“Mass starvation” is spreading across the population in Gaza as the devastating war continues for 21 months straight, over a 100 aid and human rights groups said on Wednesday.
As many as 2 million people in Gaza have been scrambling for food and other basic essentials ever since the war began. The rights group also accused Israel of not allowing food inside the Palestinian territories to be distributed.
Over the past three days, 21 children in Gaza died due to malnutrition and starvation, said the head of Gaza's largest hospital on Tuesday.
The warning by aid organisations comes as the United States indicated that efforts were on to facilitate a ceasefire in the war-torn country and said that its Middle-East envoy Steve Witkoff will head to Europe for potential ceasefire talks. Witkoff comes with "a strong hope that we will come forward with another ceasefire as well as a humanitarian corridor for aid to flow, that both sides have in fact agreed to," said State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce.
Amid spread of “mass starvation” in Gaza, Israel is under immense pressure over letting aid inside the country. However, Israel has denied blocking the aid and said that 950 trucks' worth of aid were in Gaza waiting for international agencies to collect and distribute, reported AP.
"We have not identified starvation at this current point in time but we understand that action is required to stabilise the humanitarian situation," the Times of Israel quoted an unnamed senior Israeli security official as saying.
{{/usCountry}}"We have not identified starvation at this current point in time but we understand that action is required to stabilise the humanitarian situation," the Times of Israel quoted an unnamed senior Israeli security official as saying.
{{/usCountry}}Israel has also maintained that while it has allowed aid into Gaza, it was Hamas that was making things worse by stealing it and selling it at inflated prices.
Palestinians killed at aid centres
Lately, several people have been killed in Gaza reportedly while trying to get food or other supplies from aid centres. Health officials in Gaza say that on Tuesday and early Wednesday, 21 people were killed by Israeli strikes.
According to the United Nations, over 1,000 Palestinians have been killed while seeking food and aid by Israel since late May, ever since the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which is backed by the US and Israel, started operations in the region. During this time, the US-led aid system was sidelined.
According to a statement signed by 111 aid and human rights organisations, they have called for an immediate ceasefire and Gaza and opening of all its borders to allow aid through UN-led systems.
The statement warned that "our colleagues and those we serve are wasting away"
"Palestinians are trapped in a cycle of hope and heartbreak, waiting for assistance and ceasefires, only to wake up to worsening conditions," the statement added.
"It is not just physical torment, but psychological. Survival is dangled like a mirage…The humanitarian system cannot run on false promises. Humanitarians cannot operate on shifting timelines or wait for political commitments that fail to deliver access."
The war in Gaza was triggered by Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7, 2025, in which over 1,200 people, most of them civilians, died. In Israel’s retaliation, around 59,219 Palestinians have been killed so far, most of whom are also civilians, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry.
With inputs from AP.