Mass starvation spreading across Gaza as supplies sit outside enclave, aid groups warn
Gaza
, including by demanding an immediate and permanent ceasefire and the lifting of all restrictions on the flow of humanitarian aid.
In a statement signed by 111 organisations, including Mercy Corps, the
Norwegian Refugee Council
and Refugees International, the groups warned that mass starvation was spreading across the enclave even as tons of food, clean water, medical supplies and other items sit untouched just outside Gaza as humanitarian organisations are blocked from accessing or delivering them.
'As the Israeli government's siege starves the people of Gaza, aid workers are now joining the same food lines, risking being shot just to feed their families. With supplies now totally depleted, humanitarian organisations are witnessing their own colleagues and partners waste away before their eyes,' the organisations said.
'The Government of
Israel
's restrictions, delays, and fragmentation under its total siege have created chaos, starvation, and death.'
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'Without immediate intervention, the last reporters in Gaza will die': News agency staff warn journalists face starvation
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The organisations called for governments to demand that all bureaucratic and administrative restrictions be lifted, all land crossings be opened, access to everyone across Gaza to be ensured and for the rejection of military-controlled distribution and a restoration of a 'principled, UN-led humanitarian response.'
'States must pursue concrete measures to end the siege, such as halting the transfer of weapons and ammunition.'
Israel, which controls all supplies entering Gaza, denies it is responsible for shortages of food.
Israeli and Arab activists take part in a rally calling for an end to the war on Gaza and the famine stemming from it, in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Tuesday. Photograph: EPA
More than 800 people have been killed in recent weeks trying to reach food, mostly in mass shootings by Israeli soldiers posted near Gaza Humanitarian Foundation distribution centres. The foundation, backed by the United States, has been fiercely criticised by humanitarian organisations, including the United Nations, for an alleged lack of neutrality.
Israeli forces have killed nearly 60,000 Palestinians in air strikes, shelling and shooting since launching their assault on Gaza in response to attacks on Israel by the Hamas group that killed 1,200 people and captured 251 hostages in October 2023.
For the first time since the war began, Palestinian officials say dozens are now also dying of hunger.
Gaza has seen its food stocks run out since Israel cut off all supplies to the territory in March and then lifted that blockade in May with new measures it says are needed to prevent aid from being diverted to militant groups.
The Norwegian Refugee Council told Reuters on Tuesday its aid stocks were completely depleted in Gaza, with some of its staff now starving, and the organisation accused Israel of paralysing its work. – Reuters
(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2025
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Irish Times
6 hours ago
- Irish Times
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