There is no famine caused by Israel, Mencer says.

"There is a man-made shortage engineered by Hamas," he says.

Aid has been flowing into Gaza through the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) and through UN-coordinated shipments of raw materials for bakeries and communal kitchens, Mencer continues.

Between 19 July until Tuesday, more than 4,400 aid trucks have entered Gaza, he says, containing food, flour and baby food.

Yesterday, the GHF distributed two million meals to Gazans in one day, he says before adding that 87 million meals have been distributed by organisation in total.

"Hamas is trying to prevent the distribution of food," Mencer says, adding "they are looting aid trucks".

We are now hearing from Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer.

He opens his statement with "profound sorrow" over the loss of Israeli soldiers. He says 895 have died since 7 October 2023.

He adds that the two latest military casualties were killed in southern Gaza.

The Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer is about to deliver a briefing to journalists.

It is anticipated he will speak about the aid situation in Gaza.

We'll bring you key updates here.

Image source, Anadolu via Getty Images

The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says ten people have died from malnutrition within the last 24 hours, as aid organisations across the world attempt to draw attention to the humanitarian situation and prompt action from the Israeli government - which says aid is waiting at the border.

Here's the latest:

• The UN's Palestinian refugee agency (Unwra) has warned there are one million children in the region who are at risk of severe malnutrition, with the Hamas-run health ministry saying 111 people have died due to starvation since the start of the war
• It comes as more than 100 NGOs said only 28 lorries' worth of aid is being distributed each day on average - the situation has led to exorbitant prices for basic food products
• The Israeli government has said hundreds of trucks are poised at the border waiting for collection but the UN said it's struggling to get commitments that Palestinians will not be killed while trying to access it
• UN Secretary General António Guterres called the situation a "horror show" - saying "starvation is knocking on every door"
• "Me and my children go to bed hungry every night," a market seller told us, while a doctor said nurses at the Nasser hospital "don't have enough energy to stand"
• Meanwhile the hostilities have continued after the recent escalation - with the Hamas-run health ministry reporting 113 deaths in the last 24 hours

In the last 24 hours 113 people have been killed in Gaza, the Hamas-run health ministry says. A further 534 have been injured, it adds.

It says a number of victims remain under rubble and on the streets, with emergency services unable to access them.

The total death toll since 7 October 2023 has risen to 59,219, with 143,045 people injured, the statement adds.

In the face of a "deepening operation" by the Israeli military, people in Gaza are struggling to access food.

Pictures from the Strip today show the damage caused in residential areas, and the conditions surrounding getting crucial supplies.

Image source, Mahmoud Issa

Image source, Khames Alrefi/Anadolu via Getty Images

Image source, Hani Alshaer/Anadolu via Getty Images

Image source, Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP

Image source, Reuters

The Israeli military has issued an update on last week's strike on Gaza's only Catholic Church, where three people sheltering inside were killed and several injured.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) says a completed inquiry shows that "the church was accidentally hit due to an unintentional deviation of munitions" during operations by its troops in the area.

Following the incident, it says, "guidelines for opening fire near religious buildings, shelters, and other sensitive sites were further clarified".

Following a call between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Pope Leo XIV about the incident, the IDF reiterates that it "regrets any harm caused to civilians".

And, the Israeli military says it since "has facilitated the entry of humanitarian aid, including food, medical equipment, and medication, to the Holy Family Church in Gaza".

Yolande Knell
Middle East correspondent, in Jerusalem

Image source, Getty Images

Church leaders in Jerusalem say they have returned from a trip to Gaza with "broken hearts", describing starving people and children not "batting an eyelid" at the sound of bombing.

"We have seen men holding out in the sun for hours in the hope of simple meal," the Latin Patriarch, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, told journalists.

"This is humiliation that is hard to bear when you see it with you own eyes. It is morally unacceptable and unjustifiable."

The Greek Orthodox Patriarch, Theophilos III, said his Church would "stand in solidarity" with "the whole people of Gaza".

The two men made a rare visit to the war-torn Strip after Israeli tank fire hit the Catholic Holy Family Church in Gaza City last week, killing two women and a man.

US President Donald Trump is said to have made an angry call to Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about the deadly strike, which came days after an alleged attack by extremist Israeli settlers next to the ruins of an ancient church in the Christian village of Taybeh in the occupied West Bank.

Netanyahu's office expressed deep regret for what was described as "a stray ammunition" hitting the Gaza church.

However, local Christians have questioned whether the place of worship was deliberately targeted., external

Image source, Getty Images

Rushdi Abualouf
Gaza correspondent, reporting from Istanbul

Image source, Getty Images

The humanitarian situation in Gaza is deteriorating rapidly, with hunger and thirst being used as “weapons of war”, according to Adnan Abu Hasna, a spokesperson for the UN's Palestinian refugee agency (Unwra) in Gaza.

Abu Hasna warns that one million children in the territory are now at risk of acute malnutrition.

He adds that 90% of families are unable to access safe drinking water, and that the catastrophic effects of hunger now extend to the entire population, not just children.

“What is happening is a deliberate use of hunger as a weapon,” he says. “People in Gaza are not only suffering from hunger and thirst, but also facing the spread of epidemics and diseases due to the collapse of basic services.”

Abu Hasna calls for the immediate opening of border crossings and the entry of vital humanitarian supplies, warning that without urgent international intervention, the situation could spiral further into a full-scale famine.

"Me and my children go to bed hungry every night," a market seller in Gaza tells the BBC. "All people of Gaza are like that."

Abu Alaa says they haven't eaten flour in three days, and even by selling all of the items on his table - which appear to include some dry and tinned food - he still wouldn't be able to buy half a kilo of flour.

"We are not alive. We are dead. We are pleading with the whole world to intervene and save us."

He says he cannot afford food, and there is no work and money in Gaza.

To feed his family, he goes to the food kitchen if it is open, if not, "I don't eat".

• BBC correspondent Rushdi Abualouf writes that essentials in Gaza are now "priced well-beyond the means of most families"

The Hamas-run Ministry of Health says hospitals have recorded a further 10 deaths due to starvation in the past 24 hours.

In a statement, it adds that this brings the total number of deaths due to famine to 111, since the 7 October attacks in 2023.

In his hospital in the south of Gaza, Dr Ahmad al-Farra watches patients arrive every day, malnourished and weak.

Dr al-Farra, the head of paediatrics at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, tells the BBC World Service's Newsday programme there's been no food for three days: "No flour, no vegetables. Nothing is available."

He says children come to his unit going through varying degrees of starvation. Some, he says, are malnourished and die in the hospital's care.

Others come to hospital with separate health issues that prevent nutrients from being absorbed by their bodies.

"We were afraid we would reach this critical point – and now we have," he says.

Why is aid not reaching people?published at 10:40 British Summer Time 23 July

10:40 BST 23 July

Yolande Knell
Middle East correspondent, in Jerusalem

Image source, EPA

The new statement from more than 100 NGOs says that an average of only 28 lorryloads of aid is being distributed daily in Gaza.

Yet dramatic footage posted on X by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman Lt Col Nadav Shoshani on Tuesday shows huge quantities of goods – he says from 950 lorries – stacked up just inside Gaza’s crossings. “This after Israeli facilitated the entry of aid,” he writes.

So why is so much aid stuck?

During the war, the UN has repeatedly said it struggles to get the necessary Israeli authorisation to collect incoming supplies with Gazan drivers from inside the crossing points and transport it through military zones.

The ongoing hostilities, badly damaged roads and severe fuel shortages have exacerbated problems. Criminal looting by armed gangs has sometimes stopped operations. These issues remain.

But currently we are hearing from the UN that its key problem is that it's struggling to get commitments from the IDF that desperate Palestinians will not be killed while getting life-saving aid. Each time their teams try to collect aid from crossings, UN workers say, civilians approach their lorries which come under fire.

This is “despite repeated assurances that troops would not engage or be present,” says Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for the UN secretary-general.

“This cannot be stressed enough that this unacceptable pattern is the opposite of what facilitating humanitarian operations should look like,” he said at a briefing on Tuesday. “Absolutely no-one should have to risk their lives to get food.”

Image source, Reuters

We can bring you more now from the statement signed by more than 100 aid organisations who are warning about mass starvation in Gaza.

Here's a summary of its main points:

• "As the Israeli government’s siege starves the people of Gaza," humanitarian workers are joining food lines risking being shot to feed their families, the organisations write
• The "total siege" in Gaza has "created chaos, starvation, and death"

• Supplies are "totally depleted", as humanitarian workers starve to death
• It says warehouses within Gaza with tons of food, water and medical supplies sit untouched, as organisations are blocked from accessing and delivering them
• "The UN-led humanitarian system has not failed, it has been prevented from functioning", the statement reads
• There are "record rates" of acute malnutrition, especially among children and the elderly
• The agencies demand a permanent ceasefire, a lifting of all restrictions, the reopening of all land crossings, a rejection of military-controlled distribution sites and a UN-led humanitarian response

A total of 115 aid agencies have signed the letter.

Image source, EPA

UN Secretary General António Guterres has warned that "failures to uphold international obligations are coming at a time of widening geopolitical divides and conflicts".

"And the cost is staggering - measured in human lives, shattered communities, and lost futures," he told the Security Council yesterday.

"We need look no further than the horror show in Gaza - with a level of death and destruction without parallel in recent times. Malnourishment is soaring. Starvation is knocking on every door.

"And now we are seeing the last gasp of a humanitarian system built on humanitarian principles. That system is being denied the conditions to function. Denied the space to deliver. Denied the safety to save lives.

"With Israeli military operations intensifying and new displacement orders issued in Deir al-Balah, devastation is being layered upon devastation," the UN head said.

An orthopaedic surgeon at Nasser hospital in southern Gaza tells the BBC News Channel that malnutrition in the Strip is harming her patients’ recovery from surgery.

Having been based in Khan Younis for the last three weeks, Canadian doctor Deirdre Nunan describes seeing “outcomes that are much worse than we would normally have expected” as patients' wounds become infected and refuse to heal as a result of aid shortages.

Dr Nunan says the lack of aid has meant that “even formerly healthy adult men and women are just skin and bones here”.

And she adds that shortages are impacting the performance of hospital staff, warning: “Our nurses don’t have enough energy to stand up for the duration of their shift."

“Not even the very basic minimums of standards for human life are being met here,” she adds.

Rushdi Abualouf
Gaza correspondent, reporting from Istanbul

Essential supplies remain scarce in Gaza, with basic food items now priced well beyond the means of most families.

“It’s outrageous – prices are on fire," says one Gaza resident. "Every day we need 300 Israeli shekels (£66.52) just for flour!”

The price of lentils and chickpeas has climbed from 10 to 100 shekels per kilo, the resident tells the BBC, making it nearly impossible to prepare even the simplest of meals.

“You’d need 600 shekels (£133) daily just to eat lentils and one loaf of bread."

By comparison, a 1kg bag of lentils and a loaf of bread at one of the UK's largest supermarket chains costs roughly £3.25.

But food isn’t the only burden among Palestinians, says another resident. You also need firewood, water, power and phone credit.

“We’re exhausted. We can’t even stand up to walk anymore," he says.

Small personal donations from relatives abroad are helping some families get by, but the cost of cash commission exceeds 50%, making it impractical.

Image source, Getty Images

As we mentioned in the post below, there have been regular reports of Palestinians being killed while seeking aid since the Israeli and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) began operating in late May.

Both Israel and the GHF have disputed death tolls, recorded by the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza.

However, the ministry's figures are widely seen as a reliable count of bodies seen by Gazan hospitals and its totals are backed up by the UN's own count.

Some of the deadliest incidents in recent days include:

• On Sunday, at least 67 people waiting for UN aid lorries in northern Gaza were killed
• The day before, at least 39 Palestinians seeking food were killed near two aid distribution points in southern Gaza
• On 20 July, at least 21 people died during a crush at a GHF site in Khan Younis

• Ten people, including six children, were killed in an air strike while waiting for water in central Gaza on 13 July

• Twenty-four people were killed by Israeli fire near a southern aid site on 12 July
• On 11 July, at least 15 people, including eight children, were killed while queuing for nutritional supplements in front of a clinic in central Gaza

At the end of June, when the death toll at aid sites was 500, BBC Verify published an investigation examining several earlier incidents where Israel was accused of killing civilians seeking aid.

Image source, Reuters

As aid agencies denounce the spread of "mass starvation" in Gaza, the US has been defending the controversial distribution scheme used to hand out food to Palestinians inside the enclave.

For two months, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), with the backing of Israel and Washington, has taken over from international aid organisations as the main distributor of aid in Gaza.

The UN has repeatedly condemned the plan, saying it would "militarise" aid. Since then, there have been near-daily reports of killings of people trying to collect food.

Israel's military has responded to some of these reports saying it's fired "warning shots" at people who they described as "suspects" or posing a threat.

Pressed by the BBC that the approach is leading to starvation, a State Department spokeswoman says the current situation “works”. She claims it's stopping Hamas exploiting aid and called resistance to it bizarre.

Rushdi Abualouf
Gaza correspondent, in Istanbul

At least 17 Palestinians, including four children and an infant, have been killed in Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip since early Wednesday morning, according to a spokesperson for Gaza’s Hamas-run Civil Defence.

The spokesman says three separate airstrikes targeted two residential apartments and a tent shelter, resulting in the deaths of 17 people, including eight members of a single family.

Another 24 individuals were wounded in the attacks, he adds.

Search and rescue teams are still recovering bodies and assisting the injured at the sites of the strikes, the spokesperson says.

The Israeli military has not commented on the incidents so far.