Palestinians carry humanitarian aid they received at the Rafah corridor as they walk in the Mawasi area of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip yesterday. (AFP)
Gaza City: Gaza hospitals have recorded seven new deaths from “famine and malnutrition” raising the total hunger-related death toll to 154 since October 2023, said Al Jazeera yesterday.
Israeli attacks continued with at least 22 Palestinians, including 15 aid seekers, were killed since dawn across the Gaza Strip, it said in report.
Twenty Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded in Israeli airstrikes on Wednesday on several areas in Gaza, including starving civilians waiting for aid in the north, center, and south of the strip, said a report by QNA.
Medical sources said that two civilians were killed and others were injured when Israeli warplanes targeted a group of citizens near Al Zahraa School in the Al Daraj neighboعrhood in central Gaza City. Another person was killed in an Israeli airstrike on a group of citizens near the Latin Monastery Church in the Al Zeitoun neighbourhood, the report added.
Another citizen also succumbed to his injuries after his home in the Nadim area of the Al Zeitoun neighbourhood was targeted by Israeli warplanes on Tuesday, joining his four sons who died instantly.
In the central Gaza Strip, Al Awda Hospital reported the death of four citizens and the injury of 13 others as a result of the occupation targeting gatherings of citizens near the aid distribution point on Salah Al Din Street, south of the Wadi Gaza area. Five citizens were killed and others were injured as a result of artillery shelling targeting those waiting for aid near the Netzarim axis in the central Gaza Strip, while a child was killed as a result of shelling on the New Camp area, north of Nuseirat.
In the south, sources said that six citizens were killed and more than 40 others were injured by Israeli forces' fire near an aid centre north of Rafah. Seven others were also injured when an Israeli drone bombed a group of citizens while they were filling water in the Al Mawasi area west of the city.
Meanwhile, Belgium will take part in a multi-country operation coordinated by Jordan to airdrop aid to Gaza, the government announced Wednesday, as UN agencies warn the Palestinian territory is slipping into famine, said an AFP report.
A Belgian plane carrying medical supplies and food worth some 600,000 euros ($690,000) will fly "soon" to Jordan, and will remain on stand-by to conduct air drops in coordination with Amman, the defence and foreign ministries said in a statement. Belgium joins a string of Western nations including France, Spain and Britain looking to send aid into Gaza by air as fears mount of mass starvation in the territory.
"These airdrops are a first step, but they can in no way be a cover for the urgent need to facilitate access by land," Belgian foreign minister Maxime Prevot said.
