In the center of the Gaza Strip, three women standing in a crowd outside a bakery were crushed to death, according to hospital reports. The Palestinian women were queuing in the city of Deir al-Balah to buy bread, eyewitnesses reported to the German Press Agency. They fell over in the crowd and ultimately died. Staff at Al-Aqsa Hospital, where the three were admitted, confirmed the women’s deaths.

Aid organizations have been warning of famine in the embattled coastal strip for a long time. According to the World Food Program (WFP), the suffering population there is particularly dependent on bread from the few bakeries that are still functioning. It is often the only food that people can get.