GAZA: In the past 24 hours, Israeli air attacks and hunger-related deaths have claimed at least 54 Palestinian lives in Gaza, according to the enclave’s Health Ministry. Among the dead are 22 people killed while seeking aid, and 831 more have been injured. Four bodies were also recovered from rubble left by earlier bombings.
A source at al-Ahli Arab Hospital told Al Jazeera that Israeli fighter jets struck a home in Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighborhood, killing at least eight people. Hunger continues to take a deadly toll, with four more deaths reported, bringing the total to 239 since the start of the blockade—106 of them children. Since May 27, when Israel introduced a new aid distribution mechanism via the US-based Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, 1,881 aid seekers have been killed and more than 13,800 injured.
Medical workers describe a dire humanitarian crisis. Natasha Davies of Doctors Without Borders said vital supplies are stuck at the border, with only a trickle making it through. She condemned so-called aid drops that often cause chaos and injuries, calling them “slaughter masquerading as aid.” Hospitals are running on scarce resources, treating waves of casualties while staff and patients alike suffer from malnutrition.
Across Gaza, the blockade has emptied warehouses, left hospitals without medicine, and deprived families of food. Temperatures above 40°C have worsened the crisis, with the UN warning that bombardments, forced displacement, and extreme heat are pushing the population to the brink.
Meanwhile, in the occupied West Bank, Israeli authorities are advancing plans to build over 3,000 housing units in the E1 area—a move that would sever territorial continuity between East Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank, undermining prospects for a Palestinian state. Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich openly declared the expansion would “bury the idea of a Palestinian state.”
Gazan residents fear further forced displacement. Some, like Walaa Sobh—a widow displaced from Beit Lahiya—say they have nowhere left to go. Others, like Umm Sajed Hamdan, vow to remain despite evacuation orders, preferring to face death in their homes rather than flee again.
Qatar’s Foreign Ministry condemned remarks by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about a “Greater Israel,” warning they would inflame tensions and breach international law. The UN has reiterated calls for unrestricted humanitarian access, warning that Palestinians are enduring “a humanitarian catastrophe of horrific proportions.”
Now in its 21st month, the war has killed over 61,776 Palestinians and wounded more than 154,900, most of them women and children. The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Israeli leaders over alleged war crimes, while the International Court of Justice is hearing a genocide case against Israel.
