AT LEAST 21 children in Gaza have died from malnutrition in the past three days, a hospital chief warned today, as the famine caused by Israel’s blockade takes a toll on healthcare workers.

Al-Shifa hospital director Mohammed Abu Salmiya told reporters that new cases of malnutrition and starvation were arriving at “every moment” at Gaza’s remaining functional hospitals.

“We are heading towards alarming numbers of deaths due to the starvation inflicted on the people of Gaza,” he said.

In Geneva, Philippe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, warned that no-one has been spared in Gaza.

“Doctors, nurses, journalists, humanitarians — among them UNRWA staff — are hungry,” he said in a statement.

“Many are now fainting due to hunger and exhaustion while performing their duties, reporting atrocities or alleviating some of the suffering.

“Meanwhile, seeking food has become as deadly as the bombardments. More than 1,000 starving people have been reported killed since the end of May.”

Mr Lazzarini described the US-Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s (GHF) food distribution scheme as a “sadistic death trap.”

He said: “Snipers open fire randomly on crowds as if they’re given a licence to kill. It is a massive hunt of people, in total impunity.”

The UNRWA commissioner-general spoke out the day after the governments of 28 countries, including Britain, Ireland and France, issued a joint statement calling for an end to the war in the Palestinian enclave.

“The suffering of civilians in Gaza has reached new depths,” it said.

“The Israeli government’s aid delivery model is dangerous, fuels instability and deprives Gazans of human dignity.”

The statement called on Israel to “lift restrictions on the flow of aid and to urgently enable the UN and humanitarian NGOs to do their lifesaving work safely and effectively.”

It ended by saying: “We are prepared to take further action to support an immediate ceasefire and a political pathway to security and peace for Israelis, Palestinians and the entire region.”

The statement made no mention of an arms embargo, sanctions against Israel or the International Court of Justice’s arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Israeli military strikes killed at least 20 people in Gaza today, officials said.

Shells hit tents sheltering displaced people in the built-up, seaside Shati refugee camp on the western side of Gaza City, killing at least 12, and tanks also rolled into what is left of central Gaza City. 

Israeli forces have killed more than 59,000 Palestinians since October 2023.