Eighteen Palestinians die of starvation in Gaza amid Israeli siege and aid massacres

Eighteen Palestinians starved to death in Gaza on Sunday as the risk of widespread famine in the devastated territory grows due to Israel's suffocating siege.

At least 86 Palestinians, including 76 children, have died from starvation since Israel began its siege on Gaza in October 2023, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement Sunday, calling it a "silent massacre".

Israel has maintained a blockade on Gaza for 21 months, only allowing a fraction of the required food to cross the border and blocking the entry of fuel and medical supplies.

In March it imposed a total blockade on the territory for 11 weeks, triggering a dire warning from a UN-backed food security monitor that hundreds of thousands of people were at risk of starvation.

In recent weeks it has permitted small amounts of food to enter the territory under the control of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), the controversial Israel and US-backed organisation that seized control of aid distribution in Gaza from the UN and other relief agencies.

Israel began allowing other aid organisations to distribute small amounts of food last week under an agreement with EU, but continues to block dozens of trucks from crossing the border.

The lack of food in the besieged territory has sent acute malnutrition rates spiralling.

The World Food Programme said Sunday that 90,000 women and children are in urgent need of treatment.

The rate of acute malnutrition among children under five more than doubled between March and June due to the 11-week total blockade, according to the UN's agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA). Around one in 10 children screened by UNRWA medical teams is malnourished.

The UN, Amnesty International and other rights monitors have accused Israel of using starvation as a weapon of war.

Palestinian parents have been so desperate for food for their families due to spiralling costs that they have offered to sell their kidneys.

Aid convoy massacre

Israeli forces gunned down dozens of Palestinian civilians waiting for a food from a World Food Programme convoy on Sunday, according to the UN agency.

"Countless" people were killed and many more were injured by Israeli tanks and snipers shortly after the 25-truck convoy crossed the border into Gaza, the WFP said.

Gaza's civil defence said that 93 civilians seeking aid were killed yesterday – including 80 near the convoy - in what was one of the worst massacres since the Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) took control of food distribution in the enclave at the end of May.

Almost a thousand civilians have been killed and six thousand others injured by Israeli troops and US mercenary forces working with the GHF since the organisation began operating two months ago.

Dozens of people have been gunned down on almost a daily basis as hundreds of thousands of people are forced to obtain food from just four GHF-run distribution sites in central and southern Gaza.

The number of aid seekers killed has reached 995 and 6,011 others have been wounded, according to figures released by the Gaza government media office on Sunday.

The Israeli military has killed 58,895 people and injured 140,980 others since beginning its genocidal assault on Gaza on 7 October 2023, according to the latest ministry figures.

Ceasefire silence

Egypt and Qatar are reportedly pressing Hamas to respond to the latest proposal for a temporary ceasefire in Gaza, which was handed to the group's leadership more than a week ago.

Negotiations over a 60-day truce have stalled in recent weeks over disagreements about Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and the release of Palestinian prisoners.

The current proposal would reportedly see Israel partially pull back from Rafah and release more than 1,200 Palestinian detainees. In return, Hamas would free 10 living captives and the bodies of 10 others during the two-month pause.

Hamas officials based in Qatar are considering backing the deal but the group's leaders in Gaza have not provided a clear response, according to Axios, citing US and Israeli officials.

"There were times in the past when there was no agreement because of Israel. That is not the case now," one senior US official told Barak Ravid, a reporter for the US news outlet.

"The Israelis are bending over backwards to reach an agreement, and Hamas leaders are being hard-headed. If there is no agreement this time, it will be entirely Hamas’ fault," the official said.

Qatar and Egypt, together with the US, have been trying to broker an end to the conflict.