The slow death imposed on Gaza by Israel’s blockade continues to claim lives. Medical sources confirmed Monday that 11 more Palestinians, including two children, succumbed to hunger and malnutrition in Gaza hospitals over the past 24 hours.

The latest deaths bring the total number of starvation-related fatalities in the besieged enclave to 300, among them 117 children.

Doctors on the ground describe scenes of unbearable tragedy, with children arriving skeletal and lifeless, their bodies weakened beyond recovery by deliberate deprivation. Families are watching their loved ones die, not because of a lack of global resources, but because the Israeli occupation has tightened its chokehold on Gaza, using food and medicine as weapons of war.

Since March 2, 2025, the occupation has sealed every crossing into Gaza, preventing the entry of life-saving supplies. The decision has created a man-made famine, a war tactic designed to break Palestinian resistance by starving the civilian population. Rights groups and Palestinian officials describe it as an extension of the genocide Israel has waged since October 7, 2023.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) has reported that malnutrition among children under five has doubled between March and June alone, a direct result of the blockade. The World Health Organization (WHO) has sounded the alarm, confirming that nearly one in five children in Gaza City now suffers from severe malnutrition. WHO officials bluntly state that these deaths are not accidental but the outcome of systematic obstruction of aid and deliberate starvation policies.

Palestinian voices on the ground are calling the famine what it is — an intentional massacre by hunger. “Our children are being killed with empty stomachs,” one Gaza father said. “The world sees this slow execution and still remains silent.”

As Gaza mourns its latest martyrs of starvation, the demand for international action grows louder. Palestinians and their supporters urge the world to break the blockade, hold the occupation accountable, and end the genocidal starvation campaign before thousands more lives are lost. (ILKHA)