Mass famine in Gaza, the denunciation of 111 ngos and the Oms. UN: snipers fire on crowd, Israel: they are from Hamas

According to the Hamas-run Ministry of Health in Gaza, hospitals in the Palestinian enclave have recorded 10 new deaths due to famine and malnutrition in the last 24 hours. In a statement on Telegram, the ministry says the total number of deaths caused by famine and malnutrition in Gaza has risen to 111.

The Israeli government said it was not responsible for the chronic food shortage in Gaza, instead accusing Palestinian Hamas militants of deliberately creating a crisis. "In Gaza today there is no famine caused by Israel," said government spokesman David Mencer. "There is an artificial shortage, engineered by Hamas," he added, accusing the militants of preventing food distribution and looting aid for themselves.

231 media workers have died since the start of the conflict in the Gaza Strip on 7 October 2023, following the killing of two more journalists in the last two days in the Palestinian enclave. This was reported today by the Gaza Ministry of Health.

Tamer al-Zaanin, a photojournalist working with several newspapers, was killed on 21 July by gunshots fired by the Israeli special forces unit that kidnapped Dr. Marwan Al-Hams, head of the Gaza field hospitals, while he was visiting the Red Cross hospital in the south of the Strip. Another journalist, Ibrahim Abu Sh'aiba, was injured in the attack.

Walaa al-Jabari, an editor working with diversified media, died in the attack launched today by Israeli forces against her flat in Gaza City. The pregnant woman died along with her husband and five children.

At least 21 Palestinians have died in the bombardment carried out by Israeli forces since dawn today in the Gaza Strip, the Associated press reports citing Palestinian hospital sources. According to data provided by the Ministry of Health of the Coastal Territory, more than half of the victims are women and children.

Palestinians in Gaza are starving. Malnutrition kills, almost as much as open Israeli fire against those who risk their lives to get a little food for themselves, but especially for their children. There are at least 21 children among the victims of the famine since Sunday, report three hospitals in the Strip, one of them a newborn barely 40 days old. The death toll updates by the hour, between those who do not survive the famine and those who are killed by IDF raids: in the last few hours there have been at least 43 people, including 18 in an attack on the al-Shati camp for displaced people, in Gaza City, and seven while waiting for aid.

In Gaza 'a horror unprecedented in recent history is unfolding. Malnutrition is exploding. Famine is knocking at every door', is the alarm of UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, with the number of victims of the war that broke out on 7 October 2023 exceeding 59,000 dead, according to Hamas figures.

According to Unrwa, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, since the Gaza humanitarian foundation - the controversial organisation supported by the US and Israel - began distributing aid in place of NGOs and the UN last May, at least '1,000 starving people have been killed' while looking for food.

'The Ghf distribution scheme is a sadistic death trap,' denounced Unrwa chief Philippe Lazzarini. 'Snipers fire randomly into the crowd, as if they have a licence to kill.

"Civilians cannot be targets, the images from Gaza are unbearable. It must end now," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said, pressing Israel to "open a safe and rapid flow of humanitarian aid".

In a phone call with Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar,EU High Representative Kaja Kallas called the killing of people in search of food "indefensible".

"It is Hamas that shoots civilians and tortures them when they try to take aid," retorted Benyamin Netanyahu's chief of diplomacy. And it is also Hamas that has not accepted the proposed ceasefire agreement and the release of hostages "sabotaging the negotiations", added Sa'ar, speaking of a "campaign of lies" conducted by the Palestinian terrorists, "a trap" into which the international community should not fall.

But in Gaza 'no one is spared', Lazzarini further charged: even 'doctors, nurses, aid workers and journalists are hungry. Many now faint from lack of food and tiredness while carrying out their duties'.

Dramatic was also the appeal of the editorial board of the France presse agency, concerned about the lives of its ten collaborators in the Strip: 'Since the founding of Afp in August 1944, we have lost journalists in the conflicts, we have had wounded and prisoners, but none of us remembers seeing a collaborator die of starvation'.

One of them, Bashar, wrote on Facebook in recent days: 'I no longer have the strength to work for the media. My body is thin and I can no longer work. I hope Macron can help me out of this hell'. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot assured that Paris is 'devoting a lot of effort' to trying to evacuate them 'in the coming weeks'.

The international outrage over the images from Gaza is increasing by the day: after the appeal signed on Monday by 25 countries, including Italy, for the war to stop 'immediately', Great Britain - the initiator of the initiative - threatened new sanctions against Israel if it does not soon put an end 'to the suffering' of the Palestinians.