A teenager who went looking for food, an eight-year-old girl living in a camp for displaced Palestinians, and a man who endured months of malnutrition are among those who have died in Gaza in the past week.

On Thursday, the Hamas-run health ministry recorded two new deaths due to malnutrition in the past 24 hours, as aid agencies warned Israel’s siege of Gaza was causing “mass starvation” to spread across the territory.

An Israeli government spokesman denied this, saying Hamas was to blame for creating a food shortage and hijacking aid.

With the UN warning that humanitarian conditions in Gaza are breaking down at an “accelerating” pace, and the World Health Organization saying that at least 10% of Gazans are acutely malnourished, the BBC has been speaking to people in the territory about loved ones they’ve lost in the past week.

At least 37 Palestinians were killed on Wednesday while waiting for food at a crossing in the Gaza Strip, according to a local hospital that received the casualties.

The latest violence around aid distribution came as the US Middle East envoy was heading to Israel for talks.

Shifa Hospital in Gaza City said the dead and wounded were among crowds massed at the Zikim Crossing, the main entry point for humanitarian aid to northern Gaza.

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It was not immediately clear who opened fire and there was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which controls the crossing.

Palestinians rush to collect humanitarian aid (Abdel Kareem Hana/AP)

Israeli strikes and gunfire had earlier killed at least 46 Palestinians overnight and into Wednesday, most of them among crowds seeking food, health officials said.

Israel has come under mounting international pressure in recent days as its ongoing military offensive and blockade have led to the “worst-case scenario of famine” in the coastal territory of some two million Palestinians, according to the leading international authority on hunger crises.

US envoy Steve Witkoff, who has led the Trump administration’s efforts to wind down the nearly 22-month war and release hostages taken in the Hamas attack that sparked the conflict, will arrive in Israel on Thursday for talks on the situation in Gaza.

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Of those killed in the earlier violence, more than 30 were seeking humanitarian aid, according to hospitals that received the bodies and treated dozens of wounded people. Another seven Palestinians, including a child, died of malnutrition-related causes, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

The Israeli military did not immediately comment on any of the strikes. It says it only targets militants and blames civilian deaths on Hamas, because the group’s militants operate in densely populated areas.

Shifa Hospital in Gaza City said that it received 12 people who were killed on Tuesday night when Israeli forces opened fire towards crowds awaiting aid trucks coming from the Zikim Crossing.

Thirteen others were killed in strikes in the urban Jabaliya refugee camp, and the northern towns of Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun, the hospital said.

Palestinians inspect the site where an Israeli strike hit in Muwasi, Khan Younis (Mariam Dagga/AP)

In the southern city of Khan Younis, Nasser Hospital said it received the bodies of 16 people who it says were killed Tuesday evening while waiting for aid trucks close to the newly built Morag corridor, which the Israeli military carved out between Khan Younis and the southernmost city of Rafah.

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The hospital received another body of a man killed in a strike on a tent in Khan Younis, it said.

The Awda hospital in the urban Nuseirat refugee camp said that it received the bodies of four Palestinians. It said they were killed on Wednesday by Israeli fire close to an aid distribution site run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) in the Netzarim corridor area, south of the Wadi Gaza.

Under heavy international pressure, Israel announced a series of measures over the weekend to facilitate the entry of more international aid to Gaza, but aid workers say much more is needed.

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), the leading world authority on hunger crises, has stopped short of declaring famine in Gaza but said on Tuesday that the situation has dramatically worsened and warned of “widespread death” without immediate action.

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COGAT, the Israeli military body that facilitates the entry of aid, said more than 220 trucks entered Gaza on Tuesday. That is far below the 500-600 trucks a day that UN agencies say are needed, and which entered during a six-week ceasefire earlier this year.

The United Nations is still struggling to deliver the aid that does enter the strip, with most trucks unloaded by crowds in zones controlled by the Israeli military. The alternative aid system run by the Israeli-backed GHF has also been marred by violence.

Palestinians scramble for aid packages dropped into the Mediterranean Sea (Abdel Kareem Hana/AP)

More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed while seeking aid since May, most near sites run by GHF, according to witnesses, local health officials and the UN human rights office. The Israeli military says it has only fired warning shots at people who approach its forces, and GHF says its armed contractors have only used pepper spray or fired warning shots to prevent deadly crowding.

International airdrops of aid have also resumed, but many of the parcels have landed in areas that Palestinians have been told to evacuate while others have plunged into the Mediterranean Sea, forcing people to swim out to retrieve drenched bags of flour.

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A total of 89 children have died of malnutrition since the war began in Gaza. The ministry said that 65 Palestinian adults have also died of malnutrition-related causes across Gaza since late June, when it started counting deaths among adults.

Israel denies there is any starvation in Gaza, rejecting accounts to the contrary from witnesses, UN agencies and aid groups, and says the focus on hunger undermines ceasefire efforts.

Hamas started the war with its attack on southern Israel on October 7 2023, in which militants killed around 1,200 people and abducted 251 others. They still hold 50 hostages, including around 20 believed to be alive. Most of the rest of the hostages were released in ceasefires or other deals.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 60,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. Its count does not distinguish between militants and civilians. The ministry operates under the Hamas government. The UN and other international organisations see it as the most reliable source of data on casualties.

In the face of global anger, Israel announces planned humanitarian pause in civilian centres to enable aid distribution.

The Israeli military has killed dozens of people in Gaza as the starvation crisis in the territory deepens amid an international outcry, with more Palestinians dying of malnutrition.

Medical sources told Al Jazeera that Israeli attacks killed at least 71 people across Gaza on Saturday, including 42 desperately seeking aid.

The Ministry of Health in Gaza also said that hospitals have recorded five more deaths due to hunger caused by the Israeli blockade of the enclave, bringing the total death toll from malnutrition to 127 since the war began. The victims include 85 children.

With anger across the world mounting over the crisis, Israel announced late on Saturday that it would implement a pause to its assault “in civilian centers and in humanitarian corridors to enable the distribution of aid supply” on Sunday.

The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not specify which specific areas would see a “humanitarian pause”.

The ministry also again blamed the United Nations for failing to distribute assistance in Gaza, a claim that has been rejected by both the UN and multiple aid and rights groups.

UN officials have said that this Israeli talking point is false, stressing that they have not received the necessary permits to safely distribute aid in the besieged enclave.

Airdrops’ effect is ‘equivalent to none’

The Israeli military also said it carried out airdrops of international aid over Gaza. The United Arab Emirates, which has close economic and diplomatic ties with Israel, also said it will begin airdropping aid into Gaza “immediately”.

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But humanitarian experts have been warning since last year that airdrops are dangerous to people on the ground and cannot serve as a substitute for safe land routes to distribute food and medical supplies.

Earlier on Saturday, Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, called airdrops an expensive, inefficient “distraction” that would “not reverse the deepening starvation”.

Lazzarini called for Israel to “lift the siege, open the gates [and] guarantee safe movements [and] dignified access to people in need”.

Reporting from Gaza City, Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud raised questions over the newly announced Israeli steps.

He said the airdrops’ effect is “equivalent to none”.

“We’re talking about only seven pallets of aid filled with flour and other basic necessities. That’s almost the load of one truck, or half of a truck, coming from the crossings into the Gaza Strip,” Mahmoud said.

He cited witnesses who said the airdrops took place near a restricted military area in northern Gaza, making retrieving them in the dark especially difficult.

Equally, Israel’s plan to allow for so-called “humanitarian pauses” in Gaza starting on Sunday will have no major effect on the starvation crisis, Mahmoud said.

“Again, this is not a solution when we talk about passing the tipping point of this enforced starvation, and according to medical sources we spoke to earlier today, they confirmed that at this point we’re going to see mass scale starvation mortality,” he said.

As starvation spreads, Israel has pressed on with its daily bombardment of Gaza.

At least six people were killed in an Israeli drone attack on a tent camp in al-Mawasi near Khan Younis on Saturday. The area designated as a safe zone by Israel has come under constant deadly attack by its forces.

Meanwhile, the Civil Defence agency in Gaza says none of its vehicles will be able to offer lifesaving services soon due to disrepair and lack of fuel, calling on the international community to act.

“We stress the need for an urgent intervention to pressure the Israeli occupation authorities to allow fuel and repair parts for vehicles to enter,” the Civil Defence said in a statement.

While some Western countries have made strongly-worded statements against Israel’s policies in Gaza, advocates have been calling for real consequences to ensure accountability and deter further Israeli abuses. Punitive sanctions against Israel have been raised as possibilities.

Handala ship intercepted

Shortly after making its airdrops announcement, the Israeli military raided a ship of international activists carrying baby formula, food and medical supplies to Gaza.

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A livestream showed Israeli soldiers boarding and intercepting the Handala vessel with 19 activists onboard. The Freedom Flotilla Coalition, which organised the aid ship, said the vessel was violently seized in international waters.

“The unarmed boat was carrying life-saving supplies when it was boarded by Israeli forces, its passengers abducted, and its cargo seized,” the coalition said in a statement. “The interception occurred in international waters outside Palestinian territorial waters off Gaza, in violation of international maritime law.”

#handala has been intercepted by the israeli occupation forces pic.twitter.com/0Mw1gZUNyi — Freedom Flotilla Coalition (@GazaFFlotilla) July 26, 2025

It is not clear what will happen to the advocates. Last month, Israel intercepted the Madleen aid ship and towed it to an Israeli boat before detaining the activists, and then interrogating and deporting them.

Ann Wright, a member of the Freedom Flotilla Steering Committee, called for the protection of the international activists by their home countries.

“Protect innocent international people who are merely accompanying a small amount of aid – medical and food – as a symbol of the international outrage at what Israel is doing,” Wright told Al Jazeera.

The Gaza Government Media Office called the interception of Handala a crime of piracy.

“This blatant aggression represents a major violation of international law and the rules of maritime navigation, and it shows once more that the [Israeli] occupation acts like a bully outside the authority of the law,” the office said in a statement.

The statement by the 27 countries also says Israeli proposals to move Gaza’s entire 2.1 million into a so-called “humanitarian city” in the southern Rafah area are unacceptable, noting that “permanent forced displacement is a violation of international humanitarian law”.

They urge Israel, Hamas and the international community to “bring this terrible conflict to an end, through an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire”.

And they warn that they are “prepared to take further action to support an immediate ceasefire and a political pathway to security and peace”.

That is seen by many as code for recognising a state of Palestine, something many countries have done but not all, including the UK and France.

Israeli foreign ministry spokesperson Oren Marmorstein rejected the criticism.

“All statements and all claims should be directed at the only party responsible for the lack of a deal for the release of hostages and a ceasefire: Hamas, which started this war and is prolonging it,” he said.

“Instead of agreeing to a ceasefire, Hamas is busy running a campaign to spread lies about Israel. At the same time, Hamas is deliberately acting to increase friction and harm to civilians who come to receive humanitarian aid,” he added.

The Israeli military said earlier this month that it recognised there had been incidents in which civilians had been harmed while seeking aid and that it was working to minimise “possible friction between the population and the [Israeli] forces as much as possible”.

The Israeli military body responsible for co-ordinating aid, Cogat, also said on Monday that Israel “acts in accordance with international law and is leading efforts to facilitate the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza in co-ordination with the international organisations”.

A spokesperson for the GHF meanwhile appealed to UN agencies to join its operation while also blaming them for “stopping” work and for failing to deliver supplies across the territory.

Chapin Fay told journalists that he had been to border crossings where he saw aid supplies “rotting” because UN agencies would not deliver them.

The Israeli foreign ministry said on Sunday that 700 lorry loads of aid were waiting to be picked up by the UN from crossings.

The UN has said it struggles to pick up and distribute supplies because of the ongoing hostilities, Israeli restrictions on humanitarian movements, and fuel shortages.

The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

At least 59,029 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s health ministry.

Displaced Palestinians gather to receive aid from a Gaza Humanitarian Foundation aid distribution point at the so-called Netzarim corridor in the central Gaza Strip on July 30, 2025.

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Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli forces opened fire on Wednesday on Palestinians waiting to collect humanitarian aid in the northern Gaza Strip, giving a preliminary death toll of 30.

“At least 30 martyrs were killed … waiting for aid north of Gaza City,” civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP, adding that more than 300 were wounded.

Mohammed Abu Salmiya, director of Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, told AFP his facility received 35 bodies of people killed in the shooting.

The shooting reportedly happened near the coast, about three kilometres southwest of the Zikim crossing point for aid trucks entering the Gaza Strip from the north.

The Israeli army told AFP the reports were under review.

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The deadly shooting came hours after 14 Palestinians were killed in four other separate incidents in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, three of which occurred near aid distribution sites, the civil defence agency said.

In two of these incidents, the army said it had fired warning shots at people approaching the aid sites.

Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify tolls and details provided by the agency and other parties.

More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire while seeking aid since May, most near sites run by the Israeli-and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), according to witnesses, local health officials and the UN human rights office.

The Israeli military says it has only fired warning shots at people who approach its forces, and GHF says its armed contractors have only used pepper spray or fired warning shots to prevent deadly crowding.

The Gaza Strip has been in the grip of war for almost 22 months and now, according to a UN-mandated report, its two-million-plus inhabitants are facing an unfolding famine as Israel continues to restrict the amount of aid entering the besieged territory.

A total of 89 children have died of malnutrition since the war began in Gaza. The territory’s health ministry said that 65 Palestinian adults have also died of malnutrition-related causes across Gaza since late June, when it started counting deaths among adults.

Under heavy international pressure, Israel announced a series of measures over the weekend to facilitate the entry of more international aid to Gaza, but aid workers say much more is needed.

Read moreNo evidence Hamas stole Gaza humanitarian aid, USAID report shows

International airdrops of aid have also resumed, but many of the parcels have landed in areas that Palestinians have been told to evacuate while others have plunged into the Mediterranean Sea, forcing people to swim out to retrieve drenched bags of flour.

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, the leading world authority on hunger crises, has stopped short of declaring famine in Gaza but said Tuesday that the situation has dramatically worsened and warned of “widespread death” without immediate action.

Israel’s Gaza campaign was triggered by the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Of the 251 hostages taken during the attack, 49 are still being held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.

Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 60,138 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to figures from the territory’s health ministry.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP and AP)