Israeli strike kills 33, as famine ‘likely happening’ in north Gaza

A predawn Israeli strike on north Gaza’s Jabalia killed at least 33 Palestinians, including 13 children, the ministry of health reported on Sunday.

The death toll marks one of the highest in the area since Israel put the north under a full siege over a month ago.

Journalists on the ground reported that no civil defence crews were able to reach the homes targeted in the strikes. There are also no more ambulances functioning in north Gaza because of incessant Israeli bombing and a lack of fuel.

According to the Wafa news agency, the home targeted in the air strike was housing forcibly displaced people who had fled from Israeli attacks elsewhere.

Everyone in the home was killed in the strikes, Al-Jazeera reported, adding that surveillance drones have been hovering above rescue volunteers to intimidate them as they pull people from under the rubble.

The Israeli army on Sunday issued a statement claiming they had "eliminated dozens of terrorists and destroyed terrorist infrastructure and a warehouse of weapons" in Jabalia, with no evidence provided.

Israel’s siege on north Gaza has prevented Palestinians from leaving or entering the area, and has also put a stop for emergency aid from going in.

The Israeli military claim they are trying to prevent Hamas members from regrouping in the north, despite stating earlier in the year that they have completed their operations and got rid of Hamas in the north. Rights groups, however, state Israel is depopulating north Gaza.

The director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, Dr Hossam Abu Safia, raised the alarm about the besieged medical facility on Sunday, urging for essential supplies and medical equipment in north Gaza.

"The reality is unbearable" he said, highlighting that the hospital is overwhelmed with people calling about Palestinians trapped under collapsed buildings.

Gaza’s civil defence on Sunday said that Israeli strikes also targeted Gaza City, killing at least five people in the Sabra neighbourhood. They added that "a number of civilians" remain trapped under the rubble.

Journalists killed

Israeli strikes continued across other parts of Gaza too, killing journalist siblings Ahmed and Zahra Abu Sakheil, along with their father Mohammed.

The siblings were killed just a day after Palestinian radio journalist Khaled Abu Zir was killed.

The killing of the siblings takes the death toll of journalists killed by Israel since October 2023 to 188.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society also said on Sunday that 14 wounded people were transported by their teams, after an Israeli strike targeted a displacement tent near Al-Qarara port located south of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza.

Meanwhile, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said that "famine is likely happening in northern Gaza" as doctors in the area report "alarming cases of malnutrition".

Oxfam’s food security lead in Gaza also reiterated that it is an "extremely grave situation" in north Gaza with action urgently needed within a matter of days in order to prevent a catastrophe.

Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 43,603 people since October 2023 and wounded over 102,929 others in the same time frame. The war on the Strip has levelled entire neighbourhoods and plunged the Strip into a deep humanitarian crisis.