GAZA CITY, Palestine

A hospital in northern Gaza recorded 50 Palestinian children suffering from malnutrition in just one week.

Hossam Abu Safiya, director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital, reported the figure in a statement issued on Sunday.

"The health system in Gaza is a target of the (Israeli) occupation, but we are trying to resume medical services at a minimum despite fuel shortages,” he said.

He noted that “the situation is catastrophic in the Strip,” stressing that "the specter of famine looms over the Gaza Strip.”

Due to the ongoing war and Israeli-imposed restrictions, essential resources like food, water, medicine, and fuel are scarce.

Following the Israeli army's takeover of the Rafah land crossing with Egypt on May 7, despite international warnings, the humanitarian crisis within the Gaza Strip intensified.

Israel has continued its brutal offensive on Gaza since last October despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire.

More than 36,800 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, most of them women and children, and over 83,600 others injured, according to local health authorities.

Eight months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lay in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water, and medicine.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its operation in the southern city of Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.

*Writing by Ikram Kouachi