Israel has launched substantial air raids and a ground operation in Gaza, targeting Deir al-Balah, the main hub for humanitarian efforts in the devastated Palestinian territory, amid urgent warnings of widening starvation in the coastal strip.
The latest assault comes a day after the highest death toll in 21 months inflicted by the Israeli military on desperate Palestinians seeking food aid, with at least 85 killed on Sunday in what has become an almost daily slaughter.
Witnesses described massive airstrikes overnight in Deir al-Balah, the last remaining area of Gaza that has not suffered significant war damage and which is packed with Palestinians displaced from elsewhere in Gaza.
Tank shelling in the area hit houses and mosques, killing at least three Palestinians and wounding several others, local medics said, while the World Health Organization said its buildings had been attacked.
In its daily update, Gaza’s health ministry said at least 130 Palestinians had been killed and more than 1,000 wounded by Israeli gunfire and military strikes across the territory in the past 24 hours, one of the highest such totals in recent weeks.
Early on Tuesday health authorities said at least 12 Palestinians were killed and dozens injured when Israeli tanks fired on tents housing displaced people at al-Shati camp in western Gaza City. There was no immediate comment from Israel.
On Monday the UK and 27 other countries signed a sharply critical letter condemning the Israeli military’s killing of hundreds of Palestinians seeking food in recent weeks and calling for an immediate end to the conflict.
“It is horrifying that over 800 Palestinians have been killed while seeking aid. The Israeli government’s denial of essential humanitarian assistance to the civilian population is unacceptable. Israel must comply with its obligations under international humanitarian law,” the letter said.
Israeli sources had said the reason the army had previously stayed out of Deir al-Balah was that they suspected Hamas might be holding hostages there. At least 20 of the remaining 50 hostages in captivity in Gaza are believed to remain alive.
Israel launched its renewed assault despite reports in the Hebrew media that Israeli officials believed Hamas was close to agreeing to a ceasefire.
The latest Israeli assault followed forced evacuation orders for between 50,000 and 80,000 people in Deir al-Balah, in the centre of the Gaza Strip, leaving almost 88% of the territory under such orders.
“With this latest order, the area of Gaza under displacement orders or within Israeli-militarised zones has risen to 87.8%, leaving 2.1 million civilians squeezed into a fragmented 12% of the strip, where essential services have collapsed,” the UN said in a statement released by its Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha).
With the growing threat of widespread starvation, Ocha emphasised the importance of Deir al-Balah for what remained of the struggling international aid effort. Warehouses, health clinics and a key desalination plant serving southern Gaza are located there. “Any damage to this infrastructure will have life-threatening consequences,” the agency added.
Amid increasing concern over the potential impact of the latest assaults, Ocha said the agency’s local head in Gaza, Jonathan Whittall, had decided to remain in Deir al-Balah.
In a series of posts on X, Whittall said the territory was witnessing “conditions of death” and that “This death and suffering is preventable. And if it’s preventable, but still happening, then that suggests to me that it’s intentional.”
Unrwa, the UN refugee agency dedicated to Palestinians, said on X it was receiving desperate messages from Gaza warning of starvation, including from its own staff, as food prices have soared.
“Meanwhile, just outside Gaza, stockpiled in warehouses, UNRWA has enough food for the entire population for over three months. Lift the siege and let aid in safely and at scale,” it said.
The Israeli military said it had not entered the districts of Deir al-Balah subject to the evacuation order during the current conflict and that it was continuing “to operate with great force to destroy the enemy’s capabilities and terrorist infrastructure in the area”.
Deep concern over the humanitarian situation in Gaza was underlined by reports from doctors that more than a dozen Palestinians had died from hunger in the past 24 hours.
“Nineteen people, including children, have died of hunger,” Khalil al-Daqran, a spokesperson for al-Aqsa hospital in Deir al-Balah told the BBC. “Hospitals can no longer provide food for patients or staff, many of whom are physically unable to continue working due to extreme hunger.
“Hospitals cannot provide a single bottle of milk to children suffering from hunger, because all baby formula has run out from the market.”
In southern Gaza, the health ministry said an Israeli undercover unit had on Monday detained Marwan Al-Hams, head of Gaza’s field hospitals, in a raid that killed a local journalist and wounded another outside a field medical facility run by the International Committee of the Red Cross.
An ICRC spokesperson said the ICRC had treated patients injured in the incident, but did not comment further on their status. It said it was “very concerned about the safety and security” around the field hospital.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
According to the World Food Programme, the killing of dozens of Palestinians who had gathered to get flour on Sunday came after a convoy of 25 trucks carrying food assistance crossed into Gaza.
“Shortly after passing the final checkpoint … the convoy encountered large crowds of civilians anxiously waiting to access desperately needed food supplies,” the agency said. “As the convoy approached, the surrounding crowd came under fire from Israeli tanks, snipers and other gunfire.
Israel’s military acknowledged the shooting but said it had fired “warning shots to remove an immediate threat posed to the troops”. It said initial findings suggested the reported casualty figures were inflated, and that it “certainly does not intentionally target humanitarian aid trucks”.
The latest Israeli attacks in Gaza took place as a security official for Yemen’s Houthi group said Israel had struck Hodeidah port on Monday, destroying a dock that had been rebuilt after it was damaged in earlier attacks.
“The bombing destroyed the port’s dock, which had been rebuilt following previous strikes,” the official told Agence France-Presse, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
