Hospitals across the Gaza Strip confirmed on Sunday that five more Palestinians, including three children, have died within the past 24 hours from famine and severe malnutrition, as the Israeli blockade continues to strangle the besieged territory.

The latest fatalities raise the death toll from hunger-related causes to 387, including 138 children, since the start of the crisis, according to Gaza’s health authorities.

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), which earlier this year issued a stark famine warning, has recorded 109 starvation-linked deaths since its alert, among them 23 children. Medical staff in Gaza say new cases of malnutrition and starvation are arriving “around the clock,” overwhelming hospitals already stretched beyond capacity.

Local doctors estimate that 900,000 children in Gaza are enduring hunger, with at least 70,000 reaching the dangerous stage of clinical malnutrition. “The situation is catastrophic. We are seeing children wasting away before our eyes,” one Gaza pediatrician told reporters.

The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) has repeatedly sounded the alarm over the accelerating crisis, noting that malnutrition rates among children under five doubled between March and June 2025 due to the ongoing siege. The agency has described the conditions as “entirely preventable” if food aid were allowed to enter freely.

Health officials warn that unless immediate, large-scale humanitarian access is granted, the death toll will continue to rise sharply in the coming weeks. “We are not facing a food shortage problem, but a deliberate blockade preventing aid from reaching those in need,” a Gaza health ministry spokesperson said.

The famine deaths add to the broader humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, where relentless military assaults and a total blockade have devastated civilian life. Aid agencies stress that children remain the most vulnerable, bearing the heaviest burden of hunger, disease, and displacement. (ILKHA)