Gaza Herald- The death toll from starvation in Gaza has climbed to 201, the majority being children, according to Dr. Muneer Alboursh, Director General of the Gaza Health Ministry, speaking to Al Jazeera on Friday. This surge in hunger-related deaths is the direct result of Israel’s ongoing siege, which has stripped the enclave of essential food supplies.
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) reported that even humanitarian staff and their partners have been wasting away before the eyes of their colleagues, forced to join the same aid lines as the people they serve, risking being shot just to feed their families. With supplies exhausted, international agencies warn that the situation has reached catastrophic proportions.
The World Food Programme (WFP) sounded the alarm over the escalating deaths from acute malnutrition, urging urgent international action to pressure Israel to lift its blockade. “This is not a warning, this is a call to action,” said Ross Smith, WFP’s Director of Emergencies. “This is unlike anything we have seen in this century.”
In Gaza, women and girls face an impossible choice: remain in shelters and starve, or venture out in search of food and water, risking death from Israeli fire, explained Sofia Calltorp, UN Women’s Director in Geneva.
Doctors say the number of aid trucks entering Gaza is just 28 per day, a fraction of what’s needed for over two million people, many of whom have not eaten for weeks. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) noted mounting evidence that starvation, malnutrition, and disease are driving up mortality, even if malnutrition deaths cannot always be directly verified. One in three people has gone without food for days at a time, while hospitals have treated more than 20,000 children for acute malnutrition since April. At least 16 children under five have already died from hunger.
For Gaza’s 2.2 million residents, every day is a desperate search for food under deliberate and severe restrictions on aid deliveries. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation operates just four food distribution sites across the strip, open for mere minutes each day. These sites have repeatedly turned into deadly traps, as overcrowded crowds of starving civilians have come under Israeli fire while trying to collect aid.
