Nearly 400 Palestinians have starved to death in Gaza, health officials say
The IPC declared famine in Gaza City last month
Yazan, a malnourished two-year-old Palestinian baby, is held by his mother in the Shati refugee camp in Gaza City in August 2025. [Photo courtesy of UNICEF}
The Gaza Health Ministry said Monday that at least 393 Palestinians, including 140 children, have died from starvation since Israel’s war on the enclave began nearly two years ago.
The report came weeks after the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a nongovernmental body that tracks global hunger, declared famine in Gaza City last month.
Since then, at least 115 Palestinians — 25 of them children — have starved to death, according to health officials. The ministry said six more, including two children, died Monday.
The ministry, which has released daily casualty updates since Oct. 7, 2023, said that at least 64,522 Palestinians have been killed thus far
The worsening hunger crisis comes as Philippe Lazzarini, head of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), warned of a “man-made famine” while visiting Cairo on Saturday.
At a joint press conference with Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty, Lazzarini called for an “immediate cease-fire to bring desperately needed humanitarian assistance into Gaza and at scale.”
He also urged Arab states to boost funding for UNRWA, saying contributions have “dropped 90% compared to last year,” in a post on X.
Moreover, latest figures from UNICEF, the U.N.’s agency for children, indicate more than 7,000 toddlers in Gaza are now receiving acute malnutrition treatment in its clinics.
Tess Ingram, a UNICEF spokesperson who visited Gaza City last week, described the situation as “unthinkable.”
“On the ground, it is crystal clear that people are starving,” she said. “There is a famine unfolding in Gaza City, and Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis are not far behind.”
Israeli officials confirmed last week that aid airdrops into the city have ended, the Guardian reported on Saturday. Israel had permitted only limited deliveries since May from international pressure.
The same officials vowed for full occupation of the area as ceasefire negotiations with Hamas continue.