In an Israeli airstrike targeting the Al-Karama area, northwest of Gaza City, a Palestinian child was killed, along with four others, including another girl, who succumbed to wounds they sustained in a previous attack. The other casualties occurred in areas west of Gaza City and Khan Yunis, south of the Strip.
In the same context, eyewitnesses said that Israeli occupation forces' aircraft and vehicles intensified their bombardment of the eastern areas of Gaza City, while the Israeli navy opened fire on the Al-Mawasi area west of Khan Yunis.
Witnesses added that the Shuja'iyya and al-Tuffah neighborhoods, as well as the southern and eastern areas of Khan Yunis, have been subjected to heavy shelling since the night.
For its part, the Palestinian News Agency (WAFA) reported that a number of citizens were killed and others were injured as a result of a series of raids carried out by the occupation forces in various areas of the Gaza Strip last night, including the Al-Zeitoun neighborhood southeast of Gaza City, the town of Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip, and the Al-Amal neighborhood west of Khan Yunis.
Another citizen was also declared dead from wounds he sustained several days ago in Khan Yunis.
WAFA reported that Israeli artillery continues to shell eastern Gaza, alongside heavy airstrikes, resulting in widespread destruction and mounting casualties as the Israeli aggression enters its twentieth month.
The world's worst hunger crises
In a related development, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) announced that only six of its 22 health centers are still operating inside and outside of shelters in the Gaza Strip, stressing that essential medical supplies are extremely scarce and that there is an urgent need to deliver humanitarian aid without hindrance.
For her part, WHO Regional Director Hanan Balkhy warned that the Gaza Strip is experiencing "one of the worst hunger crises in the world," as a result of Israeli bombardment and the tightened blockade that has been ongoing for months.
In press statements from Geneva on Monday, Balkhi indicated that the situation had reached a "catastrophic stage," with more than 1,500 attacks on the health sector in Gaza and the West Bank recorded since October 2023.
Balkhi said that approximately 400 aid trucks were recently allowed to enter through the Kerem Shalom crossing, but only 115 actually entered Gaza, while none of the aid reached the northern part of the Strip. She added that one in five people in Gaza is at risk of starvation, calling for a ceasefire, lifting the blockade, and the immediate implementation of international humanitarian law.
In the same context, World Food Programme Director Cindy McCain said on Monday that approximately 500,000 Palestinians in Gaza are currently suffering from severe food insecurity and are "on the brink of famine," according to international media reports.
As humanitarian warnings mount, Israel and the United States are promoting a new plan to distribute aid at specific points in the southern Gaza Strip through a newly established nonprofit organization in Switzerland called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. According to Hebrew media reports, the organization's founder is US Presidential Envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff.
The Israeli army radio confirms that this plan aims to expedite the evacuation of residents of northern Gaza to the south, in line with the "peace" plan proposed by US President Donald Trump, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to consider a cornerstone of the current war.
Since October 7, 2023, Israel, with US support, has been waging a war of extermination in Gaza, leaving more than 176,000 Palestinians dead or wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 11,000 missing.
