The ministry reported in its daily statistical report that the number of infections has risen to 159,266, while the death toll since March 18, 2025, has reached 11,121 martyrs and 47,225 infections.
The ministry explained that the number of victims is likely to rise, as many remain buried under the rubble and on the streets, where ambulance and civil defense crews are unable to reach them.
Hospitals also recorded 22 martyrs and 203 injuries in the past few hours, among those killed in attacks on humanitarian aid convoys, bringing the death toll of the so-called "livelihood martyrs" to 2,180 and more than 16,046 injured.
Meanwhile, medical sources reported that at least 16 Palestinians have been killed since dawn on Thursday, and dozens more injured in the southern Gaza Strip. Meanwhile, the Israeli occupation army intensified its bombardment of the Shujaiya, Zeitoun, and Sabra neighborhoods in Gaza City, forcing families to once again flee toward the coast amid fears of a large-scale military operation.
Earlier today, four Palestinians, including a mother and her child, were killed in Israeli airstrikes targeting several areas in the Gaza Strip.
Also in the west of the city, a number of Palestinians were injured when an Israeli drone bombed a tent housing displaced persons in the Badr camp on the northern shore. In the central Gaza Strip, medical sources said the occupation army killed a mother and her child in an airstrike targeting a house in Block 10 of the Bureij camp.
Meanwhile, a Palestinian was killed and several others were injured when the Israeli occupation forces targeted people waiting for aid near the Netzarim junction in the central Gaza Strip. The army also launched artillery shelling targeting homes and facilities in areas east of Deir al-Balah, without any casualties being reported.
In the southern Gaza Strip, the Israeli occupation army also targeted residential areas in Hamad City, north of Khan Yunis, with artillery shelling, while Israeli warships fired shells and illumination bombs toward the Rafah beach.
In the context of the genocide, the Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip announced Thursday that systematic Israeli starvation has caused the deaths of 317 Palestinians since October 7, 2023, including 121 children, due to malnutrition and a shortage of medicines and vital medical supplies.
The ministry said in a statement on its Telegram channel that it had "recorded four deaths due to famine and malnutrition in the past 24 hours, including two children."
On Tuesday, the government media office in Gaza said that 467 trucks had entered Gaza over the past five days, out of a total of 3,000. This brings the total number of trucks arriving in the past 30 days to 2,654, most of which were looted with Israeli assistance.
The Ministry's Director General, Mounir Al-Barsh, said in a post on the X platform that the worsening cases of Guillain-Barré Syndrome (GBS) have led to the deaths of eight patients, noting that dozens are in need of ventilators to survive due to water contamination, food shortages, malnutrition, and the lack of basic treatments such as immunoglobulin and plasmapheresis.
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Guillain-Barré syndrome is a rare disease that begins with weakness in the lower extremities and then progresses to the central nervous system and may involve the respiratory nerves.
Since March 2, Israel has closed all crossings into Gaza, preventing the entry of any humanitarian aid. This has plunged the Strip into a state of famine despite the backlog of aid trucks at its borders. Israel allows in limited quantities that fall far short of the Palestinians' minimum needs.
Letter calling for war to be described as “genocide”
In a related development, hundreds of employees at the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, called for the current war in the Gaza Strip to be characterized as genocide.
The letter, signed on behalf of more than 500 employees on Wednesday, stated that the legal criteria necessary to characterize what is happening in Gaza as genocide have been met, citing the scale, scope, and nature of the violations documented in the Strip over nearly two years.
The staff added that the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights bears a "strong legal and moral responsibility to condemn acts of genocide," warning that failure to do so undermines the credibility of the United Nations and the human rights system itself.
The United Nations has yet to issue an official position on the use of the term "genocide," noting that this determination remains within the purview of international courts. Meanwhile, in 2023, South Africa filed a lawsuit against Israel before the International Court of Justice, accusing it of committing genocide. However, a review of the case on the merits could take years.
Continuous warnings of famine
These developments coincided with international warnings. All members of the UN Security Council, with the exception of the United States, confirmed on Wednesday that the famine in Gaza is a "man-made crisis" and not the result of natural circumstances. They emphasized that the use of starvation as a weapon of war is prohibited under international humanitarian law.
Fourteen Council member states called for an immediate, permanent, and unconditional ceasefire, the release of all detainees held by Hamas and other groups, a significant increase in humanitarian aid, and the lifting of all restrictions on the delivery of aid to the Strip.
With American support, Israel has been committing genocide in Gaza since October 7, 2023, including killing, starvation, destruction, and forced displacement, ignoring all international calls and orders from the International Court of Justice to halt it.
The genocide left 62,895 Palestinians dead, 158,927 injured, most of them children and women, more than 9,000 missing, hundreds of thousands displaced, and a famine that claimed the lives of 317 Palestinians, including 121 children.
