DUBAI, February 29. /TASS/. At least nine children died of hunger in hospitals in the Gaza Strip during the past day, the Al Jazeera television channel said.

According to Al Jazeera, seven children died in the Kamal Adwan Hospital from malnutrition. Several more children are in critical condition, with the situation being aggravated by the lack of fuel for electricity generators at the hospital.

According to the enclave’s health ministry, two more children died of dehydration and starvation at the Al Shifa Hospital in the city of Gaza.

According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), more than 570,000 Gaza residents, or a fourth of its population, are on the brink of starvation, which each sixth child under two in northern Gaza suffering from malnutrition.

Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7 after militants from the Gaza Strip-based radical Palestinian group Hamas launched a surprise incursion on Israeli territory, killing many Israeli kibbutz residents living near the Gaza border and abducting more than 240 Israelis, including women, children and the elderly. Israel declared a total blockade of the Gaza Strip and launched bombardments of the enclave and some areas in Lebanon and Syria, as well as a ground operation against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Clashes are also reported in the West Bank.