MORE than 100 aid groups today called out the mass starvation of the Palestinians in Gaza by the Israelis.

The groups, which include Amnesty International, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and Oxfam, say “mass starvation” is spreading across Gaza and that their colleagues in the enclave are wasting away from hunger.

In a joint statement the groups said: “Doctors report record rates of acute malnutrition, especially among children and older people. 

“Illnesses like acute watery diarrhoea are spreading, markets are empty, waste is piling up, and adults are collapsing on the streets from hunger and dehydration.

“Distributions in Gaza average just 28 trucks a day, far from enough for over two million people, many of whom have gone weeks without assistance.”

The groups said the UN-led humanitarian system has not failed, “it has been prevented from functioning.”

The NGOs said it was time that governments from across the world must “take decisive action, demand an immediate and permanent ceasefire,” and open all land crossings.

The groups also rejected “military-controlled distribution models” and a restoration of a “principled, UN-led humanitarian response and a continued funding of principled and impartial humanitarian organisations.

“States must pursue concrete measures to end the siege, such as halting the transfer of weapons and ammunition.”

They added: “Piecemeal arrangements and symbolic gestures, like airdrops or flawed aid deals, serve as a smokescreen for inaction. 

“They cannot replace states’ legal and moral obligations to protect Palestinian civilians and ensure meaningful access at scale. States can and must save lives before there are none left to save.”

Bushra Khalidi, policy lead in the occupied Palestinian territory for Oxfam, says the global aid organisation’s staff are “risking being shot” by standing in food lines in Gaza.

Ms Khalidi said: “My colleague told me on Saturday that she went to work without even water, she ate a single falafel just to keep going, and she still showed up to work.”

She said: “We’ve heard from parents boiling tree leaves to feed their children, from aid workers who burned their own clothes to cook the last scraps of lentils that they have, from mothers that we’ve met saying my son died from hunger, literally in front of my eyes because his body couldn’t take it any more.” 

Ms Khalidi added: “This is not a humanitarian failure. This is a deliberate policy, and aid is being blocked. People are being starved.”

Nebal Farsakh, a spokesperson for the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS), said people in Gaza are facing an “unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe” and warned the “situation is only getting worse.

“Since the closure of all crossings for more than four months, there has been no food, no clean water, medicine getting into the Gaza Strip.” 

“People are literally starving to death,” she said.

Independent MP Jeremy Corbyn told the Morning Star: “Gaza’s children are not just dying. They are being starved to death by Israel, in front of the entire world. 

“Meanwhile, all our government can do is offer meaningless statements of regret over human suffering. Britain is still supplying arms to a nation that is using starvation as a weapon of war. What else is there to say?”

Palestinian activists in London began a peaceful protest outside the Egyptian embassy in London today.

The protesters called on the Egyptians to immediately open the Rafah crossing to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza. 

The protest is being co-ordinated with a simultaneous action taking place outside the Egyptian Embassy in Washington, DC.

The London protest organiser, Ibrahim, a Palestinian resident in Britain, said: “Egypt has the power to open Rafah. We’re demanding that they do it now.”

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), one of the largest independent humanitarian organisations operating in Gaza, said on Tuesday that it had run out of supplies and that some of its staff are also facing starvation. 

Jan Egeland, the council’s secretary-general, said: “Hundreds of truckloads have been sitting in warehouses or in Egypt or elsewhere, and costing our western European donors a lot of money, but they are blocked from coming in.”

Executive editor of Black Agenda Report, Margaret Kimberley, said: “The starvation of Gaza is a direct result of Western support for the zionist entity. The appeals for help ring hollow if they do not also include demands for punishment of the genocidaires.”

Party of Socialism and Liberation organiser, Eugene Puryear, explained that thousands are taking to the streets of the US “under the banner ‘Stop Starving Gaza’.” 

Protesters were also demanding an end to US support for the Israeli war machine. 

He added: “The time is now to take action in solidarity with the people of Palestine.”

On Tuesday the United Nations human rights office said that more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since May while trying to get food in the Gaza Strip, mostly near aid sites run by US contractor, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

The UN World Food Programme says Gaza’s hunger crisis has reached “new and astonishing levels of desperation.” Ross Smith, the agency’s director for emergencies, told reporters on Monday that nearly 100,000 women and children are suffering from severe acute malnutrition, and a third of Gaza’s population is going without food for multiple days in a row.

Joseph Belliveau, the executive director of MedGlobal, a charity working in Gaza, said: “This is a deliberate and human-made disaster. 

“Those children died because there is not enough food in Gaza and not enough medicines, including IV fluids and therapeutic formula, to revive them.”

Meanwhile, Israeli air attacks today killed at least 21 people, more than half of them women and children, according to local health officials.

One of the strikes hit a house in Gaza City, killing at least 12 people, according to Shifa Hospital. 

The dead included six children and two women, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The Israeli military said it struck an Islamic Jihad militant, but claimed the incident was under review because of reports of civilian casualties.

Another strike hit an apartment in northern Gaza, killing at least six people. Among the dead were three children and two women, including one who was pregnant. Eight others were wounded, the ministry said. 

A third strike hit a tent in Gaza City late Tuesday and killed three children, al-Shifa Hospital said.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on those strikes.