AT least 14 Palestinians, including two children, have died from hunger and malnutrition in Gaza, according to health authorities, as United States President Donald Trump says there are signs of “real starvation” in the besieged territory.
The deaths pushed the number of those who have died from malnutrition since Israel launched its war on Gaza in October 2023, to 147, including 88 children, the Ministry of Health in Gaza said on Monday.
Most of the deaths have occurred in recent weeks as a hunger crisis gripped the territory due to Israel’s severe restrictions on the entry of humanitarian aid.
Israel imposed a total blockade on the territory in March, which was partially lifted in May. But only a trickle of aid has been allowed to enter since then, despite warnings from the United Nations and aid organisations of mass starvation.
The head of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said on Monday that his staff based in Gaza have described people enduring the starvation crisis as “neither dead nor alive – walking corpses”.
Speaking at a UN conference on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Philippe Lazzarini said that words of “outrage and condemnation are no longer adequate for what is unfolding”.
“There must be immediate action to impose a long-overdue ceasefire, to reverse deepening starvation, and to release every hostage… Once a ceasefire is in place, a massive scale-up of humanitarian assistance can be enabled by UNRWA’s large workforce,” Lazzarini said.
Earlier on Monday, US President Trump said many people were starving in Gaza and that Israel “has a lot of responsibility” for the situation in the territory.
Describing starvation as “real”, Trump’s comments put him at odds with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said on Sunday that “there is no starvation in Gaza”, and promised to fight on against the Palestinian group Hamas, which governs Gaza.
However, in a post on X on Monday, Netanyahu described the situation in Gaza as “difficult”, saying that Israel is working to ensure aid deliveries to the besieged Strip.
“Israel will continue to work with international agencies as well as the US and European nations to ensure that large amounts of humanitarian aid flows into the Gaza Strip,” Netanyahu said.
Trump, speaking during a visit to Scotland, said that a lot of people could be saved. “You have a lot of starving people,” he said.
