Palestinians in Gaza City spoke on Tuesday (July 22) of a deepening hunger crisis in the enclave, with malnutrition now killing Palestinians faster than at any point in the 21-month war.

Palestinian health officials say at least 101 people have died of hunger during the conflict, including 80 children, with most of them in recent weeks.

"Everyone is hungry (literally). We, the people of Gaza, are not hungry but starved," said Itimad Zuhair.

Israel controls all aid supplies into the war-ravaged enclave, where most of the population has been displaced multiple times and faces acute shortages of basic necessities.

The head of the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency said on Tuesday that its staff, as well as doctors and humanitarian workers, were fainting on duty in Gaza due to hunger and exhaustion.

There has been international condemnation of mass killings of civilians and dire shortages of aid in Gaza, but no action that has yet stopped the conflict, or significantly increased supplies.

Israel's military said that it "views the transfer of humanitarian aid into Gaza as a matter of utmost importance," and works to facilitate its entry in coordination with the international community.

It has denied accusations it is preventing aid from reaching Gaza and has accused Palestinian militant group Hamas of stealing food, an allegation Hamas denies.

Israel says its assault on Gaza aims to destroy Hamas, which waged the deadliest attack in Israel's history on October 7, 2023, killing at least 1,200 Israelis including civilians, by its tallies.

Israeli bombs and gunfire have killed nearly 60,000 people in Gaza since then, according to local health authorities.

DESCRIPCIÓN DE IMÁGENES

GAZA CITY, GAZA (JULY 22, 2025) (REUTERS - Access all)

1. VARIOUS OF TENTS FOR DISPLACED PALESTINIANS

2. VARIOUS OF PALESTINIAN MOTHER, GHADA AL-FAYOUMI, SITTING BY A POT OF WATER ON A FIRE

3. (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) PALESTINIAN MOTHER OF SEVEN, GHADA AL-FAYOUMI, SAYING:

"We don't get any morsel of food, it is nonexistent. Here, from the morning, they keep drinking water. We spend our days, our time, just drinking water. There is nothing... I used to weigh more than 100 kilograms, I barely weigh 70 or 75 kilograms now."

4. FAYOUMI SITTING BY A POT OF WATER ON A FIRE

5. (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) PALESTINIAN MOTHER OF SEVEN, GHADA AL-FAYOUMI, SAYING:

"My children wake up sick every day, one of them is sick every other day. What do I do? I go get a saline solution for them. What can I do? There is no food, no bread, no food, no drinks, no rice, no sugar, no cooking oil, no bulgur, nothing. There is no kind of any food available to us, at all."

5. TENTS BY THE BEACH

6. PEOPLE SITTING OUTSIDE TENT

7. (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) PALESTINIAN, ITIMAD ZUHAIR, SAYING:

"People are just collapsing, people can't, people can't. A sick person says, 'I just want to take my pill for (blood) pressure, give me just a bite' - what do you say to this person? What can you tell him? A man my father's age, or older, asking me for something to eat. But I haven't got (anything) for my children, I told him, 'where do I give it to you from?'. He says, 'I just want to take the (blood) pressure pill, I can't'."

8. CHILDREN SITTING BY A DAMAGED BUILDING

9. PEOPLE, INCLUDING CHILDREN, GATHERING WITH EMPTY POTS AROUND A MAN ADDRESSING THEM

10. PEOPLE, INCLUDING CHILDREN, GATHERING WITH EMPTY POTS / AUDIO OF MAN HEARING (Arabic): "Next time, God willing, we will fill (them) for everyone. This time..."

11. (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) PALESTINIAN, ITIMAD ZUHAIR, SAYING:

"Small children stormed the soup kitchen, they crammed into a man, the elderly man fell because of the small children, he wanted to eat. A small child will rush, he wants to eat, he sees food and he has been (without food) for two, three days. Some people are staying two, three and four days without eating."

12. CHILDREN SITTING OUTSIDE TENT NEXT TO ZUHAIR CRYING

13. (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) PALESTINIAN, ITIMAD ZUHAIR, SAYING:

"Everyone is hungry (literally). We, the people of Gaza, are not hungry but starved. People go to Zikim, instead of leaving with a bag of flour, they leave carried in a bag of flour - they leave as martyrs, they leave with an amputated leg, or they leave with both legs amputated. From where can people eat? From where can those children (eat)? You find children looking in the trash for something to eat."

14. VARIOUS OF EMPTY GALLONS COLLECTED ON ROADSIDE, WITH PEOPLE GATHERING AROUND THEM WAITING FOR WATER

15. (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) PALESTINIAN, YASSER SAADA, SAYING:

"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)."

16. DAMAGED MOSQUE, TENTS BY THE SEA

17. (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) DIRECTOR OF AL-SHIFA HOSPITAL, DR. MOHAMMED ABU SELMIA, SAYING:

"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 set to increase significantly."

18. MEN MOVING BIG POTS OF FOOD AT A SOUP KITCHEN AS PEOPLE WAIT WITH EMPTY POTS

19. VARIOUS OF PEOPLE WAITING WITH EMPTY POTS AT A SOUP KITCHEN

20. (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) DISPLACED PALESTINIAN FROM JABALIA, IBRAHIM AL-NAJJAR, SAYING:

"I swear it has been four days since I have eaten and I can't stand, look at my hands shaking. We can't stand, and my son is crying, telling me 'I want to eat, dad, I want to eat'. It's been three days that the child hasn't eaten, and I haven't eaten for five days. Five days ago, we got a lentil plate - I gave it to the child, he ate it. I swear, I spent the whole night comforting him - he was crying from hunger. People, have mercy on us. Arabs, please support us, please, get us something to eat and drink."

21. NAJJAR KISSING HIS SON

22. PALESTINIANS HOLDING EMPTY POTS

23. (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) DISPLACED PALESTINIAN FROM JABALIA, IBRAHIM AL-NAJJAR, SAYING:

"I want... Do I tell you I want some flour or so? I want some lentils, some rice... If I were to get a bag of flour, I would faint (of happiness). It's been a while since I've had flour, I would really like a loaf of bread to eat and give to the children to eat, out of hunger. We really can't, we don't have cash, we don't have money to buy it. Where can we get it from? We really forgot how it looks like, how it tastes."

24. VARIOUS OF PEOPLE WAITING WITH EMPTY POTS AT SOUP KITCHEN

25. VARIOUS OF BIG POTS OF FOOD ON FIRE, MAN ADDING INGREDIENTS