TEHRAN – Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip killed dozens more Palestinians on Saturday, reinforcing the already tragic situation on the besieged territory. A hospital source in Gaza told Al Jazeera that the death toll from Rafa’s strike has risen to 90, including around three people trying to access aid.
The deadly shelling comes amid rising hunger levels, as Israeli lockdowns forced many in Gaza, particularly children, to dig into trash piles in search of food.
The World Food Programme (WFP) warns that thousands of Palestinians in Gaza are on the verge of “devastating hunger,” with one in three not eating without food at once.
In an urgent appeal issued on Saturday, the government media office in Gaza called on the international community to open a safe and permanent humanitarian corridor and end what it described as a deliberate politicization of aid. A statement reported by Anadolu called for an immediate lifting of Israel’s lockdown, which pushed the population to the brink of starvation.
The Media Office appealed to “any country, UN agencies, international organizations, human rights, legal institutions, and political organisations around the world to intervene without delay.”
It called for the establishment of an internationally supervised humanitarian corridor to ensure unlimited delivery of food and medicine throughout Gaza, urging that “the distribution of aid is not manipulated by Israeli occupation forces or their collaborators.”
Describing the lockdown as a “group crime” against civilians, the media office called for an immediate end, “seeking intense international pressure to halt the hunger and forced evacuation genocide policy against Israel.” It also urged a rapid international investigation into “starved crimes with people responsible for the court of justice.”
Since the start of the war with Gaza in October 2023, Israeli military operations have killed around 58,800 people and injured more than 140,000 people.