“Six people have died in the last 24 hours in Gaza due to hunger and malnutrition.” This latest figure in the humanitarian catastrophe comes from Palestinian medical sources cited by the Wafa agency, which explains that the deaths were recorded in various hospitals in the Strip. This comes after the United States special envoy for the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, said that “despite the difficulties and the scarcity of food, there is no hunger in Gaza.” The reality, according to doctors working in the Strip, is very different and they say so with statistics: the number of deaths due to hunger thus rises to 175, of which 93 are children. An inhumane toll, which adds to that of the Palestinians killed while they were queuing to retrieve food : according to other medical sources in the Strip, since the early hours of the morning of August 3, at least 70 civilians have been killed in attacks in the Strip, 37 of them while they were waiting for humanitarian aid.
Aid, it's worth remembering, arrives in dribs and drabs: according to public UN data and its system that tracks every aid truck entering Gaza using QR codes, approximately 40,000 tons of humanitarian aid were unloaded between May 19 and August 2, but only 4,100 tons (10%) reached their destination. The rest was marked as"intercepted," meaning the cargo "was diverted along the route into Gaza either peacefully by starving people or forcefully by armed actors." According to the Gaza government press office, Israel is deliberately blocking the entry of over 22,000 trucks of humanitarian aid into the territory as part of a systematic campaign of"hunger, siege, and chaos." Most of the cargo belongs to the United Nations and international organizations and various entities.
Returning to the news of the last few hours, only 36 trucks carrying humanitarian aid entered Gaza yesterday, despite the worsening humanitarian situation in the enclave, Palestinian officials warned. According to the Gaza government press office, Sky News writes, most of the humanitarian supplies have been looted and stolen,"due to the state of security chaos that the Israeli occupation systematically and deliberately perpetuates." Two tankers carrying 107 tons of diesel are about to enter Gaza from the Rafah crossing with Egypt, Egyptian state TV Al Qahera reported, citing Al Arabiya. There is still no confirmation that the trucks have actually entered. The last time fuel tankers entered the Strip was on July 10. Since last March, Israel has drastically reduced the flow of supplies to Gaza, in an effort to weaken Hamas, causing severe food shortages for the population. The fuel shortage has also severely impacted the operation of hospitals.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, for his part, appealed to the Red Cross to provide food and medical care only to Israeli hostages in Gaza. He told Julien Larison, head of the Red Cross delegation in the region, that"the lie of starvation in Gaza spread by Hamas echoes around the world, while in reality, systematic starvation is inflicted on the kidnapped, who suffer brutal physical and psychological abuse." Netanyahu, his office wrote,"called for the involvement of the world's countries in condemning the terrorist organizations Hamas and Islamic Jihad and in ending their support, both directly and indirectly, stressing that their actions are contrary to international law and the Geneva Convention."
