More than 100 charity and human rights groups say Israel’s blockade and continuing military offensive are pushing Palestinians in the Gaza Strip towards starvation.
In an open letter, 115 organisations, including international aid groups such as Doctors Without Borders, Mercy Corps and Save the Children, said they were watching their own colleagues, as well as Gaza’s population, ‘waste away’.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) said Gaza is ‘witnessing a deadly surge’ in malnutrition and related diseases and that a ‘large proportion’ of its more than two million people are starving.
The letter blamed Israeli restrictions and ‘massacres’ at aid distribution points. Witnesses, health officials and the UN human rights office have said Israeli forces have repeatedly fired on crowds seeking aid, killing more than 1,000 people.
The Israeli government’s ‘restrictions, delays and fragmentation under its total siege have created chaos, starvation and death’ the letter said.
WHO director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters that acute malnutrition centres in Gaza are full of patients and lack adequate supplies.
He said rates of acute malnutrition exceed 10 per cent and that among pregnant and breastfeeding women, more than 20 per cent are malnourished, often severely.
The UN health agency’s representative in the occupied Palestinian territories, Dr Rik Peeperkorn, said there were more than 30,000 children under five years old with acute malnutrition in Gaza, and the WHO had reports that at least 21 children under five have died so far this year.
Gaza Last Lifelines Collapsing
Meanwhile, UN chief Antonio Guterres warned Gaza’s ‘last lifelines’ are collapsing, with humanitarian conditions deteriorating at an ‘accelerating’ pace.
A UN statement said Guterres ‘deplores the growing reports of children and adults suffering from malnutrition’ occurring in Gaza, adding: ‘The population in Gaza remains gravely undersupplied with the basic necessities of life’.
Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric was speaking to reporters at UN Headquarters in New York after dozens of Palestinians were killed seeking vital aid.
He said the Secretary-General strongly condemned the ongoing violence, including the shooting, killing and injuring of people attempting to get food.
‘Civilians must be protected and respected, and they must never be targeted,’ said Dujarric, noting that the population in Gaza remains gravely undersupplied with the basic necessities of life.
He stressed that ‘Israel has the obligation to allow and facilitate by all the means at its disposal the humanitarian relief provided by the United Nations and other humanitarian organizations.’
Media Unites
International media organisations including BBC, AFP, Reuters, and AP have issued a joint appeal, warning that journalists reporting from Gaza are now facing the same starvation they’re documenting—with some too weak to continue their work.
This concern echoed even more starkly when The Daily Express splashed a front‑page image of a one‑year‑old child named Muhammad, whose skeletal body underscored the crisis’s severity. The headline read, “For pity’s sake, stop this now”, capturing international alarm over the escalating hunger‐induced deaths among children.
Israel imposed a full blockade on Gaza on March 2nd, preventing aid deliveries from entering the territory until trucks were again allowed in again in May.
In a post on X, the UN’s Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) said the shortages caused food prices to surge by 40 times.
It added that the aid stockpiled in its warehouses outside Gaza could feed ‘the entire population for over three months.’
