DaysofPal- The Ministry of Health in Gaza said on Wednesday that 5 more people have died from hunger and malnutrition in the past 24 hours, raising the death toll from starvation to 404, including 141 children since the outbreak of the Israeli war against Gaza.
The international agencies, including the World Health Organization (WHO), describe the situation in Gaza as a “man-made famine,” citing the Israeli blockade and restrictions on humanitarian aid.
The WHO has called the crisis an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe.
According to the Gaza Health Ministry, children remain the most vulnerable group, noting that at least 141 children have died from hunger since the start of the war, while hospitals, crippled by shortages of food and medicine, report daily deaths among women and children.
Moreover, relief groups have called the crisis “the worst humanitarian disaster in living memory.”
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) has declared famine in Gaza City and Khan Younis, with nearly 641,000 people facing catastrophic hunger, and since the IPC declaration, 126 people have died of starvation, including 26 children.
The report warns the crisis could spread to Deir al-Balah and southern areas by the end of September, putting hundreds of thousands at risk of slow death without urgent intervention.
Humanitarian organizations accuse the Israeli occupation of “engineering famine” by restricting aid to minimal levels and releasing food in chaotic, unregulated ways.
Aid trucks are reportedly left in open areas, forcing desperate crowds to scramble for scraps. Witnesses describe scenes resembling “zombies,” where only the strongest manage to secure food while the weak are left behind.
Hospitals, already overwhelmed, have turned into daily sites of tragedy, where patients, children, and the elderly die from starvation and preventable diseases.
The United Nations and WHO have condemned the situation as a war crime and warned that the continued blockade could amount to slow-motion genocide, with hundreds of thousands at imminent risk of starvation.
The ministry added that more than 64,500 people have been killed as a result of the ongoing Israeli genocide since October 7th, 2023.
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