Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are surviving on just one meal every two or three days as 19 months of Israeli bombardment and a crippling Israeli blockade on Palestine’s Gaza has left over two million people entirely dependent on humanitarian aid, UNRWA said on Tuesday.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees also accused Israel on May 6 of pursuing a deliberate and politically motivated starvation policy against the population of Gaza, calling it “an expression of absolute cruelty.” 

Since Israel closed Gaza’s border crossings on March 2, the enclave’s humanitarian crisis has deepened, with severe shortages of food, medicine, fuel and clean water.

According to Gaza’s government media office, 57 people — mostly children — have died of starvation since October 2023, and the toll is expected to rise, as tens of thousands suffer from severe malnutrition.