Gaza media office urges opening of crossings amid '77 days of systematic starvation'

The Gaza government media office is warning of widespread famine among Gaza's population of 2.4 million people, including 1.1 million children, after Israel imposed a blockade on Gaza for the past 77 days.

The death toll from malnutrition and starvation has risen to 57 reported deaths, with most of the cases involving children. 

"This grave humanitarian reality no longer bears description or analysis. Rather, it calls for urgent and serious action from the international community, as well as humanitarian and human rights organizations, to halt this open crime and end the policy of collective punishment," the media office said in a statement on Saturday. 

The office added that US President Donald Trump's acknowledgement of starvation in the besieged enclave "had no tangible impact on the ground". 

"Instead, they have been merely media statements, a waste of time, and completely in line with the occupation's policy, which is to perpetuate starvation, genocide, and the normalization of the slow death of civilians," the statement said, holding the US president and Israel directly responsible for the starvation of Palestinians.

On Friday, Trump said that "a lot of people are starving" in the besieged Gaza Strip. 

Trump's brief remarks on Gaza came at the conclusion of his first foreign tour since beginning his second term in office. The trip included stops in several Gulf countries but notably excluded Israel, a key US ally.

"We're looking at Gaza. And we're going to get that taken care of. A lot of people are starving," Trump told reporters in Abu Dhabi.