UNRWA said it had the equivalent of 6,000 UNRWA trucks waiting to be allowed to deliver its goods to starving people. Half of these trucks carry lifesaving food and medicine, just hours from Gaza,” our Louise Wateridge says to NPR. “They could enter today — if there were political will.”
While warehouses outside Gaza are full, inside people wait — hungry, sick, and cut off from help. This suffering is preventable.
Israel hasn’t allowed foreign journalists independent access to Gaza since the start of the conflict, claiming they would be at risk, although journalists routinely assume risks when covering conflicts. The flow of images has instead come primarily from people already inside Gaza, many of whom have personal ties to the conflict and may be displaced and hungry themselves.
At the same time, the Israeli government has, without evidence, accused freelance photographers of collaborating with Hamas and having prior knowledge of the Oct. 7 attacks. These claims were first amplified by the pro-Israel media watchdog HonestReporting, which, when pressed to substantiate the allegations, said it was merely “raising questions.”
More than 100 aid groups warn of ‘mass starvation’ in Gaza amid Israel’s war with Hamas, threatening to take over all of Palestine today, a country recognized around the globe. Israel is planning to expand this war even as international pressure mounts for it to end it, with a senior UN official warning Tuesday that expanding the fighting risked “catastrophic consequences”, including to the captives held by Hamas.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro on Tuesday condemned the starvation of civilians in Gaza and called on United States leaders to increase aid and ensure its safe distribution to families in the Palestinian territory.
“The United States of America has a moral responsibility to flood the zone with aid and make sure those children that need to be fed get the food and the nourishment and the medicines that they need to be able to survive this,” Shapiro told reporters at an event in Lancaster County.
Shapiro has previously dismissed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a “terrible leader” but has also criticized some pro-Palestinian demonstrations. On Tuesday, he said Netanyahu’s denial that children are starving is “abhorrent.”
The facts were laid out at a press conference held by United Nations agencies in Geneva. OCHA spokesperson Jens Laerke underscored that the humanitarian needs inside Gaza are immense, necessitating the entry of hundreds of trucks, not only daily or weekly, but for months and possibly years to come.
He emphasized that Gaza is on the brink of famine. According to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), at least 600 trucks are required daily to meet the basic humanitarian needs of over two million people in the Gaza Strip.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) confirmed that malnutrition among children in Gaza has reached catastrophic levels, with severe acute malnutrition spreading at a pace that exceeds the capacity of aid to reach them. It stated that the number of children who died of starvation is surging.
A malnourished Palestinian girl Mariam Dawwas sits on the floor with her mother in the Rimal neighbourhood in Gaza City on August 2, 2025. (Photo by Omar Al-Qattaa / AFP)
UNICEF warns that the vast majority of severely malnourished children will die at the end of the day due to other causes, as children suffering from malnutrition are ten times more susceptible to contracting pneumonia, measles, or other fatal diseases.
Most of these deaths go unreported because the majority of malnourished children cannot even reach hospitals.
UNICEF spokesperson James Elder stressed that it is vital for numerous governments to step up pressure in light of the deprivation and nutrition situation engulfing children, mothers, and the elderly.
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