People in Gaza Are 'Walking Corpses'

Aid agencies have been warning of a looming hunger crisis in Gaza for months, and a spate of new reports suggests it has fully arrived:

• This week, the UN's World Food Program said the crisis had reached "new and astonishing levels of desperation, with a third of the population not eating for multiple days in a row." The report is here.
• A doctor in a pediatric ward at a Gaza hospital added a personal twist in relating the problem to the New York Times. "There is no one in Gaza now outside the scope of famine, not even myself," said Dr. Ahmed al-Farra of Nasser Hospital. "I am speaking to you as a health official, but I, too, am searching for flour to feed my family."

• Hospitals have begun dedicating entire wards to treating children suffering from malnutrition, reports the Washington Post. From the story: "Doctors are famished to the point that they have dizzy spells as they make their rounds, medics say, and the journalists documenting their caseloads are often too weak to even walk to the clinics." (More on the plight of journalists here.)
• The head of the UN Relief and Works Agency says his workers are fainting on the job from hunger, reports the Guardian. "People in Gaza are neither dead nor alive, they are walking corpses," tweeted Philippe Lazzarini. "This deepening crisis is affecting everyone, including those trying to save lives in the war-torn enclave."
• The Gaza Ministry of Health has reported more than 40 deaths related to hunger this month, with the young, the sick, and the elderly most vulnerable, per the Times. The story digs into the ongoing blame game among Israel, Hamas, and relief agencies over the issue of distributing an adequate amount of food.
• "We're seeing the pictures also, and I want to tell you that we are taking it very seriously," an Israeli military official tells the Post. "We are analyzing the number of calories per capita inside Gaza." However, he blamed the UN, while the UN called Israel the "sole decision-makers" on supplies entering Gaza.