At least 15 Palestinians, including 4 children, die of hunger in one day as total toll from starvation reaches 101 under Israel’s blockade. UN warns of a collapsing humanitarian system.
At least 15 Palestinians, including four children, died from starvation in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, as the total number of malnutrition-related deaths since the onset of Israel’s war rose to 101, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health.
The worsening humanitarian crisis is unfolding under what the United Nations has described as a “horror show,” with medical workers fainting from hunger, and aid operations under siege. Most of the starvation-related deaths have occurred in recent weeks, painting a grim picture of life under a nearly five-month Israeli blockade that has limited access to food, fuel, and humanitarian supplies.
Among Tuesday’s victims were six-week-old Yousef al-Safadi, who died in northern Gaza City, and 13-year-old Abdulhamid al-Ghalban, who succumbed to malnutrition in southern Khan Younis. Yousef’s family said his mother was unable to breastfeed due to her own starvation, and they could not afford baby formula — reportedly selling for as much as $100 per container.
“You can’t get milk anywhere, and if you do find any, it’s unaffordable,” said Adham al-Safadi, the child’s uncle. “The mother can’t breastfeed. There’s no food or drink, so there is no breastmilk. The baby died of malnutrition.”
The Israeli siege, which fully cut off aid in March, has only allowed limited humanitarian deliveries since May, mainly through the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). However, the UN reports that over 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces while trying to reach food aid near GHF distribution sites — 31 of them on Tuesday alone.
In total, Israeli attacks killed at least 81 Palestinians on Tuesday, including 15 people sheltering in a building in northern Gaza City and 13 more in a strike on the Shati refugee camp that injured another 50, according to Gaza’s Civil Defence and hospital sources.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres issued a stark warning to the UN Security Council, saying that 2.3 million Palestinians are trapped in what he described as “a last gasp of a humanitarian system built on humanitarian principles.”
“Malnourishment is soaring, starvation is knocking on every door,” Guterres said. “This system is being denied the space to function, denied the safety to save lives.”
The UN also noted that nearly 88% of Gaza is now under Israeli militarized zones or displacement orders, shrinking the livable space to almost nothing. The latest evacuations affect central Deir el-Balah, previously considered one of the last remaining relatively safe zones.
“This is devastation layered upon devastation,” Guterres added.
As Gaza’s humanitarian system nears total collapse, the threat of mass starvation looms larger than ever.