Shafaq News – Gaza

Seven people, including two children, died within 24 hours from malnutrition in Gaza, amid what the Health Ministry described as a health and psychological genocide, while calls intensified for a ceasefire to end the suffering.

According to Munir Al-Barsh, Director-General at the ministry, the devastation extends beyond direct Israeli bombardment to what he called “healthocide and psychocide”—a systematic destruction of the body and mind. He described how 38 hospitals have been reduced to only 15 partially functioning, more than half of Gaza’s primary care centers are closed, and 183 ambulances have been destroyed. Nearly 1,600 healthcare workers have been killed, including 157 doctors, while hundreds more have been detained on duty.

Famine is spreading rapidly, with 28,000 malnutrition cases documented this year, 40,000 infants and a quarter of a million children under five at risk of slow death, and nearly 90 percent of children under one suffering from anemia.

Medical shortages have deepened the crisis: more than half of chronic disease treatments are unavailable, nearly two-thirds of cancer medicines are at zero stock, and almost half of children’s vaccines have run out. Critical nutrition supplies are also exhausted, leaving 16,000 patients trapped without treatment abroad, with more than 1,100 dying while waiting for permits.

The psychological toll is equally severe. Over one million children in Gaza are suffering from trauma—half with symptoms of post-traumatic stress—while 44,000 have lost one or both parents, and nearly 850 amputees now endure double trauma.

UNRWA described conditions in Gaza as “inhumane,” stressing the urgent need for an immediate ceasefire. Juliette Touma, the agency’s Communications Director, warned that the world is “very, very close” to losing its collective humanity, accusing Israel and the United States of replacing the UN-led aid system with a politically motivated mechanism that has only deepened chaos and deprivation.

Amid these calls, protests intensified in Israel demanding a ceasefire and the release of hostages held in Gaza. According to The Times of Israel, marchers advanced toward the prime minister’s residence, while police used water cannons to disperse demonstrators who blocked a key tunnel leading into Jerusalem, arresting seven people and bringing the total detained nationwide to 25. “Arrest me, but the protest movement will continue,” one detainee declared as police encircled him on the roadside.