The number of children who have died from malnutrition and dehydration at hospitals in the northern Gaza Strip has risen to six, the Gaza Health Ministry announced Wednesday.
The latest deaths were of two children at the Al-Shifa Medical Complex, said the ministry.
It came hours after Husam Abu Safiya, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, announced the deaths of four children at the hospital in recent days for the same reasons.
"The death toll from the famine among children rose to six martyrs as a result of dehydration and malnutrition," said Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf Al-Qudra.
Al-Qudra called on international institutions to "immediately intervene to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe" in the northern Gaza Strip, which is besieged by Israeli forces.
"The international community is facing a moral and humanitarian test to stop the genocide committed by the Israeli occupation in the Gaza Strip," he added.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Palestinian resistance group Hamas said the children's' deaths constitute an "international failure to protect humanity."
On Feb. 19, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) warned that the sharp rise in malnutrition among children, pregnant women and lactating mothers in the Gaza Strip poses a "serious threat" to their health, especially with the ongoing war.
Israel has put 31 hospitals in Gaza out of service through bombing, destruction and deprivation of medical supplies and fuel, and has partially targeted 152 health facilities, according to the Government Media Office in Gaza.
Israel has launched a deadly offensive on the Gaza Strip following a cross-border incursion by the Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7. The ensuing Israeli bombardment has killed 29,954 people and injured over 70,000 with mass destruction and shortages of necessities.
The Israeli war has pushed 85% of Gaza's population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.
Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.
