By Elham Asaad Buaras
London, (The Muslim News): At least 90 Palestinians were killed and scores more wounded on Wednesday as the Israeli army intensified its attacks across the Gaza Strip, according to local medics. The death toll in Gaza continues to climb, with the Health Ministry reporting that Israel’s ongoing military campaign has now killed at least 57,012 Palestinians and wounded 134,592 since October 2023.
More than 600 Palestinians have been killed in just five weeks while waiting for food parcels at aid distribution points run by the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). At al-Shifa Hospital, the largest medical centre in northern Gaza, officials warn that hundreds of patients are “facing death” due to a fuel shortage caused by Israel’s blockade.
On Wednesday, Israeli forces shelled civilians waiting for aid on Salah Al-Din Street near the Netzarim Corridor in central Gaza, killing 10 people and injuring more than 50, according to a medical source speaking to Anadolu Agency. Al Jazeera reported that at least 111 Palestinians were killed by Israeli air strikes across Gaza throughout the day, including 24 individuals who had gathered in hopes of receiving aid.
In western Rafah, five Palestinians were killed by Israeli army fire while queuing for food. In central Khan Younis, Israeli forces opened fire on crowds waiting near aid trucks, killing ten people and injuring many more. That same day, an Israeli strike targeted a home in the Al-Mawasi area of Khan Younis, killing two Palestinians and injuring others. In another attack, twelve people were killed when Israeli strikes hit three tents used as shelters by displaced families. Shortly after, three more civilians were killed in central Khan Younis following an artillery strike. The bodies of two additional victims were later recovered from the rubble in the eastern part of the city.
Violence also engulfed the central city of Deir al-Balah, where Israeli shelling killed five civilians. Six more people lost their lives near Al-Awda Hospital in central Gaza after another round of shelling. In Gaza City, five Palestinians were killed and others injured in separate air strikes. An Israeli strike on a residential building in the Al-Tuffah neighbourhood left eight people wounded. In the nearby Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood, three displaced civilians were killed when Israeli forces bombed a tent shelter. Eleven more were killed later in the day when an air strike hit the Zeitoun neighbourhood.
Northern Gaza saw more devastation. Four Palestinians were killed and several injured when Israeli fighter jets targeted a home in Jabalia. In the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, eight civilians were killed in an Israeli strike near a school that had been repurposed as a shelter. On Al-Nafaq Street in northern Gaza City, another strike killed three Palestinians.
Tragedy also struck the medical community when Gaza’s Health Ministry confirmed that Dr Marwan Sultan, Director of the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza, was killed along with members of his family after Israeli warplanes bombed his house in Gaza City. Israeli military said it had targeted a Hamas “key terrorist” .
Despite growing international calls for a ceasefire, Israel continues its military campaign, described by critics as genocidal. Seventy percent of the more than 57,000 Palestinians killed since the start of the war are women and children.
On Tuesday, US President Donald Trump claimed that Israel had agreed to the “necessary conditions” for a proposed 60-day ceasefire, urging the Palestinian group Hamas to accept the terms.
Annexation of West Bank
Meanwhile, pressure is mounting on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from within his own government. On Wednesday evening, fourteen ministers from Netanyahu’s Likud Party issued a letter calling for the immediate annexation of the occupied West Bank. Shared publicly by far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, the letter urged the government “to apply sovereignty over Judea and Samaria (West Bank) before the end of the Knesset summer session,” which concludes on July 27.
The ministers claimed that the current “strategic partnership and backing and support of the US and President Donald Trump” presents a favourable opportunity to move forward with annexation. They also warned that recognising settlement blocs while allowing for a Palestinian state on remaining land poses an “existential threat to Israel.”
Signatories to the letter included ministers from the departments of defence, economy, agriculture, energy, communications, transportation, justice, tourism, innovation, culture, diaspora affairs, education, social equality, regional cooperation, and Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana.
The Palestinian Authority swiftly condemned the move, reaffirming that the West Bank is an essential part of any future Palestinian state. It warned that any annexation of occupied territory would signal the final collapse of the two-state solution. Israel has occupied the West Bank since the 1967 Middle East War and has significantly accelerated settlement construction there since the start of its war on Gaza in October 2023. According to Palestinian figures, at least 988 Palestinians have been killed and more than 7,000 injured in the West Bank by Israeli forces and settlers during this period.
[Photo: A Palestinian boy looks at damage at Mustafa Hafez School and the tents around it following the Israeli attacks in Gaza City, Gaza on July 3, 2025. Photojournalist: Khames Alrefi/AA]
