Seven more Palestinians die from famine in Gaza as death toll reaches 169

Medical sources in Gaza reported on Saturday that seven more people, including one child, have died in the past 24 hours due to severe malnutrition and famine conditions across the besieged Strip.

The latest deaths bring the total number of people who have died from hunger-related causes attributed to the ongoing Israeli siege imposed on the region to 169, among them 93 children, according to Palestinian News & Information Agency (WAFA).

The humanitarian crisis in Gaza continues to worsen under the tight Israeli blockade and severe shortages of food and medical supplies. The famine is unfolding alongside the ongoing Israeli campaign of genocide since October 2023.

Palestinian woman Nozha Awad flees Al Shifa hospital following an Israeli raid with her triplet children, moving southward in the central Gaza Strip. File/Reuters

Since March 2, 2025, Israeli authorities have closed all border crossings into Gaza and have blocked the entry of most humanitarian aid, triggering a rapid and deadly deterioration in living conditions.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) previously warned that malnutrition rates among children under five have doubled between March and June due to the ongoing siege. The World Health Organisation has described the situation as deeply alarming, noting that nearly one in five children under five in Gaza City now suffers from acute malnutrition.

Palestinians transport a victim as another carries a bag near a distribution point run by the US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) group, as a boy carries a bag full of folded cardboard boxes, on Salah al-Din road near the Nusseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on on Saturday. AFP

Local health authorities confirmed that the Palestinian death toll from the Israeli onslaught since October 2023 has risen to 60,430 fatalities, with an additional 148,722 people sustaining injuries. The majority of the victims are women and children.

According to the same sources, the death toll since Israel’s resumption of the genocide on March 18 after a two-month truce has also climbed to 9,246, in addition to 36,681 others injured.

WAM