GAZA, (Palestine Foundation Information Center) The Ministry of Health in Gaza announced on Tuesday the martyrdom of three adults within the past 24 hours due to hunger and malnutrition caused by the ongoing Israeli blockade.
Officials from the United Nations confirmed that the occupation authorities are not allowing sufficient food supplies to enter Gaza to prevent large-scale starvation.
In a brief statement, the ministry reported that the number of victims of Israel’s systematic starvation policy has risen to 266, including 112 children. This comes amid dire warnings of the near-total collapse of the health sector and a rapidly worsening humanitarian crisis.
UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric stressed the urgent need for humanitarian workers to have unhindered access to deliver food “on a wide and sustained scale, through all available crossings and routes, to prevent further deaths from starvation.”
He also expressed the UN’s concern over Israel’s announcement of expanding military operations in Gaza City, warning that such actions would displace thousands of civilians yet again into already overcrowded areas in the southern part of the Strip.
Dujarric highlighted that displacement zones in Khan Yunis lack the most basic infrastructure and services, including food, clean water, and medical care.
Similarly, the UN Human Rights Office accused Israel of deliberately preventing sufficient food supplies from reaching Gaza’s population.
Spokesperson Thameen Al-Kheetan said at a press conference in Geneva that in recent weeks Israel has allowed entry of aid only in limited quantities, “far below the minimum required to prevent widespread hunger.”
He emphasized that the threat of famine in Gaza is “a direct result of the Israeli government policy of obstructing humanitarian assistance.”
Backed by the United States, Israel has been waging a genocidal war on Gaza since October 7, 2023, involving mass killings, starvation, destruction, and forced displacement. The assault has ignored all international appeals and rulings by the International Court of Justice ordering its halt.
To date, the Israeli genocidal war has killed 62,004 Palestinians, wounded 156,230, left over 9,000 missing, displaced hundreds of thousands, and caused famine that has claimed the lives of 263 people, including 112 children.
