The humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip has reached another grim milestone as hospitals reported four more deaths, including a child, caused by famine and malnutrition in the past 24 hours, health officials confirmed on Thursday.

These latest deaths bring the total number of starvation-related fatalities since the start of Israel’s brutal blockade to 435 Palestinians, including 147 children. Since the release of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report, at least 157 deaths have been documented, among them 32 children, underscoring the rapidly worsening crisis.

Medical workers in Gaza warned that cases of severe malnutrition are arriving “every hour,” with the situation described as catastrophic. According to health authorities, 900,000 children in Gaza are now suffering from hunger, with 70,000 in a critical state of malnutrition — a number that continues to rise under the ongoing siege.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) had previously sounded the alarm, reporting that malnutrition rates among children under the age of five doubled between March and June due to Israel’s suffocating blockade that has restricted food, medicine, and humanitarian aid.

Human rights advocates and Palestinian officials are accusing Israel of deliberately using starvation as a weapon of war — a violation of international humanitarian law and a war crime under the Fourth Geneva Convention.

“This is not a natural disaster — this is a man-made famine created by Israel’s siege,” said a Gaza health spokesperson. “Children are dying in their mothers’ arms because food and medical supplies are being deliberately blocked.”

Calls are growing louder for urgent international intervention, with humanitarian groups demanding an immediate end to Israel’s blockade, the establishment of safe humanitarian corridors, and full accountability for what many describe as a “policy of extermination through hunger.” (ILKHA)