At least 37 Palestinians, including 10 seeking aid, have been killed in Israeli attacks across Gaza, medical sources told Al Jazeera, as health authorities in the besieged territory recorded eight more deaths from malnutrition amid a deepening hunger crisis.
Israeli artillery shelled tents sheltering displaced families in the Asdaa area northwest of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, killing 16 people, including six children, on Saturday, according to medical sources.
In central Gaza, two people were killed in an Israeli drone strike on a house in the Maghazi refugee camp.
A Palestinian was shot dead by Israeli forces while waiting for aid near a distribution point close to the so-called “Morag axis”, southeast of Khan Younis.
Another civilian seeking aid was shot dead near the Israeli-controlled Netzarim Corridor.
Starvation deaths
Palestinian health authorities said on Saturday that eight more Palestinians, including two children, died from malnutrition over the past 24 hours, raising the total death toll to 281 since the onset of the humanitarian crisis.
Munir al-Bursh, the director-general of Gaza’s Health Ministry, said on social media that among the victims, 114 are children.
“The famine is silently ravaging the bodies of civilians, depriving children of their right to life, and turning tents and hospitals into daily scenes of tragedy,” he added.
The United Nations on Friday officially declared a famine in Gaza, the first time it has done so in the Middle East, with experts warning 500,000 people face “catastrophic” hunger.
The UN has accused Israel of “systematic obstruction” of aid deliveries to the war-ravaged Palestinian territory, and Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described the famine as a “man-made disaster”.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) system, a global hunger monitor, said 514,000 people – close to a quarter of Palestinians in Gaza – are experiencing famine, with the number due to rise to 641,000 by the end of September.
Reporting from Deir el-Balah, Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary said many other Palestinians in Gaza were at risk from malnutrition.
“The UN famine report has been very late, according to Palestinians. They have been witnessing weeks and months of this ongoing starvation,” she said.
‘Engineering of starvation’
The Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza said on Saturday that it “appreciates” the declaration of famine in the enclave, although it believes the announcement was late.
“We emphasise that the engineering of starvation is one aspect of the chapters of genocide, which also include the systematic destruction of the health sector and other sectors, mass killing, and the policy of exterminating generations,” the ministry wrote in a statement on Telegram.
Since May 27, Israel has enforced a unilateral aid delivery mechanism through the so-called “Gaza Humanitarian Foundation,” backed by Israel and the US but rejected by the UN and major relief groups.
According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, more than 2,076 Palestinians have been killed and more than 15,300 people wounded while seeking aid since the GHF scheme was launched.
Israel has killed more than 62,600 Palestinians in Gaza since the Hamas-led October 2023 attack on southern Israel.
