Gaza’s Health Ministry said on Monday that Israeli forces killed at least 50 Palestinians and wounded 184 over the previous 24-hour period as the IDF continues its assault on Gaza City and attacks across the Strip.
“A number of victims are still under the rubble and in the streets, where ambulance and civil defense crews are unable to reach them at this time,” the Health Ministry wrote on Telegram.
The Palestinian news agency WAFA reported that at least 33 Palestinians were killed across Gaza so far on Monday, a count based on the number of bodies brought to hospitals. The total includes 24 bodies that arrived at the Al-Shifa Hospital and Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza City.
The UN’s child relief agency, UNRWA, said on Monday that 25 ill or premature babies in incubators in Gaza City are at risk due to the Israeli assault. Medics told Reuters that the Al-Helo Hospital, where 12 of the babies are located, was shelled by Israeli forces overnight.
Ricardo Pires, a spokesman for UNRWA, said that some of the babies are sharing incubators due to shortages caused by the Israeli blockade. Pires said he was in Gaza City last month, where he saw one of the premature babies, a girl who was removed from her mother’s womb after she was shot in the head and killed.
Pires warned that evacuating the babies would be incredibly dangerous, but he said he thought it was still the best option. “It is time to move them because Gaza City again has become a combat zone, but moving them where? There is no safe place for them to go,” he said. “Moving them seems like the best option we have now…but at the same time, it’s a very risky one.”
The IDF has ordered all civilians in Gaza City to flee to the south as it pursues its goal of forcibly displacing the entire civilian population and razing every building in the city to the ground. But it continues attacking Palestinians in central and southern Gaza. According to WAFA, at least four Palestinians were killed in southern Gaza on Monday while waiting for humanitarian aid.
The Health Ministry said on Sunday that its violent death toll since October 7, 2023, has reached 66,055, and the number of wounded has climbed to 168,346. Studies have found that the ministry’s numbers are likely a significant undercount.
