TRANSCRIPT:
On a hospital table in Gaza City, the body of six-week-old Yousef lies limp and lifeless, with protruding ribs and a bandage on his frail arm, where a drip once was.
Doctors at the hospital say Yousef died of starvation.
His uncle, Adham al-Safadi, says his family could not find any baby formula to feed him in time.
“The baby is 40 days old and there are no milk boxes in the country. Whenever you go searching for a box of milk, you don't find it. A box of milk now costs $100, we can’t afford it and it’s not available. The mother can’t breastfeed, there’s no food and drinks, so there is no breastmilk. The baby died of malnutrition, the child had malnutrition and the mother had malnutrition. This is the case for all of Gaza Strip’s children.”
Dr Mohammad Abu Selmia is the Director of Al-Shifa Hospital where Yousef was taken.
He says the baby was one of 15 people who starved to death in the past 24 hours - and he fears that number will likely rise.
"Famine and starvation are now hitting the Gaza Strip hard. The most fragile category of people, who are suffering from malnutrition which is affecting their lives, are children, patients and elderly people - especially child patients whose situation is getting a lot worse because of malnutrition. Until now, we registered more than 86 deaths since the beginning of this crisis. During the past 36 hours, there has been 21 deaths because of malnutrition, and numbers are subject to increase significantly."
Israeli military statistics show that since 2023, an average of 146 aid trucks have entered Gaza each day.
The United States has previously stated that a minimum of 600 trucks per day are needed to feed everyone in Gaza.
The U-N's World Food Program has declared that in Gaza, the 'hunger crisis has reached new and astonishing levels of desperation'.
Sitting atop empty water containers, Yasser Saada says people are collapsing from hunger.
"People started losing the ability to walk, losing the ability to move. Their movement is abnormal because of malnutrition and there are no essential items for food. Bread, the basic and main substance of food, is not present or is barely present in the Gaza Strip, because of the siege and the closure (of borders)."
The Norwegian Refugee Council is one of the largest independent aid organisations in Gaza.
Secretary General Jan Egeland says supplies are exhausted and even some of his staff on the ground are starving.
"And of course, there are hundreds of truckloads just for my organisation waiting to get in. That's why we are so angry. Because our job is to help women, children, the innocent survive. And we're not used to people - beyond Assad in Syria, beyond some of the armed groups in the Congo or in Sudan - denying us access. We're not used to a government supported by Western capitals systematically starving entire populations."
But the United Nations human rights office [[OCHA]] says starvation is not the only risk - it says more than 1,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed by Israeli forces since May while trying to access aid.
Head of OCHA, Ajith Sunghay, says these numbers have been verified.
"We have put out a statement today giving out a certain figure, 1100 plus. We're very certain of the number. This is not a number that is coming from the Ministry of Health, which is usually disputed by the Israelis. So we do our independent gathering of information and that's based on several sources that we have on the ground, and that's reliable. We've worked with them for years now."
Most of the recent killings have taken place in the vicinity of U-S-Israeli backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which is run by a private U-S contractor.
Israel says its soldiers do not target civilians, and it rejects the death tolls reported by aid groups and by Gaza's health ministry.
But Ajith Sunghay says if Israel denies these killings are occurring, they should allow independent investigations.
"We have to remember the Israeli Defence Force themselves have admitted to have shot on several occasions. So that's one thing that we need to keep in mind. The other point is we have always said it's important to investigate these killings. What the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, then the IDF need to do is to investigate this, not completely dismiss that this is not happening , and that's not true. And finally, when we have such disputes and even broader questions that have come up about this conflict, allow independent media, allow people like you to go into Gaza , what is there to hide?"
The World Health Organisation says the Israeli military has also attacked its staff residence and main warehouse in Deir al-Balah, which is located in an evacuation zone.
Spokesperson Tarik Jasarevic says forces raided the residences of their employees, and male staff were handcuffed, stripped and interrogated.
"The house where WHO staff is residing has been attacked. Israeli military moved into the premises. They ordered women and children to leave on foot. Then they sort of interrogated, stripped, handcuffed male residents. And one of our staff is still detained. We don't know what are the charges, we demand his release."
The Israeli military says that its forces came under fire while operating in the vicinity and responded.
It did not deny raiding the W-H-O facility, but says any of those it deems “suspects” are being treated “in accordance with international law.”
Meanwhile, in Israel, protesters have taken to the streets of Tel Aviv, carrying sacks of flour on their backs and placards showing pictures of emaciated children.
The protest was organised by the Standing Together Movement, a grassroots organisation that says its goal is to build a new majority within Israeli society that supports peace, equality, and social and environmental justice.
Shahda Bishara is a member of the group's national leadership, and says the crowds are demanding an end to what they have described as Israel's 'policy of starvation' in Gaza.
"We know that a lot of Palestinians right now are experiencing starvation and famine due to the policy of the Israeli government not to allow any humanitarian aid to enter to the Gaza Strip. And therefore, we are coming with, as you see, bags of flour to demonstrate our, first of all, our anger against this inhumane policy, as well as to show that there is a majority within the Israeli society, Palestinian citizens of Israel as well as Jewish, that they are strongly against what is happening right now in Gaza."
Earlier this week, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong, along with more than 20 of her global counterparts, signed a joint statement calling for an immediate end to what they say is Israel's violence and denial of humanitarian assistance.
The United States says top envoy Steve Witkoff will travel to Europe for talks on a ceasefire and the opening of aid corridors.
International negotiator and fellow at the Geneva Centre for Security Studies, Nomi Bar-Yaacov, says leaders in the West are feeling increasing pressure to take action.
"Now, I think that the states are responding to the daily deaths of innocent people. We have almost gotten accustomed to hearing that there are up to three figures of innocent deaths every single day. It's become part and parcel of the news, and they're coming under pressure, these Thank you very much. Have a great day. Bye. You know, and that's where I think the problem is coming. I think they're worried, European leaders are worried that they will be toppled because they're not taking action in the face of very clear war crimes."
