UNICEF warns Gaza has entered famine, as hunger and Israel’s controversial aid scheme leave over 1,400 Palestinians dead and tens of thousands more injured or displaced.

Ted Chaiban, Deputy Executive Director of UNICEF, warned that Gaza’s humanitarian crisis has crossed into famine. He said one in three people in the besieged enclave now goes entire days without any food.

Meanwhile, the director of Al-Shifa Medical Complex confirmed that seven Palestinians, including one child, died in the last 24 hours due to hunger and Israeli-imposed starvation policies.

According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, the total number of deaths due to starvation has now reached 169, including 93 children, as famine tightens its grip on the population.

Israeli Forces Kill Scores near Aid Centers, Target Red Crescent in Gaza

On Saturday, the government media office in Gaza reported that only 36 aid trucks had entered the Strip. Most of the aid, they said, was looted amid the chaos fueled by the Israeli occupation’s policies.

Despite United Nations objections, Tel Aviv began implementing its own aid distribution plan on May 27, via the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Relief Foundation — an Israeli- and US-backed entity that operates outside UN oversight. 

Palestinians have rejected this mechanism, calling it a tool of forced displacement and a cover for reoccupation.

According to the Ministry of Health, since this distribution model began, at least 1,422 Palestinians seeking aid have been killed and over 10,000 injured.

The ongoing US-backed genocide, which began on October 7, 2023, has resulted in more than 209,000 Palestinians killed or wounded — the majority of them women and children. 

Over 14,000 remain missing, and hundreds of thousands have been displaced amid worsening famine conditions.

(PC, AJA)