Gaza’s Health Ministry said on Wednesday that Israeli strikes killed at least 82 Palestinians and wounded 262 over the previous 24-hour period, as aid that has entered Gaza still hasn’t reached the starving population.
The Health Ministry’s figures are based on the number of 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.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters on Wednesday that the majority of the supplies from a few dozen aid trucks Israel allowed to enter Gaza this week have been loaded onto UN trucks. But he said the supplies couldn’t be taken out of the Kerem Shalom crossing area because the road the Israeli military had given them permission to use was too unsafe.
Dujarric said that the limited supplies that have entered Gaza are “nowhere near enough to meet the needs in Gaza, which are vast, which are tremendous. Much, much more aid needs to get in.”
Israel allowed a small number of aid trucks to enter this week after more than 70 days of a total blockade, a step Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has made clear was being taken to ensure continued US support for his genocidal war.
Palestinians are facing starvation as the Israeli military has significantly escalated its attacks and ordered more forced displacements, including in the southern city of Khan Younis. According to The Associated Press, Israeli strikes killed 24 people in Khan Younis on Wednesday, including 14 members of the same family.
AP also reported that a week-old baby was killed by an Israeli strike in central Gaza, and in Jabalia, northern Gaza, an Israeli attack killed two children along with their parents.
The Health Ministry said that since Israel resumed full-scale military operations on March 18, at least 3,509 Palestinians have been killed, and 9,909 were injured. The numbers account for dead and wounded Palestinians brought to hospitals and morgues.
Since October 7, 2023, the ministry’s death toll has reached 53,655, and the number of wounded has climbed to 121,950, figures that don’t account for thousands missing and presumed dead under the rubble or indirect deaths caused by the Israeli siege.
