Eight more hunger-related deaths in Gaza after UN confirms famine

Baby among seven children killed on Saturday as Israel continues attacks across enclave

A mother and child waiting for humanitarian aid to arrive in Gaza city. AP Photo

Eight more Palestinians have died as a result of starvation and malnutrition in the 24 hours since the UN declared a famine in Gaza, the official Wafa news agency reported on Saturday.

This brings the total number of famine-related deaths in the territory to 281, including 114 children, Wafa said, citing medical sources.

The UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs on Friday announced famine in Gaza city, the enclave’s capital and largest urban centre, and said it would extend to Deir Al Balah in the centre and Khan Younis in the south by the end of September.

The declaration followed months of Israeli restrictions on the entry of aid. Israel rejected the UN report and has justified its policy by accusing the militant group Hamas of stealing supplies, without providing proof.

The blockade resulted in severe shortages of food, including flour, cooking oil, sugar, milk and baby formula, and drove up the cost of existing stocks to several times their normal price, beyond the reach of most of Gaza's two million residents.

“It is a famine that we could've prevented had we been allowed, yet food stacks up at the borders because of systematic obstruction by Israel,” the UN's humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said the famine could be stopped if Israel allowed the immediate entry of aid.

“Reverse the ongoing catastrophe – flood Gaza with a scale-up of aid through the United Nations, including UNRWA,” the agency said in a statement on X.

“UNRWA's warehouses alone in Jordan and Egypt are full” with enough food, medicines and hygiene supplies to fill 6,000 lorries, it said.

On Saturday, the UAE said the total amount of aid it has been allowed to take into Gaza has reached 3,772 tonnes.

Since Israel's aid blockade began in March, cutting off food and water supplies, the situation among women and children has severely deteriorated.

Malnutrition had already affected more than 132,000 children under the age of five by June, including 41,000 severe cases, the UN said.

Additionally, more than 40 per cent of pregnant and breastfeeding women in Gaza are severely malnourished.

“One in five babies is born prematurely or underweight, and one in seven newborns is in need of emergency neonatal care because of severe complications,” it said.

Israel's military is continuing to launch attacks across the enclave as it prepares for an invasion of Gaza city that would displace a million people living there.

Nineteen people, including six children and a baby, were among those killed by Israeli attacks on displacement camps in southern Gaza on Saturday, Wafa reported.

Israel targeted the southern city of Khan Younis as well as the Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza, it said.

The Palestinian death toll from Israel's war on Gaza rose to 62,622 with another 157,673 injured, Gaza's Health Ministry said on Saturday.

The war began in October 2023, when Hamas killed about 1,200 civilians and captured 250 hostages in southern Israel.