Agencies describe seeing colleagues “waste away before their eyes”, starving children and adults “collapsing on the streets from hunger and dehydration”
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Shocking photos from Gaza reveal the scale of the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding, as aid groups call for urgent action to end the “chaos, starvation and death” caused by Israeli restrictions on food entering the enclave.
More than 100 humanitarian groups have called for an end to Israeli “restrictions, delays and fragmentation” for food aid in Gaza.
Agencies described seeing colleagues “waste away before their eyes” and adults “collapsing on the streets from hunger and dehydration”.
The statement was signed by 115 organisations, including Save the Children, Christian Aid, and Refugees International.
It warned that mass starvation was spreading across the Gaza while tonnes of food, water and medical supplies were sitting untouched on the border, which aid groups were blocked from delivering.
“As the Israeli government’s siege starves the people of Gaza, aid workers are now joining the same food lines, risking being shot just to feed their families,” the organisations said in a joint statement.
“With supplies now totally depleted, humanitarian organisations are witnessing their own colleagues and partners waste away before their eyes.”
The groups called for world governments to demand that all bureaucratic and administrative restrictions be lifted, all land crossings be opened, access to everyone across Gaza to be ensured and for the rejection of military-controlled distribution and a restoration of a “principled, UN-led humanitarian response.”
“States must pursue concrete measures to end the siege, such as halting the transfer of weapons and ammunition,” the statement read.
Desperation is mounting in the Palestinian territory of more than two million, with a surge of deaths due to malnutrition over the past week, including 21 children, according to hospitals in Gaza.
Israel, which controls all supplies entering Gaza, denies it is responsible for shortages of food. The government says that it has allowed the entry of thousands of trucks since May and blames aid groups for not consistently delivering goods.
It also claims that Hamas militants confiscate the food for themselves and sell it back to Gazans to fund its military operations, but has not provided evidence for this claim.
The UN denies that Hamas theft of aid is a significant factor, but has called for Israel to provide security for aid convoys that have been attacked by desperate civilians and bandit groups.
Hundreds of people have been killed by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) in recent weeks while trying to reach food, according to the UN, mostly in mass shootings by soldiers posted near Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) distribution centres.
Israeli forces have killed nearly 60,000 Palestinians in airstrikes, shelling and shooting since launching their assault on Gaza in response to attacks on Israel by Hamas that killed 1,200 people and captured 251 hostages in October 2023, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
This is the first time since the war began that Palestinian officials have reported dozens of deaths as a result of starvation.
Gaza has seen 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.
The Norwegian Refugee Council said this week its aid stocks were completely depleted in Gaza, with some of its staff now starving, and the organisation accused Israel of paralysing its work.
The warnings over mass starvation come as Israeli strikes continued overnight, killing at least 21 people in Gaza. More than half of those killed were women and children, health authorities said.
One strike hit a house in the northwestern side of Gaza City, killing at least 12 people, according to the Shifa Hospital, which received the casualties. The dead included six children and two women, according to the Health Ministry’s casualty list.
Another strike hit an apartment in the Tal al-Hawa area in northern Gaza, killing at least six people. Among the dead were three children and two women, including one who was pregnant. Eight others were wounded, the ministry said.
A third strike hit a tent in the Naser neighborhood in Gaza City late Tuesday and killed three children, Shifa Hospital said.
The Israeli military, which does not usually comment on such military action, blames Hamas for civilian casualties because the militants operate from populated areas.
