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The director of Gaza’s largest medical facility revealed on Tuesday that 21 children have died from malnutrition and starvation within just three days, highlighting the deepening humanitarian crisis in the territory as Israeli military operations continue unabated.
Mohammed Abu Salmiya, head of Al-Shifa Medical Complex, said the deaths occurred across several hospitals in the Gaza Strip, where more than two million residents are enduring extreme shortages of food, water, and other essentials. Many have died while attempting to access limited humanitarian aid at the few remaining distribution centres.
This grim announcement followed reports from Gaza’s civil defence agency that 15 people were killed in recent Israeli air strikes. The World Health Organisation (WHO) also accused Israeli forces of targeting its facilities and staff, intensifying global condemnation of the military campaign.
According to civil defence spokesperson Mahmud Bassal, one of the deadliest attacks occurred at Al-Shati refugee camp, west of Gaza City, where at least 13 people were killed and over 50 others wounded. The camp shelters thousands of displaced individuals living in tents after being uprooted multiple times during the 21-month conflict.
Raed Bakr, a resident of the camp, described the harrowing moment a strike tore through his shelter in the early hours of Tuesday. “I felt like I was in a nightmare. Fire, dust, smoke, and body parts flying through the air. The children were screaming,” said Bakr, whose wife was killed last year.
The death toll from Israel’s military offensive has now surpassed 59,000, according to health authorities in the Hamas-run enclave. Meanwhile, conditions for those who survive continue to deteriorate.
Latin Patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Catholic Church’s top cleric in the Holy Land, visited Gaza and declared the humanitarian situation “morally unacceptable.” He condemned the suffering of civilians, particularly as many queue in the scorching sun for basic meals.
His comments came just days after an Israeli airstrike on Gaza’s only Catholic church killed three people. Pope Leo XIV responded by denouncing the “barbarity” of the war and Israel’s indiscriminate use of force.
The WHO also issued a strong rebuke of Israeli military conduct, with its director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus accusing troops of storming the agency’s staff residence. He said female staff and children were forced out while male staff were reportedly handcuffed, stripped, and interrogated at gunpoint.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned that “the last lifelines keeping people alive are collapsing” in Gaza, as both children and adults show increasing signs of severe malnutrition.
Israeli ground forces have now expanded their bombardments into Deir el-Balah, in central Gaza, after heavy shelling prompted warnings for civilians to evacuate. Bassal confirmed two deaths in that area. The Israeli military later claimed it was responding to gunfire from the vicinity and insisted it would continue to act against threats to national security.
The UN’s humanitarian agency OCHA estimated that up to 80,000 people were living in Deir el-Balah, previously considered one of the few relatively safe zones. Roughly 30,000 of them reside in displacement shelters.
New footage from central Gaza showed plumes of smoke rising over the city as Israeli drones hovered above. OCHA reported that nearly 88 percent of Gaza is now either under evacuation orders or part of militarised zones, leaving the 2.4 million-strong population with limited space for refuge.
