At least 89 Palestinians have been killed in the past 24 hours as Israel intensified its bombing of Gaza, according to local medics. Among the dead were 15 people queuing for food, and five individuals, including two children, reportedly died from starvation. The escalation comes despite global outcry over the deaths of six journalists in the territory the previous day.
Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli airstrikes on Gaza City had intensified after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's security cabinet approved plans to expand the war. Residents described the bombardment as the heaviest in weeks, with strikes targeting civilian homes in the Zeitoun and Sabra neighbourhoods. “It sounded like the war was restarting,” said Amr Salah, a resident.
Foreign ministers from 24 countries, including the UK, Australia, France, Spain, and Japan, along with EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, warned that “humanitarian suffering in Gaza has reached unimaginable levels”. They called on Israel to allow aid shipments immediately and permit essential humanitarian actors to operate, stating: “Urgent action is needed now to halt and reverse starvation.”
Netanyahu raised the prospect of Palestinians leaving Gaza, telling Israeli broadcaster i24NEWS that “we are not pushing them out, but we are allowing them to leave”. Previous suggestions by Israeli politicians and Donald Trump that Palestinians could leave Gaza have been condemned as calls for ethnic cleansing.
In southern Gaza, five people were killed by an airstrike on a house in Khan Younis, and four by a strike on a tent encampment in Mawasi. The civil defence agency reported that 11 bodies were recovered from the rubble of previous attacks. The Israeli military said it was looking into the reports and that its forces took precautions to mitigate civilian harm, adding that dozens of militants had been killed in north Gaza over the past month.
Since 7 October 2023, Israel's war on Gaza has killed 61,599 Palestinians and injured 154,088, according to Gaza's health ministry. The total number of hunger-related deaths recorded since that date has reached 227, including 103 children.
