A woman, two girls were crushed to death outside a bakery in Gaza due to lack of food, officials said

Two children and a woman were crushed to death on Friday as a crowd of Palestinians pushed for bread at a bakery in the Gaza Strip amid a food crisis in the war-torn area, medical officials said.

The bodies of two 13- and 17-year-old girls and a 50-year-old woman were taken to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, where a doctor confirmed that they died of asphyxiation due to overcrowding in al. -Banana bakery. Video by the Associated Press showed their bodies placed next to each other on the floor inside the hospital's morgue.

The flow of food allowed into Gaza by Israel fell to almost the lowest level of the 14-month war in the past two months, according to official Israeli statistics. UN and aid officials say hunger and desperation are growing among Gazans, almost all of whom rely on humanitarian aid to survive.

Some bakeries in Gaza were closed for several days last week due to a lack of flour. AP footage taken last week after it reopened showed crowds of people huddled together, shouting and pushing, at one bakery in Deir al-Balah.

Palestinians on the other side of the Gaza Strip rely heavily on bakeries and soup kitchens, and many are only able to secure one meal a day for their families.

In Lebanon, thousands of displaced people began returning home this week after sunset a ceasefire was declared between Israel and the terrorist group Hezbollah.

Many found their homes in ruins after heavy Israeli airstrikes two months ago devastated all of eastern and southern Lebanon, as well as areas south of Beirut. About 1.2 million people have been displaced.

The agreement was the first major sign of progress in the region since the war began more than a year ago, sparked by Hamas's attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. But it doesn't talk about disaster. war in Gaza. For Palestinians in Gaza and the families of hostages held in the area, the ceasefire marked another missed opportunity to end the nearly 14-month conflict.

More than 44,000 people have died and more than 104,000 have been injured, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Israel has destroyed large parts of Gaza and displaced nearly all of its 2.3 million people.

Gaza is in a critical situation, says the UN

The United Nations said on Friday that the Gaza Strip has descended into chaos, with famine rife, looting rampant and a growing number of rapes in shelters as civil order breaks down.

The Palestinian people are suffering “on a scale that must be seen as real,” Ajith Sunghay, head of the UN Human Rights Office in the Palestinian territories, said in a statement after concluding his latest visit to the devastated Palestinian territory.

“This time I was shocked by the prevalence of hunger,” said Sunghay at a press conference in Geneva, via video-link from Amman.

“The breakdown of public order and security makes the situation more tense as there is a lot of looting and fighting due to lack of resources.

“The unrest in Gaza that we warned about months ago has arrived,” he said. “It's completely predictable, it's predictable. And like all the death and destruction I've seen in my past trips to Gaza, it's completely preventable.”

As the cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah goes into effect on Wednesday, President Joe Biden said his administration will move quickly start “another push” and international partners to find an agreement to end the war in Gaza.

Mr Biden, who has less than two months left in office, said in a social media post on Wednesday that his administration would work in the coming days with Israel and other allies in the region to “achieve a ceasefire in Gaza [Israeli] the hostages were released and the war ended without Hamas in power.”