Gaza’s Health Ministry said 13 more people, including three children, died in the past 24 hours as a result of Israel-induced famine, amid mounting warnings from international agencies that starvation is spreading rapidly across the besieged enclave.
In a statement released Tuesday, the ministry said the new figures raise Gaza’s hunger-related death toll to 361 since October 7, 2023, when Israel launched its ongoing genocidal campaign.
Among the dead are at least 130 children, underscoring the devastating toll on the most vulnerable.
The ministry added that more than 43,000 children under the age of five are currently suffering from malnutrition, along with over 55,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women.
Two-thirds of pregnant women are experiencing anemia, marking the highest rate observed in recent years. “Mothers and newborns are the most at risk from malnutrition,” the ministry said.
According to the ministry, 83 of these deaths, including 15 children, have been recorded since August 22, the day when the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a United Nations-backed monitoring system, officially declared that parts of Gaza were in a state of full-blown famine.
The IPC assessment found that 514,000 people, nearly one-quarter of Gaza’s total population, were already facing a famine.
That number is expected to rise to 641,000 by the end of September. The report further warned that famine conditions are likely to spread to Deir el-Balah and Khan Younis within weeks.
The starvation crisis has also sparked strong condemnation from academic circles. On Monday, the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS), a network of more than 500 experts, overwhelmingly approved a resolution declaring that Israel’s actions in Gaza meet the legal definition of genocide under the 1948 UN Convention.
The resolution, which received 86% votes, urged Israel to end “starvation, deprivation of humanitarian aid, forced displacement and deliberate attacks on civilians.”
Melanie O’Brien, president of the IAGS and professor of international law at the University of Western Australia, stated, “This is a definitive statement from experts in the field of genocide studies that what is going on the ground in Gaza is genocide.”
