News- Middle East: Eleven more people have lost their lives due to famine and malnutrition in Gaza, as starvation, fueled by Israel’s blockade, tightens its grip on the territory.

Gaza’s Health Ministry said Saturday the past day’s deaths bring the total to 212, including 98 children — a figure health experts say is likely an undercount.

They warn that the real figure is higher because malnutrition weakens patients against other illnesses listed as the cause of death, and many deaths outside hospitals go unrecorded.

The World Food Program (WHO) warned in late July that famine is taking hold across Gaza, with “widespread starvation, malnutrition, and disease” driving a surge in hunger-related deaths.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said about 12,000 children under five were suffering from acute malnutrition in July.

After months of siege, nearly one in three people in Gaza are going days without food. Constant bombardment and displacement orders continue to uproot families and block humanitarian aid.

According to the Palestinian health ministry, at least 39 Palestinians have been killed and 491 wounded by Israeli forces in the last 24 hours.

Of those, 21 people were killed while seeking aid at sites run by a controversial US and Israeli-backed group, known as the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

In a recent report, Doctors Without Borders —known by its French acronym MSF — said the so-called aid distribution sites have become scenes of “orchestrated killing.”

“The GHF distribution sites masquerading as ‘aid’ have morphed into a laboratory of cruelty. This must stop now,” said Raquel Ayora, one of MSF’s general directors.

A group of UN experts confirmed in a statement on Wednesday that Israeli forces and foreign military contractors continue to open indiscriminate fire on people gathered at GHF aid distribution points, which are especially difficult to access for the most vulnerable people, such as women, children, persons with disabilities, and older persons.