Israeli attacks kill four in Gaza, including a girl, as famine warning grows

Israeli attacks across Gaza killed four Palestinians in 24 hours, including a young girl shot dead near the Jabalia refugee camp in the north, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported. The deaths on Thursday came as the Israeli military continued to seize more territory inside the enclave and a rights group warned that Gaza could face another famine.

Al Jazeera's Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Gaza City, said a strike on a vehicle in the Tal al-Hawa neighbourhood killed one person and seriously injured another. A separate strike killed a man on a bicycle in the southern city of Khan Younis. The Gaza Health Ministry said a fourth person died on Thursday of wounds sustained in an earlier Israeli strike.

Military control expands

Mahmoud said Israeli troops have been "taking more land since the 'ceasefire'", expanding from northern Gaza inward to the centre and westward. "People cannot return to their homes, and most buildings in the areas Israel controls have been left in ruins," he said.

Al Jazeera's maps show nearly two-thirds of Gaza is under Israeli military control or subject to access restrictions. Close to two million people live in what remains of the shrinking territory, which the report describes as littered with thousands of tonnes of rubble and debris.

Casualty toll

At least 1,538 Palestinians have been killed and 5,498 injured since the "ceasefire" took effect in October last year, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. More than 74,400 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since October 2023.

Famine warning as aid shrinks

The Geneva-based Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said on Thursday that its teams had observed increasingly empty markets and soaring food prices. It accused Israel of "deliberately depriving" Palestinians of adequate nutrition as part of what it calls an ongoing genocide.

The group said Israel suspended commercial goods deliveries to Gaza on October 13 and announced on October 19 that some imports could resume, but that shipments remained heavily restricted and fresh fruit and vegetables were denied entry.

The World Food Programme said this week that severe funding shortages had forced it to cut food assistance to Gaza by one-third, leaving an estimated 500,000 vulnerable residents without essential monthly support as winter approaches. According to the United Nations, supplies of fresh food and basic staples have rapidly evaporated because of Israeli restrictions on commercial entry points and aid crossings.

Al Jazeera's Maram Humaid, reporting from Gaza City, described markets that emptied suddenly, with no vegetables, fruit, meat, eggs or bread and prices soaring. She said her family did not eat breakfast until noon after her husband spent hours searching for bread and fresh vegetables, and that with no electricity or working refrigeration, households cannot store provisions even when they are available. She said the panic and fear of shopping to stock up had left many people exhausted and without hope.

Source: Al Jazeera.