By Nadine Osman
London, (The Muslim News): The death toll in Gaza has climbed past 60,000 as Israel’s military campaign, described by Palestinian authorities as genocidal, continues unabated into its 22nd month. According to the Gaza Health Ministry, at least 60,034 Palestinians have been killed since the assault began in October 2023, with more than 145,870 others wounded.
In the past 24 hours alone, 113 bodies have been recovered and 637 people injured, the ministry reported on Tuesday. “Many victims are still trapped under the rubble and on the roads as rescuers are unable to reach them,” the statement said, adding that women and children comprise more than 47% of those killed — 9,782 women and 18,592 children.
The pursuit of humanitarian aid has become increasingly deadly. In a single day, 22 Palestinians were killed and more than 199 injured while trying to access aid, bringing the number of Palestinians killed while seeking humanitarian assistance to 1,179, with nearly 8,000 injured, since May 27.
In one of the most harrowing incidents, 13 civilians were killed and dozens injured in an Israeli strike on people waiting for food aid near a distribution centre along the Netzarim Corridor in central Gaza, medical sources told Anadolu Agency. Another five were killed in an airstrike on a family home in Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighbourhood. A further death was reported near an aid point in Rafah, southern Gaza.
The Nuseirat refugee camp also came under attack, with at least 30 killed, including 14 women and 12 children. Reports from WAFA, the official Palestinian news agency, documented further strikes on aid seekers in Khan Younis and Beit Lahia, where seven civilians were killed and dozens more injured.
Witnesses spoke of an unborn child’s body being recovered after an explosion blew it from its mother’s womb.
In Gaza City, an airstrike on an apartment near Haidar Roundabout killed a man and his wife, while many others were wounded. The danger around the few humanitarian distribution points remains high, with Palestinians risking their lives just to access basic food supplies.
“There’s a crowd of people here who have been injured and shot at as they were trying to get food,” said one resident. “We do not see any aid trucks—whatever trucks are coming are not making it halfway to the Gaza Strip. People are desperate; they’re jumping on trucks, taking whatever they can. Their children are starving. They don’t have time to wait for official distribution points.”
Although 73 aid trucks entered Gaza on Monday, aid agencies stress this is insufficient. At least 600 trucks are needed each day to avert famine.
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) echoed growing alarm over Gaza’s humanitarian catastrophe. Emergency director Ross Smith said the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report was “not a warning. This is a call to action. This is unlike anything we have seen in this century.”
He warned that Gaza had surpassed famine thresholds for food consumption and acute malnutrition. “Mounting evidence shows that widespread starvation, malnutrition, and disease are driving a rise in hunger-related deaths,” the IPC alert stated. “We shouldn’t wait for a hypothetical famine declaration to do everything we possibly can to prevent the suffering,” added WFP’s Jean-Martin Bauer.
Meanwhile, Gaza’s youth sector has been hit hard. In July alone, 39 athletes, scouts, and young people were killed, bringing the total from sports and scouting movements killed since the conflict began to over 656.
Among the victims were footballers Ismail Abu Dan and Sami Al-Helou; boxer Ahmad Bakhit; handball player Mohammad Omar Abdullah Abu Abdu; and Iman Mohammad Harz of the Peace Scouts and Guides Group. One of the most devastating losses was Asaad Abu Shouqa, Vice President of the Palestinian Karate Federation, killed while displaced after losing his home, daughter, and grandchildren.
“These are not just numbers,” a WAFA commentary stated. “They are faces that once lit up Gaza’s stadiums with energy, dreams, and hope… How can a pure dream like the dream of playing be slaughtered so brutally?”
Amid the devastation, Israel’s far-right Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich, reignited calls for the reoccupation and resettlement of Gaza. “We are closer than ever to rebuilding Gush Katif,” he declared at a conference in Yad Binyamin, referring to the bloc of 21 settlements dismantled in Israel’s 2005 disengagement.
“Where there are no settlements, there is no army; and where there is no army, there is no security,” Smotrich said, asserting that Gaza is “an inseparable part of the Land of Israel.”
His comments follow reports in Haaretz that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu presented a plan to Israel’s Security Cabinet for the staged reoccupation of parts of Gaza. The plan is seen as an attempt to placate far-right coalition partners threatening to leave the government over the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza.
International criticism of Israel’s conduct continues to mount. On Monday, European Commissioner for the Mediterranean Dubravka Šuica confirmed that Israel has breached Article 2 of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, which mandates respect for human rights and democratic principles as a core condition of cooperation.
“There was a review of Article 2… and it was evident that they breached the agreement,” she told reporters after meeting UN Secretary-General António Guterres in New York. “But member states were not aligned to suspend it.”
While EU countries are united on the need for humanitarian aid, Šuica acknowledged they remain divided on political consequences—including sanctions against violent, illegal Israeli settlers.
With Gaza descending deeper into humanitarian crisis, UN officials continue to stress that the time for diplomacy and cautious rhetoric has passed. “Urgent action is needed now,” said WFP’s Ross Smith. “This is a moment for humanity to show it still has a conscience.”
[Photo: Palestinians carrying pots and containers gather as a charity distributes food in Az-Zawayda, Deir al-Balah, Gaza, where access to food remains difficult due to Israel’s ongoing blockade and attacks, on July 29, 2025. Photojournalist: Hassan Jedi/AA]
