A Palestinian baby has died of starvation in Gaza as Israel maintains its blockade on fuel and aid supplies and its forces fire on people forced to seek food at controversial United States-backed aid sites described as “death traps”, Al Jazeera reports.

The 35-day-old infant died of malnutrition at Gaza City’s al-Shifa Hospital, director Muhammad Abu Salmiya told Al Jazeera. The unnamed infant was one of two people who succumbed to starvation in the facility last night.

The deaths occurred as Gaza’s Ministry of Health warned that hospital emergency wards were overwhelmed by unprecedented numbers of starving people, with officials saying that 17,000 children in Gaza are suffering from severe malnutrition, the report added.