The starvation war on Gaza continues: Dozens of deaths daily in Gaza… The UNRWA confirms that the famine was deliberately planned

44 Palestinians, including 16 starving people, were killed and others injured as a result of the ongoing Israeli attacks on various areas of the Gaza Strip since dawn on Friday.

This comes as part of the genocidal war the Israeli army has been waging against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip for more than 21 months.

The attacks targeted civilian gatherings, displaced persons’ tents, shelters, and citizens waiting to receive US aid near distribution centers.

In the latest attack, the death toll from the Israeli targeting of a civilian gathering waiting for aid trucks near the Zikim area north of Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip rose to 15, with approximately 250 others injured.

This follows an earlier count of five deaths and approximately 20 injuries.

Shortly before, two Palestinians were killed in an Israeli airstrike targeting a house near the Abu Habib intersection in the Zeitoun neighborhood, southeast of Gaza City.

Prior to that, 27 Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks on various areas of the Gaza Strip.

In Gaza City, five Palestinians, including a child, were killed and 10 others were injured in an Israeli airstrike targeting the Cairo School, which houses thousands of displaced civilians.

Two Palestinians were killed and three others were injured in an airstrike targeting a civilian gathering in the al Zeitoun neighborhood, southeast of the city.

In the Tuffah neighborhood, Israeli airstrikes killed three Palestinians and injured several others after targeting a civilian gathering east of the city.

A Palestinian was killed and others were injured when an Israeli drone bombed a tent on the roof of al Rimal School, which was sheltering displaced people in the al Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City.

North of the city, two Palestinians were killed and others injured in an Israeli bombardment that targeted an apartment building near the Maznar intersection in the Nasr neighborhood.

A Palestinian died of wounds sustained in an earlier Israeli attack targeting a gathering of civilians near the Sheikh Radwan Bridge, northwest of the city.

In the northern governorate, a Palestinian was killed in an Israeli airstrike targeting a civilian gathering east of Jabaliya camp, while three others died of their wounds in the Zikim area west of Beit Lahia.

In the southern Gaza Strip, a Palestinian was killed by Israeli army gunfire while waiting for aid north of Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip.

Two Palestinians were killed and others injured in an Israeli attack that targeted a tent west of Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip.

Also, in Khan Yunis, two Palestinians died of injuries sustained during previous Israeli attacks, while medical crews recovered the bodies of four Palestinians from various areas east of the city.

Meanwhile, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said Friday evening that the mass famine in the Gaza Strip is premeditated and deliberate, as the aid distribution system, called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, supported by Israel and the United States, serves military and political goals.

The UNRWA added in a statement, “A deliberate and premeditated mass famine… More children died today; their bodies exhausted from hunger”.

The UNRWA stressed that the flawed aid distribution system called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation isn’t designed to address the humanitarian crisis.

UNRWA stressed that this system “serves military and political objectives,” describing it as “cruel because it claims more lives than it saves”.

The UNRWA explained that under this system, Israel controls all aspects of humanitarian aid access, both outside and inside Gaza.

Beyond the supervision of the United Nations and international relief organizations, Israel began implementing an aid distribution plan on May 27 through the so-called “Gaza Humanitarian Relief Foundation,” an organization supported by Israel and the United States but rejected by the United Nations.

The UNRWA stated that during the ceasefire that took effect earlier in 2025, which began last January and was abandoned by Israel last March, it succeeded in reversing the worsening hunger.

The statement continued, “Today, UNRWA alone has the equivalent of 6,000 trucks of food and medical aid stuck in Egypt and Jordan”.

UNRWA has repeatedly called for the reactivation of the UN-supervised aid distribution system to alleviate the famine in the Gaza Strip.

Since March 2, Israel has closed the Gaza Strip crossings to trucks carrying relief, humanitarian, food, and medical aid stacked at the border.

Earlier on Friday, the Gaza Ministry of Health announced the deaths of nine Palestinians, including two children, within 24 hours due to Israel’s starvation policy.