The Gaza Ministry of Health announced on Friday that three more Palestinians, including children, died within the past 24 hours due to starvation and malnutrition, as Israel’s siege and closure of border crossings continue to block the entry of food, medicine, and humanitarian aid.

According to the ministry’s statement, the total number of deaths caused by malnutrition in Gaza has now risen to 376, including 134 children. The grim toll highlights the devastating impact of Israel’s deliberate starvation policy, which has transformed hunger into a weapon of war.

Since the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) formally declared famine conditions in the Gaza Strip earlier this year, at least 98 Palestinians – 19 of them children – have died from hunger-related causes. Doctors and aid workers warn that these figures likely underestimate the true scale of the catastrophe, as thousands of children suffer from acute malnutrition and many families lack access to clean water or basic sustenance.

The crisis has worsened dramatically since March 2, when Israel sealed all crossings into Gaza, effectively cutting off the population from life-saving supplies. For six months, humanitarian organizations have sounded alarms, urging international pressure to end the blockade. Yet, despite global condemnation and repeated appeals from the United Nations, the flow of aid remains strangled, and children continue to die in silence.

Human rights experts and international legal scholars have denounced Israel’s siege as a clear violation of international humanitarian law. “The deliberate denial of food and medicine to civilians constitutes collective punishment and a war crime,” aid groups insist. The use of starvation as a weapon, they add, meets the legal threshold for genocide.

The mounting toll of hunger deaths in Gaza is not only a Palestinian tragedy but a humanitarian catastrophe that stains the conscience of the world. Each child who dies of starvation is a reminder of the international community’s failure to uphold even the most basic principles of human dignity and protection.

The Ministry of Health renewed its urgent appeal to the world to act immediately to end the siege, open humanitarian corridors, and deliver unrestricted food and medical aid to the starving population.

Until then, Gaza’s children remain on the frontlines of a man-made famine, victims of a war that has turned bread and water into tools of oppression. (ILKHA)