The situation in Gaza is worsening by the hour, prompting more than 100 international aid organisations to warn of targeted ‘mass starvation’.
Photos of starving Palestinians, some of them babies, have emerged from Gaza in the past weeks, sparking public outcry for intervention in the conflict, which is about to enter its third year.
Israel has denied any responsibility for what experts have deemed a famine, despite controlling the flow of all aid into the enclave.
The UN has documented dozens of deaths from malnutrition this week, citing others who collapsed in the streets while trying to reach food.
‘With supplies now totally depleted, humanitarian organisations are witnessing their own colleagues and partners waste away before their eyes,’ they said.
The desperation for food has led to crowding at the few aid locations in Gaza. 73 people were killed by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) while trying to reach aid.
The UN World Food Programme said 25 trucks with aid entered for ‘starving communities’ when it encountered massive crowds that came under gunfire.
Ehab Al-Zei, who had been waiting to get flour from the aid station, said: ‘Suddenly, tanks surrounded us and trapped us as gunshots and strikes rained down. We were trapped for around two hours.
‘I will never go back again. Let us die of hunger, it’s better.’
Israel denies deliberately targeting civilians and aid staff as part of its war with Hamas and has shifted blame onto UN agencies for ‘failing to deliver food it has allowed in’.
One-year-old Muhammad Zakariya Ayyoub al-Matouq in Gaza City is facing death after dropping from 9 to 6 kilograms.
The UN Secretary General said that hunger and displacement are at ‘record levels’ in Gaza.
‘Diplomacy may not have always succeeded in preventing conflicts, violence and instability, but it still holds the power to stop them.’
And there are new fears after Israel’s military issued evacuation orders for areas of central Gaza, where many international organisations attempting to distribute aid are located.
Doctors have reported record rates of acute malnutrition, especially among children and the elderly.
‘Illnesses like acute watery diarrhoea are spreading, markets are empty, waste is piling up, and adults are collapsing on the streets from hunger and dehydration,’ the joint statement from 109 humanitarian organisations warned.
‘An aid worker providing psychosocial support spoke of the devastating impact on children: ‘Children tell their parents they want to go to heaven, because at least heaven has food.’
‘Children starve while waiting for promises that never arrive. It is not just physical torment, but psychological. Survival is dangled like a mirage. The humanitarian system cannot run on false promises.
‘Humanitarians cannot operate on shifting timelines or wait for political commitments that fail to deliver access.’
They also recorded the IDF murdering more than 1,050 Palestinians at aid points since May 27. The IDF have maintained they only fired ‘warning shots’.
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