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BY\u00a0NAJIB JOBAIN<\/span>,\u00a0JACK JEFFERY<\/span>\u00a0AND\u00a0COLLEEN BARRY | AP<\/span><\/p>\n RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) \u2014 More than half a million people in Gaza \u2014 a quarter of the population \u2014 are starving, according to a report Thursday by the United Nations and other agencies, highlighting the humanitarian crisis caused by\u00a0Israel\u2019s bombardment<\/a><\/span>\u00a0and siege on the territory in response to Hamas\u2019 Oct. 7 attack.<\/p>\n The extent of the population\u2019s hunger eclipsed even the near-famines in Afghanistan and Yemen of recent years, according to figures in the report. The report warned that the risk of famine is \u201cincreasing each day,\u201d blaming the hunger on\u00a0insufficient aid entering Gaza<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n \u201cIt doesn\u2019t get any worse,\u2019\u2019 said Arif Husain, chief economist for the U.N.\u2019s World Food Program. \u201cI have never seen something at the scale that is happening in Gaza. And at this speed.\u201d<\/p>\n Israel says it is in the final stages of\u00a0clearing out Hamas militants<\/a><\/span>\u00a0from northern Gaza, but that months of fighting lie ahead in the south.<\/p>\n The war sparked by Hamas\u2019\u00a0deadly Oct. 7 rampage<\/a><\/span>\u00a0and hostage-taking in Israel has killed nearly 20,000 Palestinians. Some 1.9 million Gaza residents \u2014 more than 80% of the population \u2014 have been driven from their homes, and many of them are crammed into U.N. shelters.<\/p>\n The war has also pushed Gaza\u2019s health sector into collapse. Only nine of its 36 health facilities are still partially functioning, all located in the south, according to the World Health Organization. On Thursday, WHO relief workers reported \u201cunbearable\u201d scenes in two hospitals they visited in northern Gaza: Bedridden patients with untreated wounds crying out for water, the few remaining doctors and nurses having no supplies, and bodies being lined up in the courtyard.<\/p>\n Bombardment and fighting continued Thursday, and internet and communications that had been knocked out for several days gradually began to return across the territory.<\/p>\n U.N. Security Council members again\u00a0delayed a vote<\/a><\/span>\u00a0on a now-watered down Arab-sponsored resolution for a halt in combat to allow for increased aid deliveries. A vote,\u00a0initially set for Monday, has been delayed<\/a><\/span>\u00a0each day since then. The United States now supports the resolution, but other council members said that because of the significant changes, they needed to consult their capitals before a vote, which is now expected on Friday.<\/p>\n Other countries support a stronger text in the resolution that would include the now-eliminated call for the urgent suspension of hostilities between Israel and Hamas.<\/p>\n Instead, the wording now calls \u201cfor urgent steps to immediately allow safe and unhindered humanitarian access, and also for creating the conditions for a sustainable cessation of hostilities.\u201d The steps are not defined, but diplomats said, if adopted, this would mark the council\u2019s first reference to a cessation of hostilities.<\/p>\n Thursday\u2019s report from the U.N. on the hunger in Gaza underscored the failure of weeks of U.S. efforts to ensure greater aid reaches Palestinians.<\/p>\n At the start of the war, Israel stopped all deliveries of food, water, medicine and fuel into the territory. After U.S. pressure, it allowed a trickle of aid in through Egypt. But U.N. agencies say only 10% of Gaza\u2019s food needs has been entering for weeks.<\/p>\n This week, Israel began allowing aid to enter Gaza through its Kerem Shalom crossing, which boosted the number of trucks entering from around 100 a day to around 190 on Wednesday, according to the U.N. But an Israeli strike Thursday morning hit the Palestinian side of the crossing, forcing the U.N. to stop its pickups of aid there, according to Juliette Touma, spokesperson of UNRWA, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees.<\/p>\n At least four staff members at the crossing were killed, a nearby hospital reported. The Israeli military said it struck militants in the area.<\/p>\n Israeli President Isaac Herzog said Israel has been working to increase its inspection of aid trucks to 300 or 400 a day, and blamed the U.N. for failures in delivery. The amount of aid could triple \u201cif the U.N., instead of complaining all day, would do its job,\u201d he said, without elaborating on what more the U.N. should be doing.<\/p>\n Egypt\u2019s Rafah crossing has limited capacity for trucks to cross. U.N. officials say\u00a0delivery of aid within much of Gaza<\/a><\/span>\u00a0has become difficult or impossible because of fighting, and more than 130 U.N. personnel have been killed.<\/p>\n The report released Thursday by 23 U.N. and nongovernmental agencies found that the entire population in Gaza is in food crisis, with 576,600 at catastrophic or starvation levels. \u201cIt is a situation where pretty much everybody in Gaza is hungry,\u201d Husain, the World Food Program economist, said.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople are very, very close to\u00a0large outbreaks of disease<\/a><\/span>\u00a0because their immune systems have become so weak because they don\u2019t have enough nourishment,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Hundreds of people lined up Thursday at a soup kitchen in the southern Gaza town of Rafah, waving cups and pots as they waited for soup to be served from huge vats hanging over wood fires. Rafah, by the Egypt border, is one of the few places that receives regular aid deliveries.<\/p>\n Aya Barbakh, who\u2019s been displaced by the war, said she comes every day for food.<\/p>\n \u201cLet us be in comfort like other people. We see people dying every day, and we want to die like them. We have been insulted and humiliated,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Mahmoud al-Qishawi, with the American charity Pious Projects that runs the kitchen, said there\u2019s no fuel to cook with, so they have to search around the neighborhood for wood to burn. \u201cThere\u2019s a huge number of families and we don\u2019t have food that is enough for them.\u201d<\/p>\n Israel has vowed to continue the offensive until it destroys Hamas\u2019 military capabilities and returns scores of hostages captured by Palestinian militants during\u00a0their Oct. 7 rampage<\/a><\/span>. Hamas and other militants killed some 1,200 people that day, mostly civilians, and captured around 240 others.<\/p>\n Hamas fired a barrage of rockets at central Israel Thursday, showing its military capabilities remain formidable. There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.<\/p>\n The United States has continued to support Israel\u2019s campaign while also urging greater efforts to protect civilians. The U.S. wants Israel to shift to more targeted operations aimed at Hamas leaders and the group\u2019s tunnel network.<\/p>\n The Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza<\/a><\/span>\u00a0said Tuesday the death toll since the start of the war had risen to more than 19,600. It does not distinguish between civilian and combatant deaths.<\/p>\n