ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Nearly 320 people have died of malnutrition in the Gaza Strip in 2025, with the months of July and August accounting for the overwhelming majority of the deaths, Gaza’s health ministry said on Thursday.

The ministry published a chart on Thursday stating that 317 people have died of famine and malnutrition in the Strip in the year 2025, compared to 49 people in 2024 and four in 2023. According to the chart, July and August alone account for 304 of the cases, translating to nearly 96 percent of the total number for the year so far.

The Gaza Strip has suffered worsening humanitarian conditions in recent months, after an embargo was placed on humanitarian aid by Israel on the Strip, garnering widespread criticism for its failure to allow adequate lifesaving aid to enter Gaza after it initiated an extensive campaign of airstrikes and a ground invasion in retaliation for the Palestinian militant group Hamas' attacks on October 7, 2023, that killed almost 1,200 people.

According to the chart, children make up 70 of the total number, 68 of whom died in July and August only, with over 45,000 children under the age of 5 are suffering from moderate to severe malnutrition. The ministry claims that nearly two million people on the Strip suffer from malnutrition of varying severity.

Over 640,000 suffer from malnutrition of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification’s (IPC) Catastrophe category, 1.14 million are categorized as Emergency cases, while the ministry claims that nearly 200,000 others are under the Crisis category.

The UN-backed global initiative classifies the severity of food insecurity into five different categories, with Phase 5 Catastrophe/Famine being the severest form, followed by Phase 4 Emergency, then Phase 3 Crisis.

The worsening humanitarian conditions imposed by Israel on the Gaza Strip’s population have sparked backlash and condemnation from multiple former allies and supporters of the Israeli campaign. Several European countries, such as Ireland and Spain, have already recognized the State of Palestine.

Meanwhile, a French initiative to recognize the State of Palestine in the upcoming UN General Assembly session in New York prompted other Western nations to follow suit, with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in July announcing that the UK would also recognize a Palestinian state unless Israel takes “substantive steps” toward resolving the conflict and alleviating the humanitarian crisis.

Canada, Australia, and Belgium have also announced their plans to recognize the State of Palestine at the General Assembly in September.