At least 60 people have been killed in Israeli strikes across Gaza in a 24-hour period, the territory’s civil defence agency has said, as Israel intensifies its military offensive despite aid agencies warning that the Palestinian population is plunging deeper into malnutrition and famine.
The dead included 10 people in the southern city of Khan Younis, four in the central town of Deir al-Balah and nine in the Jabaliya refugee camp in the north, according to the Nasser, al-Aqsa and al-Ahli hospitals where the bodies were brought..
The strikes that lasted into Friday morning came a day after Israeli tanks and drones attacked a hospital in northern Gaza, igniting fires and causing extensive damage, Palestinian hospital officials said. Videos taken by a health official at al-Awda hospital showed walls blown away and thick black smoke billowing from the wreckage.
The Israeli army said that its forces had attacked “military compounds, weapons storage facilities and sniper posts” in Gaza. “In addition, the [air force] struck over 75 terror targets throughout the Gaza Strip.”
The Palestinian Red Crescent and UN agencies are warning of famine after more than three months of an Israeli blockade on humanitarian aid….
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Food aid is expected to start reaching Palestinians in Gaza this week after Israel began allowing limited goods through after nearly 11 weeks of global pressure to lift the blockade.
Even the US, a staunch ally of Israel, has voiced concerns over the hunger crisis.
A total of 107 aid trucks belonging to the UN and other aid groups carrying flour, food, medical equipment and pharmaceuticals were transferred on Thursday into the strip, the Israeli military said on Friday.
The UN secretary general said on Friday that Israel had only authorised for Gaza what “amounts to a teaspoon of aid when a flood of assistance is required” to ease the crisis.
“Without rapid, reliable, safe and sustained aid access, more people will die – and the long-term consequences on the entire population will be profound,” António Guterres told reporters.
“The entire population of Gaza is facing the risk of famine … The Israeli military offensive is intensifying with atrocious levels of death and destruction.”….
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