Gaza City, Gaza - The head of Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City said on Tuesday that 21 children had died in the past three days "due to malnutrition and starvation" as Israel continues to subject the Palestinian territory to what is being increasingly recognized as genocide.

"These deaths were recorded at hospitals in Gaza, including Al-Shifa in Gaza City, Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah and Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis... over the past 72 hours," Mohammed Abu Salmiya told reporters.

UN Secretary General António Guterres warned on Monday evening that "the last lifelines keeping people alive are collapsing" in Gaza, and that there were growing reports of children and adults with malnutrition.

Abu Salmiya told reporters that new cases of malnutrition and starvation were arriving at Gaza's remaining functioning hospitals "every moment".

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"We are heading towards alarming numbers of deaths due to the starvation inflicted on the people of Gaza," he added.

After unilaterally breaking a ceasefire with Hamas, Israel imposed a full blockade on Gaza on March 2 this year, allowing nothing in until trucks were again permitted at a trickle in late May – under the auspices of the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a discredited Israeli and US-backed organization collaborating with occupation troops.

Since then, over 1,000 Palestinians have been killed while seeking aid at the few distribution centers operated by GHF, which has been accused of being complicit in unprecedented war crimes committed by Israeli forces.

World Food Programme director Carl Skau, who visited Gaza City in early July, called the situation "the worst" that he had ever seen.

Last Sunday, Gaza's civil defense agency reported that at least three infants died from "severe hunger and malnutrition" in the past week.

On Monday, more than two dozen countries, including Britain, France, Australia, and Canada – which have all backed Israel's 22-month destruction of Gaza – urged an immediate end to the assaults, the release of hostages, and the free flow of aid.