Gaza’s Health Ministry said on Tuesday that Israeli forces killed at least 79 Palestinians and wounded 644 over the previous 24-hour period as relentless US-backed Israeli attacks continue amid reports that Israel is planning a major escalation of the genocidal war.
The Health Ministry said another eight bodies of Palestinians killed in previous Israeli attacks were recovered. “A number of victims are still under the rubble and on the streets, where ambulance and civil defense crews are unable to reach them at this time,” the ministry wrote on Telegram.
The majority of the dead, 52, were killed by the IDF while attempting to reach food aid, and another 352 aid seekers were injured. The Health Ministry said that since the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) began operating, at least 1,568 aid seekers have been killed and 11,230 have been wounded.
According to The Associated Press, 12 Palestinians were killed on Tuesday near a GHF site in southern Gaza, and at least six were killed near another GHF site in central Gaza. Medical sources told Al Jazeera that a total of 51 aid seekers were killed so far on Tuesday.
Israeli airstrikes and shelling also hit different parts of Gaza on Tuesday. According to the Palestinian news agency WAFA, six people were killed by Israeli shelling in northern Gaza that targeted aid workers. In Gaza City, at least five people were killed by Israeli airstrikes.
Palestinians continue to starve to death in Gaza as Israel has allowed only a small amount of additional aid to enter the Strip amid global outrage over the starvation campaign. The Health Ministry said that it recorded a total of eight malnutrition deaths over 24 hours, including seven adults and one child. “This brings the total number of victims of famine and malnutrition to 188, including 94 children,” the ministry said.
The ministry said that the latest violence has brought its death toll since October 7, 2023, to 61,020 and the number of wounded to 150,671. Studies have found that the ministry’s numbers are likely a significant undercount.
