Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are pleading for help as more people have starved to death under Israel’s unrelenting blockade of the coastal enclave.

The Gaza Health Ministry said in a statement on Friday that local hospitals recorded nine new malnutrition deaths in the previous 24 hours.

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That brings the total number of such deaths to 122 since Israel’s war on Gaza began in October 2023, including at least 83 children.

“We urgently demand an immediate end to the famine, the opening of all crossings, and the entry of infant formula now, along with 500 aid trucks and 50 fuel trucks daily,” the Health Ministry said.

“We hold the Israeli occupation, the US administration, and other states complicit in this genocide—such as the UK, Germany, and France—as well as the international community at large, fully responsible for this historic crime.”

Sources at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, told Al Jazeera early on Saturday that a six-month-old infant also succumbed to starvation-related medical complications.

Starvation deaths have steadily increased in Gaza this week as Israel continues to maintain a strict blockade on the territory, preventing a steady flow of food, water, medicine and other supplies from reaching Palestinians.

The United Nations has warned that children are especially vulnerable as the crisis worsens.

Noor al-Shana, an independent journalist in central Gaza’s Nuseirat, told Al Jazeera that extreme hunger is affecting all aspects of life in the Strip.

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She said she now struggles to find enough for one meal per day, while four of her relatives were killed while seeking food at aid distribution points run by the notorious Israel- and United States-backed GHF.

“The world is just saying ‘Free Palestine’ … We don’t want words, we want solutions,” she said.

“Enough, we are tired,” al-Shana added, fighting back tears. “We are suffocating. We are dying here.”

‘Deliberate mass starvation’

Separately, sources at hospitals in Gaza told Al Jazeera that at least 38 people were killed by Israeli attacks across the enclave since the early hours of Friday morning.

Of that, at least six Palestinians were killed while trying to collect food at aid distribution sites.

Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), on Friday reiterated criticism of the GHF, calling it a “cruel” politically driven effort that “takes more lives than it saves”.

Lazzarini called for the UN agency’s aid stockpiles to be let into Gaza, warning that the enclave is suffering from “deliberate mass starvation”.

“Today, more children died, their bodies emaciated by hunger,” he said in a post on X. “The unfolding famine can only be reversed by a political will.”

The Israeli military has blamed international organisations for the crisis, claiming that aid trucks are inside Gaza but that the UN has refused to distribute the assistance.

UN officials have rejected that, saying repeatedly that they have not received the necessary approvals from the Israeli authorities to distribute the aid.

The UN and other humanitarian groups have also refused to work with the GHF aid distribution scheme, which they say does not adhere to humanitarian principles such as impartiality and independence.

As the crisis continues to spiral, United States President Donald Trump on Friday solely blamed Hamas for the apparent collapse of Gaza ceasefire talks, saying the group is going to be “hunted down”.

“Hamas didn’t really want to make a deal. I think they want to die, and it’s very, very bad,” Trump told reporters at the White House.

The US president’s comments came a day after his Middle East envoy said US negotiators had withdrawn from ceasefire talks in Qatar.

Hamas responded to the US’s announcement with surprise, saying on Thursday that it had submitted a positive and constructive response to the latest proposal it was offered.

Despite Hamas’s insistence that it is ready to work towards a deal, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that Israel and the US are weighing ways to secure the release of captives in Gaza that do not depend on a negotiated agreement with the Palestinian group.

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“Together with our US allies, we are now considering alternative options to bring our hostages home, end Hamas’s terror rule, and secure lasting peace for Israel and our region,” Netanyahu said.

Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 59,676 Palestinians and wounded 143,965 others. An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attacks and more than 200 were taken captive.