ISTANBUL

Palestinians in Gaza, including UN staff, are fainting from extreme hunger, and children and people with disabilities are dying from severe malnutrition, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said on Wednesday.

People in Gaza, including UNRWA staff, are fainting due to starvation and severe hunger, the agency said on X. “People including children are dying from severe malnutrition. People are being starved.”

UNRWA added that it alone has “thousands of trucks in neighbouring countries waiting to enter Gaza – banned by Israeli Authorities from entering since March.”

"The siege must be lifted now to allow our lifesaving humanitarian aid in,” the agency said.

Earlier Tuesday, Gaza’s Health Ministry announced that the number of deaths from famine and malnutrition since October 2023 had risen to 101, including 80 children, following the deaths of 15 Palestinians, four of them children, in the previous 24 hours.

On Sunday, the Government Media Office in Gaza warned that the territory was on the brink of “mass death” after more than 140 consecutive days of border closures.

Since March 2, Israel has stalled on implementing a ceasefire and prisoner exchange deal with Hamas and has kept Gaza’s border crossings shut, leaving humanitarian aid trucks stranded along the frontier.

Israel has killed more than 59,100 Palestinians, most of them women and children, in the Gaza Strip since October 2023. The military campaign has devastated the enclave, collapsed the health system, and led to severe food shortages.

Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.