For the first time since Israel’s war on Gaza began, Palestinian officials say dozens are now also dying of hunger.

Israel, which controls all supplies entering Gaza, denies that it is responsible for shortages of food.

Muhammad Zakariya Ayyoub al-Matouq, a one-year-old baby in Gaza, faces life-threatening malnutrition as the humanitarian situation worsens due to ongoing Israeli attacks and blockade. Source: Getty / Anadolu

More than 800 people have been killed in recent weeks trying to reach food in Gaza, mostly in mass shootings by Israeli soldiers posted near distribution centres of a new, US-backed aid organisation.

United Nations secretary-general António Guterres called the situation for the 2.3 million residents of the Palestinian enclave a “horror show”.

Israeli activists take part in a protest against the war in the Gaza Strip, Israel’s measures regarding food distribution and the forced displacement of Palestinians, in Tel Aviv, Israel. Source: AP / Ohad Zwigenberg/AP

“We are seeing the last gasp of a humanitarian system built on humanitarian principles,” Guterres told the UN Security Council. “That system is being denied the conditions to function.”

“Our last tent, our last food parcel, our last relief items have been distributed. There is nothing left,” its director Jan Egeland told Reuters. “Israel is not yielding. They just want to paralyse our work,” he said.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Tuesday that images of civilians killed during the distribution of aid were “unbearable” and urged Israel to deliver on pledges to improve the situation.

Food and medicine shortages

Israeli military statistics showed on Tuesday that an average of 146 trucks of aid per day had entered Gaza over the course of the war.

Palestinians gather flour from the ground after an air strike on a warehouse. Source: AAP / Hasan Alzaanin / TASS / Sipa USA

The United States has said a minimum of 600 trucks per day are needed to feed Gaza’s population.