Hunger-related deaths still rising in Gaza as more Palestinians killed while seeking aid

At to the lowest degree 40 Palestinians were killed by Israeli gunshot and airstrikes on Gaza on mon, including 10 seeking assistance, wellness authorities said, adding another five had died of starvation in what humanitarian agencies warn may be an unfolding famine.

The 10 died in two separate incidents near aid sites belonging to the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), in central and southern Gaza, local medics said.

The United Nations says more than 1,000 people have been killed trying to receive aid in the enclave since the GHF began operating in May 2025, most of them shot by Israeli forces operating near GHF sites.

"Everyone who goes there comes back either with a bag of flour or carried back [on a wooden stretcher] as a martyr, or injured. No one comes back safe," said Palestinian Bilal Thari, 40.

He was among mourners at Gaza City's Al-Shifa Hospital on Monday who had gathered to collect the bodies of loved ones killed a day earlier by Israeli fire as they sought aid, according to Gaza's health officials.

At least 13 Palestinians were killed on Sunday while waiting for the arrival of UN aid trucks at the Zikim crossing on the Israeli border with the northern Gaza Strip, the officials added.

At the hospital, some bodies were wrapped in thick patterned blankets because white shrouds, which hold special significance in Islamic burials, were in short supply due to continued Israeli border restrictions and the mounting number of daily deaths, Palestinians said.

"We don't want war, we want peace, we want this misery to end. We are out on the streets, we all are hungry, we are all in bad shape, women are out there on the streets, we have nothing available for us to live a normal life like all human beings, there's no life," Thari told Reuters.

U.S. Envoy visits controversial aid site as Gaza starvation crisis worsens

Israel provided no immediate comment on the Sunday and Monday shootings.

The Israeli military said in a statement to Reuters that it had not fired earlier on Monday in the vicinity of the aid distribution centre in the southern Gaza Strip. It did not elaborate further.

Israel blames Hamas for the suffering in Gaza and says it is taking steps for more aid to reach its population, including airdrops, pausing fighting for part of the day in some areas and announcing protected routes for aid convoys.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netaynahu said on Monday he would convene his security cabinet this week to discuss how to instruct the military to proceed in Gaza and meet all his war goals.

"We must continue to stand together and fight together to achieve all our war objectives: the defeat of the enemy, the release of our hostages and the assurance that Gaza will no longer pose a threat to Israel," Netanyahu said at the outset of a regular cabinet meeting.

Netanyahu did not say when the security cabinet meeting would be held this week.

Meanwhile, five more people died of starvation or malnutrition over the past 24 hours, Gaza's health ministry said on Monday. The new deaths raised the toll of those dying from hunger to 180, including 93 children, since the war began.

UN agencies have said that airdrops of food are insufficient and that Israel must let in far more aid by land and quickly ease access to it.

COGAT, the Israeli military agency that co-ordinates aid, said that during the past week, more than 20,000 tonnes of humanitarian aid in 1,200 trucks had entered Gaza but that hundreds of the trucks had yet to be driven to aid distribution hubs by UN and other international organizations.

Israel's military later said 120 aid packages containing food had been dropped into Gaza "over the past few hours" by six different countries in collaboration with COGAT.

Palestinians scramble for aid after airdrop

The Hamas-run Gaza government media office said on Sunday that more than 600 aid trucks had arrived since Israel eased restrictions late in July. However, witnesses and Hamas sources said many of those trucks have been looted by desperate displaced people and armed gangs.

Palestinian and UN officials said Gaza needs around 600 aid trucks to enter per day to meet the humanitarian requirements — the number Israel used to allow into Gaza before the war.

The Gaza war began when Hamas-led attacks killed around 1,200 people and took 251 hostages in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, according to Israeli figures. Israel's offensive has since killed more than 60,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials.

According to Israeli officials, 50 hostages now remain in Gaza, with 20 of them believed to be alive.

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