TEHRAN, Mar. 12 (MNA) – The number of hunger-related deaths recorded in Gaza Strip hospitals has grown to 27.

Two children who died at Kamal Adwan Hospital were the latest victims of starvation, TASS reported.

Earlier, the World Health Organization said that over 15% of children in Gaza "are acutely malnourished" and almost three percent of them "suffer from severe wasting." The WHO added that the decline in the Gaza population’s nutritional status in the previous few months was "unprecedented globally."

Israel launched the war against the Gaza Strip on October 7 after the al-Aqsa Storm, a surprise operation by the coastal sliver's Resistance groups against the occupied territories that was staged in protest at the intensification of Tel Aviv's decades-long crimes against Palestinians.

The regime has so far during the war killed more than 30,878 Gazans, most of them women, children, and adolescents.

Hamas seized about 240 prisoners in the October operation, some of whom were released during a week-long truce in November.

Some 99 prisoners reportedly remain alive in Gaza and 31 have died in the regime's attacks on the coastal sliver.

SD/PR