Scores of men, women and children gathered Saturday at a charity kitchen in Gaza City to get some cooked rice for their families amid severe shortages of food as a result of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

Many of those waiting with plastic or metal pots managed to get some rice before heading back home with some who had to walk a long distance.

Residents of the Gaza Strip have been mostly relying on charity kitchens to get a pot of lentils or rice. Others rely on aid distribution centres that are dangerous to reach.

Hunger has grown throughout the past 22 months of war because of aid restrictions, humanitarian workers say. But food experts warned in recent weeks that the “worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out in Gaza.”

Israel enforced a complete blockade on food and other supplies for 2½ months beginning in March. It said its objective was to increase pressure on Hamas to release dozens of hostages it has held since its attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

Though the flow of aid resumed in May, the amount is a fraction of what aid organizations say is needed.

A breakdown of law and order has also made it nearly impossible to safely deliver food. Much of the aid that does get in is hoarded or sold in markets at exorbitant prices.

On Saturday the Gaza Health ministry said 11 people, including a child, died as a result of starvation and malnutrition over the past 24 hours. It said the latest figures have raised the total death toll to 251, including 108 children, in the Gaza Strip over the past three months.

The United Nations is warning that levels of starvation and malnutrition in Gaza are at their highest since the war began. Palestinians are drinking contaminated water as diseases spread, while some Israeli leaders continue to talk openly about the mass relocation of people from Gaza.

The U.N. and partners say getting aid into the territory of over 2 million people, and then on to distribution points, remains highly challenging with Israeli restrictions and pressure from crowds of hungry Palestinians.

The U.N. human rights office says at least 1,760 people were killed while seeking aid between May 27 and Wednesday. It says 766 were killed along routes of supply convoys and 994 in the vicinity of “non-U.N. militarized sites," a reference to the Israeli-backed and U.S.-supported Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which since May has been the primary distributor of aid in Gaza.

The Hamas-led attack in 2023 killed around 1,200 people in Israel. Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed 61,897 people in Gaza, according to the Health Ministry, which does not specify how many were fighters or civilians but says around half were women and children.