“Malnutrition is surging, with 90,000 women and children in urgent need of treatment,” the WFP said in a statement this week. The warning came as nine additional people died of malnutrition on Friday, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, bringing the total number of hunger-related deaths since the war began to 122.

Israel, which controls the flow of supplies into Gaza, insists it is not restricting aid and accuses Hamas of causing shortages. Aid agencies, however, say the delivery system is failing to meet basic needs.

UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said Friday that Britain is prepared to help airdrop aid into Gaza, following reports that Israel could allow foreign countries to conduct such operations in the coming days. “News that Israel will allow countries to airdrop aid into Gaza has come far too late – but we will do everything we can to get aid in via this route,” Starmer wrote in The Mirror. He added that the UK is “urgently accelerating efforts” to evacuate critically ill children to Britain for treatment.

While local media reported that Jordan and the United Arab Emirates plan to participate in the drops, a senior Jordanian official told the BBC that its military has not yet received Israeli clearance. Aid organizations have cautioned that airdrops are an inefficient and limited way to deliver supplies.

The UN criticized the plan as a “distraction from inaction” by Israel and urged more substantial measures. Germany, France, and the UK issued a joint statement Friday calling on Israel to “immediately lift restrictions on the flow of aid” into Gaza and to “end the humanitarian catastrophe we are witnessing.” They also called for a ceasefire, emphasizing Israel’s obligations under international humanitarian law.

“Withholding essential humanitarian assistance to the civilian population is unacceptable,” the statement read. UN Secretary General António Guterres echoed the concern, denouncing global “indifference and inaction.” Addressing Amnesty International’s global assembly, he said more than 1,000 Palestinians had been killed while trying to access food since 27 May, when the U.S.- and the Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation  began distributing supplies as an alternative to the UN-led system. (BBC)