The ministry noted in a statement that hospitals are drowning in a sea of infections, and the number of patients exceeds their capacity. It explained that "the bed occupancy rate at Al-Shifa Hospital has reached 240%, at Al-Rantisi Hospital 210%, at Nasser Hospital 180%, and at Al-Ahli Arab Hospital 300%."
She continued, "Hospitals are resorting to carpeting corridors and floors to accommodate the increasing number of patients and injured," renewing her urgent appeal to the international community, UN agencies, and humanitarian organizations to provide immediate and effective support to assist the health sector in Gaza.
Meanwhile, the ministry reported that the death toll from the ongoing Israeli genocide since October 7, 2023, has risen to 60,430 martyrs and 148,722 wounded.
She noted that "98 martyrs and 1,079 injuries arrived at Gaza hospitals in the past 24 hours," adding that "the death toll from Palestinian casualties since the occupation resumed its genocide on March 18 has reached 9,246 martyrs and 36,681 injuries."
Regarding starving Palestinians, the ministry stated that the death toll among those awaiting aid has reached "1,422 martyrs and more than 10,000 injuries" since May 27, noting that hospitals in the Gaza Strip have received "39 martyrs and more than 849 injuries" among those awaiting aid in the past 24 hours.
On a daily basis, the Israeli occupation army fires on Palestinians queuing near aid distribution centers, leaving them between starvation and being shot, according to the government media office in Gaza.
In the latest of these crimes, the occupation army killed eight Palestinians and wounded others when it opened fire on a gathering of people waiting for aid in the northern Gaza Strip, according to a medical source.
Twenty-seven Palestinians, including an entire family, were killed and others injured on Saturday in Israeli attacks targeting various areas of the Gaza Strip, as part of a genocide that has been ongoing for more than 21 months.
Israeli attacks targeted homes, displacement camps, and civilian gatherings in Gaza City and the southern and central parts of the Strip, according to medical sources and eyewitnesses.
In new Israeli attacks, three Palestinians were killed and 10 others were injured in an Israeli airstrike targeting personnel securing humanitarian aid trucks in the Al-Tawam and Al-Khazindar areas, northwest of the Gaza Strip. Three other Palestinians were killed in an Israeli airstrike targeting a gathering of civilians in the Shuja'iyya neighborhood, east of Gaza City.
Three Palestinians waiting for humanitarian aid were also killed by Israeli gunfire near a distribution center near the Netzarim axis in the central Gaza Strip, and a woman was killed in an Israeli bombardment of the Al-Amal neighborhood northwest of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip.
Prior to that, 17 Palestinians were killed in separate Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip.
Regarding the famine, the Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, considered the famine in the Gaza Strip to be the result of deliberate Israeli attempts to replace the so-called "politically motivated humanitarian institution of Gaza" with the United Nations system .
This came in a post on Lazzarini's X account on Saturday, in which he commented on the Israeli starvation of Gaza. The UN official said that the situation has worsened after UNRWA was prevented from bringing any aid into the Gaza Strip for five months.
He stressed that "the marginalization and weakening of UNRWA has nothing to do with allegations of diverting Gaza aid to armed groups," but rather is a deliberate measure to collectively pressure and punish Palestinians simply for living in the Strip, asserting that "the man-made famine in Gaza is the result of deliberate attempts to replace the so-called Gaza humanitarian institution, which is politically motivated, with the United Nations system ."
Beyond the supervision of the United Nations and international relief organizations, Tel Aviv began implementing an aid distribution plan on May 27 through the so-called "Gaza Humanitarian Relief Foundation," an organization supported by Israel and the United States but rejected by the United Nations.
Palestinians assert that the aid distribution mechanism, implemented through the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, aims to gather them and force them to leave their lands, paving the way for the reoccupation of Gaza.
Lazzarini held the "politically motivated Gaza Humanitarian Foundation" responsible for approximately 1,400 deaths from starvation among Palestinians in Gaza.
Earlier on Saturday, the Ministry of Health in Gaza said the death toll from starving aid-seekers had reached "1,422 martyrs and more than 10,000 injuries" since May 27.
The UNRWA Commissioner-General concluded by saying, "There is no more time to waste. A political decision must be made to open Gaza's crossings unconditionally."
Since beginning its genocide on October 7, 2023, Israel has been simultaneously committing a starvation crime against the Palestinians of Gaza. On March 2, it tightened its blockade by closing all crossings to humanitarian, relief, and medical aid, causing famine to spread and reaching "catastrophic" levels.
The genocide, with American support, left more than 209,000 Palestinians dead or wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 9,000 missing, in addition to hundreds of thousands of displaced persons and a famine that claimed the lives of many.
