Children and adults are coming to hospitals with serious malnutrition, and at the first hint of any infection, they lose weight rapidly, Professor Nick Maynard, a senior surgeon from Oxford University Hospital and the clinical lead of an emergency medical team said in a statement.

International agencies have repeatedly sounded the alarm that Gaza is starving. The U.N. has said that one in four people are starving and nine out of ten families in some areas spend a day and night without food. A December report from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification predicted that by February, all 2 million people in Gaza would face crisis levels of acute food insecurity, with at least one in four households facing famine-like conditions.

Alex De Waal, Executive Director at the World Peace Foundation at Tufts University, said in a recent article that the pace and scale of the destruction of objects indispensable to survival in Gaza “surpasses any other case of man-made famine in the last 75 years.”

The issue could also be addressed on the global stage as the International Court of Justice reviews South’s Africa petition accusing Israel of genocidal intent, which mentions starvation. Israel has rejected the genocide claim and will fight the complaint, starting with a public hearing next week.

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