Israeli strikes kill at least 21 in Gaza amid growing military push
The Israeli military said in a statement on Wednesday that forces were operating in Gaza City, as well as in northern Gaza. It said without elaborating that in Jabaliya, an area hard-hit in multiple rounds of fighting, an air strike killed 'a number of' Hamas militants.
Troops struck roughly 120 targets throughout Gaza over the past day, including militant cells, tunnels and booby-trapped structures, among others, the military said.
Desperation is mounting in the Palestinian territory of more than 2 million, which experts say is at risk of famine because of Israel's blockade and nearly two-year offensive.
More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since May while trying to get food in the Gaza Strip, mostly near aid sites run by an American contractor, the UN human rights office said Tuesday.
More than 100 human rights groups and charities signed a letter published on Wednesday demanding more aid for Gaza and warning of grim conditions causing starvation.
More than 59,000 Palestinians have been killed during the Israel-Hamas war, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which says that more than half of the dead are women and children. The UN and other international organizations see it as the most reliable source of data on casualties.
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The Wire
2 hours ago
- The Wire
'Not a Side Effect of War': Israeli Human Rights Groups Say Israel Committing Genocide in Gaza
New Delhi: In a first, Tel Aviv-based human rights organisations, B'Tsalem and Physicians for Human Rights Israel, have released statements calling out Israel for committing the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. They have said that Israel has systematically and deliberately targeted Palestinians and that its western allies have the power to stop it. In both their statements, the leading human rights groups have noted that Israel's policy towards Palestinians shifted on October 13, 2023, which marked the beginning of a military onslaught lasting more than 21 months and counting. B'Tsalem stated that it has resulted in mass killing, both directly and through creating unlivable conditions, serious bodily or mental harm to an entire population, decimation of basic infrastructure throughout the Gaza Strip, and forcible displacement on a huge scale, with ethnic cleansing added to the list of official war objectives. "The mass arrests and abuse of Palestinians in Israeli prisons, which have effectively become torture camps, and tearing apart the social fabric of Gaza, including the destruction of Palestinian educational and cultural institutions, compound it. The campaign is also an assault on Palestinian identity itself, through the deliberate destruction of refugee camps and attempts to undermine the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA)," it stated. The group also highlighted the failure of the international community in stopping the atrocities, especially the leaders of the Western world, particularly the United States and Europe, who, it said, "share responsibility by providing support that enables Israel's acts of destruction". Meanwhile, Physicians for Human Rights' statement focused on the starvation and killing of children by the Israeli occupation. "Each day, dozens die of malnutrition. Ninety-two percent of infants aged six months to two years don't get enough to eat. At least 85 children have already starved to death. Israel has displaced 9 in 10 Gazans, destroyed or damaged 92% of homes, and left over half a million children without schools or stability. It has wiped out essential health services – including dialysis, maternal care, cancer treatment, and diabetes management," it stated. The organisation said that this was not temporary but a "strategy to eliminate the conditions needed for life". "Even if Israel stops the offensive today, the destruction it has inflicted guarantees that preventable deaths – from starvation, infection, and chronic illness – will continue for years. This is not collateral damage. This is not a side effect of war. It is the systematic creation of unlivable conditions. It is the denial of survivability. It is a genocide," it stated. B'Tsalem further warned that this genocide will not remain confined to the Gaza Strip, and that the actions and underlying mindset driving it may be extended to other areas as well. "The recognition that the Israeli regime is committing genocide in the Gaza Strip, and the deep concern that it may expand to other areas where Palestinians live under Israeli rule, demand urgent and unequivocal action from both Israeli society and the international community," it said. The groups have urged international community to fulfil its duty Ito stop the genocide Israel is carrying out in Gaza. The death toll in Gaza now stands close to 60,000, as per the health ministry data, and the remaining population is on the verge of famine. Over the weekend, Israel announced a few measures to allow aid access, including a limited 10-hour daily "tactical pause" in certain areas of Gaza City. However, there have also been reports Israeli attacks taking place where people were trying to collect aid.
Indian Express
4 hours ago
- Indian Express
Weighing less than her birth weight, Gaza infant starves to death: ‘She needed baby formula'
On a street shattered with rubble in war-torn Gaza, a mother held her five-month-old daughter for the last time. Covered in a thin white cloth, Zainab Abu Halib was not even heavier than anything. She had already died before reaching the pediatric ward of one of the final active hospitals in the Gaza strip. Her mother Esraa bent down and kissed her daughter's cool and shrunken forehead for the last time. Zainab weighed just under 2kg at her death, less than when she was born. Her body bore the starvation, skin stretched over bone, limbs so thin a morgue worker's thumb was wider than her ankles. Her father Ahmed said, 'She needed special baby formula which did not exist in Gaza.' His voice breaking as he stood beside her small, cloth-wrapped body during funeral prayers held in the hospital courtyard. Zainab's story is not unique. She is one of at least 85 children confirmed to have died from malnutrition-related causes during the war in Gaza, according to the territory's Health Ministry. The total number of deaths tied to starvation including adults has risen to 127 with many cases reported only in the past few weeks. Dr Ahmed al-Farah who is the head of pediatrics at Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis called Zainab's condition 'severe, severe starvation.' She had been allergic to cow's milk and needed a specialised formula. Without it chronic diarrhea and vomiting weakened her tiny body. As her immune system collapsed and infection set in. Within weeks, she was gone. Her family who were displaced and living in a makeshift tent struggled to find even basic food, let alone the specific formula Zainab needed. Esraa, who is undernourished herself, could only breastfeed her daughter for six weeks. After that there was nothing else left. 'With my daughter's death, many will follow. Our children, whom we carried for nine months, have become just numbers,' Esraa said. Doctors at Nasser Hospital are sounding alarms as cases of acute malnutrition surge. With only eight pediatric beds the department is treating around 60 children in which many laid on extra mattresses on the floor. Another clinic tied to the hospital reports 40 new malnutrition cases weekly. 'Unless the crossings are opened and food and baby formula are allowed in for this vulnerable segment of Palestinian society, we will witness unprecedented numbers of deaths,' Dr al-Farah warned. Humanitarian aid has been slow. Since March after the collapse of the most recent ceasefire, Israel halted the entry of food, fuel, and medicine for over two months to pressure Hamas into releasing hostages. Aid resumed in May but remains insufficient. Israel's Foreign Ministry claims to have allowed around 4,500 aid trucks since then including 2,500 tons of baby food and special formulas. Still, this averages fewer than 70 trucks a day far below the 500 to 600 daily shipments the UN says are needed. The situation has been further more complicated by chaos on the ground. Hungry crowds and desperate gangs often intercept trucks before the food can be distributed. In some cases over 1,000 Palestinians have reportedly been killed while attempting to reach aid. A mother's robe hung loose on her child's frame, her own hunger barely hidden. 'There was a shortage of everything. How can a girl like her recover?' she asked. Last Saturday, Israel announced a new humanitarian pause to allow more aid deliveries, but denied accusations of intentional starvation. A government statement blamed Hamas for manipulating 'images of children suffering from terminal diseases.' (With Associated Press inputs)
The Hindu
8 hours ago
- The Hindu
Israeli strikes kill at least 34 people in Gaza, officials say, as some aid restrictions eased
Israeli strikes killed at least 34 Palestinians in multiple locations across Gaza on Monday (July 28, 2025), local health officials said, a day after Israel eased aid restrictions in the face of a worsening humanitarian crisis in the territory. Israel announced on Sunday (July 27, 2025) that the military would pause operations in Gaza City, Deir al-Balah and Muwasi for 10 hours a day until further notice to allow for the improved flow of aid to Palestinians in Gaza, where concern over hunger has grown, and designate secure routes for aid delivery. Israeli military operations Israel said it would continue military operations alongside the new humanitarian measures. The Israeli military had no immediate comment about the latest strikes, which occurred outside the time frame for the pause Israel declared would be held between 10 a.m. and 8 p.m. Aid agencies have welcomed the new aid measures, which also included allowing airdrops into Gaza, but said they were not enough to counter the rising hunger in the Palestinian territory. Images of emaciated children have sparked outrage around the world, including from Israel's close allies. U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday called the images of emaciated and malnourished children in Gaza 'terrible.' Israel has restricted aid to varying degrees throughout the war. In March, it cut off the entry of all goods, including fuel, food and medicine to pressure Hamas to free hostages. Israel partially lifted those restrictions in May but also pushed ahead on a new U.S.-backed aid delivery system that has been wracked by chaos and violence. Traditional aid providers also have encountered a similar breakdown in law and order surrounding their aid deliveries. Most of Gaza's population now relies on aid. Accessing food has become a challenge that some Palestinians have risked their lives for. The Awda hospital in central Gaza said it received the bodies of seven Palestinians who it said were killed Monday by Israeli fire close to an aid distribution site run by the U.S.-and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. The hospital said 20 others were wounded close to the site. Killings of women and children Elsewhere, a woman who was seven months pregnant was killed along with 11 others after their house was struck in the Muwasi area, west of the southern city of Khan Younis. The woman's fetus survived after a complex surgery, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent. One strike hit a two-story house in the western Japanese neighbourhood of Khan Younis, killing at least 11 people, more than half of them women and children, said the Nasser Hospital, which received the casualties. The Israeli military and GHF did not immediately respond to a request for comment on those strikes. In its October 7, 2023, attack, Hamas killed 1,200 people and took 251 hostages. It still holds 50, more than half Israel believes to be dead. Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed more than 59,800 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. Its count doesn't distinguish between militants and civilians, but the ministry says over half of the dead are women and children. The ministry operates under the Hamas government. The U.N. and other international organisations see it as the most reliable source of data on casualties.
