Gaza’s Health Ministry said Tuesday that Israeli attacks killed 50 Palestinians and wounded 113 over the previous 24-hour period as US-backed strikes continue to pound the Strip amid a total Israeli blockade.
The Health Ministry said the body of one Palestinian killed by previous Israeli attacks was also recovered. The ministry’s numbers are based on dead and wounded Palestinians brought to hospitals and morgues.
“There are still a number of victims under the rubble and on the streets, and ambulance and civil defense crews cannot reach them,” the ministry said.
Aid groups told Reuters on Tuesday that dozens of charity kitchens in Gaza are on the verge of closing due to the lack of supplies, as Israel has not allowed any food to enter the Strip since March 2.
The UN’s World Food Program said last week that it ran out of food supplies in Gaza and that the kitchens it supplied would be forced to close in a matter of days. WFP-run bakeries shut down a few weeks earlier due to the lack of flour and fuel.
Palestinians told Reuters that they had to wait in line for five hours to receive a single meal from a charity kitchen. Amjad Shawa, the director of the Palestinian Non-Governmental Organizations Network (PNGO) in Gaza, said about 70 to 80 kitchens remain open but will all close in the next four or five days if Israel doesn’t allow more supplies to enter.
Shawa said that before the total blockade on March 2, about 150 charity kitchens were operating. According to the Health Ministry, at least 60,000 children in Gaza are showing signs of malnutrition.
Starving Palestinians have also had no relief from the violence, as dozens of people, including many children, are being killed every day by relentless Israeli strikes. One attack on Tuesday hit a tent camp in the al-Mawasi area on the coast, killing at least five Palestinians, including two children.
The Health Ministry said that since Israel resumed its genocidal war on March 18, which it did with full US support, it has recorded the deaths of 2,273 Palestinians and 5,864 injuries.
Since October 7, 2023, the ministry’s death toll has reached 52,365, and the number of wounded has climbed to 117,905, figures that don’t account for thousands missing and presumed dead under the rubble or indirect deaths caused by the Israeli siege.
