Israeli genocide continues in Gaza for the 145th day as the death toll of the aggression nears 30,000 amid escalating famine in the besieged enclave.
Israeli intense bombing campaign continued across Gaza Strip on Wednesday, with civilian casualties reported near Gaza City and Deir Al-Balah.
Palestinian media reported that at least five civilians were martyred by Israeli strikes south of Deir Al-Balah.
🚨The Palestine Red Crescent ambulance teams transported 34 injured individuals due to Israeli occupation targeting two houses yesterday evening in the city of Deir al-Balah, central #Gaza Strip. pic.twitter.com/3QBMFhXJT6
— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) February 28, 2024
In Gaza city, at least three Palestinians, who were waiting for aid, were killed after being hit by Israeli artillery fire on the coastal Al-Rashid Street.
Meanwhile on Wednesday, eighteen bodies were retrieved from the vicinity of Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis after Israeli tanks withdrew from the area, Palestinian sources reported, adding that snipers were still taking up positions on the rooftops of surrounding buildings.
In Rafah, heavy artillery shelling of the eastern part of the city was reported, with Palestinian media is saying that Rafah “is not safe.”
Health Ministry in Gaza announced that at least 76 people have been martyred in the last 24 hours, raising to 29,954 the death toll of the Israeli aggression since the war started on October 7th.
The ministry put the number of injured people at 70,325.
“One Step Away from Famine”
For its part, the United Nations warned that at least one-quarter of the enclave’s population was a step away from famine without urgent action.
Officials from the international body accused the Israeli occupation of “systematically” blocking aid from reaching desperate Palestinians in Gaza.
“Here we are, at the end of February, with at least 576,000 people in Gaza – one-quarter of the population – one step away from famine,” Ramesh Rajasingham, the deputy chief of the UN humanitarian agency (OCHA), told the UN Security Council (UNSC).
The head of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Ramesh Rajasingham, says “one quarter of the population” in Gaza is “one step away from famine,” while the “entire population is left to rely on woefully inadequate humanitarian food assistance to… pic.twitter.com/VIEX9ULxh9
— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) February 28, 2024
One in six children under the age of two in northern Gaza suffers from acute malnutrition and wasting and practically all the 2.3 million people in the Palestinian enclave rely on “woefully inadequate” food aid to survive, he told the meeting on food security in Gaza.
“If nothing is done, we fear widespread famine in Gaza is almost inevitable and the conflict will have many more victims,” he said.
The warnings on Tuesday came as videos from northern Gaza showed Israeli forces again opening fire on Palestinians gathering to collect food in the area.
When asked by a journalist why she risks her life coming to the Israeli army checkpoint to wait for potential UN aid trucks, a Palestinian woman says the starvation in northern Gaza has forced her to feed her children “leaves of trees” and the fodder of the family’s donkey. pic.twitter.com/7LxIf8Q6Dr
— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) February 28, 2024
Source: Al-Manar English Website
