By WAFAA SHURAFA, SAMY MAGDY and TIA GOLDENBERG, Associated Press

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed since May while trying to get food in the Gaza Strip, mostly in the vicinity of aid sites run by an Israeli-backed American contractor, the United Nations human rights office said Tuesday. Israeli strikes killed 25 people across Gaza, according to local health officials.

Desperation is mounting in the territory of more than 2 million, which experts say is at risk of famine because of Israel’s blockade and ongoing 21-month offensive. A breakdown of law and order has led to widespread looting and contributed to chaos and violence around aid deliveries.

Gaza’s Health Ministry, which is part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals, said Tuesday that 101 people, including 80 children, have died in recent days from starvation. It did not provide precise diagnoses, but people in hunger crises often die from a combination of malnutrition, illness and deprivation.

Israel eased a 2 1/2 month blockade in May, allowing a trickle of aid in through the longstanding U.N.-run system and the newly created Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, or GHF, an American contractor. Aid groups say it’s not nearly enough.

Israel accuses Hamas of siphoning off aid — without providing evidence of widespread diversion — and blames U.N. agencies for failing to deliver food it has allowed in.

In a statement, GHF rejected what it said were “false and exaggerated statistics” from the U.N., saying the deadliest incidents have been linked to U.N. aid convoys.

‘I do it for my children’

Dozens of Palestinians lined up on Tuesday outside a charity kitchen in Gaza City, hoping for a bowl of watery tomato soup. The lucky ones had some chunks of eggplant floating in theirs. As supplies ran out, people holding pots pushed and shoved to get to the front.

Nadia Mdoukh, a pregnant woman who was displaced from her home and lives in a tent with her husband and three children, said she worries about being shoved or trampled, and about heat stroke as daytime temperatures hover above 90 degrees Farhenheit (32 C).

“I do it for my children. This is famine — there is no bread or flour,” she said. “We take this soup, and it does not come with rice or anything.”

The U.N. World Food Program says Gaza’s hunger crisis has reached “new and astonishing levels of desperation.” Ross Smith, the agency’s director for emergencies, told reporters Monday that nearly 100,000 women and children are suffering from severe acute malnutrition, and a third of Gaza’s population is not eating for multiple days in a row.

Over 1,000 killed seeking food

Of the 1,054 people killed while trying to get food since late May, 766 were killed while heading to sites run by the Israeli- and U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, according to the U.N. human rights office. The others were killed when gunfire erupted around U.N. convoys or aid sites.

Thameen al-Kheetan, a spokesperson for the U.N. rights office, says its figures come from “multiple reliable sources on the ground,” including medics, humanitarian and human rights organizations. He said the numbers were still being verified according to the office’s strict methodology.

Palestinian witnesses and health officials say Israeli forces regularly fire toward crowds of thousands of people heading to the GHF sites. The military says it has only fired warning shots, and GHF says its armed contractors have only fired into the air on a few occasions to try to prevent stampedes.

The U.N. has refused to work with the GHF, saying its model violates humanitarian principles and puts lives at risk.

A joint statement from 28 Western-aligned countries on Monday condemned the “the drip feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians, including children, seeking to meet their most basic needs of water and food.”

“The Israeli government’s aid delivery model is dangerous, fuels instability and deprives Gazans of human dignity,” read the statement, which was signed by the United Kingdom, France and other countries friendly to Israel. “The Israeli government’s denial of essential humanitarian assistance to the civilian population is unacceptable.”

Israel and the United States rejected the statement, blaming Hamas for prolonging the war by not accepting Israeli terms for a ceasefire and the release of hostages abducted in the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack that triggered the fighting.

Hamas has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada and the European Union.

Hamas has said it will only release the remaining hostages in return for a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal. Israel says it will keep fighting until Hamas has been defeated or disarmed.

Strikes on tents sheltering displaced people

Israeli strikes killed at least 25 people across Gaza on Tuesday, according to local health officials, as Israel pushed on with a new incursion in the central city of Deir al-Balah, an area that had largely been spared heavy fighting.

One strike hit tents sheltering displaced people in the built-up seaside Shati refugee camp in Gaza City, killing at least 12 people, according to Shifa Hospital, which received the casualties. The Israeli military said it was not aware of such a strike by its forces.

The dead included three women and three children, Dr. Mohamed Abu Selmiya, director of the hospital told The Associated Press. Thirty-eight other Palestinians were wounded, he said.

The strike tore apart tents and left some of the dead lying on the ground, according to footage shared by the Health Ministry’s ambulance and emergency service.

An overnight strike that hit crowds of Palestinians waiting for aid trucks in Gaza City killed eight, hospitals said. At least 118 were wounded, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent.

The Israeli military had no immediate comment on that strike. Israel blames the deaths of Palestinian civilians on Hamas because they operate in densely populated areas.

Israel renewed its offensive in March with a surprise bombardment after ending an earlier ceasefire. Talks on another truce have dragged on for weeks despite pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump.

‘Time to end this nonsense’

Hamas abducted 251 people in the Oct. 7 terrorist attack that triggered the war and killed around 1,200 people. Fewer than half of the 50 hostages still in Gaza are believed to be alive.

More than 59,000 Palestinians have been killed during the war, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. Its count does not distinguish between militants and civilians, but the ministry says more than half of the dead are women and children. The U.N. and other international organizations see it as the most reliable source of data on casualties.

In Jerusalem, top church leaders called on the international community to help bring an end to the war after making a rare visit to Gaza last week.

Their visit came after Gaza’s only Catholic church was struck by an Israeli shell in an attack that killed three people and wounded 10, including a priest who had developed a close friendship with the late Pope Francis. The strike drew condemnation from Pope Leo XIV and Trump, and prompted statements of regret from Israel, which said it was an accident.

“It is time to end this nonsense, end the war,” Latin Patriarch Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa told reporters.

Pizzaballa and Greek Orthodox Patriarch Theophilos III said they witnessed a Gaza that was “almost totally destroyed.” They said they saw older people, women and boys “totally starved and hungry” and called for urgent humanitarian aid.

“Every hour without food, water, medicine, and shelter causes deep harm,” Pizzaballa said. “It is morally unacceptable and unjustifiable.”

Magdy reported from Cairo and Goldenberg from Jerusalem. Associated Press writer Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed.