More than 100 aid organisations have warned that "mass starvation" was spreading in besieged Gaza due to Israel's blockade ahead of the US top envoy's visit to Europe for talks on a possible ceasefire and an aid corridor.
A statement with 111 signatories, including Doctors Without Borders (MSF), Save the Children, and Oxfam, warned on Wednesday that "our colleagues and those we serve are wasting away".
The groups called for an immediate negotiated ceasefire, the opening of all land crossings and the free flow of aid through UN-led mechanisms.
In their statement, the humanitarian organisations said that warehouses with tonnes of supplies were sitting untouched just outside the territory, and even inside, as they were blocked from accessing or delivering the goods.
"Palestinians are trapped in a cycle of hope and heartbreak, waiting for assistance and ceasefires, only to wake up to worsening conditions," the signatories said.
"It is not just physical torment, but psychological. Survival is dangled like a mirage," they added.
"The humanitarian system cannot run on false promises. Humanitarians cannot operate on shifting timelines or wait for political commitments that fail to deliver access."
Starvation and genocide
The Palestinian Health Ministry said on Tuesday that at least 15 Palestinians, including four children, died of starvation in Gaza in the past 24 hours.
The latest fatalities brought the number of deaths from malnutrition to 101, with 80 of them children, since October 2023.
Israel has killed over 59,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, in its carnage in the blockaded enclave.
Some 11,000 Palestinians are feared buried under rubble of annihilated homes, according to Palestine's official WAFA news agency.
Experts, however, contend that the actual death toll significantly exceeds what the Gaza authorities have reported, estimating it could be around 200,000.
Over the course of the genocide, Israel has reduced most of the blockaded enclave to ruins, and practically displaced all of its population.
It has also blocked the entry of desperately needed humanitarian aid, and only allowed a controversial US-backed aid group that was established to bypass the UN aid work and condemned as a "death trap."
