Fifteen Individuals, Including an Infant, Die from Starvation in Gaza on a Single Day

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A six-week-old baby boy is among the 15 individuals reported to have succumbed to starvation in the last day in Gaza. Doctors indicate that the hunger crisis, which has been threatening the enclave for several months, is now reaching a critical point.

The baby, named Yousef, was unable to receive baby formula, as stated by his uncle, Adham al-Safadi.

“Milk is virtually unobtainable, and if it’s found, it costs $100 per tub,” he shared, mourning his deceased nephew.

Among the other Palestinians who died of starvation recently, there were three children, including 13-year-old Abdulhamid al-Ghalban, who passed away in a hospital in Khan Younis.

The risk of famine has been imminent in Gaza since October 7, and Palestinian officials are now documenting multiple hunger-related fatalities.

At least 101 individuals have died from starvation during the conflict, say Palestinian officials, with 80 children among the deceased, most of them in recent weeks.

Gaza has witnessed its food stocks run out since Israel cut off all supplies to the territory in March and then lifted that blockade in May with new measures it says are needed to prevent aid from being diverted to militant groups.

Israel, which controls all supplies entering Gaza, denies that it is responsible for shortages of food.

Over 800 people have been killed in attempts to access food in Gaza, primarily due to shootings by Israeli soldiers stationed near an aid organization funded by the United States.

A woman holds a malnourished toddler in a tent.

Muhammad Zakariya Ayyoub al-Matouq, a one-year-old baby in Gaza, is on the brink of severe malnutrition as the humanitarian crisis intensifies due to continued Israeli blockade and attacks. Source: Getty / Anadolu

The United Nations has rejected this system as inherently unsafe and a violation of humanitarian neutrality principles, which are necessary to ensure that distribution succeeds.

UN secretary-general António Guterres called the situation for the 2.3 million residents of the Palestinian enclave a “horror show”.

“We are seeing the last gasp of a humanitarian system built on humanitarian principles,” Guterres told the UN Security Council. “That system is being denied the conditions to function.”

Protesters march with image of starving child and signs reading: "WE ARE ALL RESPONSIBLE IT'S BEING DONE IN OUR NAME."

Israeli activists take part in a protest against the war in the Gaza Strip, Israel’s measures regarding food distribution and the forced displacement of Palestinians, in Tel Aviv, Israel. Source: AP / Ohad Zwigenberg

The Norwegian Refugee Council, which supported hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza in the first year of the war, said its aid stocks were now depleted and some of its own staff were starving.

“Our last tent, our last food parcel, our last relief items have been distributed. There is nothing left,” its secretary-general Jan Egeland told Reuters. “Israel is not yielding. They just want to paralyse our work,” he said.

The head of the UN Palestinian refugee agency said on Tuesday its staff, as well as doctors and humanitarian workers, were fainting on duty in Gaza due to hunger and exhaustion.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Tuesday images of civilians killed during the distribution of aid were “unbearable” and urged Israel to deliver on pledges to improve the situation.

Food and medicine shortages

On Tuesday, men and boys lugged sacks of flour past destroyed buildings and tarpaulins in Gaza City, grabbing what food they could from aid warehouses.

“We haven’t eaten for five days,” Mohammed Jundia said.

Israeli military statistics showed an average of 146 trucks of aid per day had entered Gaza over the course of the war.

A man and child kneel to pick flour out of the dirt.

Palestinians gather flour from the ground after an airstrike on a warehouse. Source: AAP / Hasan Alzaanin / TASS / Sipa USA

The US has said a minimum of 600 trucks per day are needed to feed Gaza’s population.

“Hospitals are already overwhelmed by the number of casualties from gunfire. They can’t provide much more help for hunger-related symptoms because of food and medicine shortages,” said Khalil al-Deqran, a spokesperson for the health ministry.

Deqran said some 600,000 people were suffering from malnutrition, including at least 60,000 pregnant women.

Symptoms among those going hungry include dehydration and anaemia, he said.

Baby formula, in particular, is in critically short supply, according to aid groups, doctors, and residents.

The health ministry said at least 72 Palestinians were killed by Israeli gunfire and military strikes in the past 24 hours, including 16 people living in tents in Gaza City.

Nearly 60,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s subsequent campaign against Hamas in Gaza, according to Palestinian health officials, and flattened much of the densely populated strip, which is home to more than two million people.