The hunger crisis in Gaza: ‘Efforts not enough to counter current starvation’ | World News

This comes after Gaza’s two million people faced a near-total blockade on food, water, medicine, and electricity, leading to starvation, sickness, and deaths. Border closures and continuous airstrikes have, moreover, left shelves empty, hospitals overwhelmed, and families struggling to survive. Israeli strikes have killed at least 41 Palestinians between late Saturday and Sunday, including 26 of them while seeking aid, according to Gaza health officials.

Amid Israel’s scale-up of aid, UN officials and aid workers warned that the measures fall far short of the much-needed ceasefire and unfettered aid access that could help stem the spiralling humanitarian catastrophe, as per UN News.

The Israeli military announced the ‘tactical pause’ would remain in place between 10 am to 8 pm in densely populated areas. (AP Photo)

“Welcome announcement of humanitarian pauses in Gaza to allow our aid through,” UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher shared on X. “This is progress, but vast amounts of aid are needed to stave off famine and a catastrophic health crisis,” he added. According to the UN, one in three people in Gaza hasn’t eaten for days.

What does the ‘tactical pause’ entail?

Within the so-called ‘tactical pause‘ announced by Israel late Saturday, its military began to airdrop aid into the Gaza Strip. The move came amid increased international pressure and increasing incidents of starvation-related deaths in Gaza.

The aid included seven packages of aid containing flour, sugar and canned food, the Israel Defence Forces stated over a Telegram post on Sunday.

The Israeli military also said on Saturday that it would establish humanitarian corridors for United Nations convoys, however, it refrained from providing further details.

The statement also emphasised “that combat operations have not ceased” in Gaza against Hamas. It reiterated the IDF’s position that there is “no starvation” in the territory, as quoted by CBS News.

Following the announcement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said, “Whichever path we choose, we will have to continue to allow the entry of minimal humanitarian supplies.”

Palestinians carry sacks of flour unloaded from a humanitarian aid convoy that reached Gaza City from the northern Gaza Strip. (AP Photo)

On Saturday, Israel said that over 250 trucks carrying aid from the UN and other organizations entered Gaza this week. However, this is comparatively way less than the 600 trucks which entered Gaza per day when the ceasefire was in place until March 2025, CBS News stated.

The hunger crisis in Gaza

About 470,000 people are facing catastrophic hunger in Gaza, with 100,000 women and children suffering from severe acute malnutrition, who are in desperate need of treatment.

The WHO has warned malnutrition has reached “alarming levels” in Gaza with rates on a “dangerous trajectory” after aid air drops resumed to the Strip, BBC News reported. BBC also quoted the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry data which stated at least 133 people have died from malnutrition since the war began.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also denounced global inaction, calling the suffering in Gaza a “moral crisis that challenges the global conscience.” “We will continue to speak out. But words don’t feed hungry children,” he wrote over a post on X.

“The @UN stands ready to make the most of a ceasefire to dramatically scale up humanitarian operations,” he added in his post last week.

US President Donald Trump too on Sunday called the images of emaciated and malnourished children in Gaza “terrible.”

On July 23, more than 100 organisations, including Oxfam, sounded an alarm, urging governments to act: “open all land crossings; restore the full flow of food, clean water, medical supplies, shelter items, and fuel through a principled, UN-led mechanism; end the siege, and agree to a ceasefire now,” a release by Oxfam International stated.

A World Food Programme official greets a truck driver carrying humanitarian aids at Rafah crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, Sunday, July 27, 2025. (AP Photo)

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) also sounded the alarm, reporting that one in four children and pregnant or breastfeeding women screened at its Gaza clinics were malnourished. “Rates of severe malnutrition in children under five have tripled in the last two weeks alone,” MSF said, blaming what it described as Israel’s “policy of starvation”.

Even before the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel that began from January 19 and lasted till March 18, there were famine-like conditions in pockets of Gaza as the amount of aid that was allowed to enter was pitiful compared to the needs. The ceasefire allowed international organisations and NGOs to scale up aid to the minimum required level, which helped stave off hunger in the initial days.

However, when the ceasefire collapsed and aid blockade began in March, the situation worsened, and continues to be projected as ‘serious’ and ‘critical’, as per the assessment of the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) which came out on the 12th that month.

Aid blockade: Beginning and end

The food crisis in Gaza intensified early March this year, when Israel completely cut off supplies of food, medicine, fuel, among others to the 2.3 million residents of the Gaza Strip, demanding Palestinian militant group Hamas to release all the remaining hostages. Currently, fifty of them remain in Gaza, with over half of them believed to be dead, as per an AP report.

Israel had restricted the entry of aid to Gaza claiming Hamas of siphoning it off to bolster its rule, however, it did not provide any evidence for the same, AP noted in its report.

The March aid blockade, which continued for two-and-a-half months began to push Gazans towards prolonged food shortages, illness, and death, as per the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Amid international pressure, Israel lifted the 11-week blockade in May, however, allowed only limited deliveries by the United Nations (UN) to resume.

Palestinians struggle to get donated food at a community kitchen, in Gaza City, northern Gaza Strip, Saturday, July 26, 2025. (AP Photo)

Since then, Israel has allowed in around 4,500 trucks for the UN and other aid groups to distribute, including 2,500 tons of baby food and high-calorie special food for children, Israel’s Foreign Ministry stated last week.

Meanwhile, the UN said that since then, the average of 69 trucks entering the Strip per day has been far below the 500 to 600 trucks, which is ideally needed. The UN also said it has been unable to distribute much aid because hunger-stricken crowds pick most of it from the trucks, AP quoted.

Role of US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation

A private humanitarian organisation backed by the United States and Israel was tasked with distributing humanitarian aid in Gaza soon after the aid blockade ended in May.

“We plan to scale rapidly to serve the full population in the weeks ahead,” the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation had then said in a statement after its director resigned, citing the organisation’s lack of independence.

The UN called the GHF as a “controversial” aid operation, with Guterres terming it as “inherently unsafe.” “It is killing people,” he had said. UN officials and Gaza-based doctors reported the killing of over 400 Palestinians as they tried to reach the four designated aid sites run by GHF.

The GHF rejected these numbers and said it was doing what other organisations could not, that is, delivering aid without it being looted or seized by Hamas. Israel supported the foundation as “a mechanism to provide secure aid,” insisting its military did not “deliberately target civilians collecting food,” as per a report in The Indian Express.

Even though Israel stands firm in its allegation that the UN system allows Hamas to steal aid, the global body has denied the same.

Trucks carrying humanitarian aids line up to enter the Rafah crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, Sunday, July 27, 2025. (AP Photo)

In a letter sent to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a group of Democratic senators Sunday expressed “grave” concerns about “the US role in and financial support for the troubled GHF,” urging the Trump administration to suspend American financial support for it, CBS News reported.

“We urge you to immediately cease all US funding for GHF and resume support for the existing UN-led aid coordination mechanisms with enhanced oversight to ensure that humanitarian aid reaches civilians in need,” the letter read.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot also told CBS on “Face the Nation” that Gaza is on the “brink of food catastrophe” and that France expected “the Israeli government to stop the operations of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation that has caused [a] bloodbath in humanitarian health distribution lines in Gaza.”

Killed while seeking aid

Over 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since May this year while trying to get food, mostly near those sites, the UN human rights office, OHCHR, said.

According to a report by the AP, Awda Hospital in Nuseirat claimed Israeli forces recently killed at least 13 people, including four children and a woman, and wounded 101 as they headed toward a GHF aid distribution site in central Gaza.

To this claim, Israel’s military said it fired warning shots to prevent a “gathering of suspects” from approaching, hundreds of meters from the site before opening hours. GHF also asserted there were no such incidents at or near its sites, as per the report.

Awda Hospital in Nuseirat claimed Israeli forces recently killed at least 13 people, including four children and a woman, and wounded 101 as they headed toward a GHF aid distribution site in central Gaza. (AP Photo)

Thirteen others were killed seeking aid elsewhere, including northwestern Gaza City, where more than 50 people were wounded, and near the Zikim crossing where over 90 were wounded, hospital officials and medics told AP.

‘Not enough to counter current starvation’

Israel’s military late last week said about 28 aid packages containing food were airdropped, adding it would put in place secure routes for aid delivery, AP reported. It also said the steps were made in coordination with the UN and other humanitarian groups.

Meanwhile, the UN World Food Program stated that it had enough food in, or on its way, to feed all of Gaza for nearly three months, highlighting that nearly half a million people were enduring “famine-like conditions”.

Antoine Renard, WFP’s country director for the occupied Palestinian territories, said around 80 WFP trucks entered Gaza, while another over 130 trucks arrived via Jordan, Ashdod and Egypt. He said other aid was moving through the Kerem Shalom and Zikim crossings, AP report quoted.

However, he stressed it was not enough to counter the “current starvation.”

In the month of July alone, Gaza saw 63 malnutrition-related deaths, which included 24 children under the age of five, as per WHO data. Israeli forces also forcibly displaced nearly two million Palestinians with the most recent mass displacement order issued on July 20, UN highlighted.

Amid the rising cases, Dr. Muneer al-Boursh, Gaza Health Ministry’s director-general, called for medical supplies to treat child malnutrition. “This (humanitarian) truce will mean nothing if it doesn’t turn into a real opportunity to save lives,” he told AP. “Every delay is measured by another funeral.”

In the month of July alone, Gaza saw 63 malnutrition-related deaths, which included 24 children under the age of five, as per WHO data. (AP Photo)

Death toll and ceasefire talks

Since October 7, 2023, when Hamas began its attack on Israel, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 hostages, more than 59,700 Palestinians have been killed, according to latest numbers released by Gaza’s Health Ministry.

Over half of those dead are women and children, AP reported quoting the ministry.

Ceasefire efforts, meanwhile, continue to remain failed. Israel and the US recalled negotiating teams from Qatar last Thursday, blaming Hamas, where Israel said it was considering “alternative options” to talks.

Israel also said it was prepared to end the war if Hamas surrendered, disarmed and went into exile, which the latter refused. Khalil al-Hayya, the head of Hamas’ negotiating delegation, said the group had displayed “maximum flexibility.”

Senior Hamas official Mahmoud Merdawi also said Israel’s change of approach on the humanitarian crisis amounted to an acknowledgement of Palestinians starving in Gaza, and asserted that it was meant to improve Israel’s international standing and not save lives, as quoted in the AP report.

Support from other countries in delivering aid

Amid global condemnation of Israel’s aid blockade in Gaza, leaders of the United Kingdom, France and Germany have called for lifting all the restrictions on aid and urged the countries in conflict to consider an immediate ceasefire.

UK prime minister Keir Starmer, speaking to French president, Emmanuel Macron, and the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz on Saturday, said that his government will be “taking forward” plans to airdrop aid into Gaza, in collaboration with Jordan, and evacuate children who need medical assistance to the UK for treatment, according to a BBC report.

According to a spokesperson quoted by The Guardian, the three leaders agreed “it would be vital to ensure robust plans are in place to turn an urgently needed ceasefire into lasting peace.” “They discussed their intention to work closely together on a plan, building on their collaboration to date, which would pave the way to a long-term solution and security in the region.”

Humanitarian aid is airdropped to Palestinians over Gaza City, Gaza Strip, Sunday, July 27, 2025. (AP Photo)

Moreover, as Israel agreed to let Jordan and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) airdrop aid into Gaza, the UAE’s foreign minister on Saturday said the country would resume aid drops over Gaza “immediately” citing the “critical” humanitarian situation, as per the report.

Jordan and the UAE said it delivered “25 tonnes of food aid and essential humanitarian supplies” by aid air drops, BBC News reported.

“The humanitarian situation in Gaza has reached a critical and unprecedented level,” Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan said in a post on X. “We will ensure essential aid reaches those most in need, whether through land, air or sea. Air drops are resuming once more, immediately.”

Besides these countries, Egypt also delivered aid into Gaza by land and air.