By Harun Nasrullah
London, (The Muslim News): At least 61,369 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip since October 2023, the territory’s Health Ministry said on Saturday, describing the campaign as genocidal.
According to the Health Ministry, hospitals received 39 bodies and treated 491 wounded in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of injuries since the start of the Israeli onslaught to 152,850. The ministry added that “many victims are still trapped under the rubble and on the roads as rescuers are unable to reach them.”
Among the latest victims was a 14-year-old boy killed in central Gaza when an airdropped aid box struck him, marking the fourth such fatality recently. Medical sources told Anadolu Agency that Muhannad Eid was hit in the head in the Al-Nuwairi Hill area, west of the Nuseirat refugee camp, and died after being taken to Al-Awda Hospital. The number of others injured in the incident was not immediately confirmed.
The series of aid drop fatalities highlights the dire situation created by Israel’s blockade, worsening Gaza’s humanitarian crisis since countries began parachuting aid on 16 July. Earlier, a Palestinian succumbed to injuries from an aid box in Gaza City’s Al-Yarmouk area. In recent days, fatalities included a nurse in Al-Zawaida and an 11-year-old boy in Khan Younis, all resulting from aid packages meant to alleviate suffering.
Gaza’s Government Media Office reported at least 23 killed and 124 injured by falling aid boxes since October. It said drops often fell in dangerous locations — areas under Israeli control, evacuated neighbourhoods, or the sea—frequently putting aid seekers at risk and limiting the effectiveness of relief efforts.
Saturday’s attacks left at least seven Palestinians dead and dozens injured as Israeli forces struck multiple locations across the Gaza Strip, hitting civilians and aid seekers.
In the deadliest incident, medical staff at Al-Awda Hospital reported receiving five bodies and treating 33 wounded after an attack on a group north of Nuseirat.
Two more were killed and another wounded when troops opened fire on crowds waiting for aid along Salah al-Din Street, south of Wadi Gaza. Local reports also documented artillery shelling in Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighbourhood and a drone strike near Al-Shaheed Mosque, east of the Al-Bureij refugee camp.
The escalation comes amid mounting international censure. Israel’s campaign has devastated Gaza and pushed it to the brink of famine, drawing scrutiny from the world’s highest courts. In November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity, while the International Court of Justice is hearing a genocide case against Israel.
The Health Ministry reported on Saturday that Israeli attacks over the preceding 24 hours had killed dozens more Palestinians, including several aid seekers and 11 who died from starvation. Since October, 212 people—including 98 children—have succumbed to malnutrition, the majority in recent weeks, as Israel continues to impose severe restrictions on aid despite partially lifting its total blockade in late May.
Assaults on Palestinians by Israeli forces & settlers in West Bank intesifies
Meanwhile, in the occupied West Bank, Israeli forces and illegal Israeli settlers staged coordinated raids and assaults. Wafa News Agency reported that troops stormed Qusra, south of Nablus, arresting two brothers amid heavy gunfire and tear gas. Several Palestinians suffered temporary asphyxiation from tear gas in the Qalandiya refugee camp and Kafr Aqab, north of East Jerusalem, while in Hebron, soldiers forced Old City shopkeepers to close as dozens of settlers marched through the area, which remains under full Israeli control under the 1997 Hebron Protocol.
Elsewhere, settler attacks were reported across the occupied West Bank in a coordinated pattern of intimidation and land seizure. In Khallet al-Nahleh, south of Bethlehem, three Palestinian farmers were assaulted in an area repeatedly targeted for confiscation. In the northern Jordan Valley, settlers roamed through the Bedouin community of Khirbet Samra, attacked a water spring in al-Himma to prevent Palestinians from watering their livestock, and dumped dead animals near residents’ tents.
Further south, in the central West Bank, they set fire to Bedouin tents in Ein Ayoub, west of Ramallah, and assaulted the Kaabneh Bedouin community in al-Khalayel, northeast of the city, issuing a two-week ultimatum to vacate their homes and land.
On Saturday evening, settlers, accompanied by Israeli soldiers, attacked the village of Rammun, east of Ramallah. The head of the village council, Ibrahim al-Khatib, told Wafa that settlers opened fire on homes in the northwestern part of the village and set agricultural land ablaze. Soldiers reportedly protected the settlers, firing stun grenades that intensified the flames.
According to the Colonisation and Wall Resistance Commission, settlers carried out 466 attacks against Palestinians and their property across the West Bank in July 2024 alone, resulting in four deaths and the forced displacement of two Bedouin communities comprising 50 families.
Since the start of the Gaza war, at least 1,013 Palestinians have been killed and more than 7,000 injured in the West Bank by Israeli forces and settlers, the Health Ministry said. In an advisory opinion last July, the International Court of Justice ruled Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory illegal and called for the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
[Photo: Relatives of those killed in the Zikim area – when Israeli forces opened fire on Palestinians waiting for humanitarian aid – mourn as the dead bodies were taken from the al-Shifa Hospital for burial in Gaza City, Gaza on August 10, 2025. 27 people were killed when Israel opened fire on Palestinians waiting for humanitarian aid. Photojournalist: Saeed M. M. T. Jaras/AA]
