Israeli air strikes have killed at least 40 people across Gaza during the past 24 hours, civil defence officials in the devastated Palestinian territory said.
It comes as Israel’s government prepared to order an expansion of its military offensive.
Nine people were killed when a strike hit a home in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza; another six people died in a separate strike targeting a family home in the northern city of Beit Lahiya; six more died in a strike on a community kitchen in Gaza City, and an overnight attack on the Khan Younis refugee camp killed at least 11 people including three babies up to a year old, the officials said.
Asked to comment on the strikes, an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson said the military “takes feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm”.
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Israel resumed its bombing campaign in Gaza on March 18th, ending a fragile ceasefire. Since then, at least 2,326 people have been killed, bringing the death toll since the war broke out to 52,418, according to the health ministry in Gaza.
Israel has accuses Hamas of using civilians as a human shield, a charge denied by the radical Islamist organisation. It also accuses Hamas of stealing and selling aid to fund its military and other operations.
The war was triggered by a surprise attack launched by Hamas into Israel on October 7th, 2023. Militants killed more than 1,200 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, and abducted 251 people, 58 of whom are still held in Gaza, including 34 whom the Israeli military says are dead.
Aid officials have warned of a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, with famine again looming. On Friday, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) warned that the humanitarian response in Gaza was on the “verge of total collapse”.
“This situation must not – and cannot – be allowed to escalate further,” Pascal Hundt, the ICRC’s deputy director of operations, said in a statement.
An executive director of the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said the world is “breaking the bodies and minds” of the children of Gaza.
Dr Mike Ryan, executive director of the WHO health emergencies programme, said people were “complicit” in what was happening in Gaza if they failed to act.
It comes as aid workers warn of an escalating humanitarian crisis following two months of an aid and food blockade.
Speaking this week, Dr Ryan described what is happening to the people of Gaza as an “abomination”.
“We are breaking the bodies and the minds of the children of Gaza,” Dr Ryan said.
“We are starving the children of Gaza, because if we don’t do something about it, we are complicit in what is happening before our very eyes.
“We are complicit. We are causing this, you, us and everyone who does nothing about it, it’s horrific.
“The children of Gaza should not have to pay the price, as all children have done in the past, for the sins of anyone around them. This just has to stop.
“Any right-thinking human being will stand up and say, this just must stop. As a doctor, as a physician, as someone watching more than 1,000 children without limbs, thousands of children with spinal cord injuries and severe head injuries from which they’ll never recover, thousands and thousands of children with severe psychological distress that they may never recover from.
“We are watching this unfold before our very eyes and we’re not doing anything about it. As a physician, I’m angry. I’m angry with myself that I’m not doing enough.
“I’m angry with everyone here. I’m angry with you. I’m angry with the world.
“This should not be happening. It cannot continue. We have to stop.
“This is an abomination. It’s an abomination. We have to ask ourselves the question, how much blood is enough to satisfy whatever the political objectives are of any regime.”
It comes after Tánaiste Simon Harris called on the international community to act now “to avert further disaster”.
“No humanitarian or commercial supplies have entered Gaza in over eight weeks as a result of the Israeli blockade. Children are starving. Hospitals are running out of basic painkillers,” he said in a statement.
“The World Food Programme has said that its food stocks are now depleted. Life-saving aid is available and urgently needed, but trucks cannot cross into Gaza.
“It is unconscionable that the current suffering is continuing. This is the longest ban on aid entering Gaza since the start of the war.
“The situation is unacceptable. In the circumstances, obstructing life-saving aid is a violation of Israel’s international obligations.
“Ireland calls on Israel to immediately lift the blockade and allow for unimpeded access of humanitarian aid.” - The Guardian and agencies
