At least 44 people lost their lives across Gaza on Thursday after a new wave of Israeli airstrikes, according to local rescue teams. The attacks, which hit both residential and public areas, are being described as one of the deadliest escalations in recent weeks.
Mohammad al-Mughayyir, a senior official with Gaza’s civil defense, noted that the most devastating strike occurred in the Al-Bureij refugee camp. “44 people have been killed in Israeli raids, including 23 in a strike on a home in Al-Bureij,” he told AFP. The strike flattened the home, burying residents under rubble. Rescue workers worked through the night to pull bodies and survivors from the debris.
Another deadly incident happened near the American aid centre in the southern Morag area, where two people were killed and several others were wounded by Israeli gunfire, according to al-Mughayyir. The Israeli military responded that it is reviewing both events and confirmed that its forces had targeted “dozens of terror targets throughout the Gaza Strip” in the past 24 hours.
The surge in violence comes just one day after a chaotic scene unfolded in Deir al-Balah. There, thousands of Palestinians stormed a World Food Programme warehouse, desperate for basic food supplies. Video footage captured people fleeing with bags of flour under gunfire. “What is happening to us is degrading. We risk our lives just to get a bag of flour,” said local resident Sobhi Areef.
In response to the ongoing humanitarian crisis, Israel has backed the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a new aid channel that aims to bypass Hamas. But this initiative has drawn concern from both the UN and EU. Critics argue it complicates established aid efforts and sidelines international agencies. Israel’s UN ambassador, Danny Danon, rejected those criticisms, saying the UN has used “threats, intimidation, and retaliation against NGOs.”
According to the UN, the conflict, now in its 18th month, has left one in five people in Gaza at risk of starvation. Since March 18 alone, 3,986 Palestinians have died, bringing the total death toll to more than 54,000. Despite mounting international pressure and calls from the EU and Jordan to end what they describe as “systematic starvation tactics,” no ceasefire agreement has been reached so far.
