Gaza City, Gaza Strip —
At least 13 Palestinians were killed and dozens more trapped under debris following Israeli air raids on Gaza City early Saturday, Palestinian authorities said.
Four victims died when Israeli aircraft struck a residential building in the city’s Sabra neighborhood. Residents were seen digging through the rubble with their bare hands, desperate to rescue those buried underneath.
Mahmoud Basal, spokesman for Gaza’s civil defense agency, said emergency crews lacked the heavy machinery needed to reach those trapped.
“Our crews cannot reach them because of the lack of the necessary machinery,” Basal told the AFP news agency.
Earlier this week, Israeli air strikes reportedly destroyed 40 engineering vehicles used by civil defense teams for rescue operations.
Air raids also targeted other areas across the Strip, including al-Mawasi and Khan Younis, worsening an already catastrophic humanitarian situation. The United Nations has warned that the entire Gaza Strip — home to around two million people — may soon face famine.
Food supplies running out
The World Food Programme (WFP) said on Friday that its aid kitchens are expected to run out of food in the coming days.
Israel’s blockade, now in its second month, has prevented the entry of food, fuel, and medical supplies. Community kitchens — the last remaining source of nutrition for many — have been crippled following widespread destruction of Gaza’s food production facilities.
WFP officials urged the international community to pressure Israel to reopen border crossings. They said more than 116,000 metric tonnes of food aid, enough to feed a million people for four months, are ready for delivery once access is restored.
Reporting from Deir el-Balah, Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum described the humanitarian situation as reaching “a very unprecedented breaking point.”
“Civilians are really struggling to cope with this crisis,” he said.
International warnings
Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA, called the crisis “man-made,” while Michael Fakhri, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, accused Israel of executing a “starvation campaign” without facing consequences.
The World Health Organization (WHO) also reported severe shortages of medical supplies. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus appealed for an end to the aid blockade in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
Since Israel resumed its military campaign on March 18, at least 2,062 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, according to local authorities. The total Palestinian death toll since October 7, 2023, now exceeds 50,000. Hamas’s initial attack on Israel killed 1,218 people, mostly civilians.
