Gaza’s Health Ministry said on Wednesday that another seven Palestinians had starved to death over the previous 24 hours due to the US-backed Israeli siege on the Palestinian territory.
“Hospitals in the Gaza Strip recorded seven deaths in the past 24 hours due to famine and malnutrition,” the ministry wrote on Telegram. “This brings the death toll from famine to 154, including 89 children.”
Starvation deaths in Gaza have spiked over the past week as a result of the total blockade Israel imposed on the Strip starting in March. At the end of May, Israel began allowing a trickle of aid to enter Gaza, mainly through the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), whose aid distribution sites have turned into death traps.
Israel and its supporters in the West have downplayed the recent starvation deaths, pointing to the fact that many of the dead and emaciated had underlying conditions, such as cerebral palsy. But malnutrition for people with these conditions can easily be avoided with proper nutrition, and they haven’t had access to adequate food due to the Israeli blockade. The most vulnerable are always the first to die as famine sets in.
Another vulnerable population is babies whose mothers cannot produce breast milk because they are malnourished. Many infants have died as Israel has been impeding the import of baby formula.
The Associated Press also reported on July 24 that the Patient’s Friends Hospital, the main emergency center for malnourished kids in northern Gaza, was starting to see malnutrition deaths in children who had no pre-existing condition.
Medics and experts previously told The Washington Post that the number of starvation deaths listed by the Health Ministry is likely a significant undercount since malnutrition is rarely listed as the primary cause of death, and that once mass hunger sets in, fatalities may rise exponentially.
Israel has announced several steps to increase the flow of aid amid global outrage over its starvation campaign, but the UN and other aid groups say it’s not nearly enough to avert a catastrophe. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a global hunger monitor, said in an alert on Tuesday that the “worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out in the Gaza Strip” and called for an immediate ceasefire.
