By Nadine Osman
London, (The Muslim News): At least 105 Palestinians, including seven people seeking humanitarian aid, have been killed and 530 others wounded in Israeli attacks across Gaza in the past 24 hours, according to the territory’s Health Ministry. Since October 2023, Israel’s ongoing military campaign has killed at least 57,575 Palestinians and injured more than 136,800.
The past day alone has seen a surge in deadly airstrikes across the besieged enclave. Medical sources report that at least 44 people, including children, were killed on Wednesday as Israeli forces intensified their bombardment of residential areas.
In Gaza City, Israeli strikes flattened two homes in the densely populated Al-Shati refugee camp, killing 14 people — five of them children — and injuring more than 30 others. Elsewhere in the city’s Tel al-Hawa neighbourhood, one Palestinian was killed and five more injured in an attack targeting a group of civilians.
Central Gaza also came under heavy fire, with strikes reported in the Bureij and Nuseirat refugee camps as well as in Deir al-Balah. At least four people were killed, including a father and his son, and several others injured when Israeli missiles hit three family homes.
In the south, Khan Younis witnessed another deadly assault as a strike targeted tents sheltering displaced families near the Al-Atar junction, killing 10 people, including children. Additional attacks in the nearby Al-Namsawi area killed two more and injured several others. A separate strike on a civilian vehicle in the same area killed four Palestinians — two of them children.
Meanwhile, in Rafah, Israeli army fire hit a crowd waiting at a joint U.S.-Israeli food distribution point, killing six and wounding more than 50, according to medical personnel.
Further fatalities were reported in the Al-Tuffah neighbourhood of Gaza City, as well as in Nuseirat and the al-Mawasi area of Khan Younis.
Mounting civilian toll and crumbling health system
Since the beginning of the war, more than 1,500 medical workers have been killed in Gaza, and emergency responders continue to be among those targeted as they attempt to rescue victims. “The relentless bombardment is not only destroying homes but also striking aid distribution sites, schools and even cafés,” said one medical worker. “Nowhere is safe.”
Adding to the growing alarm, a residential apartment near Shuhada Al-Shati School in western Gaza City was hit on Wednesday afternoon, killing three Palestinians, including an infant.
Children facing catastrophic mortality rates
A new mortality survey released by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) on Wednesday has revealed a tenfold increase in death rates among children under the age of five in Gaza since the war began.
The retrospective study, carried out by MSF’s epidemiological unit, Epicentre, surveyed 2,523 people — including MSF staff and their families — between October 2023 and March 2025. The findings are stark: the overall mortality rate in the surveyed group was five times higher than pre-war levels, and among newborns under one month, it was six times higher.
“Forty-eight percent of those who died from blast injuries in our colleagues’ households were children, and 40 percent were under ten,” said Amande Bazerolle, deputy manager of MSF’s emergency department. “The children of Gaza are being decimated.”
More than 2% of those surveyed have died since October 7, and 7% sustained injuries. Three-quarters of the deaths were caused by war-related injuries, primarily from blasts. Even among this group — which had better-than-average access to medical care — 20% reported a household member injured by gunfire or explosions.
MSF also highlighted the breakdown of healthcare for those with chronic illnesses, with two-thirds experiencing serious interruptions in treatment. “This is the result of the Israeli campaign to systematically destroy the health system and the means of survival of the whole population,” MSF said in a statement.
The organisation is calling for an end to what it described as a “genocidal campaign”, the immediate lifting of the blockade on food, fuel and medical supplies, and urgent medical evacuations — particularly for children.
Aid inadequate as needs soar
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned that continued Israeli bombardment is pushing casualty figures higher, displacing civilians, and devastating critical infrastructure.
While 11 World Health Organisation (WHO) trucks carrying surgical and other medical supplies entered Gaza on Tuesday, OCHA stressed this was “a fraction of what is needed.” The UN agency called for the opening of all border crossings to enable large-scale and sustained aid delivery.
“Partners working in health are providing services to those injured during these mass casualty incidents, despite very limited resources,” OCHA said.
[Photo: Palestinian families struggle to live under harsh conditions who take shelter in tents in the al-Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City amid Israeli attacks in Gaza on July 10, 2025.
Photojournalist: Ahmed Jihad Ibrahim Al-arini/AA]
