At least 57 Palestinians starved to death in Gaza as Israel's punishment for the surrounded enclaves blocked food, water and other critical aid, which extended into the third month due to the ruthless bombing.
The Gaza government media office said on Saturday that most of the victims were children, as well as patients and elderly people, condemning the “continued use of food as a weapon of war” and urged the international community to put pressure on Israel to reopen borders and allow aid.
Gaza has been under an overall lockdown from Israel since March 2, and the video was obtained in Al Jazeera Arabic and shows a large number of trucks that piled up on the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip on Saturday on Saturday, extending to the southern part of Arish, from Rafah Crossring to the city of Arish, about 45 kilometers (28 miles).
Al Jazeera's team identified one of the latest victims, a baby girl named Janan Saleh al-Sakafi, who died of malnutrition and dehydration at the Rantisi Hospital in western Gaza. According to the United Nations, more than 9,000 children have been taken to hospitals for treatment for acute malnutrition since the beginning of this year.
Al Jazeera's Hani Mahmoud said in a report in Gaza City that he witnessed the heartbreaking scene of children rifting in the garbage, "looking for what's leftover with canned food". He added that the enclave has reached a “critical” point where international organizations’ supply and community kitchens are unable to prepare meals for displaced people.
“Find a meal has become an impossible pursuit,” Ahmad al-Najjar, a displaced Palestinian in Gaza City, told Al Jazeera. “People here have witnessed a charity and declared that they have no supplies because they can’t do anything… to provide the relief they need.”
“It’s frustrating and frustrating to have trucks piled up on the other side of the fence, and people (even children) are in a serious state.”
Hospitals face "acute shortage"
In a statement, Rafah Kuwaiti Hospital director Suhaib al-Hams said the health care service was in an "acute shortage of more than 75% of essential medicines" and only one week left.
He warned that medical services in most enclaves will be stopped without “immediate intervention” to reopen borders and allow medical and humanitarian assistance. He added that emergency evacuation of patients who “slowly die without treatment every day” is needed.
The ongoing lockdown is the longest ever closure in the Gaza Strip and as Israeli forces continue to bomb the territory, killing at least 70 Palestinians and injuring 275 people in two days from Thursday to Saturday morning.
Two women were killed in an Israeli airstrike in an Israeli airstrike in a house in the town of Al-Fakhari near the city of Khan, a southern Gaza city, reported on Al Jazeera on Saturday.
In addition, a fisherman was killed in an Israeli naval attack near the coast of Gaza City and another was killed.
Later that day, two Palestinians were killed in the Mavasi area in southern Gaza, a former "safety zone" designated by Israel.
According to the Ministry of Health, since October 7, 2023, the Israeli war against Gaza has killed at least 52,495 people and injured 118,366 people. There are thousands of missing under the rubble that are supposed to be dead.