KEY POINTS
- Israeli strikes on Gaza City kill 123 people, including 21 aid-seekers, in the past 24 hours.
- The Gaza war death toll has reached 61,722 since October 2023.
- Eight more people die from starvation and malnutrition, bringing total to 235.
- Netanyahu says Palestinians should leave Gaza, sparking global condemnation.
GAZA CITY, Palestine: The Israeli military pounded Gaza City on Wednesday ahead of a planned takeover, killing another 123 people, including 21 aid-seekers, in the past 24 hours, as the war death toll reached 61,722, according to the territory’s health ministry. Hamas, meanwhile, held further talks with Egyptian mediators.
Israel’s offensive on Gaza has killed a total of 61,722 Palestinians and injured 154,525 since October 7, 2023, the health ministry said.
The health ministry added that 1,859 aid-seekers have been killed and more than 13,594 injured since 27 May, when Israel introduced a new aid distribution mechanism through the US-based GHF.
The 24-hour death toll was the worst in a week and added to the massive fatalities from the nearly two-year of Israeli bombardment campaign that has shattered the Palestinian territory, housing more than 2 million Palestinians.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated an idea – also enthusiastically floated by US President Donald Trump – that Palestinians should leave the enclave.
“They’re not being pushed out, they’ll be allowed to exit,” he told Israeli television channel i24NEWS.
“All those who are concerned for the Palestinians and say they want to help the Palestinians should open their gates and stop lecturing us.”
Arab and many world leaders are shocked at the idea of displacing the Gaza population, which Palestinians say would be like another “Nakba” (catastrophe) when hundreds of thousands were forced out during the 1948 war.
Israel intensifies Gaza City bombardment
Israel’s planned re-seizure of Gaza City, which it took in the early days of the war before withdrawing, is probably weeks away, officials say, as cited by Reuters.
That means a ceasefire is still possible, though talks have been floundering and conflict still rages.
Israeli planes and tanks bombed eastern areas of Gaza City heavily, residents said, with many homes destroyed in the Zeitoun and Shejaia neighbourhoods overnight, Reuters reported.
Al-Ahli hospital said 12 people were killed in an airstrike on a home in Zeitoun.
Tanks also destroyed several houses in the east of Khan Younis in south Gaza, too, while in the centre, Israeli gunfire killed nine aid-seekers in two separate incidents, Palestinian medics, cited by Reuters, said. Israel’s military did not comment.
Starvation and malnutrition
Eight more people, including three children, have died of starvation and malnutrition in Gaza in the past 24 hours, the territory’s health ministry said.
That took the total to 235, including 106 children, since the war began.
Israel disputes those malnutrition and hunger figures reported by the health ministry in the Palestinian enclave.
Hamas chief negotiator Khalil Al-Hayya’s meetings with Egyptian officials in Cairo on Wednesday were to focus on stopping the war, delivering aid, and “ending the suffering of our people in Gaza,” Hamas official Taher al-Nono said in a statement.
Ceasefire talks
Egyptian security sources, cited by Reuters, said the talks would also discuss the possibility of a comprehensive ceasefire that would see Hamas relinquish governance in Gaza and concede its weapons.
A Hamas official told Reuters the Palestinian group was open to all ideas if Israel ended the war and pulled out.
However, “Laying down arms before the occupation is dismissed is impossible,” the official, who asked not to be named, told Reuters.
Netanyahu’s plan to expand military control over Gaza, which Israeli sources, cited by Reuters, said could be launched in October, has heightened global outcry over the widespread devastation, displacement, and hunger in the enclave.
Currently, about half of Gaza’s residents live in the Gaza City area.
Calls for unrestricted aid deliveries
Foreign ministers of 24 countries, including Britain, Canada, Australia, France, and Japan, said this week the humanitarian crisis in Gaza had reached “unimaginable levels” and urged Israel to allow unrestricted aid.
Israel denies responsibility for the hunger, accusing Hamas of stealing aid. It says it has taken steps to increase deliveries, including daily combat pauses in some areas and protected routes for aid convoys.
The Israeli military on Wednesday said that nearly 320 trucks entered Gaza through the Kerem Shalom and Zikim crossings.
The military added that a further nearly 320 trucks were collected and distributed by the UN and international organisations in the past 24 hours, along with three tankers of fuel and 97 pallets of air-dropped aid.
The United Nations and Palestinians say aid entering Gaza remains far from sufficient.
The war began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas attacked southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, according to Israeli figures.
Israel’s offensive against Hamas in Gaza since then has killed more than 61,600 Palestinians, according to local health officials.
