By Harun Nasrullah
London, (The Muslim News): Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip have claimed the lives of at least 83 Palestinians Tuesday, including 54 who were waiting for humanitarian aid, health officials report. At the same time, eight more Palestinians, including a child, have died from starvation caused by Israel’s ongoing siege over the past 24 hours in the territory.
On Monday, Israel allowed only 95 trucks of aid into Gaza — just 15 percent of the minimum 600 trucks needed daily to meet the population’s basic needs—according to Gaza’s Government Media Office. This tight control over supplies has intensified the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
Since October 2023, Israel’s military operations on Gaza have killed at least 61,020 Palestinians and wounded 150,671.
The Health Ministry reported that 87 bodies arrived at hospitals in the last 24 hours, with 644 people injured, bringing total injured from the ongoing Israeli offensive to 150,671.
Among those who died, eight succumbed to starvation and malnutrition, increasing the hunger-related death toll since October 2023 to 188, including 94 children.
A medical source described how 20 people were killed and dozens injured by Israeli gunfire while waiting for aid delivery in the Zikim area, west of Beit Lahia in northern Gaza. Five others died in Israeli strikes targeting tents housing displaced families in the al-Mawasi area of Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
Three Palestinians lost their lives, and several were wounded by Israeli fire while waiting near an aid distribution point south of Khan Younis. The Israeli army also shelled a mourning tent in western Khan Younis, killing three people, medical sources cited by Anadolu reported.
In central Gaza, two Palestinians—including a woman were killed and others wounded in an Israeli attack west of Nuseirat refugee camp.
Six Palestinians waiting for humanitarian aid were killed in an Israeli strike targeting their gathering near a distribution center at the Netzarim Corridor in central Gaza.
In Gaza City, four Palestinians were killed and others wounded in two Israeli airstrikes on residential apartments. Injuries were also reported in strikes targeting two homes in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood.
Another Israeli strike killed six more people and injured several others in northwestern Gaza City.
Meanwhile, the Health Ministry reported 95 new cases of the rare Guillain-Barré syndrome, including 45 children.
Rejecting international calls for a ceasefire, Israel’s military offensive, ongoing since October 7, 2023, has systematically targeted civilians, killing more than 61,000 Palestinians—nearly half of whom are women and children. Israel’s campaign has devastated Gaza and pushed the enclave to the brink of famine through its blockade and destruction of vital infrastructure.
Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice over its war on the enclave.
On Tuesday, Hamas said its fighters killed and injured several Israeli soldiers in an ambush in southern Gaza.
The group’s armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, stated on Telegram that fighters detonated a powerful barrel bomb beneath an Israeli armored personnel carrier in al-Zanna, northeast of Khan Younis, killing and injuring soldiers onboard. An Israeli helicopter was observed landing at the site for evacuation.
Hamas also shelled two Israeli army command-and-control sites in the eastern Tuffah neighborhood of Gaza City and the Morag axis south of Khan Younis with heavy-caliber mortar shells.
Israel had no immediate comment on the Hamas statement.
In a striking admission, Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of J Street, a US-based pro-Israel advocacy group, acknowledged Israel’s violations of the international genocide convention in Gaza.
“I have … been persuaded rationally by legal and scholarly arguments that international courts will one day find that Israel has broken the international genocide convention,” Ben-Ami wrote Sunday in a blog post.
He described the realization as deeply personal, asking: “How can it be that Israel – the state founded by a people who experienced genocide – could itself be committing this most heinous of crimes?”
Ben-Ami said some in the Jewish community find it “inconceivable,” and consider it an “outrage” even to raise the question.
He cited specific Israeli practices, including denying food and necessities of life to civilians, soldiers shooting at civilians seeking food, and destroying Gaza’s entire infrastructure, as actions that cannot be justified.
He said Israel is “forcing the population into intolerably small areas” and “hoping to create the conditions under which an entire population will be forcibly displaced.”
“Until now, I have tried to deflect and defend when challenged to call this genocide,” said Ben-Ami, acknowledging his previous stance.
Despite personal reluctance to use the term “genocide” because of family history, he added: “I cannot and will not argue any more against those using the term. I simply won’t defend the indefensible.”
On Tuesday, the United Nations urged Israel to implement the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) advisory opinion calling for an end to its occupation activities as humanitarian conditions in Gaza worsen.
“As you are aware, of course, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), in its advisory opinion a year ago, called on Israel to cease its occupation activities, and we would urge that Israel implement that and avoid further occupations,” UN spokesperson Farhan Haq said at a news conference.
While declining to speculate on an Israeli reoccupation of Gaza, Haq reiterated the UN’s call for de-escalation and a complete ceasefire.
“The people of Gaza have suffered for more than 20 months. And at a time when the entire population is suffering from hunger, as I just mentioned, and 96%, or almost the entire population, is suffering from inadequate access to clean water, we need to stop the fighting and actually get aid to two million people who are desperately in need of such aid,” he said.
[Photo: Palestinians, living at a school, gather to inspect the site after Israeli forces hit a health facility belonging to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), located in the Sheikh Ridwan neighborhood in Gaza City, Gaza on August 06, 2025. It has been reported that there were casualties and injuries following the attack. Photojournalist: Saeed M. M. T. Jaras/AA]
