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23-08-2025
UNITED NATIONS/ GAZA STRIP: Two Palestinians have starved to death in Gaza in the past 24 hours, which also saw 71 people killed in Israeli attacks across the enclave, according to the territory’s Health Ministry.
A UN classification system used to determine access to food has officially declared famine in Gaza, saying more than half a million Palestinians are facing catastrophic famine conditions, which include starvation, destitution and death.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry has rejected the findings, saying there is no famine in Gaza and the findings are based on “Hamas lies”.
At least 52 Palestinians have been killed across Gaza since dawn, including 36 killed in Gaza City, where the most intense bombardments are taking place, medical sources have told media.
Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 62,263 people and wounded 157,365, while 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the attacks on October 7, 2023, and more than 200 were taken captive.
Death toll in Gaza rises again
Israeli attacks have killed at least 65 Palestinians across Gaza since dawn, including 37 who were killed in Gaza City alone, sources tell media.
Six people were killed since dawn while seeking aid.
Israel makes getting any aid into Gaza ‘a gargantuan task’
That’s according to Chris McIntosh, a humanitarian response adviser at Oxfam in Gaza who says Israel has sidelined “the entire humanitarian community”.
“We and 60 other organizations were told that we’re simply not authorized to bring in the shipments (of aid),” McIntosh told media.
“Other organizations have been told that there are security concerns about bringing in things like generators. There are concerns about dual-purpose items like solar panels and tents being brought in,” he said.
“So there’s no end to the byzantine bureaucracy of Israel and these very flimsy excuses for not allowing us to do our jobs.”
McIntosh added that what little food is available in Gaza is limited, expensive and not nutritious, which causes acute malnutrition and starvation, particularly among children. “The situation here is catastrophic on multiple levels.”
‘Famine isn’t just a word, it’s a technical term’: WFP
Jean-Martin Bauer, a UN World Food Program (WFP) director who has worked to combat hunger in West Africa, Syria, Iraq and Central Africa, explains how significant the use of the word “famine” is to describe the situation in Gaza.
The expert outlined how the term is arrived at through a globally accepted process with clear standards and conditions that relate to the number of deaths from starvation and the share of population and children suffering from extreme food shortages and acute malnutrition.
Israel’s military confirms strike on Lebanon
The Israeli military has confirmed the strike on southern Lebanon that we reported earlier, claiming it targeted a Hezbollah operative.
It said in a short statement that its air force killed an unidentified man who was “engaged in attempts to rehabilitate the organization’s terror infrastructure in the Ayta ash-Shaab area in southern Lebanon”.
‘We cannot let famine become a death sentence for more of Gaza’s children’
We have more from UNICEF’s Samir Elhawary, who told reporters at UN headquarters that action needs to be taken to help starving Palestinian children in Gaza.
“It’s important to emphasize that children are starving not because food doesn’t exist, but because aid cannot reach them in time,” Elhawary said. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
