GAZA CITY, Palestine

The Palestinian death toll from hunger in the Gaza Strip has risen to 20 amid a crippling Israeli blockade, the Health Ministry said on Wednesday.

“Famine in northern Gaza has reached fatal levels, especially for children, pregnant women and patients with chronic diseases,” ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said in a statement.

He said a 15-year-old boy and a 72-year-old man died of malnutrition and dehydration at Al-Shifa Medical Complex and Kamal Adwan Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip on Wednesday.

“Thousands of people are at risk of dying of starvation,” Al-Qudra warned, calling for immediate access to humanitarian and medical assistance to the Palestinian enclave.

The spokesman accused the Israeli army of “deliberately committing horrific massacres against thousands of starving people in northern Gaza."

He appealed to the United Nations to take urgent measures “to prevent a humanitarian and health catastrophe in northern Gaza.”

Israel has waged a deadly military offensive, now in its 152nd day, on the Gaza Strip since an Oct. 7 Hamas attack, which Tel Aviv said killed nearly 1,200 people.

More than 30,700 Palestinians have since been killed and over 72,000 others injured amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities.

Israel has also imposed a crippling blockade on the Gaza Strip, leaving its population, particularly residents of northern Gaza, on the verge of starvation.

The Israeli war has pushed 85% of Gaza’s population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio in Ankara