The number of people killed in Israeli attacks on the Gaza since Israel broke a ceasefire with the Palestinian armed group Hamas last month has now exceeded 1,560, according to health officials.
In a new statement on Saturday, the Health Ministry in Gaza said Israeli attacks had killed at least 21 people in the latest 24-hour reporting period, bringing the overall number of fatalities since Israel resumed its bombardment of Gaza on March 18 to 1,563. Hundreds of them were children, according to rescuers.
A total of 50,933 people have been killed and 116,045 wounded since the start of the war in October 2023, the ministry added in its latest daily update.
On Saturday, an Israeli attack on Gaza’s Tuffah neighbourhood killed at least people and wounded two children. Two other Palestinians were killed in al-Atatra district of Beit Lahiya, in the northern part of Gaza, with another killed in an Israeli drone attack on the Qizan an-Najjar area, south of Khan Younis.
Several casualties were also reported following Israeli air raids on the tent shelters of civilians in the al-Mawasi area, west of Khan Younis, which Israel had designated a so-called “safe zone”.
Reporting from outside al-Ahli Hospital in Deir el-Balah, central Gaza, Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary said a newborn named Sham had succumbed to her wounds after her family was hit in an attack.
“She was in very critical condition where her arm was amputated and she died a couple of hours later, because her injury was very critical and doctors were unable to help her situation,” she said.
Khoudary reported that the ambulances arriving daily to the hospital have mostly been carrying children and women.
“Due to the lack of medical supplies, most of these Palestinian children and women are witnessing a very deteriorating situation,” she added.
‘Post-apocalyptic’
On Friday, Ravina Shamdasani, spokeswoman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, reported that 36 of the 224 documented Israeli strikes in Gaza, between March 18 and April 9, involved killings of women and children.
In a statement, the Palestinian rights group Al-Haq said the findings by the UN further confirmed a pattern it previously identified.
“Such a calculated effort to exterminate women, boys, girls & even infants, has not been witnessed in any other modern conflict,” Al-Haq said in a post on social media.
In an interview with Al Jazeera’s Upfront, UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) chief Philippe Lazzarini described the situation in Gaza as a “post-apocalyptic” killing zone.
Speaking at the Antalya Diplomacy Forum in Turkiye on Friday, Lazzarini also reiterated that Israel has been preventing the entry of food, fuel, medicine and other vital humanitarian supplies into Gaza since early March, contravening international law.
In a separate post on X on Saturday, UNRWA Director of Communications Juliette Touma warned that all basic supplies “are running out” in Gaza.
“It means babies, children are going to bed hungry.”
Israel has pledged to press on with its military offensive, with officials in recent days outlining plans to seize new swaths of territory in southern Gaza and issuing a series of forced displacement orders.
“Palestinians do not know where to go,” Khoudary said, after the latest Israeli orders on Saturday for Shujayea and Khan Younis.
According to UNRWA, some 400,000 Palestinians have been forcibly displaced across Gaza since the fragile ceasefire that took effect in January collapsed almost a month ago.
