ONLY 36 aid trucks entered Gaza on Saturday, a figure drastically lower than the 600 truckloads the UN estimates are required daily to meet the needs of the population, with seven deaths from malnutrition, including one child.
Most of those aid trucks were looted before their contents could be distributed, the Gaza’s Government Media Office (GMO) announced, accusing the Israeli occupation regime of engineering security chaos and starvation in Gaza.
Gaza’s hunger crisis is accelerating, with at least 175 people, including 93 children, confirmed dead from forced starvation, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
‘Famine is ravaging Gaza’s children amid shameful international silence,’ the GMO said in a statement on Sunday, calling for the ‘immediate opening of the crossings and the entry of sufficient quantities of aid and baby formula’.
UNICEF urged the international community to act swiftly as humanitarian conditions continue to deteriorate due to Israel’s genocidal war.
‘Today, more than 320,000 young children are at risk of acute malnutrition,’ Ted Chaiban, UNICEF’s deputy executive director for humanitarian action and supply operations, said.
Chaiban said the malnutrition indicator in Gaza has ‘exceeded the famine threshold’.
‘Today, I want to keep the focus on Gaza, because it’s in Gaza where the suffering is most acute and where children are dying at an unprecedented rate,’ the UNICEF official said.
‘We are at a crossroads, and the choices made now will determine whether tens of thousands of children live or die,’ he added.
In Gaza starvation is everywhere, with Dr Muhammad Abu Salmiya, director of Al-Shifa Medical Complex, confirming that hospitals recorded yesterday morning that seven starvation-related deaths in the past 24 hours alone, including one child.
The United Nations office in Geneva warned that one million women and girls in Gaza are now starving, as the territory’s humanitarian crisis continues to worsen.
In a post on X, the UN said: ‘One million. That’s how many women and girls are starving in Gaza. This horrific situation is unacceptable and must end.
‘We continue to demand the delivery of lifesaving aid for all women and girls, an immediate ceasefire, and the release of all hostages.’
Human rights groups have accused Israel of using starvation as a weapon of war, citing ongoing restrictions on aid and repeated attacks on Palestinians at distribution points.
- An Israeli airstrike targeted Amal Hospital in Khan Yunis, south of Gaza, killing three people, including a woman yesterday.
Meanwhile, the Ahli Arab Hospital received the bodies of 22 killed following Israeli strikes in Gaza City’s ash-Shuja’iya and al-Tuffah neighbourhoods.
The Awda Hospital also received the bodies of five dead and 12 wounded after Israeli forces opened fire at aid seekers near a distribution point in Salahuddin street in central Gaza.
Nine people were killed and many others were injured in another Israeli attack on aid seekers in Rafah, south of Gaza.
The Israeli army also launched attacks on other areas of the Gaza Strip, killing and wounding more civilians, including children and women.
Meanwhile, several Gazans were pronounced dead after they succumbed to injuries they sustained in recent attacks.