza Strip on July 23, 2025

Smoke rises after an explosion during Israeli air and ground operations in the Gaza Strip as seen from southern Israel, Tuesday, July 22, 2025

Bashar Taleb, 35, lives in the bombed-out ruins of his home in Jabalia al-Nazla, in northern Gaza.

‘I’ve had to stop working multiple times just to search for food for my family and loved ones,’ he said. ‘I feel for the first time utterly defeated emotionally.

‘I’ve tried so much, knocked on many doors to save my family from starvation, constant displacement and persistent fear but so far to no avail.’

Khadr Al-Zanoun, 45, in Gaza City, said: ‘Since the war began, I’ve lost about 30 kilos (66 pounds) and become skeletal compared to how I looked before the war,’ he said.

And Eyad Baba, 47, who lived in Rafah before being displaced to a refugee camp, said: ‘I can no longer bear the hunger. Hunger has reached my children and has shaken my resolve.

‘We’ve psychologically endured every kind of death during our press coverage. Fear and the sense of looming death accompany us wherever we work or live.’

Amid the reports that journalists were risking starvation, AFP called on Israel to allow the immediate evacuation of its freelance contributors and their families from the Gaza Strip.

In a statement, the French news agency said its freelancers faced an ‘appalling situation’ in Gaza.

‘For months, we have been witnessing, powerless, the dramatic deterioration of their living conditions,’ AFP said, adding that the situation had become untenable despite the ‘exemplary courage, professional commitment and resilience’ of its local team.

JAKARTA – A senior Israeli security official said on Tuesday that the country’s military has not yet identified a famine in the Gaza Strip, amid criticism of unprecedented hunger in Palestine, but stressed the need for action to “stabilize the humanitarian situation.”

The official, speaking to reporters on condition of anonymity, acknowledged a recent significant decrease in the amount of aid reaching Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, but blamed United Nations agencies for failing to collect and distribute food and supplies.

The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), the Israeli military and Defense Ministry agency responsible for coordinating aid deliveries to Gaza, said about 950 truckloads of aid are waiting to be collected by the UN from the Palestinian side at the Kerem Shalom and Zikim crossings.

The official said that, on its own, the aid currently waiting at the crossings to be collected is enough to meet the Gaza Strip’s food needs for two and a half weeks.

“We have not identified any famine at this time, but we understand that action is needed to stabilize the humanitarian situation,” the official said, adding that there may be difficulties in accessing food in some areas, which he said is a problem that needs to be addressed, according to The Times of Israel on July 23.

🎥 WATCH: 950 trucks worth of aid, currently waiting in Gaza❗️for international organizations to pick up and distribute to Gazan civilians. This is after Israel facilitated the aid entry into Gaza. pic.twitter.com/aQTR7Sryhs — LTC Nadav Shoshani (@LTC_Shoshani) July 22, 2025

This decision was made after a “deep assessment” of the humanitarian situation in Gaza conducted by COGAT, he said.

The official said COGAT has been negotiating with UN officials to try and resolve the growing number of aid shipments that have been allowed into Gaza but have not yet been distributed.

According to the official, there are no problems with aid reaching the crossings and entering Gaza, but the main obstacle is distribution itself.

In recent meetings, the official said the UN had agreed to distribute 70-80 trucks by Tuesday, but in practice, only 30 trucks were received.

The UN itself has repeatedly claimed that COGAT has denied requests for collection and distribution authorization, while the dangerous and complex conditions inside Gaza make aid distribution extremely difficult.

According to the UN, Israeli restrictions and permit denials are the reason for the backlog of aid at the border, as aid organizations are regularly prevented from delivering aid to warehouses and distribution sites.

Convoys that do not coordinate their travel with Israeli authorities and lack difficult-to-obtain permits have been targeted by deadly IDF attacks.

The official said the UN had made demands regarding the shipment that COGAT could not agree to, such as requiring Hamas police to escort the convoy, or allowing them to carry communications equipment that Israel feared could fall into the hands of the terror group.

Regarding the famine claims, the official said Hamas was exploiting the humanitarian situation in Gaza and conducting a propaganda campaign as part of a pressure tactic amid ongoing hostage negotiations.

Gaza residents are waiting for humanitarian aid. (Source: WAFA)

“This is a cynical and timely move aimed at creating international pressure on Israel,” the official said.

Earlier, the Hamas Ministry of Health said on Tuesday that hospitals in Gaza had recorded 15 deaths, including four children, “from starvation and malnutrition” in the past 24 hours, adding that this brought the total number of cases since the start of the war to 101, “including 80 children.”

The official said Israel can determine there is no widespread famine in Gaza based on how much aid reaches Gazans, saying, “We know the calorific value of each truckload that enters, and how many people it feeds.”

The official said COGAT has also spoken with Palestinians involved in aid distribution and obtained other intelligence indicating there is no famine.

In the past two months, about 4,500 aid trucks have entered Gaza, according to COGAT. Half of those trucks are headed to Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) distribution sites, and the other half are taken to warehouses owned by the UN and other approved aid organizations. In the past month, an average of 71 trucks entered Gaza daily, COGAT said.

However, the official said almost all aid trucks heading to the aid organization’s warehouse were looted by Gaza mobs, not Hamas.

Since the resumption of aid deliveries to Gaza on May 19, after a pause that began on March 2, Israel has established a new mechanism to prevent aid trucks from being taken over by Hamas, the official said.

This mechanism only allows international aid agencies registered with the Israeli Ministry of Diaspora Affairs to bring aid into Gaza, after strict security checks at border crossings.

The mechanism also sanctions aid groups and individuals who do not comply with Israeli requirements.

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More than 100 aid organizations warned on Wednesday that “mass starvation” was spreading in Gaza ahead of the U.S. top envoy’s visit to Europe for talks on a possible ceasefire and an aid corridor.

Israel is facing mounting international pressure over the catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Palestinian territory, where more than 2 million people face severe shortages of food and other essentials after 21 months of conflict, triggered by Hamas’s attack on Israel.

The U.N. said on Tuesday that Israeli forces had killed more than 1,000 Palestinians trying to get food aid since the U.S.- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation started operations in late May — effectively sidelining the existing U.N.-led system.

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(THE TIMES OF ISRAEL) Amid claims by the Hamas terror group of unprecedented starvation in the Gaza Strip in recent days, a senior Israeli security official said Tuesday that the military had not identified famine, while stressing that actions need to be taken to “stabilise the humanitarian situation.”

The official, speaking with reporters on condition of anonymity, acknowledged that recently there has been a significant drop in the amount of aid reaching Palestinians in the Strip, but blamed United Nations bodies for not collecting and distributing the food and supplies.

The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), the Israeli military and Defence Ministry body responsible for coordinating aid deliveries to Gaza, said that some 950 trucks worth of supplies are waiting to be collected by the UN from the Palestinian side of the Kerem Shalom and Zikim crossings.

The official said that, on its own, the aid currently waiting at the crossings for collection was enough to supply the Strip’s food needs for two and a half weeks.

“We have not identified starvation at this current point in time, but we understand that action is required to stabilise the humanitarian situation,” the official said, adding that there may be difficulties with accessibility to food in some areas, which he said was an issue that needs to be solved.

The determination came following a “deep assessment” of the humanitarian situation in Gaza held by COGAT, he said.

The official said that COGAT had sat down with UN officials to try and work out the deliveries of the mounting aid that has been allowed into Gaza but not distributed.

According to the official, there were no issues with the aid reaching the crossings and entering Gaza, but the main bottleneck was the distribution itself. During the recent meetings, the official said it was agreed that the UN would distribute 70–80 trucks on Tuesday, but in practice, only 30 were taken in.

The UN has repeatedly claimed that COGAT has refused its requests for collection and distribution authorisation, and that dangerous and complex conditions inside Gaza made aid distribution very difficult.

According to the UN, Israel’s restrictions and permit rejections are the reason for the mounting stockpiles of aid at the crossings, as aid organisations are regularly barred from transferring aid to warehouses and distribution sites. Convoys that don’t coordinate their travel with Israeli authorities and do not have hard-to-obtain approvals come under deadly IDF fire.

The official said that the UN has made requests that COGAT cannot agree to concerning the deliveries, such as demanding that Hamas police escort the convoys, or that they be allowed to bring in communication devices that Israel fears could end up in the terror group’s hands.

Regarding the famine claims, the official said that Hamas was taking advantage of the humanitarian situation in Gaza and carrying out a propaganda campaign as part of a pressure tactic amid the ongoing hostage negotiations. “This is a cynical and timed move aimed at creating international pressure on Israel,” the official said.

Hamas’s health ministry on Tuesday said that hospitals in Gaza had recorded 15 deaths, including four children, “due to famine and malnutrition” in the previous 24 hours, adding that it brought the total number of cases since the beginning of the war to 101, “including 80 children.”

The official said Israel can determine that there is no widespread famine in Gaza based on how much aid was reaching Gazans, saying, “We know the calorie value of each truck that enters, and how many people it is enough for.” The official said COGAT had also spoken with Palestinians involved in distributing the aid, and obtained other intelligence indicating there is no famine.

In the past two months, some 4,500 trucks of aid have entered Gaza, according to COGAT. Half of those trucks have headed to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation aid distribution sites, and the other half were taken to warehouses belonging to the UN and other approved aid organisations. In the past month, an average of 71 trucks entered Gaza each day, COGAT said.

Still, the official said that nearly all of the aid trucks heading to the aid organisation warehouses were looted by Gazan mobs, not Hamas.

Since the resumption of aid deliveries to Gaza on May 19, after a pause that started on March 2, Israel has established a new mechanism to prevent aid trucks from being taken over by Hamas, the official said.

The mechanism only allows for international aid bodies that are registered with Israel’s Diaspora Affairs Ministry to bring aid into Gaza, after rigorous security checks at the border crossings. The mechanism also places sanctions on aid groups and individuals who do not abide by Israel’s requirements.

The official said Hamas was trying to do everything it could to undermine the new aid mechanism, including the GHF distribution sites. International organisations have said that Israel’s refusal to name a viable governing alternative to Hamas has created a chaotic and desperate situation on the ground that has significantly marred aid distribution.

The US- and Israel-backed GHF system, which has been delivering aid in Gaza over the past two months under a mechanism aimed at diverting Hamas theft, has been plagued with problems.

The United Nations said Tuesday that more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces while trying to access food in Gaza since the GHF started aid distribution operations, apparently citing Hamas figures.

Israel has admitted to firing shots toward crowds of Palestinians approaching troops, but claims casualty figures are inflated, without presenting alternative tolls.

In addition to near-daily deadly shootings, it has forced Palestinians to walk long distances while crossing IDF lines to pick up aid. The GHF has also not been vetting the thousands of aid recipients picking up boxes of food, due to the utterly chaotic situation at distribution sites, so there is no way to confirm the humanitarian assistance is reaching its intended recipients. Hamas has come out strongly against the GHF, warning civilians not to cooperate with the organisation.

On Monday, over two dozen Western countries called for Israel to immediately end the war in Gaza and criticised what they described as “inhumane killing” of Palestinians, saying it was “horrifying” that civilians were being killed while seeking aid.