The ministry stated in its daily report that the past 24 hours saw the arrival of 71 martyrs and 251 injured to hospitals in the Gaza Strip, including 24 martyrs and 133 injured people awaiting humanitarian aid. Two new deaths were also recorded due to hunger and malnutrition, bringing the death toll from famine to 273, including 112 children.
Since dawn on Friday, the Israeli occupation army has killed 47 Palestinians in airstrikes and artillery shelling targeting homes, shelters, and tents housing displaced people in various parts of Gaza, including a massacre at Amr Ibn al-Aas School in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood that resulted in the deaths of 18 displaced people.
The occupation forces also committed massacres against families in Gaza City, the Shati refugee camp, and Khan Yunis, in addition to intensive shelling of the vicinity of mosques, clinics, and residential areas.
In this context, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that a ceasefire is an "absolute and moral necessity," warning that the certain famine in Gaza is causing the spread of deadly diseases among children.
Meanwhile, a joint statement by UN organizations (the Ministry of Health, the Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Food Programme, and UNICEF) called for an immediate ceasefire and unhindered humanitarian access.
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On Friday, a report by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) indicator stated: "Famine has been confirmed in the Gaza Strip and is expected to extend to the Deir al-Balah (central) and Khan Yunis (south) governorates by the end of September." Israel, in turn, was quick to attack the report, despite its reliance on data and facts, claiming that it was based on "telephone" testimonies.
The Israeli army claimed in a statement that the report "contains fundamental gaps in facts and methodology, and uses biased and self-interested sources of information linked to Hamas."
In the context of systematic starvation, the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor warned that Israel's killing of five farmers from the al-Astal family on Thursday is part of a "deliberate approach to eliminating any attempt to secure a minimum level of food locally," stressing that the occupation has destroyed more than 93% of agricultural land and put 1,218 agricultural wells out of service, causing a near-total collapse of food production in the Gaza Strip.
The Observatory added that "depriving Palestinians of food constitutes a war crime and a crime against humanity," calling on the international community to impose comprehensive sanctions on Israel and urgently open the crossings to allow aid to enter to prevent the humanitarian catastrophe from worsening.
Since October 7, 2023, Israel, with American support, has been committing genocide in Gaza, including killing, starvation, destruction, and forced displacement, ignoring all international appeals and orders from the International Court of Justice to halt it. In addition to the dead and wounded, most of whom are children and women, the genocide has left more than 9,000 people missing and hundreds of thousands displaced.
