By Nadine Osman
London, (The Muslim News): At least 81 Palestinians, including 30 aid seekers, were killed in Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, according to the enclave’s Health Ministry. The ministry also reported three additional deaths from starvation, bringing the number of famine-related fatalities since October 2023 to 269, including 112 children.
The overall reported toll of Israel’s operations in Gaza has now reached at least 62,122 killed and more than 156,700 wounded since October 2023. The campaign has also contributed to a worsening humanitarian situation, with famine affecting parts of the enclave.
The day’s bloodshed followed a pattern of relentless strikes across Gaza City and beyond. In northern Gaza, an Israeli strike on a house in Jabalia al-Nazla killed three people and injured 10 others. In Gaza City’s Shati refugee camp, five members of a family were killed when their tent sheltering displaced Palestinians was hit. Another strike near the Islamic University of Gaza killed four civilians, including children, while two people were killed in the eastern Tuffah neighbourhood after the military targeted a civilian gathering.
In the southern Sabra neighbourhood, Israeli shelling resulted in the deaths of two children, while four more Palestinians from a single family died when a strike hit a building housing displaced people in the Zeitoun district, setting the structure on fire. Residents reported hearing repeated explosions across Gaza City, where the Israeli army has been conducting operations in Zeitoun and Sabra for ten consecutive days. The campaign, launched on August 11, has involved home demolitions, gunfire, booby-trapped devices, and forced displacement.
Israel’s public broadcaster KAN confirmed that Defence Minister Israel Katz had approved a plan to occupy Gaza City. Later in the day, Israeli military spokesman Effie Defrin announced the launch of a “new phase” of the offensive, codenamed Operation Gideon’s Chariots. He said forces had seized control of Gaza City’s outskirts and now maintained “75 percent operational control” of the Strip. Defrin added that 60,000 new reservists had been called up, while the terms of 20,000 currently serving soldiers were being extended. “Hamas today is not the same Hamas that existed before the operation,” he claimed.
In central Gaza, eight Palestinians were killed by Israeli gunfire near an aid distribution point in the Nuseirat refugee camp, according to Al-Awda hospital. The same camp saw further bloodshed as warplanes targeted several homes, killing six people, including a child. Additional strikes killed two, including a child, near the Suwairha cemetery, while another person was killed in a separate attack on a house close to a bakery.
In the south, Israeli attacks devastated Khan Younis and the coastal al-Mawasi area. A woman and her two children, one a toddler, were killed in a strike on their home in a refugee camp. Airstrikes on tents sheltering displaced families in al-Mawasi killed nine Palestinians, while another attack on a nearby tent injured 12 more.
Inside Israel, the far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir sought to capitalise on the destruction. He forced Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons to watch images of devastation in Gaza, declaring, “That’s what the prisoners need to see every day… I hope they all see their houses here.”
Meanwhile, the fallout of Israel’s actions extended to the occupied West Bank. Britain condemned the approval of the controversial E1 settlement plan, which foresees the construction of thousands of new settler homes in Ma’ale Adumim and surrounding areas east of Jerusalem. Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, labelled the plan “a flagrant breach of international law” that, if implemented, would divide the West Bank into two disconnected parts, isolate East Jerusalem, and critically undermine the two-state solution. The settlements were authorised last week by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who approved a total of 6,916 new units.
[Photo: A Palestinian girl mourns the loss of her family members, including children, who were killed in Israeli attacks in the Morag region, as the dead bodies were taken from the Nasser Hospital for burial in Khan Yunis, Gaza on August 21, 2025. Photojournalist: Abdallah F.s. Alattar/AA]
