Over 100 NGOs say Gaza now facing ‘mass starvation’ as aid workers join food lines

Nevin Al Sukari - Sana'a - Men walk carrying sacks of flour after raiding a truck carrying foodstuffs in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip yesterday. — AFP pic

JERUSALEM, July 23 — More than 100 aid organisations warned today that “mass starvation” was spreading across the Gaza Strip and that their own colleagues were suffering acutely from the shortages.

Israel is facing mounting international pressure over the catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Palestinian territory, where more than two million people have endured 21 months of devastating conflict.

Even after Israel began easing a more than two-month aid blockade in late May, Gaza’s population is still suffering extreme scarcities of food and other essentials, with residents frequently killed as they try to collect aid at a handful of distribution points.

In a statement, the 111 signatories—including Doctors Without Borders (MSF), Save the Children and Oxfam—warned that “our colleagues and those we serve are wasting away”.

“As the Israeli government’s siege starves the people of Gaza, aid workers are now joining the same food lines, risking being shot just to feed their families,” the statement read.

The groups called for an immediate negotiated ceasefire, the opening of all land crossings and the free flow of aid through UN-led mechanisms.

The UN on Tuesday said Israeli forces had killed more than 1,000 Palestinians trying to get food aid since the US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation started operations in late May—effectively sidelining the existing UN-led system.

Israel says humanitarian aid is being allowed into Gaza and accuses Hamas of exploiting civilian suffering, including by stealing food handouts to sell at inflated prices or shooting at those awaiting aid.

‘Hope and heartbreak’

In their statement, the humanitarian organisations said that warehouses with tonnes of supplies were sitting untouched just outside the territory, and even inside, as they were blocked from accessing or delivering the goods.

“Palestinians are trapped in a cycle of hope and heartbreak, waiting for assistance and ceasefires, only to wake up to worsening conditions,” the signatories said.

“It is not just physical torment, but psychological. Survival is dangled like a mirage,” they added.

“The humanitarian system cannot run on false promises. Humanitarians cannot operate on shifting timelines or wait for political commitments that fail to deliver access.” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Tuesday that the “horror” facing Palestinians in Gaza under Israeli military attack is unprecedented in recent years.

More than two dozen Western countries recently urged an immediate end to the war, saying suffering in Gaza had “reached new depths”.

The aid organisations urged decisive action from governments, saying that “piecemeal arrangements and symbolic gestures... serve as a smokescreen for inaction”.

Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has killed 59,106 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.

Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack, which sparked the war, resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

The head of Gaza’s largest hospital yesterday said 21 children had died due to malnutrition and starvation in the Palestinian territory in the past three days. — AFP pic