News- Middle East: The number of Palestinian children who have lost their lives due to acute malnutrition in the Gaza Strip has climbed to at least 66 as Israel’s blockade continues to cut off access to food, medicine, and baby formula across the besieged territory.

Gaza’s Government Media Office confirmed the figure on Saturday. It said the children have died as a result of a deepening humanitarian catastrophe under Israel’s siege.

The most recent fatalities include three infants who died this week from malnutrition and a lack of medical treatment.

Among the victims was three-month-old Jouri al-Masri, who passed away Thursday in Deir al-Balah after her family failed to obtain the specialized therapeutic milk she needed to survive.

That same day, five-month-old Nidal Sharab and 10-day-old Kinda al-Hams died at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis.

Their families confirmed that they lost their loved ones as a result of extreme hunger and critical shortages of medicine.

“These deaths reflect the ongoing war crime of denying access to life-saving essentials,” the media office said in a statement.

It described the ongoing blockade and border closures as "a crime against humanity and a blatant violation of international humanitarian law and the Geneva Conventions.”

Gaza officials also condemned the international community’s “shameful silence” in the face of systematic starvation and collective punishment of Gaza’s civilian population.

The crisis has reached catastrophic levels in Gaza, with World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus reporting Friday that roughly 112 children are being admitted to Gaza hospitals every day for malnutrition treatment.

Despite mounting global concern, Israel has kept Gaza’s main border crossings largely shut since early March. While United Nations agencies say at least 500 trucks must enter the enclave daily to meet minimum needs, fewer than 50 are typically permitted to cross.

The blockade comes amid the regime’s genocidal war on Gaza, which, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, has killed more than 56,400 Palestinians since October 2023.

On Saturday, the regime's airstrikes killed at least 60 people across the strip, according to health workers.

The strikes began late Friday and continued into Saturday morning, killing at least 12 people near Palestine Stadium in Gaza City, where many displaced families had sought shelter.

Another eight people were killed in residential apartments, according to staff at Shifa Hospital, where their bodies were taken.

Health officials said more than 20 additional bodies were brought to Nasser Hospital.

Later, a midday strike on a street in eastern Gaza City killed 11 more, whose remains were transferred to Al-Ahli Hospital.

An independent survey posted last week on the preprint server medRxiv offers a new estimate of the death toll in Gaza, putting the number of fatalities between October 2023 and early January 2025 at nearly 84,000.

The study — the first of its kind — found that more than half of those killed were women aged 18 to 64, children, or elderly people over 65.

The researchers estimate that in the 15 months up to January 5, there were around 75,200 violent deaths in Gaza.

Israel stands accused of war crimes by the international community for targeting civilians, using starvation as a weapon, and destroying critical infrastructure in Gaza.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants for prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former minister of military affairs, Yoav Gallant, over war crimes. The regime’s leaders also face genocide charges at the International Court of Justice.

Source: Press TV