Military aid to northern Gaza is set to be reduced or ceased altogether by Israel, as military operations in the region intensify.
In the midst of a devastating conflict, the situation in Gaza continues to deteriorate, with over 48 hostages still being held and a growing humanitarian crisis unfolding.
The United Nations and independent experts consider Gaza's Health Ministry the most reliable source on war casualties. According to the ministry, around half of the reported deaths are women and children, although the ministry does not specify the number of fighters or civilians. The ministry reported that at least 63,371 Palestinians have died in Gaza during the war, and an additional 332 have died from malnutrition-related causes.
Recent airstrikes have claimed numerous lives. A strike on the Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City killed seven people, while an Israeli strike on a bakery in Gaza City's Nasr neighborhood resulted in the deaths of 12 people, including six women and three children.
Israel disputes the ministry's figures but has not provided its own. Israel's military has increased strikes on the outskirts of Gaza City, where famine was recently documented and declared by global food security experts. The ongoing conflict has led to a break in airdrops for several days, a departure from almost daily ones, and Israel has announced it will soon halt or slow humanitarian aid into parts of northern Gaza as it expands its military offensive against Hamas.
The situation has become so dire that Israel ended daytime pauses in fighting to allow aid delivery, but the United Nations and partners say the measures fell far short of the 600 trucks of aid needed daily in Gaza.
Organizations actively involved in humanitarian aid for the population of Gaza City during the current military conflict include Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières) with over 1,100 staff on the ground, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Palestine Red Crescent Society which has opened 25 clinics including one in Gaza City, UNICEF providing emergency aid especially to children, and the German organization Help that coordinates relief efforts through local partners despite border closures.
The remains of a hostage that Israel said had been recovered in Gaza were identified as Idan Shtivi, who was kidnapped from the Nova music festival in October 2023.
The conflict has also claimed the lives of four people trying to get aid in central Gaza, and Hamas has called the strike on a residential building in Rimal a "brutal escalation against civilians."
Mirjana Spoljaric, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, stated that a potential evacuation of over 2 million people in Gaza would trigger a massive population movement that no area in the Gaza Strip can absorb, given the widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure and the extreme shortages of food, water, shelter, and medical care.
As the conflict continues, the plight of the people of Gaza becomes increasingly dire, with no end in sight to the humanitarian crisis.
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