Gaza: Nearly a third of Gaza’s population is surviving without food for days, the World Food Programme (WFP) has said, describing the humanitarian crisis as reaching unprecedented levels. According to the agency, around 470,000 individuals are in a state of catastrophic hunger, with 90,000 women and children urgently needing medical nutrition.
“People are dying from lack of humanitarian assistance. Food prices have soared beyond reach,” the WFP told AFP, painting a bleak picture of the worsening conditions in the besieged enclave.
Gaza’s health ministry reported on Thursday that nine more people had died of starvation in the past 24 hours, bringing the official death toll from hunger to 122 since the blockade was imposed last October. Of those, 83 were children. Two children were among the latest casualties.
“This is not a natural famine,” said Dr Munir Al-Bursh, director general of Gaza’s health ministry, on X. “It is a crime of extermination by starvation, unfolding before a silent world.” Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) reported alarming trends from its clinics, where one in four children and pregnant or breastfeeding women screened last week were malnourished. “Rates of severe malnutrition in children under five have tripled in the last two weeks,” MSF stated.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres condemned what he described as widespread indifference. “This is a moral crisis that challenges the global conscience,” he said, addressing Amnesty International. “The lack of compassion, truth, and humanity is staggering.”
The WFP warned that by mid-August, child-targeted food supplies could be exhausted, putting tens of thousands of already malnourished children at risk of irreversible harm.