Women mourn by the body of a person who was killed following reported Israeli attacks on aid queues in the Sudaniya area in northwestern Gaza, at Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City. AFP
Local health authorities told The Guardian that at least 25 of those deaths occurred on Sunday alone, as the death toll from Israel’s war on Gaza continues to rise.
Airstrikes also wounded another 315 people during the same period, with bombardment ongoing despite growing international pressure to halt the violence.
On Thursday, the United Nations (UN) General Assembly adopted a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. The move followed the United States veto of a similar resolution in the Security Council last week.
The General Assembly passed the non-binding resolution with 149 votes in favor, 12 against, and 19 abstentions.
Since early March, Israel has blocked all humanitarian aid from entering Gaza, pushing the territory’s 2.3 million residents into what UN agencies describe as the war’s worst humanitarian crisis yet.
The UN, several human rights organizations, and the International Court of Justice have called for urgent action to prevent genocide and address the deteriorating humanitarian situation caused by Israel’s three-month blockade.
The UN has described Gaza as “the hungriest place on Earth” and warned that the entire population now faces famine.
On Sunday, Israeli forces shot at least two Palestinians near the al-Alam aid distribution point in Rafah, The Guardian reported. Gaza’s civil defense said Israel killed nearly 300 people near food distribution sites since late May.
“[Israel] opened an opportunity for people to go and take food, and prevented the agency (UNRWA) from doing so, why would you open fire on people?” a relative of one of the victims told The Guardian.
“This child’s father either goes to bring him food, he comes back carried in a shroud full of his blood, we clean his body and bury him, while his family cries over him,” he said. “Or they would die due to hunger. It’s bad either way.”
The UN has refused to cooperate with the newly formed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a US-Israeli aid mechanism, citing concerns about its neutrality and criticizing its methods as inadequate and dangerous.
Gaza’s Health Ministry reported on Sunday that Israeli strikes have killed 55,362 people and wounded 128,741 since October 2023. Most of the victims are women and children.
Since 18 March, when Israel unilaterally ended a two-month truce brokered by Egypt, Qatar, and the US, Israeli strikes have killed at least 5,071 Palestinians and injured 16,700 others.
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