Five starving children at a Gaza City hospital were wasting away, and nothing the doctors tried was working. The basic treatments for malnourishment that could save them had run out under Israel's blockade.

A six-week-old infant is among 15 people who have died of starvation in Gaza in the past 24 hours, local health officials said, with malnutrition now killing Palestinians faster than at any point in the 21-month-long war.

After 21 months of devastating conflict with Israel, Gaza’s most vulnerable civilians — the young, the old and the sick — are facing what aid groups say is impending famine.

Food markets are empty. Human waste is piling up. Illness is spreading. And people in Gaza are “collapsing on the streets from hunger and dehydration,” humanitarian organizations warn.

A five-week-old infant and a four-year-old child have died of starvation in Gaza, according to hospital officials, as Israel’s blockade on aid and fuel continues. Al-Shifa Hospital reported the death of the baby, while medical staff at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital said four-year-old Razan Abu Zaher succumbed to complications from severe malnutrition.

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli ground troops for the first time Monday pushed into areas of a central Gaza city where several aid groups are based, in what appeared to be the latest effort to carve up the Palestinian territory with military corridors.

A six-week-old infant was among 15 people who have died of starvation in Gaza in the past 24 hours, local health officials said, with malnutrition now killing Palestinians faster than at any point in the 21-month war.