FOUR more Palestinians, including two children, starved to death today as rights experts voiced their alarm over “enforced disappearances” at aid sites in Gaza.

The Ministry of Health said the latest deaths due to famine and malnutrition brought the total number of hunger-related fatalities to 317, including 121 children. 

At least 17 others were killed in Israeli strikes across the enclave overnight and into this morning, including a mother and her child in a tent camp near Khan Younis.

In Gaza City, civil defence officials said the Israeli ground offensive in Zeitoun had demolished more than 1,500 homes, leaving no buildings standing in the southern part of the neighbourhood.

All members of the UN security council, except the United States, backed the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification’s (IPC’s) declaration on Wednesday that famine in Gaza is a “man-made crisis,” despite opposition from Israel and Washington.

Israel announced the construction of two new aid sites in southern Gaza today, run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) to replace the Tel al-Sultan site “with the aim of improving the response and the safety of distribution.”

“Once the work is completed, a total of five food distribution centres will be operating by the GHF,” the military said.

At least 2,180 aid seekers have been shot dead and more than 16,046 others wounded around GHF aid sites since late May.

It came as seven UN rights experts voiced alarm at reports of starving Palestinians disappearing after visiting GHF distribution sites, urging Israel to end the “heinous crime.”

The independent experts said in a joint statement that several individuals, including one child, had been “forcibly disappeared” after seeking aid in Rafah.

Israel’s military was reportedly “directly involved in the enforced disappearances of people seeking aid,” they added.