Israeli strikes and gunfire in the Gaza Strip killed at least 46 Palestinians over Tuesday night and into Wednesday, most of them among crowds seeking food, Gaza health officials have said.
Israel has continued to carry out daily strikes as its military offensive and blockade have led to the “worst-case scenario of famine” in the territory of two million Palestinians, according to an international authority on hunger crises.
Ceasefire talks to end the nearly 22-month war appeared to have stalled again last week. Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff is expected to travel to Israel on Thursday. A US official said Mr Witkoff would meet Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu.
More than 30 people were killed while seeking humanitarian aid, according to hospitals that received the bodies and treated dozens of wounded people.
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Another seven, including one child, died of malnutrition-related causes, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment on any of the strikes. It says it only targets militants and it blames civilian deaths on Hamas, because the group’s militants operate in densely populated areas.
Shifa Hospital in Gaza City said it received 12 people who were killed on Tuesday night when Israeli forces opened fire towards crowds awaiting aid trucks coming from the Zikim crossing in northern Gaza.
Thirteen others were killed in strikes in the urban Jabaliya refugee camp and the northern towns of Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun, the hospital said.
In the southern city of Khan Younis, Nasser Hospital said it received the bodies of 16 people, who it says were killed on Tuesday evening while waiting for aid trucks close to the newly built Morag corridor, which the Israeli military carved out between Khan Younis and the southernmost city of Rafah.
The hospital received another body – a man killed in a strike on a tent in Khan Younis, it said.
The Awda Hospital in the urban Nuseirat refugee camp said it received the bodies of four Palestinians, who it says were killed on Wednesday by Israeli fire close to an aid distribution site run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) in the Netzarim corridor area, south of the Wadi Gaza.
Under heavy international pressure, Israel announced a series of measures over the weekend to facilitate the entry of more international aid to Gaza, but aid workers say much more is needed.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) – the leading world authority on hunger crises – has stopped short of declaring famine in Gaza, but it said on Tuesday that the situation had dramatically worsened and it warned of “widespread death” without immediate action.
Cogat, the Israeli military body that facilitates the entry of aid, said more than 220 trucks entered Gaza on Tuesday. That is far below the 500 to 600 trucks a day that United Nations agencies say are needed, and which entered during a six-week ceasefire earlier this year.
The UN is still struggling to deliver the aid that does enter, with most trucks unloaded by crowds in zones controlled by the Israeli military. The alternative aid system run by the Israeli-backed GHF has also been marred by violence.
More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed while seeking aid since May, most near sites run by the GHF, according to witnesses, local health officials and the UN human rights office.
The Israeli military says it has only fired warning shots at people who approach its forces, and the GHF says its armed contractors have only used pepper spray or fired warning shots to prevent deadly crowding.
International airdrops of aid have also resumed, but many of the parcels have landed in areas that Palestinians have been told to evacuate while others have plunged into the Mediterranean Sea, forcing people to swim out to retrieve drenched bags of flour.
By Wednesday afternoon, the health ministry said a total of 89 children had died of malnutrition since the war began in Gaza. The ministry said 65 Palestinian adults have also died of malnutrition-related causes across Gaza since late June, when it started counting deaths among adults.
Israel denies there is any starvation in Gaza and says the focus on hunger undermines ceasefire efforts.
Hamas started the war with its attack on southern Israel on October 7th, 2023, in which militants killed about 1,200 people and abducted 251 others. They still hold 50 hostages, including about 20 believed to be alive. Most of the rest were released in ceasefires or other deals.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 60,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry. Its count does not distinguish between militants and civilians.
The ministry operates under the Hamas government. The UN and other international organisations see it as the most reliable source of data on casualties.
Meanwhile, Mr Netanyahu and the US president criticised British prime minister Keir Starmer’s pledge to recognise the state of Palestine if Israel did not commit to ending its war in Gaza. They said such a move would reward Hamas.
On Tuesday Mr Starmer said British recognition for Palestine would come if Israel did not “take substantive steps to end the appalling situation in Gaza”, including agreeing to a ceasefire, committing to a pathway to peace that revived the prospect of a two-state solution and making clear there would be no annexations in the West Bank.
That prompted an angry response from Israel.
“Starmer rewards Hamas’s monstrous terrorism & punishes its victims,” Mr Netanyahu said in a statement posted on X on Tuesday. “A Jihadist state on Israel’s border today will threaten Britain tomorrow.”
Asked by journalists about the British move, Mr Trump said: “You’re rewarding Hamas if you do that.”
On Wednesday, an Israeli minister said Israel could threaten to annex parts of Gaza to increase pressure on Hamas.
Security cabinet member Zeev Elkin told public broadcaster Kan that Israel may give the group an ultimatum to reach a deal before further expanding its military actions.
“The most painful thing for our enemy is losing lands,” he said. “A clarification to Hamas that the moment they play games with us they will lose land that they will never get back would be a significant pressure tool.” – Agencies.
