The Israeli military has ramped up its assault on Gaza, killing at least 76 Palestinians since Friday, with the death toll continuing to rise. Overnight strikes levelled homes and shattered neighbourhoods, fuelling fears of another wave of mass civilian casualties.
Local reports confirmed that at least eight Palestinians lost their lives in Israeli airstrikes carried out since midnight. The violence has spread across Gaza, from Khan Yunis in the south to Nuseirat in the centre.
One of the deadliest attacks occurred in Khan Yunis, where a residential building was hit. The strike killed at least four people and left dozens wounded. In a separate incident, two people were killed in Nuseirat refugee camp, with several others injured.
The brutality of the latest offensive was brought into sharp focus by the tragic story of Dr Alaa Al-Najjar. A physician at Nasser Hospital, she lost nine of her children when Israeli forces bombed her home in Khan Yunis.
The Al-Najjar family home was reduced to rubble, triggering fires that engulfed the area. Civil defence workers recovered the children’s bodies from beneath the debris. Eight of the remains were so badly damaged that they were barely recognisable.
Dr Al-Najjar learned of the tragedy while she was treating young patients in the hospital’s paediatric ward. Her children were aged between 2 and 16. Her husband was among the wounded.
Gaza’s health ministry has confirmed that at least 76 Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks on Friday alone. The strikes followed a wave of tank and drone attacks that targeted a hospital in northern Gaza on Thursday, setting parts of the facility ablaze and causing severe damage.
The United Nations has issued a stark warning: Gaza is teetering on the brink of total collapse. With humanitarian aid choked off and more than 2 million residents at risk of famine, conditions are spiralling.
According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA):
- 81% of Gaza is now under displacement orders or within militarised zones.
- Over 599,000 people have been displaced again since the last ceasefire collapsed.
- Between 15–21 May alone, 161,000 Gazans were newly displaced.
Aid groups are sounding the alarm as starvation spreads. The Israeli blockade has blocked all aid from entering Gaza for over eleven weeks, cutting off critical supplies of food, water and medicine.
Israel’s campaign in Gaza began on 7 October 2023. Since then, according to the health ministry in Gaza, at least 53,800 Palestinians have been killed, most of them women and children.
In January, Israel agreed to a ceasefire deal with Hamas after failing to achieve key objectives, including the elimination of the Palestinian resistance and the release of captives. That truce, marred by repeated violations, expired on 1 March. Talks for a second phase have stalled.
Strikes resumed on 18 March, ending nearly two months of calm. Since then, Israel has kept Gaza under full siege, denying entry of food, medical aid or humanitarian supplies.
The international community continues to condemn Israel’s use of starvation as a weapon of war. Yet, with the situation deteriorating by the day, pressure is mounting for decisive global action to halt the suffering.
