Gaza death toll rises
At least 42 bodies and 183 injured people have been received by hospitals across the Gaza Strip in the past 24 hours, according to the enclave’s Health Ministry.
The update published on Telegram said Israel has killed 1,042 Palestinians and injured 2,542 in the Strip since breaking the ceasefire on March 18.
Israel’s war on Gaza has killed a total of 50,399 Palestinians and injured 114,583, it added.
Israel starving defenceless civilians in Gaza: Media Office
“The Gaza Strip is gradually dying from starvation, genocide, and the killing of civilians,” Gaza’s Government Media Office has said.
“In addition to the ongoing massacres and relentless killing, the occupation is deliberately committing the crime of mass starvation by closing the crossings leading to and from the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the genocidal war and completely preventing the entry of aid for a full month,” it said, accusing Israel of preventing the entry of 18,600 aid trucks and 1,550 trucks loaded with fuel.
“To further inflict starvation, the occupation has bombed more than 60 food banks and aid distribution centres, putting them out of service to enable the starvation. It has also bombed and targeted bakeries, halting and closing dozens of them,” it added.
“This has exacerbated the humanitarian crisis and led to widespread hunger among civilians. It has also imposed a stifling blockade on the entry of humanitarian aid, in a blatant crime of genocide aimed at breaking the will of the Palestinian people,” the statement said, calling for action from the international community.
All Gaza bakeries closed due to flour, fuel shortage: Bakery Owners Association
All bakeries in the Gaza Strip are closed today due to a shortage of flour and diesel, according to Abdel Nasser al-Ajrami, the head of the Bakery Owners Association.
He said the UN World Food Programme (WFP), which supports 18 bakeries in the Gaza Strip, had informed the association today that flour had run out in its warehouses.
“The bakeries will no longer operate until the occupation opens the crossings and allows the necessary supplies to enter. We call on the world to pressure the occupation to open the crossings to prevent the famine from worsening in the Strip,” al-Ajrami stated.
People in Gaza on ‘verge of famine’: Civil Defence
Gaza’s Civil Defence has told our colleagues that there is a shortage of all types of food in the enclave.
“We are on the verge of entering a famine similar to what we experienced in March of last year,” its spokesperson said. “Palestinians in Gaza are living in extremely harsh conditions.”
How is famine defined?
Bakeries in Gaza have been forced to shut down due to shortages of fuel and flour caused by an ongoing Israeli aid blockade.
The Civil Defence in the Gaza Strip has warned that Palestinians in the enclave are on the “verge of famine” as stocks of all types of food are in desperately short supply.
But what exactly constitutes a famine?
The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees defines famine as a situation in which a substantial proportion of a population cannot access adequate food, resulting in widespread acute malnutrition and loss of life by starvation and disease.
According to the World Food Programme’s chief economist, Arif Husain, “there is a famine when three conditions come together in a specific geographic area whether a town, village, city or even a country”:
- At least 20 percent of the population in that particular area is facing extreme levels of hunger.
- Thirty percent of the children are too thin for their height.
- The death rate has doubled from the average, surpassing two deaths daily per 10,000 people for adults and four deaths daily per 10,000 people for children.
A Palestinian child carrying food cries as people gather for a mass fast-breaking iftar meal in Beit Lahiya on March 15
