As more people have been starved to death as a result of Israel’s unrelenting blockade of the coastal enclave, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are pleading for assistance.
In a statement released on Friday, the Gaza Health Ministry revealed that nine additional malnutrition deaths had occurred in nearby hospitals.
Since Israel’s war on Gaza began in October 2023, there have been 122 fatalities in total, including at least 83 children.
The Health Ministry urged the government to put an end to the famine, the opening of all crossings, and the daily arrival of 500 aid trucks and 50 fuel trucks, among others.
We hold the US administration, the US government, and other nations, as well as the global community as a whole, to be fully responsible for this historic crime.
A six-month-old baby also succumbed to starvation-related medical complications, according to sources at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, early on Saturday.
As Israel continues to impose a strict blockade on the territory, which prevents a steady flow of food, water, medicine, and other supplies from reaching Palestinians, starvation deaths have steadily increased in Gaza this week.
Children are especially vulnerable as the crisis worsens, according to the UN.
Noor al-Shana, an independent journalist in Nuseirat, central Gaza, claimed extreme hunger is affecting everyone in the Strip.
She claimed that she now struggles to find food for one meal per day while four of her relatives were killed while visiting food distribution centers run by the infamous Israel- and US-backed GHF.
She said, “We don’t want words; we want solutions,” and the world is just saying, “Free Palestine.”
Al-Shana continued, “Enough, we are tired,” waving in pain. We are “suffocating,” he said. Here, we are perishing.
“Deliberate mass starvation”
Separately, sources at hospitals in Gaza reported to Al Jazeera that at least 38 people had been killed since Friday morning when Israeli attacks targeted the area.
At least six Palestinians were killed while attempting to collect food from aid distribution sites.
UNRWA’s head of the organization, Philippe Lazzarini, once more criticized the GHF, calling it a “cruel” politically motivated effort that “takes more lives than it saves.”
Lazzarini demanded that Gaza’s aid stockpiles be flown in by the UN agency, citing “deliberate mass starvation” as a justification.
In a post on X, he wrote, “Today, more children died, and their bodies were emaciated by hunger.” According to Wikipedia, “The famine that is spreading can only be halted by political will.”
The Israeli military claims that aid trucks are in Gaza but that the UN has refused to distribute it, blaming international organizations for the crisis.
UN officials have refuted that claim, saying repeatedly that they haven’t received the necessary authorizations from the Israeli government to distribute the aid.
The GHF aid distribution scheme, which the UN and other humanitarian organizations claim does not uphold humanitarian standards like impartiality and independence, has also been turned down by the UN and other organizations.
Donald Trump, the president of the United States, solely attributed Hamas to the alleged demise of the Gaza ceasefire talks, saying the organization will be “hunted down” as the crisis spreads.
“Hamas didn’t want to make a deal really,” he said. Trump addressed reporters at the White House, “I believe they want to die, and it’s very, very bad.”
The US president made the comments the day after his Middle East envoy reported that US negotiators had withdrawn from Qatari ceasefire talks.
Hamas surprised the US by saying on Thursday that it had responded to the most recent proposal in a positive and constructive way.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stated that Israel and the US are considering ways to secure the release of prisoners in Gaza without a deal being reached with the Palestinian group despite Hamas’ insistence that it is ready to work toward a deal.
We are now weighing alternative options with our US allies to end Hamas’s terror regime, bring our hostages home, and bring about lasting peace in Israel and our region, according to Netanyahu.