KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip— Israeli strikes and gunfire killed at least 33 Palestinians in Gaza on Saturday, including people sheltering in tents or seeking scarce food, 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 17 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.
“Awad, why did you leave me?” a small boy asked his brother’s plastic-wrapped body.
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 truck convoys enter the territory, health officials at Sheikh Radwan field hospital told .
Eleven people were killed in attacks elsewhere, according to hospitals and the Palestinian Red Crescent.
Israel’s military said it was not aware of a strike in Khan Younis at that location and was looking into the other incidents.
Braving gunfire and crowds for food
Mohamed Saada was among thousands seeking 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.
Some carried sacks of food like lentils and flour. Others carried the wounded, including on a wooden pallet. They navigated fetid puddles and the rubble of war as temperatures reached above 92 degrees Fahrenheit (33 Celsius).
Friday’s report by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification said famine in Gaza City is likely to spread if fighting and restrictions on aid continue. It said nearly half a million people — about one-fourth of Gaza’s population — face catastrophic hunger.
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 has also allowed airdrops and new deliveries by land, but the U.N. and others say it’s 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.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office asserts it has allowed enough aid to enter during the war, while accusing Hamas of starving the 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 see high numbers of patients as people flee. Caroline Willemen, MSF project coordinator there, 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 its Zeitoun neighborhood. Israel says Gaza City is still a Hamas stronghold, with a network of militant tunnels.
