GAZA (Dispatches) – The 
humanitarian situation throughout the Gaza Strip is ‘beyond imagination,’ the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East warned on Sunday.
The UN agency said on social media platform X that “as the complete blocking of supplies essential for survival enters its ninth week, there must be a concerted international effort to stop this humanitarian catastrophe from reaching a new unseen level,” reiterating its call for an urgent ceasefire.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian media office warned of an imminent humanitarian disaster in Gaza due to the continued closure of the crossings and a stifling blockade lasting more than 60 days.
The office said in a press statement that “the Israeli occupation continues to prevent the entry of baby formula, nutritional supplements, and all forms of humanitarian aid, leaving more than 70,000 children hospitalized due to severe malnutrition.”
More than 3,500 children below the age of five years “face imminent death by starvation”, Gaza’s Government Media Office (GMO) has said, adding that some 70,000 children are being hospitalized in the enclave due to severe malnutrition amid more than two months of total Israeli blockade.
“Under this systematic blockade, more than 3,500 children under the age of five face imminent death by starvation, while approximately 290,000 children are on the brink of death,” the GMO statement on Telegram said on Sunday.
“At a time when 1.1 million children daily lack the minimum nutritional requirements for survival, this crime is being perpetrated by the ‘Israeli’ occupation using starvation as a weapon, amid shameful international silence,” it added.
At least 57 Palestinians have starved to death, causing global outrage, but that has failed to convince the Zionist regime to allow entry of aid into the enclave of 2.3 million people.
A shortage of food and supplies has driven the territory towards starvation, according to aid agencies. Supplies to treat and prevent malnutrition are depleted and quickly running out as documented cases of malnutrition rise.
The price of what little food is still available in the market is unaffordable for most in Gaza, where the United Nations says more than 80 percent of the population relies on aid.
Aid groups and rights campaigners have accused the Zionist regime of using starvation as a weapon of war.
The occupying regime, for its part, insists the blockade is necessary to pressure Hamas to release the captives it still holds. Of the 59 captives still in Gaza, 24 are believed to be alive.
The regime’s war on Gaza has killed at least 52,495 Palestinians and wounded 118,366, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health. The GMO updated the death toll to more than 61,700, saying thousands of people missing under the rubble are presumed dead.