CAIRO, July 28. /TASS/. The number of people who have died of hunger and malnutrition in the Gaza Strip has risen to 147, Gaza's Health Ministry said on Monday.
"The total number of people who have died of hunger and malnutrition in Gaza has risen to 147, among them are 88 children," the ministry said in a statement.
On July 21, the radical Palestinian movement Hamas said that more than two million of the enclave’s residents were "starving to death because of Israel’s ongoing blockade." Hamas also added that more than 650,000 children were suffering from severe malnutrition.
Earlier, Hamas accused Israel of using starvation and deprivation of basic necessities against Gaza residents as a weapon of genocide and urged the international community to take immediate action and end the Israeli blockade of the enclave.
On March 2, Israel suspended international humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip and closed all checkpoints. Since then, Israel has been implementing a new US-backed scheme to organize food aid for Gaza residents through the distribution centers of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). According to data from Gaza's Health Ministry, over 900 Palestinians have been killed while trying to access food aid provided by the GHF since it began operating in the enclave.