Gaza's hunger crisis has killed hundreds — including dozens of children from malnutrition
'Even we, the young ones, can barely walk due to lack of food,' said Walid Abu Mohsen, a father of seven from Khan Younis. He told NBC News' crew on the ground Sunday of his relief after plucking a sack of flour from the few trucks that arrived to offer relief to rushing crowds in the city. In another desperate corner of Gaza, footage captured the deadly aftermath after scores were killed waiting for supplies that might have let them feed their families.
'Famine is now striking Gaza alarmingly and terrifyingly,' Dr. Mohammed Salmiya, director of Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, told NBC News' crew as he warned of hospitals being 'overwhelmed with waves of patients suffering from malnutrition.'
He said that at least two children had died at Al-Shifa on Saturday alone.
Nineteen deaths were recorded in Gaza due to malnutrition within the last 24 hours, the Palestinian Health Ministry in the territory said Monday. NBC News was not immediately able to independently confirm the figures.
They add to more than 70 deaths related to malnutrition since the war began, according to Salmiya, with more than 50 children dying of malnutrition since Israel launched a blockade restricting aid into Gaza in early March, according to the World Health Organization.
While that blockade was lifted in May, Israel has since allowed only limited aid into the enclave, largely distributed by the controversial U.S.- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation under a system that has seen hundreds of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces while making their way to collect food.
Sunday appeared to mark the deadliest day of aid-related deaths yet, with more than 90 people reported killed as they tried to reach food, Dr. Marwan Al-Hams, director of field hospitals, told NBC News.
Most were killed while trying to reach aid entering through a crossing with Israel, Zaher al-Waheidi, head of the Health Ministry's records department, told The Associated Press. The incident did not appear directly related to GHF's distribution system.
The World Food Programme said in a statement Sunday that a 25-truck WFP convoy had been carrying vital food supplies from the Zikim border point when it encountered 'large crowds of civilians anxiously waiting.'
It said that as the convoy approached, the crowd came under fire from Israeli tanks, snipers and other gunfire, resulting in 'the loss of countless lives.'
The Israel Defense Forces did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the incident.
The United Nations human rights office, OHCHR, said earlier this month that nearly 900 people had been killed in the enclave trying to access food.
'Worse than I've ever seen'
In a news release Sunday, GHF said it had distributed more than 82 million meals through its handful of aid distribution points in the enclave since it began operations in late May. But among a population of roughly 2.1 million people, that amount equates to less than one meal per person per day over the more than 50 days since the organization launched its program.
While other aid efforts are also underway in the enclave, humanitarian experts have warned that not nearly enough food is reaching Palestinians, while food prices in local markets have skyrocketed amid the shortage of goods.
Nearly 1 in every 3 people in Gaza is 'not eating for days at a time,' the WFP warned Friday.
'The situation is worse than I've ever seen it before,' WFP Deputy Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer Carl Skau told journalists in a briefing earlier this month. Skau shared how some mothers had described urging their kids not to play to avoid draining their energy given the lack of food.
A spokesperson for GHF acknowledged to NBC News in an email on Monday that 'there isn't enough aid coming into Gaza.'
'GHF is the only organization that has been able to get aid in and that needs to change fast which we have been saying for weeks now,' they said.
A spokesperson for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not immediately respond to a request for comment from NBC News on Monday on concerns about the lack of adequate food reaching families in Gaza.
Israel has maintained that there are hundreds of aid trucks sitting inside Gaza awaiting distribution, with Israel Defense Forces spokesman Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani saying in a post on X on Sunday that there were over 700 trucks in the enclave.
Before the war, around 500 trucks carrying aid entered the enclave daily, according to the British Red Cross. Aid workers have previously described the task of trying to distribute aid in the enclave amid Israel's offensive as a logistical 'nightmare.'
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ITV News
2 hours ago
- ITV News
More aid is good news, but only a ceasefire will really make a difference in Gaza
The aid that has gone into Gaza today is too little, too late and largely symbolic. Whether delivered by land or from the air, those supplies are also an indication of global horror at what is unfolding. The images of children dying from a lack of food in a region of plenty have caused enough outcry against Israel that, after 21 months of war and four months of an almost complete blockade of food and aid, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been forced into easing some of his government's draconian policies. The World Health Organisation says Gaza saw 63 malnutrition-related deaths in July, including 24 children under five. Medics on the ground say those figures are likely to be much lower than the reality. The humanitarian pause in attacks in parts of Gaza might also allow some of the 14,000 most seriously sick and injured Palestinians to leave the Strip for care elsewhere. At the Specialty Hospital in Jordan they are preparing for an evacuation mission, readying their beds to receive some of the most seriously ill patients should they be able to get out. Over the past months, they have treated just over 100 patients; now the significant change in their conditions points to the desperate consequences of being starved of food and aid. After the continued restrictions of food, aid and medical supplies by Israel, many of the patients are not just injured by bombs but dying because of a lack of food and medicine. The head of the Specialty Hospital told me today he believes most of the children in Gaza are now malnourished. As the Executive Chairman of the Gaza Health Initiative, Dr Fawzi Al-Hammouri, is also responsible for sending medical teams into Gaza. Even those doctors are so short of food they are losing significant amounts of weight in four-week missions. 'Since early March, there is almost complete blockade of the borders, so there is no humanitarian or medical aid getting into Gaza,' he told me. 'Now we notice that all the children that we receive, and their companions, have malnutrition. When we do blood tests we discover they have anaemia, low iron, low vitamin D, because even if they find something to eat, it's only flour or rice. There is no protein, so there is no meat, no chicken, no fish, no vegetables, no fruits. So this is why I believe that most of the children, now in Gaza, are malnourished.' Jordan has sent 50 medical missions into Gaza since the start of the war, part of an international humanitarian response to the war and destruction of Gaza's healthcare system. Now, even their medical teams are struggling to feed themselves and their patients. 'We have noticed that even our doctors who go there and stay for two to four weeks, when they come back, most of them, if not all of them, lose between 5 and 10 kilograms,' Dr Fawzi said. 'They don't find something to eat, and now there is difficulty finding food for their patients inside the hospitals. If those patients have surgery and aren't fed well after they will not recover.' Jordan's King Abdullah has agreed to take in 2000 of the most seriously ill children. For the medical teams who will receive them, there is now the challenge of also treating the effects of malnutrition. Simply providing food is not enough in many cases. In many of the most acute cases, the organs have been so damaged that they will not repair. Israel still controls what goes into Gaza and who comes out, and as such maintains the power to determine life and death. They may be allowing more in and more out at the moment, but in reality, only a ceasefire has the power to really ease the humanitarian crisis within Gaza's borders.
Leader Live
4 hours ago
- Leader Live
Military pause not enough to ease Gaza suffering, Lammy warns
The Foreign Secretary welcomed the resumption of humanitarian corridors in the enclave but called for access to supplies to be 'urgently' widened over the coming hours and days. He said Israel's announcement that it would suspend fighting in three populated areas of Gaza for 10 hours a day and open secure routes for aid delivery to desperate Palestinians was 'essential but long overdue.' 'This announcement alone cannot alleviate the needs of those desperately suffering in Gaza,' the Foreign Secretary said in a statement on Sunday. 'We need a ceasefire that can end the war, for hostages to be released and aid to enter Gaza by land unhindered. 'Whilst airdrops will help to alleviate the worst of the suffering, land routes serve as the only viable and sustainable means of providing aid into Gaza. 'These measures must be fully implemented and further barriers on aid removed. The world is watching.' Britain is working with Jordan to airdrop aid into Gaza and evacuate children needing medical assistance, with military planners deployed for further support. However, the head of the UN's Palestinian refugee agency has warned that such efforts are 'a distraction' that will fail to properly address deepening starvation in the strip, and could in some cases harm civilians. UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said: 'A manmade hunger can only be addressed by political will. 'Lift the siege, open the gates and guarantee safe movements and dignified access to people in need.' On Sunday, Israel announced military pauses to enable the 'safe movement' of food and medicine to Gaza via designated UN convoys amid mounting international alarm at humanitarian conditions in the strip. Images emerging from Gaza in recent days of emaciated children have seen the country's government criticised for its conduct during the 21-month war. Food experts have warned for months of the risk of famine as Israel continued to restrict aid, which it says is because Hamas siphons off goods. Ceasefire talks between the two sides ground to a standstill this week after the US and Israel withdrew negotiating teams from Qatar, with White House special envoy Steve Witkoff accusing Hamas of a 'lack of desire' to reach an agreement. Sir Keir Starmer is expected to press Donald Trump on the revival of talks as he meets the US President during his visit to Scotland on Monday. The deal under discussion was expected to include a 60-day ceasefire, and aid supplies would be ramped up as conditions for a lasting truce were brokered. Sir Keir will raise Washington's work with partners in Qatar and Egypt during his talks with Mr Trump and seek to discuss what more can be done to urgently bring about a ceasefire, it is understood. Speaking to journalists at his Turnberry golf resort in Ayrshire on Sunday, Mr Trump said that the UK was 'very much involved in terms of wanting something to happen.' Asked about the prospect of restarting peace talks, he said: 'We're meeting about a lot of things… I think we're going to be discussing a lot about Israel. 'They're very much involved in terms of wanting something to happen. '(The Prime Minister) is doing a very good job, by the way.' Later in the week he will chair a Cabinet meeting, with further updates on the UK's next steps expected in the coming days as Mr Lammy prepares to attend a UN conference on a two-state solution in New York. Speaking to broadcasters on Sunday, Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury James Murray acknowledged that airdrops come with 'real limits and drawbacks' but that the situation was 'desperate and urgent.' 'Until the restrictions are lifted, until aid is able to get in at the scale and quantity that is needed, we need to be doing everything we possibly can to help,' he told Sky News' Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips show. It comes after the Prime Minister held crisis talks with French and German counterparts on Saturday, during which Number 10 said they agreed 'it would be vital to ensure robust plans are in place to turn an urgently-needed ceasefire into lasting peace'. A Downing Street readout of the call made no mention of Palestinian statehood, which Sir Keir has faced calls to immediately recognise after French President Emmanuel Macron announced his country would do so in September. Some 221 MPs from Labour, the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats, SNP, Greens, Plaid Cymru, SDLP and independents have signed a letter pressuring the Government to follow suit at a UN meeting next week. The majority of those who have signed, 131, are Labour MPs. #Gaza: airdrops will not reverse the deepening starvation. They are expensive, inefficient & can even kill starving is a distraction & screensmoke. A manmade hunger can only be addressed by political will. Lift the siege, open the gates & guarantee safe movements… — Philippe Lazzarini (@UNLazzarini) July 26, 2025 The Government says it is a question of 'when, not if' statehood is recognised but that its immediate focus should be on getting aid into the territory. Mr Murray said on Sunday: 'As a Government, we're committed to the recognition of Palestine, but we need to work with international partners and we need to use that moment to galvanise change. 'It needs to be part of a pathway to peace.' He added: '140 countries have already recognised Palestine. 'The suffering is still continuing.' Sir Keir and Mr Trump, who is in South Ayrshire on a private visit to his Turnberry golf course, are expected to meet on Monday.
The Guardian
4 hours ago
- The Guardian
How will Israel's ‘humanitarian pauses' affect Gaza's starvation crisis?
On Sunday morning, Israel announced it would begin a daily 'humanitarian pause' in three densely populated areas of Gaza as it comes under increasing international pressure to alleviate the territory's worsening starvation crisis. Other measures also announced include the resumption of airdropped aid, the activation of a desalination plant and the provision of humanitarian corridors to facilitate UN aid deliveries within Gaza. Last week the territory slipped into a full-blown starvation crisis, with dozens dying from hunger. According to the World Food Programme, 90,000 women and children are in urgent need of treatment for malnutrition, while one in three people are going without food for days. Doctors in Gaza have described struggling to keep up with the number of patients coming in seeking treatment for malnourishment, with few tools at their disposal to provide them help. 'Our malnutrition ward in the hospital is extremely overcrowded. Due to the large number of cases, some children are forced to sleep on the floor,' said Dr Ahmad al-Farra, the director of paediatrics at Nasser medical complex. The hunger crisis has affected virtually everyone in the Gaza Strip, with organisations like the UN describing their staff as 'walking corpses'. After resuming fighting in mid-March, Israel blocked all aid from entering Gaza for two and a half months, in what it said was an attempt to exert pressure on Hamas to release hostages. In May, Israel started allowing a trickle of aid in, mostly through the private US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). Israel proposed the GHF as an alternative to the UN-aid system after claiming – without providing evidence – that Hamas was systematically stealing aid from the UN. More than 1,000 people have been killed while trying to get aid, most of them near GHF food distribution sites. In total, Israel has let in 4,500 UN aid trucks into Gaza since May – an average of about 70 trucks a day. This is a far cry from prewar figures of 500-600 trucks a day, which the UN said is a requisite amount to help restore the health of Gaza's population. Israel has announced airdropped aid will resume, which humanitarian organisations have said will provide a negligible amount of supplies. It also said that humanitarian corridors will be established to facilitate the entry of UN aid trucks into Gaza, though the number of trucks that will be allowed in is unspecified. NGOs say these steps may ease aid access, but with mass starvation already under way, far more is needed. In particular, humanitarian groups have called for a full ceasefire in order to get civilians the help they need. 'We have to go back to the levels we had during the ceasefire, 500-600 trucks of aid every day managed by the UN, including Unrwa, that our teams would distribute in 400 distribution points,' said Juliette Touma, Unrwa director of communications. She explained that aid agencies had previously walked Gaza back from the brink of starvation and that to do so again, an unimpeded flow of aid would be needed to 'reverse the tide and trajectory of famine'. Unrwa, which Israel banned from operating in Gaza in January, has 6,000 trucks of aid loaded with food, medicine and other hygiene supplies in Jordan and Egypt. The WFP said on Sunday it had enough aid to feed the population of Gaza for three months. Israel's latest announcement also is unclear about how long it will maintain humanitarian pauses and corridors. Humanitarians have said that consistency is key to their work. It also appears that Israel is relaxing some of its restrictions on the role of the UN in distributing aid in Gaza, but to what extent is unclear. The UN has said that only it is able to distribute aid efficiently within the territory, pointing to the deadly killings around the GHF as an example of why expertise is needed. Palestinians are reacting to Israel's announcement with caution, unwilling to raise their hopes after repeated promises of an imminent ceasefire have fallen through. Local people said they saw no immediate difference in the availability of food and of prices – with the exception of flour, the price of which dropped 20% over night. It is the first day of Israel's humanitarian pauses, so it could be a while before increased aid has a noticeable effect on the ground. However, Gaza's population is running out of time. Each day, more people die from hunger and the number of people suffering from severe malnutrition grows. Doctors have also warned that alleviating the starvation crisis will not be as easy as flipping a switch. People who are suffering from acute malnutrition need specialised treatment, as they can develop refeeding syndrome if they resume eating normally after a prolonged period of hunger. 'All of these folks who have been deprived for so long, we worry about the complications that they may have developed,' said Dr Thaer Ahmad, a doctor who has worked on medical missions in Gaza.
