Latest update March 27th, 2026 12:40 AM
Gaza toll surpasses 63,000 killed, with 322 people starved to death
The bodies of Palestinians are taken to al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City for funeral procedures by their relatives following Israeli attacks on a tent in Gaza City, Gaza [Saeed MMT Jaras/Anadolu]
(AL-JAZEERA) Israel’s war on Gaza has killed some 63,025 Palestinians and injured 159,490 since October 7, 2023.
The total number of aid seekers killed since May 27, when Israel introduced a new aid distribution mechanism through the US-based GHF, has reached 2,203, with more than 16,228 injured.
On Friday, at least 67 Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks across Gaza, including 33 in Gaza City and five in the so-called “safe zone”, al-Mawasi, in Gaza’s south. Among the dead are 19 aid seekers, killed by Israeli gunfire in various parts of the strip.
Gaza’s Health Ministry recorded five deaths “due to famine and malnutrition” in the past 24 hours, including two children, bringing the total number of hunger-related deaths to 322, including 121 children.
Meanwhile, the declaration of famine in parts of Gaza by a global hunger monitor one week ago has not resulted in any noticeable increase of aid into the territory, says Amjad Shawa, the head of the NGO Network.
“There’s no improvement of the Gaza famine case, no real effort that we could see on the ground to deal with this famine situation,” he told Al Jazeera. “We were expecting that there would be real interventions, pressure from the international community to lift the blockade.”
He said that since last Friday’s declaration of famine in the Gaza Governorate, more people had starved to death, while many others had begun to suffer from malnutrition.
The amount of aid flowing into Gaza was still “very limited”, sufficient for only about 10 percent of the population’s needs, he said.
Further, the Israeli military says it has begun the “initial stages” of its offensive on Gaza City, as it declared the largest urban centre in the besieged territory a “combat zone” and announced the suspension of daily pauses in fighting there that allowed the entry of humanitarian aid to the famine-hit city.
“We are not waiting. We have begun preliminary operations and the initial stages of the attack on Gaza City,” Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee wrote in a post on X on Friday.
“We are currently operating with great force on the outskirts of the city,” he said.
Israel also announced that it had recovered the body of Ilan Weiss, an Israeli killed during the October 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel, whose body had been taken to Gaza.
The announcements came as the Israeli military confirmed it suspended so-called “tactical pauses” in its attacks on the city in northern Gaza that had previously allowed limited humanitarian operations there.
“Starting today at 10:00am (07:00 GMT), the tactical-local ceasefire of military activity will not apply to the Gaza City area, which constitutes a dangerous combat zone,” the military said on X.
Last week, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) initiative said famine was occurring in the Gaza governorate, a region where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians live, which includes Gaza City.
The UN’s children’s agency warned on Friday that staff at a nutrition centre in Gaza City are struggling to cope with a surge in malnourished children.
“It’s clear on the ground that famine is absolutely ravaging Gaza City,” UNICEF spokesperson Tess Ingram told Al Jazeera during a visit to the facility, where desperate parents bring their children to be screened and treated. She said she had met “so many” parents who were “in complete despair because they have run out of options”.
Health workers at the centre assess malnutrition by measuring children’s upper arms, with those at risk given fortified, high-energy biscuits as a preventive measure. Severely malnourished children receive ready-to-use therapeutic food, a concentrated paste designed to help them recover over several weeks.
“It’s basically a medicine that’s administered to children like a paste,” Ingram explained. “But we just don’t have enough; the demand is really high, and supplies are low.”
The IPC also warned that famine could soon spread to other areas of Gaza, as Israel continues to impose severe restrictions on supplies of humanitarian aid amid a deepening hunger crisis across the territory.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health reported on Friday that at least five people, including two children, died of starvation and malnutrition in Gaza over the past 24 hours.
Discover more from Kaieteur News
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Similar Articles
THE BLUNT OF THE DAY
Sports
Features/Columnists
Sir. Ronald Sanders
The GHK Lall Column
Weekend Cartoon
