The humanitarian crisis in Gaza has reached catastrophic levels, with seven deaths, including a child, reported in the past 24 hours due to malnutrition and starvation, according to the director of al-Shifa Hospital.
The total death toll from starvation since Israel’s war began has climbed to 169, with 93 children among the victims.
Israel’s severe restrictions on aid deliveries have left Palestinians desperate, forcing many to scavenge for scraps from damaged air-dropped pallets, a process described as humiliating.
Rana Attia, a displaced Palestinian, said:
We’re like dogs chasing after a bone. Why do they throw things like that? We don’t want them to help us in that way?Rana Attia, a displaced Palestinian in Gaza, to Al Jazeera.
The US- and Israel-backed Global Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) has been criticized for its role in Gaza’s aid distribution, with reports of Israeli forces using excessive force against starving civilians.
Former GHF guard Anthony Aguilar described Israeli tactics as “abhorrent” and “unnecessary,” detailing the use of machinegun fire, artillery, and tank rounds against unarmed aid seekers, including women and children.
Only 73 aid trucks entered Gaza yesterday, most looted due to a security vacuum exacerbated by Israel’s systematic targeting of police and ambulance services, with 80 percent of northern Gaza’s ambulances destroyed.
Rob Geist Pinfold, international security lecturer at King’s College London told Al Jazeera:
These are criminal gangs. Many were in prison before October 7 for drug offences, not for being political dissidents... They rob Palestinians on the streets. They feed off and contribute to the chaos and disorder. Many of these people, like Yasser Abu Shabab, are outcast from their clans. Israel has basically chosen the least popular people in Gaza to arm and equip. It’s not trying to create a viable political alternative to Hamas, it’s identifying people who thrive off chaos and encouraging them to further that chaos.
This chaos has led to nearly 1,400 deaths at aid sites since GHF took over in May, with six aid seekers recently killed near Wadi Gaza and 12 near the Netzarim Corridor.
Experts argue that Israel is deliberately engineering chaos in Gaza to render the territory unlivable.
Rob Geist Pinfold, an international security lecturer, claims Israel’s support for criminal gangs, mislabeled as “clans,” fuels disorder, with figures like Yasser Abu Shabab robbing Palestinians and thriving in the lawlessness.
Caroline Willemen of Doctors Without Borders warned that Israel is “engineering chaos and massacres” by blocking aid and firing on crowds, leaving food “critically scarce.”
Ahmed al-Najjar, a Gaza journalist, described the situation as “engineered Israeli genocidal chaos,” with Palestinians facing constant threats from bombs, starvation, and lawlessness, making survival a daily battle.