At least 20 Palestinians have starved to death in Gaza over the past three days due to the US-backed Israeli blockade, according to daily press releases from Gaza’s Health Ministry.
In its latest release on Sunday, the Health Ministry said it recorded six malnutrition deaths over the past 24 hours, including two children. The ministry said that the total number of starvation deaths has reached 133, including 37 children.
Medics and experts told The Washington Post that the number of starvation deaths listed by the Health Ministry is likely a significant undercount since malnutrition is rarely listed as the primary cause of death, and that once mass hunger sets in, fatalities may rise exponentially.
The starvation deaths in Gaza have led to an increase in international pressure on Israel to ease its blockade and restrictions on aid deliveries. For days, Israel, with help from the US, was claiming that it was the UN’s fault that more aid wasn’t being delivered. But on Sunday, Israel announced that it would take steps to facilitate more aid deliveries, making it clear that Israeli restrictions were the impediment.
The IDF announced that it would open additional humanitarian corridors and initiate “tactical pauses” in certain areas of Gaza to facilitate aid deliveries. However, heavy Israeli attacks continued in Gaza on Sunday, including in areas where “pauses” were supposed to take place, killing at least 53 people across the Strip.
There’s no sign yet that the steps from Israel will bring any real relief for Gaza’s starving population. According to the Post, an internal UN memo said that Israel only guaranteed that there would be “tactical pauses” and an increase in aid deliveries for one week.
Later on Sunday, the UN’s aid chief, Tom Fletcher, said that some progress had been made in getting more aid to starving Palestinians but added that “vast amounts of aid are needed to stave off famine and a catastrophic health crisis.”
On top of the deaths due to Israeli-imposed starvation, Israeli forces continue to gun down desperate Palestinians seeking aid. According to the Health Ministry, at least 11 aid seekers were killed and 36 were injured over the previous 24-hour period, bringing the total number of Palestinians killed while attempting to get food since the end of May to 1,132 and the number of wounded to 7,521.
The majority of aid seekers were killed near distribution sites run by the US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which helped Israel’s propaganda efforts by blaming the starvation in Gaza on the UN.
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