At least 63 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes across the Gaza Strip as Israeli troops pushed deeper into Gaza City in their ongoing offensive, medical sources told Al Jazeera.
Footage obtained by Al Jazeera Arabic on Saturday showed Israeli tanks advancing into the Sabra neighbourhood, marking an expansion of the military’s ground operations.
Sabra lies near the besieged Zeitoun district, which has faced heavy bombardment in recent days. A child was reported killed in the latest Israeli strike on Sabra, according to Gaza City’s al-Ahli Hospital.
Earlier, Israeli artillery fire struck tents sheltering displaced families in the Asdaa area northwest of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, killing 16 people, including six children, medical sources confirmed. Throughout the day, at least 22 Palestinians were killed while trying to obtain humanitarian aid.
Among them was a man shot dead by Israeli forces near a distribution point close to the so-called “Morag axis” southeast of Khan Younis, while another was killed near the Israeli-controlled Netzarim Corridor.
Palestinian health authorities reported that eight more people, including two children, died from malnutrition in the past 24 hours, raising the total number of such deaths to 281 since the war began nearly two years ago. Gaza’s Health Ministry said 114 children were among the victims.
“The famine is silently ravaging the bodies of civilians, depriving children of their right to life, and turning tents and hospitals into daily scenes of tragedy,” said Munir al-Bursh, director-general of the ministry.
On Friday, the United Nations formally declared a famine in Gaza — the first such designation in the Middle East — warning that 500,000 people face “catastrophic” hunger. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described it as a “man-made disaster,” accusing Israel of “systematic obstruction” of aid deliveries.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a global hunger monitoring body, said 514,000 people in Gaza — nearly a quarter of the population — are already enduring famine, with the figure expected to rise to 641,000 by the end of September.
Reporting from Deir el-Balah, Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary noted that Palestinians had long been warning of mass starvation. “The UN famine report has been very late, according to Palestinians. They have been witnessing weeks and months of this ongoing starvation,” she said.
Gaza’s Health Ministry welcomed the UN declaration but criticised its timing. “The engineering of starvation is one aspect of genocide, alongside the destruction of the health sector, mass killings, and the policy of exterminating generations,” the ministry said in a statement on Telegram.
Since May 27, Israel has implemented a unilateral aid delivery mechanism known as the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), backed by Israel and the United States. The UN and major relief organisations have rejected the scheme as illegitimate, arguing it violates humanitarian principles of independence and neutrality.
According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, more than 2,076 Palestinians have been killed and over 15,300 wounded while attempting to access aid since the GHF mechanism was introduced.
The ministry said Israel’s overall death toll in Gaza has now surpassed 62,600 since the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, which killed about 1,200 people and saw 251 others taken hostage.
SMS/
