Israeli armed forces have stepped up bombardment of the Gaza Strip and carried out raids in the occupied West Bank as humanitarian aid efforts near collapse.
The Israeli army struck Rafah in southern Gaza twice overnight, according to reports, as UN officials warned there were no safe places left in the besieged territory .
The center of Khan Younis, Gaza’s second-largest city, has also been the scene of fighting amid Israel’s growing air and ground offensive in the southern part of the enclave where tens of thousands of Palestinians have no safe place to shelter. Airstrikes in northern Gaza have razed residential buildings.
Gaza’s health ministry said 17,177 people – including 7,112 children – have been killed and 46,000 injured since the Israeli-Palestinian conflict began on October 7.
In the occupied West Bank, the death toll stands at 266 dead and 3,365 injured.
The Israeli army reported 1,147 deaths, including 418 soldiers.
United Nations humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said negotiations were continuing to open another border crossing between Israel and Gaza to allow the delivery of increased humanitarian aid.
“We no longer have a humanitarian operation in southern Gaza that can bear this name,” he told journalists in Geneva.
“What we have right now… (is) humanitarian opportunism at best,” he said, adding that trucks crossing the country depended on chance rather than planning. “It’s erratic, unreliable and, frankly, not sustainable.”
