UN sounds famine alarm as Gaza deaths cross 60K

Gaza is slipping into famine, UN-backed experts warned on Tuesday, as the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory said the death toll in the nearly 22-month war had surpassed 60,000.

- Agencies

The health ministry figure excludes deaths from hunger in the Palestinian territory gripped by dire humanitarian conditions made worse by Israel’s total blockade of aid from March to May.

This week, Israel launched a daily pause in fighting and ‘opened secure routes to enable UN and nongovernmental agencies to distribute food on Gaza’s devastated streets. Hundreds of truckloads of aid have begun to arrive.

But Israeli strikes continued overnight, killing 30 people in the Nuseirat refugee camp, according to Gaza’s civil defence agency — and experts warn a humanitarian catastrophe of historic proportions is imminent.