Key Points
- Humanitarian crisis deepens amid mass displacement
- Gaza death toll reaches 65,502
- Palestinian envoy calls US veto in Security Council ‘key challenge’
- Italians on Gaza flotilla reject proposal to drop aid in Cyprus
Gaza City: At least 38 people have been killed by Israel’s army throughout the besieged Gaza Strip since Thursday morning.
Several people were still trapped under the rubble of collapsed buildings as the Israeli army continued to attack different parts of Gaza, according to medics.
The Israeli army shelled a house in the Al-Zawayda town of central Gaza, killing 11 people, including women and children, and injuring nine others.
Several civilians are still trapped under the rubble. In Khan Younis, four people, two of them women, were killed and 13 others injured in an Israeli air strike on a house near the Jordanian Field Hospital in southern Gaza.
Conditions deteriorating in Gaza
According to the Gaza media office, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians across Gaza are now forcibly displaced again by Israel, and the central and southern governorates, particularly the al-Mawasi area, are full.
“There are no longer any empty or safe spaces to absorb more displaced people,” the office said in a statement, adding that makeshift tents have sprung up alongside unsafe roads “in conditions that lack the minimum requirements of a dignified life”.
The press office said the Israeli military continues to prevent donated tents from getting inside Gaza, so the few remaining in marketplaces are extremely expensive, leaving many people without any sort of shelter from worsening weather.
This is a result of a “systematic policy” by Israel that is backed by the United States, it said.
Gaza death toll now stands at 65,502
At least 65,502 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip since October 2023, the Health Ministry said on Thursday.
A ministry statement said that 83 bodies were brought to hospitals in the last 24 hours, while 216 people were injured, taking the number of injuries to 167,376 in the Israeli onslaught.
“Many victims are still trapped under the rubble and on the roads as rescuers are unable to reach them,” it added.
The Israeli army resumed its attacks on the Gaza Strip on March 18 and has since killed 12,939 people and injured 55,335 others, shattering a ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement that took hold in January.
Palestinian envoy calls US veto in Security Council ‘key challenge’
Palestinian Ambassador to Russia Abdel Hafiz Nofal has said that the primary challenge on the international agenda is persuading the US to cease using its veto against the Palestinian people.
During a news conference in Moscow, Nofal responded to an Anadolu correspondent by pointing out that the US is the only permanent member of the UN Security Council that has not recognised a Palestinian state.
“Now we face one main challenge—getting the US to stop using its veto against the Palestinian people so that the US becomes an objective mediator. This is our main challenge now. The four major powers out of five recognise the state of Palestine, with only the US remaining to do so,” he said.
Italians on Gaza flotilla reject proposal to drop aid in Cyprus
Meanwhile, the Italian delegation of the international flotilla that has come under drone attack while trying to deliver aid to Gaza said it rejected a proposal by the Italian government that it should drop its cargo in Cyprus.
“Our mission stays true to its original goal of breaking (Israel’s) illegal siege and delivering humanitarian aid to the besieged population of Gaza..,” the Italian group on the Global Sumud Flotilla said in a statement.
European soccer body UEFA moves toward vote to suspend Israel
European football body UEFA is moving toward a vote to suspend its member federation Israel over the war in Gaza, AP reported.
A majority of UEFA’s 20-member executive committee is expected to support any vote in favour of suspending Israeli teams from international play. The move comes two weeks before the Israeli men’s team is due to resume its 2026 World Cup qualifying group with games in Norway and Italy.
