From 5h ago 07.45 BST More than 100 aid organisations warn of ‘mass starvation’ in Gaza More than 100 aid organisations warned on Wednesday that “mass starvation“ was spreading in Gaza, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports. 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 UN said on Tuesday that Israeli forces had killed more than 1,000 Palestinians trying to get food aid since the US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation started operations in late May – in effect sidelining the existing UN-led system. A statement with 111 signatories, including Doctors Without Borders (MSF), Save the Children and Oxfam, warned that “our colleagues and those we serve are wasting away”. The groups called for an immediate negotiated ceasefire, the opening of all land crossings and the free flow of aid through UN-led mechanisms. 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. In their statement, the humanitarian organisations said that warehouses with tonnes of supplies were sitting untouched just outside the territory, and even inside, as they were blocked from accessing or delivering the goods. The signatories said: Palestinians are trapped in a cycle of hope and heartbreak, waiting for assistance and ceasefires, only to wake up to worsening conditions. It is not just physical torment, but psychological. Survival is dangled like a mirage. The humanitarian system cannot run on false promises. Humanitarians cannot operate on shifting timelines or wait for political commitments that fail to deliver access. Share Updated at 07.49 BST

18m ago 12.28 BST Civil defence agency says 17 killed from Israeli strikes Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli strikes killed 17 people in the Palestinian territory on Wednesday, as Israel’s military said it was pressing on with its operations against Hamas militants, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports. Agency spokesperson Mahmud Bassal told AFP that eight people, including a pregnant woman, were killed in a single strike at 2.00am (11.00pm UK time on Tuesday) in Gaza City’s Tel Al-Hawa neighbourhood. Two others died in separate strikes in the city, three in the southern town of Bani Suheila, and four near a food distribution centre in central Gaza, he added. View image in fullscreen Palestinians inspect the site of an overnight Israeli airstrike on a house in Gaza City, 23 July 2025. Photograph: Mahmoud Issa/Reuters Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify tolls and details provided by the civil defence agency and other parties. The Associated Press (AP) reported earlier that 21 people had been killed by strikes across late Tuesday and early Wednesday. The agency said more than half of those killed were women and children, according to health authorities. Share Updated at 12.28 BST

39m ago 12.06 BST A former worker of the Israeli-backed logistics group, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), has told Israel’s Channel 12 outlet that the group’s aid centres put the Gaza population “in danger”, Al Jazeera reports. The US security guard said in an interview on Tuesday that the GHF system “has to be put an end to”. He described incidents during which GHF staff pepper sprayed and threw stun grenades at Palestinians, despite them appearing to pose no threat. He said: While the Palestinians were finishing collecting the aid that was at the site, the American security guards began shooting at them … shooting at their feet, shooting at the earthen embankments, to make them leave. In all my military service, I have never seen such use of force against unarmed civilians. I will not take part in it now. Share

54m ago 11.51 BST My colleagues Annie Kelly and Hoda Osman have written the below piece on how the lack of aid in Gaza is affecting medical staff. Doctors and medical staff in Gaza say their increasing hunger and the lack of available food is beginning to leave them too weak to provide urgent medical care to patients inside hospitals full of malnourished and injured civilians. Almost a dozen medical staff across the territory have told the Guardian and the Arabic Reporters for Investigative Journalism (ARIJ) of their increasingly desperate search for food and declining physical health due to hunger. “They are in a state of extreme exhaustion. Some have fainted in the operating rooms,” said Dr Mohammed Abu Selmia, the director of al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, who said that like the people of Gaza, staff had not received any aid or had any meals in the past 48 hours. “Medical services will be affected because our staff will not be able to hold out any longer in the face of this famine,” he added. Many of the doctors and medical practitioners who sent messages to the Guardian did not want to be named as they feared being targeted by the Israeli military. “Today I have been on a 24-hour shift,” said one physician at al-Shifa hospital. “At [the hospital] they are supposed to give us some rice for each shift, but today they told us there was none. My colleague and I [treated] 60 neurosurgery patients and right now I can’t even stand.” You can read the full piece here: Gaza doctors ‘becoming too weak to treat patients’ as hunger crisis deepens Gaza doctors ‘becoming too weak to treat patients’ as hunger crisis deepens Read more Share

1h ago 11.42 BST Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Wednesday condemned Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels for deadly attacks that sank two commercial vessels this month, calling them violations of the laws of war, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports. The Houthis struck the Magic Seas and Eternity C cargo ships in the Red Sea, part of a campaign against maritime traffic they accuse of having links to Israel, launched over the Gaza war. 15 people – including four confirmed dead – remain missing after the 7 July attack on the Eternity C. The Yemeni rebels claimed to have “rescued” an unspecified number of crew, whose whereabouts are still unknown. The attacks were “violations of the laws of war amounting to war crimes”, HRW said in a statement, adding it found “no evidence that the ships were military targets”. “They deliberately attacked commercial vessels that could clearly be identified as civilian,” the New York-based group said, adding that “detaining rescued crew members is also prohibited”. Rebel leader Abdel Malek al-Huthi justified the attacks, saying both ships belonged to companies serving Israeli ports. But HRW said the ships had no connection to Israel and were not heading there. Niku Jafarnia, HRW’s Yemen and Bahrain researcher, said: The Huthis have sought to justify unlawful attacks by pointing to Israeli violations against Palestinians. The Huthis should end all attacks on ships not taking part in the conflict and immediately release the crew members in their custody. Share

1h ago 11.25 BST Health ministry records 10 new deaths from malnutrition in Gaza Hospitals in Gaza have recorded 10 new deaths on Wednesday due to famine and malnutrition in the past 24 hours, according to the territory’s health ministry. It said in a statement on Telegram that the total number of deaths due to famine and malnutrition in Gaza had now risen to 111. In the letter issued on Wednesday by more than 100 human rights and charity groups, they warned of a dire situation pushing more people toward starvation. The groups said they were watching their own colleagues, as well as the Palestinians they serve, “waste away.”

The letter slammed Israel for what it said were restrictions on aid into the war-ravaged territory. View image in fullscreen Palestinians gather to receive food from a charity kitchen, amid a hunger crisis, in Gaza City on 23 July 2025. Photograph: Mahmoud Issa/Reuters It lamented “massacres” at food distribution points, which have seen chaos and violence in recent weeks as desperation has risen. The letter said: The government of Israel’s restrictions, delays, and fragmentation under its total siege have created chaos, starvation, and death. The letter called for aid to be scaled up as well as for a ceasefire. Share Updated at 11.26 BST

2h ago 11.01 BST Agence France-Presse (AFP) journalists in the Gaza Strip said on Tuesday that chronic food shortages are affecting their ability to cover Israel’s conflict with Hamas militants. Bashar Taleb, 35, is an AFP photographer who lives in the bombed-out ruins of his home in Jabalia al-Nazla, in northern Gaza. He said: I’ve had to stop working multiple times just to search for food for my family and loved ones. 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. Another photographer, Omar al-Qattaa, 35, is staying in the remains of his wife’s family’s home after his own apartment was destroyed. He said: I’m exhausted from carrying heavy cameras on my shoulders and walking long distances. We can’t even reach coverage sites because we have no energy left due to hunger and lack of food. Qattaa relies on painkillers for a back complaint, but said basic medicines were not available in pharmacies, and the lack of vitamins and nutritious food have added to his difficulties. Share

2h ago 10.49 BST Marwan al-Hams, acting director of Gaza’s field hospitals and the health ministry’s spokesperson, was detained by Israeli troops earlier this week in the Palestinian territory, the Associated Press (AP) reports.

Alaa al-Sakafi, head of Addameer, a Palestinian rights group, told the AP on Wednesday that lawyers have not been allowed to see al-Hams. His detention in a southern Israel prison was extended until the end of the month, al-Sakafi said.

He said al-Hams suffered from a gunshot wound in his leg, which he sustained during his detention in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah on Monday.

Israel has not commented on al-Hams’ detention. Share

2h ago 10.32 BST Israel has denied blocking of supplies to Gaza, announcing that 950 trucks’ worth of aid were in the territory and waiting for international agencies to collect and distribute it. An unnamed senior Israeli security official was quoted as saying by the Times of Israel: We have not identified starvation at this current point in time but we understand that action is required to stabilise the humanitarian situation. Share

2h ago 10.18 BST Al Jazeera reports Hamas has called on “all the people of the free world” to organise demonstrations from 25 July until “the siege is broken and the famine ends” in Gaza. The outlet quoted the group as saying in a statement published on Telegram: People are dying of hunger and malnutrition, and famine is making its deadly presence felt in the faces of children, mothers, and the elderly, amidst a suspicious global silence, and the absence of any action that rises to the scale of the catastrophe. Let the coming days be a resounding cry in the face of the occupation, and a disgrace to the silent ones. Share Updated at 10.19 BST

3h ago 10.05 BST Here are some of the latest photos of Gaza coming to us through the wires: View image in fullscreen A Palestinian boy inspects the site of an overnight Israeli airstrike on a house in Gaza City, on Wednesday, 23 July 2025. Photograph: Mahmoud Issa/Reuters View image in fullscreen A mourner carries the body of a Palestinian, who according to the medics, was killed in overnight Israeli strikes outside al-Shifa hospital in Gaza on Wednesday. Photograph: Mahmoud Issa/Reuters View image in fullscreen Debris lies at the site of an overnight Israeli airstrike on a house, in Gaza City, on Wednesday. Photograph: Mahmoud Issa/Reuters View image in fullscreen Mourners pray near the body of a Palestinian during a funeral at al-Shifa hospital in Gaza on Wednesday. Photograph: Mahmoud Issa/Reuters Share

Babies that were just whispers of skin and bone died as their mothers were too starved to produce milk to feed them.

Even the medics trying to treat the malnourished at Shifa Hospital in north Gaza are so hungry and sick themselves that some have fainted and been treated with intravenous fluids.

Palestinian health officials say at least 101 people have died of hunger during the conflict, including 80 children, most of them in recent weeks. Even people trying to get food from aid sites are putting their lives at risk. The U.N. human rights office said Tuesday that more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since May while trying to get food in the strip, mostly near aid sites run by an American contractor.

As more than 100 human rights groups and charities demand more aid for Gaza in a letter published on Wednesday, a doctor has revealed the scale of the horror as the besieged enclave’s food crisis continues to deepen.

Charities have warned the crisis is only getting worse (AFP/Getty)

Shifa Hospital’s director, Mohammed Abu Salmiya, told The Independent that at least three children have died from malnutrition in his own wards alone.

“The children arrived in a critical condition. They were just skin and bones. All vital organs were failing. They were on their last gasp,” he said in desperation.

“There is no baby formula. There is no food. Even the milk in the mothers’ breasts has dried up.”

He said his own staff are also hungry, working day and night shifts with no food, and often unable to help.

“Some medical staff were admitted to the hospital to receive intravenous fluids,” he added.

The head of the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency said on Tuesday that its staff, as well as doctors and humanitarian workers, were fainting on duty in Gaza due to hunger and exhaustion.

“No one is spared: caretakers in Gaza are also in need of care. Doctors, nurses, journalists and humanitarians are hungry,” UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said.

Mona al-Raqab lifts the shirt of her 5-year-old son, Osama al-Raqab, revealing signs of malnutrition and worsening cystic fibrosis (AP)

Israeli forces have, according to Palestinian health officials, killed nearly 60,000 Palestinians in its unprecedented bombardment of Gaza in response to attacks on Israel by the Hamas militants that killed 1,200 people and captured at least 250 hostages in October 2023. The latest Israeli strikes killed at least 21 people late Tuesday and early Wednesday.

But for the first time since the war began, Palestinian officials say people are now dying of hunger by the dozens.

A top UN official has blamed Israel for subjecting Gaza to a “forced starvation” with its blockade on aid. On Tuesday the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres called the situation for the 2.3 million residents of the Palestinian enclave a “horror show” as the humanitarian system has collapsed.

Rights groups like Amnesty International have said there is evidence pointing to “Israel’s continued use of starvation to inflict genocide against Palestinians”.

At the same time there have been multiple massacres at food distribution points.

Palestinians hold onto an aid truck returning to Gaza City (Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

The World Food Programme said crowds of Palestinians desperate to get aid from a rare WFP convoy that entered Gaza on Sunday “came under fire from Israeli tanks, snipers and other gunfire”. Eyewitnesses told The Independent they were shelled and shot while trying to get bags of flour. In total, the UN has confirmed that over 870 Palestinians have been killed while trying to seek aid at distribution points.

The Independent reached out to the Israeli military for comment but has yet to receive a reply. Israel has repeatedly and vehemently denied committing any crimes in Gaza, including weaponising hunger or targeting civilians at aid distribution points. The Israeli authorities have repeatedly accused Hamas of stealing aid to fuel its own warfare.

On Monday, COGAT – the Israeli military agency overseeing aid deliveries into Gaza – said there is “no ban or restriction on the entry of baby formula or baby food into Gaza”. “Our commitment remains firm: to support humanitarian aid for civilians, not for Hamas,” it said.

However, the reality on the ground has become so horrifying that Israel is facing mounting pressure from its allies to end the war and allow unfettered aid in.

Injured Palestinians are transferred to an ambulance after being wounded while waiting for aid (Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

On Tuesday, the UK’s foreign secretary David Lammy suggested in interviews with broadcasters Israel could face further sanctions from the UK if it does not agree to a ceasefire in Gaza, adding he feels “appalled” and “sickened” by Israel’s actions. The day before, he had joined counterparts from 24 other nations, including Canada and Japan, in issuing a rare blunt statement warning that the suffering of civilians in Gaza has reached “new depths”, and urging Israel that the war must “end now”.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen , meanwhile said on Tuesday that images of civilians killed during the distribution of aid were “unbearable” and urged Israel to deliver on pledges to improve the situation.

Aid agencies and news organisations have sounded the alarm about their staffers.

The journalists’ association of the French wire service Agence France-Presse (AFP) warned on Monday that staff working with the agency in Gaza are at risk of starvation and that “without intervention, the last reporters in Gaza will die.”

Displaced Palestinians receive donated food at a community kitchen in Gaza City, northern Gaza Strip (Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

The Norwegian Refugee Council, said its aid stocks were now depleted and some of its own staff were starving. “Our last tent, our last food parcel, our last relief items have been distributed. There is nothing left,” its director Jan Egeland told Reuters. “Israel is not yielding. They just want to paralyse our work,” he said.

On the ground, civilians said they are nearing the end.

“Three days ago, flour almost disappeared, and the price of a kilo reached $50 [£37],” said Ihab Abudallah, a university lecturer who has to support a family of nine.

“We are in a situation where we cannot buy food even if we have money.”

Wajih Al-Najjar, 70, from Gaza City, who is supporting a family of 13, said that a kilo of rice had reached $30 [£22] and a kilo of sugar had reached nearly $100 [£74].

“We have all become hungry and can barely eat one meal a day if we can afford it,” he said. “People are forced to go to death in search of some aid.”

The MSF official says patients with gunshot wounds, blast injuries, or shrapnel-related internal damage often undergo complex procedures, but their weakened nutritional state is preventing proper healing,

A growing number of patients in Gaza are suffering complications from malnutrition that are delaying recovery and worsening outcomes, as Israel’s aid blockade continues, a Doctors Without Borders (MSF) official has warned.

“We’re absolutely expecting a rise in malnutrition-related pathology and challenges of treating patients who are malnourished,” Dr. Mohammed Fadlalla, MSF’s medical activity manager based in southern Gaza, told the Anadolu news agency. “We’ve already seen it. We’ve already experienced it, and the situation is only going to get worse as this blockade continues.”

Medical sources in Gaza hospitals reported four deaths since dawn on Tuesday, including two children, due to malnutrition and dehydration. pic.twitter.com/iPSJHhuDWq — The Palestine Chronicle (@PalestineChron) July 22, 2025

Fadlalla said malnutrition is severely affecting trauma recovery, particularly in surgical cases, the report stated.

Patients with gunshot wounds, blast injuries, or shrapnel-related internal damage often undergo complex procedures, but their weakened nutritional state is preventing proper healing, it added.

Low Immunity

In many cases, Fadlalla noted, intestinal repairs fail days or even weeks after surgery, leading to dangerous complications such as bowel leaks and infections.

“We have patients coming in with large areas of burns on their skin, and these open wounds that develop are taking a lot longer to heal than they would because the skin and the tissue just don’t have enough amount of nutrition, don’t have enough building blocks to build itself back together,” he said.

⛔️ Empty aid trucks wait at Israel-Gaza crossing to load food, flour, and humanitarian supplies under the coordination of the World Food Program (WFP) Israel does not allow the entry of humanitarian aid trucks into the Gaza Strip ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/SP0jsHdb3F — Anadolu English (@anadoluagency) July 22, 2025

Fadlalla stressed that “We’re seeing it in increasing rates of infections because the body relies on a good nutritional status to be able to fight off infections,” adding that the “body’s natural immunity is based on having a robust nutritional status.”

The health system itself is stretched thin — not only in treating patients but also in sustaining its own workers, the report stated.

“The hospital is struggling to offer the patients enough food while they’re admitted, but it’s even having difficulty in its doctors, its nurses, and its staff having enough food to be able to take care of the patients,” said Fadlalla.

Staff Getting Weaker

The MSF official described the broader food situation in Gaza as “extremely grim” with prices continuing to rise, supplies being scarce, and even those with money often finding empty markets.

“Day by day, patients, people, staff, the public, is getting weaker, more tired, more frustrated, more disheartened,” Fadlalla said.

Calling for sustained humanitarian access and an end to delays in aid distribution, he said what is “urgently needed more than anything at this time is for a lot of aid trucks to be let in, and aid to be distributed in a way that’s devoid of cruelty, and in a distribution that’s widespread and continuous.”

We have 983 colleagues in Gaza, Palestine, who are tirelessly working through the Israeli forces’ destruction of the healthcare system in the Strip. This is how they cared for people in the last 4 weeks: pic.twitter.com/wrtC5Xb84A — MSF International (@MSF) July 20, 2025

Months of blockade and food scarcity, he warned, have depleted Gaza’s population, and “to reverse that is not going to be a few days or a few weeks of adequate supply.”

“It’s going to have to be a sustained allowance of adequate numbers of food trucks filled with a variety of different types of nutrients,” he emphasized.

Escalating Death Toll

According to a Gaza Health Ministry statement on Monday, the total number of Palestinians killed while attempting to access food aid has risen to 1,026 with the number of injuries amounting to over 6,536, since the end of May.

Israel has killed more than 59,100 Palestinians, most of them women and children, and injured over 142,000 in Gaza since its devastating military campaign began on October 7, 2023.

(Anadolu, PC)

Nidal al-Mughrabi, Olivia Le Poidevin and Hatem Khaled

Reuters

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CAIRO/GENEVA/GAZA, May 7 (Reuters) – Palestinian baby Jenan Alskafi died in Gaza on Saturday after malnutrition and digestive problems, which her doctor said could not be treated because of a total Israeli blockade that aid agencies believe is undermining the entire population’s health.

The four-month-old needed hypoallergenic milk formula – a normally common product now absent in Gaza – to help her with chronic diarrhea that caused malnutrition and left her too weak to fight infection, her doctor Ragheb Warsh Agha said from the Rantissi hospital in northern Gaza where Jenan died.

“I was torn into a thousand pieces,” said Jenan’s mother Aya Alskafi, describing the death of her baby, whose name means “paradise” in Arabic and who, according to her doctor, lost nearly half her bodyweight in her final days.

Israel cut most supplies into Gaza when the war began on October 7, 2023 with a Hamas attack, and although it allowed more aid into the enclave during a ceasefire from January, it imposed a total blockade when its devastating and deadly military campaign resumed in March.

The Israeli prime minister’s office did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on malnutrition levels in Gaza and reports that vulnerable people, including children requiring supplements, had died as a result of the blockade.

Israeli officials have said they do not believe Gaza faces a hunger crisis, that enough aid has entered to sustain the enclave’s population, and that they want to stop supplies coming under the control of Hamas.

Israel has also said it plans to expand its campaign, causing deepening distress for displaced Gazans.

With Gaza’s fields inaccessible to civilians and its seas barred to fishermen, the territory depends almost entirely on food from outside, but the last delivery Israel allowed was on March 2, the final day of the ceasefire.

The United Nations and international aid agencies warn of an unfolding catastrophe, with U.N. humanitarian agency OCHA saying more than 2 million people – most of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million – face severe food shortages.

Malnutrition is severely affecting children, pregnant women and people with chronic conditions, while also delaying the recovery of patients with serious war injuries, as aid stocks near depletion, several agencies said.

“The situation is getting worse every day. We have between 9,000-10,000 children who are treated for malnutrition,” said Jonathan Crickx, communications head at the U.N. children’s agency UNICEF.

Hunger is a particular problem because as well as hindering children’s cognitive and physical development it weakens their immune systems and nearly all Gaza’s people are homeless from the destruction caused by Israel’s military campaign.

“You have a big pile of rubbish on top of which children are digging for a little bit of food. This is extremely concerning because it will definitely increase the number of children dying from preventable diseases,” Crickx said.

The Gaza Health Ministry said at least 65,000 children have shown symptoms of malnutrition and the Gaza government media office said at least 57 people, mostly children, had died as a result of malnutrition since Israel closed the crossings on March 2. Both bodies are run by Hamas.

The Israeli prime minister’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the numbers.

MALNUTRITION

Hunger is not only aggravating health problems for children.

Medical charity MSF said it was seeing an increase in patients coming to hospitals with chronic diseases such as diabetes and hypertension who lack enough food or food with sufficient protein, nutrients and vitamins.

An MSF clinic in Gaza City has also seen more patients coming for treatment of severe wounds, their conditions worsened by lack of access to food and clean water, the charity said.

“We have to keep cases for months in the hospital while in a normal situation, they would have been treated in a few weeks,” said MSF medical coordinator Julie Faucon.

There are 350,000 patients with chronic conditions in Gaza, including cancer and diabetes, according to U.N. data.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society, the local affiliate of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, said it had no medication left for heart disease, hypertension, or diabetes, and no stocks of nutritional supplements or infant formula.

“Ambulances can barely run. Without food, water, medical supplies, or fuel, survival is becoming even more difficult. Humanitarian aid must enter into the Gaza Strip,” it said in a statement to Reuters.

Pregnant women are at particular risk. “We stand up and get dizzy due to a lack of food. There are no eggs, meat, food, or drink. We are tired. We came to get pills, if we can find them, just so we can stand and move,” said Ola al-Kafarna, a displaced pregnant woman.

Between 10-20% of 4,500 surveyed pregnant and breastfeeding women are malnourished, the World Health Organization reported in April. Malnourished pregnant women face issues including anemia, fatigue and preterm labour.

“They [mothers] are not getting enough calories a day and they are not producing milk. It’s very difficult at the same time to find infant formula,” Faucon said.

(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi and Olivia Le Poidevin. Additional reporting by Hatem Khaled and Ebrahim Hajaj in Gaza and Ismail Khader in Ramallah. Editing by Angus McDowall and Aidan Lewis)

At least 115 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces across the Gaza Strip on Sunday, in what local authorities described as a deadly escalation of violence against civilians trying to obtain food. The majority of the victims – 92 people – were shot near food distribution sites in Zikim in the north, and in Rafah and Khan Younis in the south, according to Gaza’s health ministry.

In Zikim, Israeli troops opened fire on crowds gathered in hopes of receiving flour from a UN convoy. Medical sources reported that 79 people were shot in that incident alone. Further south, nine more Palestinians were killed near an aid distribution point in Rafah, just a day after 36 others were killed in the same area. Another four were shot dead in Khan Younis while trying to access humanitarian supplies.

One of the survivors, Rizeq Betaar, said he helped transport a wounded youth to the hospital using a bicycle. “We tried to save him. But there is nothing left here – no ambulances, no food, no life,” he said. Osama Marouf, another man present during the Zikim shootings, described attempting to save an elderly man. “He was like my father,” he said, breaking down. “May God give us strength to endure.”

The Israeli military acknowledged the shootings, claiming its forces had fired “warning shots” to deter what it called an “immediate threat” to troops. It did not provide further details or evidence to support the claim.

The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) strongly disputed that version of events, saying the people shot were civilians trying to reach food. The WFP stated that its 25-truck convoy had cleared Israeli checkpoints when it encountered a large crowd near Zikim. Moments later, gunfire erupted. “The surrounding crowd came under fire from Israeli tanks, snipers and other gunfire,” the agency said.

The WFP accused Israel of failing to honor prior assurances that its military would not interfere with humanitarian routes. “The hunger crisis in Gaza has entered a new phase,” the agency warned. “Malnutrition is skyrocketing, with 90,000 women and children needing urgent treatment. Nearly one in three people are going days without eating.” It called for an immediate scale-up in aid deliveries to prevent further catastrophe.

Gaza’s Ministry of Health said at least 19 people died of starvation on Sunday alone, and warned that hundreds more suffering from severe malnutrition are at imminent risk of death. Since the war began, 71 children have reportedly died from hunger, and tens of thousands more show signs of serious undernourishment.

At GHF (Gaza Humanitarian Foundation) distribution points in Rafah and Khan Younis, Israeli forces killed at least 13 more people on Sunday. These attacks brought the number of aid seekers killed at or near GHF sites since May to nearly 1,000, according to the Palestinian Civil Defence.

One man, Ahmed Hassouna, described how an Israeli tank opened fire on the crowd near the GHF site. “They started gassing us. We barely escaped with our lives,” he said. The GHF has faced criticism from humanitarian agencies for operating under Israeli military protection, often using private contractors to distribute aid in controlled zones.

Philippe Lazzarini, head of UNRWA, condemned the situation, saying that aid is sitting just kilometers from those starving inside Gaza. “This is a man-made crisis allowed to continue with complete impunity,” he said. UNRWA reportedly has enough aid stored at the border to feed Gaza’s population for months but has been unable to deliver it since Israel shut crossings on March 2.

In the U.S., the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) denounced Israel’s actions, calling the ongoing attacks on starving civilians a “human tragedy” enabled by U.S. weapons and political complicity. CAIR’s national executive director Nihad Awad said Western governments would be remembered for their silence in the face of what he described as genocide.

Doctors in Gaza report growing numbers of patients arriving at hospitals too weak to stand. Dr Mohammed Abu Afash, director of the Palestinian Medical Relief Society, said hunger-related illnesses have surged beyond their capacity to treat. “We are heading into the unknown,” he said. “This is a disaster in the making.”

Meanwhile, Israeli forces reportedly killed 67 Palestinians near UN aid trucks in northern Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. The WFP said its convoy had just entered the area when gunfire broke out. The IDF again claimed it fired only “warning shots” in response to a threat, but did not elaborate or confirm the casualty figures.

Overwhelmed medical staff at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City received dozens of victims. One woman outside the hospital said simply, “The whole population is dying. Children are starving. All we have is water and salt.”

The Palestinian Civil Defence later raised the total number of Palestinians killed by Israeli fire across Gaza on Sunday to 93, including 80 in the north, nine in Rafah, and four in Khan Younis.

Residents described scenes of chaos and desperation. Qasem Abu Khater told AFP that he went out hoping to get a bag of flour, but was caught in a deadly stampede. “The tanks fired randomly. Snipers picked people off like animals,” he said.

The WFP reiterated its alarm in a public statement, noting that “nearly one in three Gazans are not eating for days” and warning that aid disruptions are pushing the territory to the brink of famine.

On Saturday alone, another 32 people were killed by Israeli fire near food distribution points in southern Gaza, according to the health ministry. These incidents have become near-daily occurrences since late May.

In a separate development, the Israeli military issued evacuation orders for parts of Deir al-Balah, a city in central Gaza where no ground operations have yet been launched. Leaflets dropped from the air instructed tens of thousands of people, many already displaced, to relocate to al-Mawasi on the coast. The move triggered panic among residents and raised fears of an impending ground assault.

Israeli officials told Reuters that the army had stayed out of the targeted neighborhoods until now because it suspects hostages may be held there. It is believed that 20 of the remaining 50 hostages taken on October 7, 2023, are still alive.

Deir al-Balah is overcrowded, filled with families living in tents after repeated displacements since the start of the war. Most of Gaza’s 2.2 million residents have been forced to flee multiple times during the conflict.

On Sunday, Pope Leo XIV called for an immediate end to the violence and condemned the “indiscriminate use of force.” His remarks followed an Israeli strike that damaged Gaza’s only Catholic church, prompting a rare expression of regret from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Israel began its offensive in response to the Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023, which killed about 1,200 people and resulted in 251 hostages being taken. Since then, the death toll in Gaza has surpassed 58,895, according to the health ministry, figures cited by the UN and international observers as the most reliable currently available.

Sources: