KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli strikes and gunfire killed at least 25 Palestinians including people sheltering in tents or seeking scarce food Saturday in Gaza, local hospitals said, as a famine in Gaza’s largest city sparks new pressure on Israel over its 22-month offensive.
Israel’s defense minister has warned that Gaza City could be destroyed in a new military operation perhaps just days away, even as famine spreads there.
Aid groups have long warned that the war, sparked by Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack, and months of Israeli restrictions on food and medical supplies entering Gaza are causing starvation.
Israel has rejected the data-based famine declaration as “an outright lie.” Ceasefire efforts are on hold as mediators await Israel’s next steps.
Women and children struck and killed in tents
Israeli strikes killed at least 14 people in southern Gaza, more than half of them women and children, according to morgue records and health officials at Nasser Hospital. The officials said the strikes targeted tents sheltering displaced people in Khan Younis.
“The entire Gaza Strip is being bombed … In the south. In the north. Everywhere,” Abu Agala, uncle of two children killed, told The Associated Press.
Another grieving relative, Hekmat Foujo, pleaded for a truce.
“We want to rest,” Foujo said through her tears. ‘’Have some mercy on us.”
In northern Gaza, Israeli gunfire killed at least five aid-seekers near the Zikim crossing with Israel, where U.N. and other agencies’ truck convoys enter the territory, health officials at the Sheikh Radwan field hospital told the AP.
Six people were killed in attacks elsewhere, according to hospitals and the Palestinian Red Crescent.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to questions.
Braving gunfire and crowds for food
Friday’s report by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or IPC, said Gaza City is gripped by famine that is likely to spread if fighting and restrictions on aid continue.
The rare pronouncement came after Israel imposed a 2 1/2-month blockade on Gaza earlier this year, then resumed some access with a focus on a new U.S.-backed private aid supplier, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
In response to global outrage over images of emaciated children, Israel in recent weeks has also allowed airdrops and a new influx of aid by land, but the U.N. and other aid organizations say the food reaching Palestinians in Gaza is still far from enough.
AP journalists have seen chaos on roads leading to aid deliveries, and there have been almost daily reports of Israeli troops firing toward aid-seekers. Israel’s military says it fires warning shots if people approach troops or pose a threat.
Mohamed Saada was among thousands of people who sought food from a delivery in the Zikim area on Saturday — and one of many who left empty-handed.
“I came here to bring food for my children but couldn’t get anything, due to the huge numbers of people and the difficulty of the situation between the shootings and the trucks running over people,” he said.
The IPC said nearly half a million people in Gaza — about one-fourth of the population — face catastrophic hunger, which has been magnified by widespread displacement and the collapse of food production.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office asserts it has allowed enough aid to enter during the war, while accusing Hamas of starving the Israeli hostages it holds.
An increase in Israeli airstrikes this month
With ground troops already active in strategic areas, the military operation in Gaza City could start within days in an area that has hundreds of thousands of civilians.
Aid group Doctors without Borders, or MSF, said its clinics around Gaza City are seeing high numbers of patients as people flee. Caroline Willemen, MSF project coordinator in the city, noted a marked increase in airstrikes since early August.
“Those who have not moved are wondering what they should do,” she told the AP. “People want to stay, they have been displaced endlessly before, but they also know that at some point it will become very dangerous to remain.”
Israel’s military has said troops are operating on the outskirts of Gaza City and in the city’s Zeitoun neighborhood. Israel says Gaza City is still a Hamas stronghold, with a network of militant tunnels.
Ceasefire efforts await Israel’s response
Many Israelis fear the assault on Gaza City could doom the 20 hostages who are believed to have survived captivity since 2023. A further 30 are thought to be dead. Hundreds of thousands of Israelis protested a week ago for a deal to end the war and bring everyone home.
Netanyahu said Thursday he had instructed officials to begin immediate negotiations to release hostages and end the war on Israel’s terms. It was unclear if Israel would return to talks mediated by the United States, Egypt and Qatar after Hamas said earlier this week it accepted a new proposal from Arab mediators.
Hamas has said it will release hostages in exchange for ending the war, but rejects disarming without the creation of a Palestinian state.
U.S. President Donald Trump has expressed frustration with Hamas’ stance, suggesting the militant group is less interested in making deals with so few hostages left alive.
“I actually think (the hostages are) safer in many ways if you went in and you really went in fast and you did it,” Trump told reporters Friday.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said Saturday that at least 62,622 people have been killed since the war began, including missing people now confirmed dead by a special ministry judicial committee.
The total number of malnutrition-related deaths rose by eight to 281, the ministry said.
Israeli protest against far-right security minister
A small group of Israelis protested against the far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, as he walked to a synagogue in Kfar Malal, north of Tel Aviv. Videos showed the minister arguing with the protesters.
“We don’t want him in our village. Our message is to bring back the hostages,” one of the protesters, Boaz Levinstein, told the AP.
Ben-Gvir is a key partner in Netanyahu’s political coalition and a staunch opponent of reaching a deal with Hamas, which hostages’ families see as the only way to secure the release of loved ones.
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Magdy reported from Cairo. Sam Mednick in Jerusalem and Michelle Price in Washington contributed.
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Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
