Doctors in Gaza are fainting from hunger, a spokesperson from the United Nations has warned. 

According to local officials, 122 people have died from starvation since Hamas’ attack on Israel in October 2023. 

Nine of them have died in the past 24 hours and there are huge concerns that many more will soon succumb to starvation. 

On Newstalk Breakfast, UN Secretary General Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq said UN staff are enduring “the same consequence as the general population” with regard to food shortages.  

“Doctors working for the World Health Organisation have reported fainting during the job because of hunger,” he said. 

“Our staff, who are Palestinian staff for UNRWA, face the same problems of being displaced, having to move to smaller parcels of land in Gaza itself. 

“Basically everyone of the more than two million people in Gaza are reporting hunger. 

“The rate of malnutrition in children had been at 6% in June - which was already high - and then it went up to 9% in July.” 

Mourners gather around the bodies of Red Crescent emergency responders in Gaza. Picture by: AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana.

Israel has blamed Hamas for the shortage of aid in the territory, while also insisting that there is a  "collection bottleneck" when it comes to importing the food into Gaza. 

The UN’s security checks on food imports are far too onerous at a time of starvation. 

“We have been complying with Israel’s requests to go through the security procedures,” Mr Haq said. 

“But right now, the way it works is that trucks have to get Israeli clearance, they have to be inspected, they have to be unloaded and reloaded onto other trucks once inside Gaza. 

“All that has to happen under a very cumbersome process of bureaucracy.” 

He added that there is a “slow trickle of aid coming in”, much less than the people of Gaza need. 

Main image: Nasser Hospital in Gaza. Picture by: Alamy.com.