Closing summary
It’s nearly 5pm in Gaza City and Tel Aviv. Here’s the latest:
The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said at least 61 people were killed and 308 injured in Israeli attacks over the past 24 hours. It said victims remained under rubble and in the streets, with crews unable to reach them.
The Wafa news agency reported that at least nine civilians were killed in separate Israeli strikes across Gaza on Saturday.
At least 16 people were killed and 111 injured while attempting to collect aid in the past 24 hours, the ministry said, bringing the total number of what it describes as “aid victims” to 2,076 killed and more than 15,308 injured since the war began.
Eight people, including two children, died of starvation in Gaza hospitals in the past day, according to health officials. That brings the total number of recorded deaths from hunger to 281, of whom 114 were children.
Strikes also targeted tents sheltering displaced people in Khan Younis, home to hundreds of thousands who had fled elsewhere in Gaza. More than half the victims were women and children, the AP reported.
In northern Gaza, Israeli gunfire killed at least five people waiting for aid near the Zikim crossing, where UN and other agencies’ convoys enter the strip, health officials at Sheikh Radwan field hospital told AP.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of the World Health Organisation, urged more medical evacuations, warning that 15,600 patients, including 3,800 children, need specialised care.
Philippe Lazzarini, head of UNRWA, said famine in Gaza is worsening “by the hour” and urged Israel to let aid in at scale. UNRWA said it has warehouses full of food, medicines and hygiene supplies in Jordan and Egypt but has been blocked from bringing them into Gaza.
In the occupied West Bank, Israeli forces continued a large-scale assault on the village of al-Mughayyir near Ramallah. Marzouq Abu Naim, deputy head of the village council, told Wafa that troops had stormed more than 30 homes, destroyed property, and smashed or seized dozens of vehicles.
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said its clinics around Gaza City are treating large numbers of people as bombardments force further displacement. “Strikes are forcing people, including MSF staff, to flee their homes once again, and we are seeing displacement across Gaza City,” the group said.
Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said he spoke by phone with his French, German and British counterparts to prevent a vote on UN sanctions over Tehran’s nuclear programme, ahead of a European deadline.
Updated
A senior health official in Gaza has warned of severe overcrowding in a children’s malnutrition clinic as famine in the enclave reaches what he described as a “critical phase”.
Ahmed al-Farra, director of the Tahrir hospital for children and maternity at the Nasser medical complex in Khan Younis, appeared in a video released by the health ministry showing crowded scenes inside the clinic.
In a translation carried by Anadolu news agency, al-Farra said the clinic, which operates only two days a week, is now receiving “three to four times” the expected number of patients.
“Each day the clinic is open, no fewer than 52 new cases are diagnosed,” he said.
Al-Farra highlighted the case of 18-month-old Shahd Mohammed Zaarab, who weighs just 5.8kg compared to the normal 11–12kg for her age. He said the child was suffering from acute malnutrition, having lost both fat and muscle mass.
“Her condition is like a skeleton covered with skin,” he said.
Earlier we reported that eight people died of starvation in Gaza in the past 24 hours, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
