At least 192 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in Gaza over the past 48 hours, amid intensifying airstrikes and a deepening humanitarian catastrophe marked by famine and aid deprivation.
The victims include 113 civilians who were killed while awaiting food and humanitarian assistance—highlighting the deadly intersection of violence and starvation in the besieged enclave.
On Sunday alone, at least 93 Palestinians lost their lives in multiple Israeli attacks across Gaza, with over 100 others injured, according to health officials.
The deadliest incident occurred in the Al-Sudaniya area northwest of Gaza City, where Israeli troops reportedly opened fire on a large group of starving civilians gathered for humanitarian aid, killing 73 people.
Medical sources reported that many victims had to be transported using carts and makeshift vehicles, as Gaza’s hospitals remain overwhelmed and critically under-resourced.
The healthcare infrastructure has all but collapsed following relentless Israeli bombardment, which has killed nearly 59,000 Palestinians since October 2023—most of them women and children.
Elsewhere, four civilians were killed while waiting for aid in a similar attack near the Al-Tahliyah Roundabout in Khan Younis, while 14 more, including members of the Civil Defence, were killed in a strike on the Applied Sciences College. A woman and her daughter also lost their lives in an airstrike on an apartment in central Gaza City, Anadolu Agency reported.
And earlier on Saturday, at least 90 Palestinians were killed across Gaza in a series of deadly Israeli attacks, including 36 civilians who were shot while waiting for humanitarian aid near distribution centres in the southern city of Rafah.
Despite mounting global concern, Israeli strikes show no sign of abating. On Monday morning, nine more Palestinians were reported killed, including five in an Israeli strike on a tent sheltering displaced families in the al-Mawasi area, and two in a drone attack in Jabalia, northern Gaza, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.
Grim toll of hunger
Meanwhile, Gaza’s deepening starvation crisis continues to claim lives at an alarming pace. On Monday, four-year-old Rezzan Abu Zahir became the latest child to succumb to hunger, Palestinian health officials confirmed. Her death brings the number of civilians who have died from starvation in the past 24 hours to at least 19—many of them children.
According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, the overall death toll from starvation has now risen to 87, including at least 77 children.
With Israel sealing all border crossings since March 2, humanitarian aid has been blocked, and the United Nations warns that at least 17,000 children are suffering from severe malnutrition.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) on Sunday once again accused Israeli authorities of weaponising starvation against Gaza’s civilian population, warning that an alarming one million Palestinian children are among those affected.
Hospitals, overwhelmed and lacking medicine, are treating children for stress-induced memory loss and chronic hunger.
The Health Ministry in Gaza blames both Israel and the international community for the deepening catastrophe, calling the situation a “silent massacre.”
Since October 2023, nearly 59,000 Palestinians—most of them women and children—have been killed, with entire neighbourhoods reduced to rubble and the health system pushed to collapse.
Israel faces international legal scrutiny for its actions. Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity. The country is also defending itself at the International Court of Justice against charges of genocide.
