Gaza's sickening starvation death toll rises as Israel attacks intensify

Daily Mirror

18 hours ago

Israel intensifies attacks on Gaza's northern communities as the death toll from shootings and missiles is added to by the deaths of more people through starvation, including children
Israeli troops killed at least 65 Palestinians since dawn on Wednesday and eight more have starved to death, including three children. It brings the number who have died from lack of food and water to 235, including 106 children, according to figures provided by local health officials.
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Bombardments on the war-battered Strip have intensified, concentrating on the northern areas of Beit Hanoon, Beit Lahiya, Jabalia al-Balad, and the Jabalia refugee camp. It follows a wave of global outrage over the killings of four al-Jazeera reporters and two freelance journalists targeted and killed in Gaza on Sunday. A Hamas delegation has arrived in Egypt for more talks on securing a ceasefire deal, even as Israel pushes ahead with its plan to seize Gaza City.
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The fresh escalation will forcibly displace close to one million Palestinians and push them towards concentration zones further south. Israel's war on Gaza, triggered by Hamas killing 1,200 in southern Israel on October 78 2023, has killed at least 61,722 people and wounded 154,525, according to health officials. The rising death toll comes after Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu 'completely lost it' with angry response to Keir Starmer.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday Israel will "allow" Palestinians to leave during an upcoming military offensive in Gaza. Mr Netanyahu wants to realise US President Donald Trump's vision of relocating much of Gaza's population of more than two million people.
He has dubbed this "voluntary migration" - but critics have warned it could be ethnic cleansing. Netanyahu said: "Give them the opportunity to leave! First, from combat zones, and also from the Strip if they want.
"We are not pushing them out but allowing them to leave." Witnesses and staff at Nasser and Awda hospitals, which received the bodies, said people were killed on their way to aid distribution sites and while awaiting convoys.
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Hamas and Egyptian officials met on Wednesday in Cairo, according to Hamas official Taher al-Nounou. But Israel has no plans to send its negotiating team to talks in Cairo, the prime minister's office said.
Hamas still hold 50 hostages taken in the October 7 2023 attack, although it is feared only 20 of them are alive. Hamas has long called for a comprehensive deal but says it will only release the remaining hostages in return for the release of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel, a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
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The militant group has refused to lay down its arms as Israel has demanded. Israel and South Sudan are in talks about relocating Palestinians to the war-torn East African nation, it was reported this week.
The office of Israel's deputy foreign minister Sharren Haskel said on Wednesday that she was arriving in South Sudan for a series of meetings in the first visit by a senior government official to the country, but she did not plan to broach the subject of moving Palestinians.
In a statement on Wednesday, South Sudan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs called reports that it was engaging in discussions with Israel about resettling Palestinians baseless. An overwhelming majority of violent incidents over the past few weeks have been related to aid convoys.
The UN and food security experts have warned starvation and malnutrition in Gaza are at the highest levels since the war began.