Palestinian women and girls elbow their way to receive cooked rice from charity kitchen in Gaza City. AFP
Hospitals across the besieged enclave say they are recording a surge in preventable deaths from severe hunger as Israel’s blockade — in place since 2 March — continues to block most food and medical supplies.
The United Nations (UN) on Friday formally declared a famine in Gaza, the “first ever in the Middle East,” warning that 500,000 people are facing “catastrophic” levels of hunger under Israel’s genocidal war.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said malnutrition among children under five has doubled between March and June.
The World Health Organization (WHO) added that nearly one in five children in Gaza City are now suffering from severe malnutrition, describing the crisis as the direct result of Israel’s prolonged siege and restrictions on aid.
The famine is unfolding amid Israel’s 23-month-long genocide in the Gaza Strip, which has killed over 62,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children.
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