Food shortages in Gaza are worsening the hunger and starvation crisis as the overwhelmed healthcare system is near total collapse, Al Jazeera reported.
The Palestinian Health ministry has said that unprecedented number of people are arriving malnourished to hospitals from extreme exhaustion.
“Medical teams have observed a significant increase in death rates resulting from hunger and malnutrition.”
It has urged organizations “to take urgent and effective action to stop these massacres and open humanitarian corridors for the safe and regular supply of food, medicine, and fuel.”
The starvation crisis comes as Palestinians are under heavy attack from Israeli airstrikes and a blockade has been imposed on recognised aid organisations to get food, water and necessary medical supplies into Gaza.
UNRWA and WFP urge Israel to lift the siege:
United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has urged Israel to open the gates and lift the siege to allow aid into the besieged enclave.
“UNRWA has enough food for the entire population of Gaza for over three months stockpiled in warehouses–including this one in Al Arish, Egypt–awaiting entry. The supplies are available. The systems are in place. Allow UNRWA to do its work and help people in need among them 1 million children,” the agency said in a post on X.
UN World Food Programme, which delivers food assistance to people in Gaza, said in a statement, “Everyone in Gaza is hungry. It’s time to flood the Strip with food and reach ALL families, everywhere – safely and without interruption.”
🔴Nearly 1 in every 3 people in #Gaza is not eating for days at a time.
🔴Thousands of people are on the verge of catastrophic hunger.
Food aid is the only real way for people to eat.
📣WFP continues to call for an immediate and sustained ceasefire, and safe, unhindered,… pic.twitter.com/QUkijITeH6
— World Food Programme (@WFP) July 18, 2025
Meanwhile, at least 70 Palestinians have been killed on Saturday, July 19, according to Al Jazeera. The toll includes 36 people who were trying to collect humanitarian aid.
The Israeli army said that it has carried out 90 airstrikes on the Gaza Strip in the past day.
In a press release, the government media office in Gaza appealed to the international community to establish safe humanitarian corridors under international supervision to ensure unhindered delivery of food and medicine to all areas of Gaza without obstruction.
“Depoliticize relief aid and halt its manipulation or control by the occupation or complicit parties,” Drop Site news quoted them as saying.
In a statement on X, Dr Ali Tawil, a resident doctor at Al-Awda and Al-Aqsa Hospital said, “The famine in Gaza is escalating at a terrifying rate. People are collapsing in the streets from exhaustion and hunger. This is not a figure of speech, it’s happening right now. We are receiving unprecedented numbers of Gazans of all ages arriving at the ER, suffering from exhaustion due to hunger.”
Meanwhile, an estimated 900 people have been killed while waiting for food aid near food distribution centres in North and South Gaza since May. Most of them were killed in the vicinity of Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) sites. The organisation is backed by Israel and the US.
According to official figures, over 58,000 people have been killed in Israeli airstrikes since October 2023. Experts suggest that the death toll could be significantly higher as many are buried under the rubble of collapsed buildings. About 800 Israeli civilians and 300 IDF soldiers, police men and others were killed in an attack by Hamas on October 7, 2023. Israel unilaterally broke a ceasefire on March 18, 2025.