By Abdul Adil
More Palestinians were killed in fresh Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday. At least 51 more Palestinians were killed in Israeli airstrikes in Gaza in the last 24 hours, bringing the number of Palestinians killed from Israel’s bombings since October 2023 to 52,365, the Health Ministry said on Tuesday. A ministry statement added that 113 others were injured taking the number of injuries to 117,905 in the Israeli onslaught.
Three people were killed in an Israeli drone attack in the Qizan al-Najjar area in southern Khan Younis south of the enclave, a medical source told Anadolu Agency.
Four more people lost their lives and 30 others were injured when Israeli fighter jets struck tents for displaced civilians in al-Mawasi in western Khan Younis in southern Gaza, the official news agency Wafa said, citing medical sources.
Al-Mawasi was designated by the Israeli army as a “safe zone” for civilians displaced by the ongoing Israeli war on the Gaza Strip.
Another Palestinian died of injuries sustained in an earlier Israeli strike in the same city, Wafa said.
In Gaza City, one Palestinian was killed and two others were injured in an Israeli strike in the eastern Shejaiya neighborhood, a medical source said.
Israeli artillery shelling was also reported in the eastern areas of central Gaza, including in the Maghazi refugee camp, but no information was yet available about injuries.
On Monday, Israel’s state-owned broadcaster KAN reported that the Israeli military is preparing to expand its ground operation in the Gaza Strip, citing stalled ceasefire negotiations with Hamas.
Meanwhile, Israeli Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich, said on Tuesday that Israel will not end the war in the Gaza Strip until hundreds of thousands of Palestinians leave the enclave.
“We will end this campaign when Syria is dismantled, Hezbollah is severely beaten, Iran is stripped of its nuclear threat, Gaza is cleansed of Hamas and hundreds of thousands of Gazans are on their way out of it to other countries, our hostages are returned, some to their homes and some to the graves of Israel,” said Smotrich during his speech in the Eli settlement in the central occupied West Bank.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday criticized Israel’s blockade of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip for more than two months.
Speaking at the Security Council’s open debate on Palestine, Guterres said he was “alarmed” by statements from Israeli officials suggesting humanitarian aid could be leveraged as a military tactic.
“Aid is non-negotiable,” he said, adding that “Israel must protect civilians and must agree to relief schemes and facilitate them.”
Guterres said the situation remains dire, with “no end in sight to the killing and misery.”
He added that the collapse of a ceasefire agreement on March 18 ended hopes for the release of hostages and the delivery of lifesaving aid.
In addition, United Nations rights chief, Volker Turk, has called on the world to halt Gaza’s descent into a “new, unseen level” of “humanitarian catastrophe”, amid Israel’s total blockade on aid and relentless attacks on the territory.
Meanwhile, International Court of Justice (ICJ) has begun its second day of hearings into Israel’s humanitarian obligations to Palestinians, more than 50 days into Israel’s total blockage on aid entering the Gaza Strip.
South Africa’s representative Zane Dangor has told the ICJ that “under the world’s watchful eye, Palestinians are being subjected to atrocity, crimes, persecution, apartheid and genocide” in Gaza.
Amnesty International, a global rights group, has accused Israel of committing a “livestreamed genocide” against Palestinians in Gaza by forcibly displacing most of the population and deliberately creating a humanitarian catastrophe.
Medical workers in Gaza say children are suffering from widespread malnutrition.
The UN said that it had identified an 80 percent increase in the number of children suffering acute malnutrition in the month of March, amid Israel’s devastating blockade of humanitarian assistance.
Ziyad Majaida, a paediatrician in Khan Younis, told The Associated Press that children need between one and two grams of protein per kilogram each day from foods such as meat, eggs, dairy, and fish.
“Of course, these things are unfortunately unavailable due to the closure of the crossings for more than two months,” he said.
UNRWA spokesperson Juliette Touma says that after nearly two months of an Israeli blockade barring the entry of humanitarian supplies into Gaza, the Strip is facing widespread hunger.
“This siege, just to give context, is four times longer than the siege imposed [by Israel] in the beginning of the war. You may well recall there was a two-week siege period when the war started a year and a half ago. Now we’re speaking of almost two months of tight siege,” Touma said during a news briefing.
“Imagine not having anything to feed your children. Children in Gaza are going to bed starving. The ill and the sick are not able to get medical care because of shortages of supplies in hospitals and clinics, including in UNRWA clinics.”
Meanwhile, Israeli army released 10 more Palestinians from the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, who were detained during Israel’s war on the enclave, a medical source told Anadolu.
The source said the 10 Palestinians were set free at the Israeli-controlled Kissufim crossing in the central city of Deir al-Balah and transferred to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital for medical checkups.
The freed Palestinians are in a “severe” health condition, the source said.
Israel rejected international reports Tuesday of a humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.
“Our assessments indicate there is currently no evidence of a humanitarian crisis in Gaza,” deputy envoy Brett Jonathan Miller forcefully told the UN Security Council.
Miller said Israel facilitated more than 25,000 aid trucks during a recent 42-day ceasefire. “These trucks carried tens of thousands of tons of humanitarian aid, including food, fuel and medical supplies.”
Meanwhile in occupied West Bank, Israeli army rounded up at least 22 Palestinians and demolished four more Palestinian-owned homes on Tuesday.
A journalist and four women were among the detainees in the raids that targeted several towns in the West Bank, the Commission of Detainees’ Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner Society said in a joint statement.
During the Israeli raids, Israeli forces stormed several homes, vandalized their properties, and held people for field interrogation, the statement added.
Tuesday’s arrests brought the number of Palestinians detained by the Israeli army in the West Bank since October 2023 to over 16,400, including those who were released after being arrested, according to Palestinian figures.
Israeli occupation forces razed Tuesday Palestinian lands in the town of Qusra, south of Nablus.
The head of the Qusra village council, Hani Odeh, told WAFA that an Israeli bulldozer is currently bulldozing Palestinian lands south of the village.
He added that bulldozing operations inside the village are taking place daily, north, south, and east of the village. Dozens of olive trees have also been uprooted.
Odeh said that residents cannot access or plow areas classified as “B,” some of which are only ten meters away from homes. This is because the occupation forces have closed agricultural roads leading to these lands and prevented residents from approaching them.
He pointed out that illegal settlers are also placing mobile caravans on Palestinian lands in preparation for seizing more of them and establishing colonial outposts on them.
The area of Qusra lands is nine thousand dunams, classified as Areas B and C, and is surrounded by five colonies. The illegal outpost of Migdolim, the largest settlement in the area, is located on the citizens’ lands in the eastern area, while four other outposts are located in the southern area.
– Agencies
[Photo: Children carrying banners, call for an end to Israeli attacks in Khan Yunis, Gaza on April 29, 2025. Children addressed the international community, calling for help.
Photojournalist: Doaa Albaz/AA]
