More than 100 aid groups warn of ‘mass starvation’ in Gaza amid Israel’s war with Hamas
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Live updates: Gaza starvation warning from aid agencies as Israel urged to end blockade
111 international humanitarian organizations call on Israel to end its blockade of Gaza. They say supplies in the enclave are now “totally depleted” and that humanitarian groups are “witnessing their own colleagues and partners waste away before their eyes” Israel has previously blamed Hamas for its decision to halt aid shipments, alleging the militant group was stealing supplies and profiting from it.
A coalition of more than 100 international humanitarian organizations has called on Israel to end its blockade of Gaza, restore the full flow of food, clean water and medical supplies to the enclave, and agree to a ceasefire.
In a joint statement the 111 agencies warned that supplies in the enclave are now “totally depleted” and that humanitarian groups are “witnessing their own colleagues and partners waste away before their eyes.”
“As the Israeli government’s siege starves the people of Gaza, aid workers are now joining the same food lines, risking being shot just to feed their families,” the agencies said in the statement.
Israel has previously blamed Hamas for its decision to halt aid shipments, alleging the militant group was stealing supplies and profiting from it. Hamas has denied this allegation.
Israeli agencies have also blamed UN agencies, accusing them of not picking up aid that is ready to move into Gaza. But the UN asserts that Israeli forces frequently deny permission to move aid within the enclave, and that much more is waiting to be allowed in.
Major agencies including Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), Amnesty International, and the Norwegian Refugee Council are among the signatories of the statement.
For context: Gaza was already heavily dependent on aid and commercial shipments of food even before Israel launched its war on Hamas following the October 2023 attack, and shortages of food, medical supplies, fuel and other necessities have only worsened since.
The agencies criticized the controversial Israeli- and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which began operating on May 27. The organizations said shootings occurred almost daily at food distribution sites.
Israel kills dozens in Gaza strikes, aid groups warn of famine
Israel’s brutal attacks on the Gaza Strip continued on Wednesday, with at least 17 people killed across the enclave since dawn. Those killed include seven people who were struck by an Israeli drone in the town of Bani Suheila, east of Khan Younis.
Those killed include seven people who were struck by an Israeli drone in the town of Bani Suheila, east of Khan Younis, according to medical sources from the Nasser Hospital.
The Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that seven other people, including children, were killed in a strike on an apartment in Tel Al-Hawa southwest of Gaza City.
Amid the strikes, the man-made famine in Gaza continued to claim casualties, with over 100 aid groups warning on Wednesday that “mass starvation” was spreading in the enclave, and that “survival is dangled like a mirage.”
The head of the al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City said that over the last 72 hours, 21 children have died from malnutrition and starvation.
Israel’s war on Gaza, which has been ongoing for 21 months, has killed at least 59,106 people and wounded a further 142,511 more according to the Gaza health ministry, but the true death toll is believed to be much higher.
Gaza facing man-made ‘mass starvation’, says WHO’s Tedros
World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Gaza is suffering man-made mass starvation. He spoke following an appeal by more than 100 aid agencies warning of hunger in Gaza. Israel cut off all supplies to the territory in March and then lifted that blockade in May. Israel says it is committed to allowing in aid but must control it to prevent it from being diverted by militants. It says it has let enough food into Gaza during the war and blames Hamas for the suffering of Gaza’s 2.2 million people. The WHO said the deadly surge in malnutrition has caused the deaths of at least 21 children reported to the agency in 2025, but stressed those figures are likely the tip of the iceberg.
Item 1 of 4 Palestinians gather to receive food cooked by a charity kitchen, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in the northern Gaza Strip, September 11, 2024. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa/File Photo
July 23 (Reuters) – Gaza is suffering man-made mass starvation caused by a blockade on aid into the Palestinian enclave, World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday.
He spoke following an appeal by more than 100 aid agencies warning of hunger in Gaza while tons of food, clean water and medical supplies sit untouched just outside the territory.
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“I don’t know what you would call it other than mass starvation, and it’s man-made, and that’s very clear,” Tedros told a virtual press conference live-streamed from Geneva. “This is because of (the) blockade.”
Gaza’s food stocks have run out since Israel, at war with Palestinian militant group Hamas since October 2023, cut off all supplies to the territory in March and then lifted that blockade in May – but with restrictions that it says are needed to prevent aid from being diverted to militant groups.
As a result, international aid agencies say that only a trickle of what is needed is currently reaching people in Gaza.
Israel says it is committed to allowing in aid but must control it to prevent it from being diverted by militants. It says it has let enough food into Gaza during the war and blames Hamas for the suffering of Gaza’s 2.2 million people.
Ten more Palestinians died overnight from starvation , the Gaza health ministry said, bringing the total number of people who have starved to death to 111, most of them in recent weeks as a wave of hunger crashes on the Palestinian enclave.
The WHO said the deadly surge in malnutrition has caused the deaths of at least 21 children reported to the agency in 2025, but stressed those figures are likely the tip of the iceberg.
Centres for treating malnutrition are full without sufficient supplies for emergency feeding, the WHO added, as the hunger crisis has been compounded by the collapse of aid pipelines and restrictions on access.
Tedros also said the U.N. and its humanitarian partners were unable to deliver any food for nearly 80 days between March and May, and the resumption of deliveries was still insufficient.
The situation is dire, he and other WHO officials said, with around 10% of people screened experiencing either severe or moderate malnutrition, and up to 20% of pregnant women.
In July alone, 5,100 children have been admitted to malnutrition programmes, including 800 who were severely emaciated, said Rik Peeperkorn, WHO’s representative for the occupied Palestinian territories.
Reporting by Christy Santhosh in Bengaluru and Jennifer Rigby in London; editing by Arun Koyyur and Mark Heinrich
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Pregnant Gazans tell BBC of fears as UN warns starvation could lead to ‘catastrophic birth outcomes’
‘I hope I don’t have to give birth in these difficult circumstances’ ‘I am happy that a new baby will come to me, and at the same time I am sad that I have nothing to offer him’ ‘There is no food or anything containing sugar. Of course, there is no formula milk’
Alice Cuddy
BBC News
I’ve just been speaking to a woman in central Gaza who is eight months pregnant with her third child.
“We are experiencing a catastrophe and a famine that no one could have imagined,” nurse Walaa Fathi tells me over WhatsApp from Deir al-Balah.
“I hope that my baby stays in my womb and I don’t have to give birth in these difficult circumstances.”
Walaa says the only thing she has been able to find to eat is lentils, which she eats for breakfast, lunch and dinner when there is enough to spread through the day.
“I crave bread these days, but sometimes I feel hungry and don’t eat bread to make sure I have enough for my children,” she says.
Walaa says she has mixed feelings about the birth of her third child.
“I am happy that a new baby will come to me, and at the same time I am sad that I have nothing to offer him,” she says.
“There is no food or anything containing sugar. How can I feed my baby breast milk? Of course, there is no formula milk available.”