Medics carry casualties of reported Israeli strikes in the Saftawi neighborhood west of Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip. AFP
The health ministry said 831 people were wounded in the same period, bringing the death toll since Israel’s war on Gaza began on 7 October 2023 to 61,776, mostly women and children, with 154,906 injured.
Gaza’s civil defence agency said 17 of those killed on Thursday died in Israeli strikes on Gaza City, including six civilians waiting for humanitarian aid.
“The Israeli occupation forces are intensifying their raids in the Zeitun area of Gaza City,” civil defence spokesperson Mahmud Bassal told AFP.
“For the fourth consecutive day, the area has been subject to a military operation, resulting in numerous deaths and injuries. Since dawn today, we have received 28 calls from families and residents of this neighbourhood, some of whose children have been killed. Many people cannot leave these areas due to artillery fire.”
Maram Kashko, a resident of Zeitun, said the strikes had intensified over the past four days. “My nephew, his wife and their children were killed in a bombardment,” he told AFP.
An AFP videographer said their bodies were taken to Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City and buried shortly afterwards at the Sayyid Hashim cemetery.
The Israeli strikes on Gaza come as the Israeli military gears up for a new offensive to seize the densely-populated Gaza City and neighbouring refugee camps to the north in order to ethnically cleanse the area, which triggered international condemnation.
In tandem, the Palestinian health ministry said at least 22 people were killed near the Israeli/US so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) aid centres in the past 24 hours, with 269 wounded. This brings the total number of what many in Gaza now call the “martyrs of the breadline” to 1,881, with 13,863 wounded.
This picture taken from a position on the Israeli border with the Gaza Strip, shows smoke rising during an Israeli strike on the besieged Palestinian territory. AFP
The 5-month-old Israeli blockade on Gaza has plunged the strip's 2.3 million people into famine and driven a surge in malnutrition and deaths from starvation.
The health ministry reported four more deaths from starvation and malnutrition in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 239, including 106 children.
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