Sri Lanka, July 29 -- One million women and girls in the Gaza Strip are facing mass starvation, violence and abuse, UN Women said in a statement on the escalating humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza on Monday.

Malnutrition is soaring and essential services have long collapsed, forcing women and girls to adopt increasingly dangerous survival strategies, the statement said.

"Women and girls in Gaza are facing the impossible choice of starving to death at their shelters, or venturing out in search of food and water at the extreme risk of being killed. Their children are starving to death before their eyes. This is horrific, unconscionable and unacceptable. It is inhumane," UN Women Executive Director Sima Bahous said in the statement.

"This ...