...the Israel Defense Forces announced that aid airdrops would begin Saturday evening and humanitarian corridors for United Nations convoys would be opened.
But the Israeli military maintained that “there is no starvation in Gaza,” and said such claims were “a false campaign promoted by Hamas.”
No Meals, Fainting Nurses, Dwindling Baby Formula: Starvation Haunts Gaza Hospitals
After Israeli restrictions on aid, hunger has risen across Gaza. Doctors and nurses, struggling to find food themselves, lack the resources to stem the surge.
Starvation Rises
...scenes were described in interviews starting Friday with seven doctors — four from Gaza, and three volunteers from Australia, Britain and the United States. All of them worked this past week in four of the territory’s main hospitals.
After months of warnings, international agencies, experts and doctors say starvation is now sweeping across Gaza amid restrictions on aid imposed by Israel for months. At least 56 Palestinians died this month of starvation in the territory, nearly half of the total such deaths since the war began 22 months ago...
As starvation rises, medical institutions and staff, already struggling to treat war wounds and illness, are now grappling with rising cases of malnourishment.
Starvation has risen sharply since Israel’s total blockade on food aid to Gaza between early March and late May, doctors and rights groups say. While Israel has since allowed food in, it introduced a new method of distribution that is flawed and dangerous
"Man-Made Starvation", "Weapon of War"
“The expression ‘skin and bones’ doesn’t do it justice. I saw the severity of malnutrition that I would not have thought possible in a civilized world. This is man-made starvation being used as a weapon of war and it will lead to many more deaths unless food and aid is let in immediately.”-British surgeon Dr. Nick Maynard
...food handouts [now]...are supplied from a handful of sites run by Israeli-backed private American contractors that, for most Palestinians in Gaza, can be reached only by walking for miles through Israeli military lines.
Israeli soldiers have killed hundreds of people walking these routes, turning the daily search for food into a deadly trap.
Israel publicly says the new aid system is necessary to prevent Hamas from stealing the aid. But Israeli military officials have acknowledged to The New York Times that they have no proof that Hamas has systematically stolen food supplied by the United Nations, the main provider of aid to Gaza during most of the war. Israel says that its soldiers have fired “warning shots” to quell unrest along the roads leading to the aid sites. Dr. Maynard and Dr. Sleemi described injuries that indicated soldiers had systematically fired at people’s torsos.
NYT
