Deaths In Gaza ‘Will Soon Accelerate,’ Top Aid Groups Warn

Israel airstrikes and aid restrictions, backed by the U.S., are fueling intertwined catastrophes for Palestinians, according to a major report on Wednesday.

U.S.-backed bombing in the Gaza Strip, along with aid restrictions by Israel, will accelerate the death toll of Palestinians there, according to new research from aid groups working in the territory.

In a report published Wednesday and led by the nonprofit Humanity and Inclusion, dozens of humanitarian organizations cited the confluence of several factors contributing to the crisis. Israel is continuing to kill and injure people with airstrikes and ground operations, even as Gaza’s dwindling stock of operating hospitals lacks supplies like hygiene materials and medical gas.

Israel’s halt on most aid deliveries is preventing aid workers from giving people sanitation supplies, worsening the spread of disease. And severe shortages of food and water have created widespread dehydration and left the entire population of the Palestinian region in “acute food insecurity,” per the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification famine tracker.

Gaza’s health ministry has counted at least 54,600 Palestinian deaths during the war so far, but some outside analysts believe the true toll is tens of thousands higher.

Nineteen months since Israel invaded the strip with U.S. backing, “Palestinians in Gaza face simultaneous and intersecting crises across every sector,” the report says.