Jan Yunis, Franja de Gaza – Palestinians refugees in tents or who sought the low food aid available in the strip were among the at least 33 killed by Israeli attacks and shots on Saturday in Gaza, according to local hospitals, while the world faced an exceptional announcement about famine in the largest city of the Situia Enclave.
Israel’s Minister of Defense warned that Gaza City could be destroyed in a new military operation that could begin in a matter of days, even if the famine extends in the enclave.
Help groups have long warned that the war, caused by Hamas’s attack on October 7, 2023, and Israeli restrictions at the entrance of food and medical supplies into the territory are causing hunger among civilians.
Israel described the Declaration of famine as a lie and its army continues with the preparations to take the city of Gaza. The efforts to achieve a fire are suspended while the mediators expect the next steps of Israel.
Women and children impacted and dead in stores
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Israeli attacks caused at least 17 deaths in the south of the strip, more than half of them women and children, according to the records of the morgue and officials of the Nasser hospital. Health authorities indicated that the attacks were aimed at stores that housed displaced in Jan Yunis.
“Awad, why did you leave me?” Asked a small child to the body wrapped in his brother’s plastic.
A afflicted relative, Hekmat Foujo, asked for a stop the fire.
“We want to rest,” Foujo said, struggling to contain tears. “Have mercy on us.”
In northern Gaza, Israeli shots caused the death of at least five people looking for help on Saturday, near the border crossing of Zikim, where the United Nations convoys and other agencies enter the enclave, health officials of the Sheikh Radwan campaign hospital told the AP.
The Palestinian journalist union said that cameraman Khaled Al-Madhoun was killed while covering events at the Zikim crossing, and said he was attacked by Israeli troops. Local television Palestine TV confirmed his death.
Eleven people lost their lives in other attacks in Gaza on Saturday, according to hospitals and the Palestine Red Crescent.
The Israeli army said he was not aware of an attack in Jan Yunis in that location and that he already investigated the other incidents.
AP journalists have seen chaos on access roads to the delivery centers, and almost daily it has been reported that Israeli troops shoot those who seek help. The army argues that only makes warning shots if people approach their troops or represent a threat to them.
Challenging shots and crowds by food
Mohamed Saada was among the thousands of people looking for food in the Zikim area, and was one of the many who went empty hands. He mentioned the “large number of people”, the shots and “trucks running over people.”
Some carried food bags such as lentils and flour. Others led to the injured, even in a wooden pallet. They sailed for fetid puddles and the rubble of war while temperatures exceeded 33 degrees Celsius (92 degrees Fahrenheit).
In Friday’s famine report, disseminated by the integrated classification of food security phases, or CIF, it is indicated that almost half a million people, approximately a quarter of the population of Gaza, face a catastrophic hunger.
The unusual statement occurred after Israel imposed a block of two and a half months to Gaza earlier this year, to then facilitate access through a new private aid distributor, backed by the United States, known as Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF, for its acronym in English).
In response to world indignation for the images of malnourished children, in recent weeks Israel has allowed aerial releases and the entry of more supplies by land, but the UN and other help agencies say that foods that arrive in Gaza still are still not enough.
The Netanyahu office states that it has allowed the entry of sufficient help during the war, while accusing Hamas of hunger to hostage the hostages.
Increased Israeli air attacks this month
With terrestrial troops already deployed on the outskirts of the city of Gaza, the large -scale operation could begin in a matter of days in an area with hundreds of thousands of civilians. According to Israel, the city of Gaza remains a bastion of Hamas, with a vast network of tunnels.
The medical assistance group without borders, or MSF, said that in its clinics around the city there has been an increase in the number of patients while people flee. Caroline Willemen, MSF project coordinator, said a marked increase in air attacks since the beginning of August.
“Those who have not moved wonder what they should do,” he told the AP. “People want to stay, have been displaced incessantly before, but they also know that at some point it will be very dangerous to stay.”
High fire efforts await Israel’s response
Many Israelis fear that the assault on the city of Gaza can condemn the approximately 20 hostages that have survived captivity since 2023. It is believed that another 30 are dead. Hundreds of thousands of Israelis protested a week ago for an agreement to put an end to fighting and bring everyone home.
“Anyone who really wants to bring hostages home does not launch a land invasion of Gaza,” said Yotam Cohen, brother of the Hostage Nimrod Cohen, before a weekly demonstration in Tel Aviv.
Netanyahu said Thursday that he had ordered officials to initiate immediate negotiations to free the hostages and end the war according to Israel’s terms. It is not known if Tel Aviv will return to the conversations mediated by the United States, Egypt and Qatar after Hamás said at the beginning of the week that he accepted a new proposal of the Arab mediators.
Hamas said he will free hostages in exchange for the end of the war, but rejects disarmament without the creation of a Palestinian state.
The president of the United States, Donald Trump, was frustrated with Hamas’s position and suggested that the group was less interested in making agreements to free hostages with so few of them that they are still alive.
“Actually, I think (the hostages are) safer in many ways if you enter and really enter and do it,” Trump told reporters on Friday.
The Gaza Ministry of Health said that at least 62,622 Palestinians have died in the war, including the disappeared whose death has been confirmed by a special judicial committee of the agency.
The number of deaths related to malnutrition increased by eight until reaching 281, the ministry said.
Israeli protest against the Minister of Security of the extreme right
A small group of Israelis protested against the Minister of National Security of the extreme right, Itamar Ben-Gvir, while walking towards a synagogue in Kfar Malal, in the north of Tel Aviv. In the videos, the minister appears arguing with the protesters.
“We do not want it in our town. Our message is to bring the hostages back,” one of the protesters, Boaz Levinstein told the AP.
Ben-Gvir is a key partner in Netanyahu’s political coalition and a firm opponent to reach an agreement with Hamas, which, for the families of hostages, is the only way to ensure the liberation of their loved ones.
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Magdy reported from Cairo. The Associated Press journalists Sam Mednick in Jerusalem and Michelle Price in Washington contributed to this office.
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This story was translated from English by an AP editor with the help of a generative artificial intelligence tool.
