Israeli airstrikes have killed at least 61 Palestinians since dawn on Wednesday, targeting crowded civilian areas in Gaza City and beyond, as an ongoing blockade has pushed the enclave deeper into starvation and humanitarian collapse.
A drone strike in Gaza City hit two locations simultaneously near al-Wehda Street, including inside a restaurant and at a nearby intersection. The attack killed at least 17 people. According to eyewitness Mahmoud reporting from the scene, it struck one of the few places left where Palestinians could still find food.
“The tables and chairs are all thrown around, and blood stains the ground,” he said. At the nearby intersection, he described the scene as “people soaked in blood and shredded into pieces.”
Further strikes across Gaza brought the total death toll to at least 61 people on Wednesday. Thirteen civilians were killed in a strike on al-Karama School in the Tuffah neighbourhood. In Jabalia, northern Gaza, three people were killed in a residential home, while a family of eight, including children, died in Khan Younis.
In Deir el-Balah, central Gaza, three, including a child, died in a tent shelter attack, while two more were killed in eastern Gaza’s Bani Suheila village. Civil Defence workers also recovered four bodies from rubble at a school-turned-shelter in Bureij refugee camp, targeted earlier in the week. That attack had already claimed more than 30 lives.
Amid the strikes, food and fuel shortages have worsened dramatically. Since Israel tightened its blockade on March 2, Gaza has seen near-total depletion of essential supplies, including flour. Aid agencies say the population is being pushed to the brink of famine.
World Central Kitchen, a major US-based food relief organization, halted its operations in Gaza on Wednesday after it ran out of food and was blocked from bringing more aid into the territory.
“After serving more than 130 million total meals and 26 million loaves of bread, we no longer have supplies,” it said.
The humanitarian crisis is further compounded by a collapsing health system. Over 88% of hospital beds are now occupied, and medical staff face critical shortages of supplies as they treat mounting casualties from the attacks.
A mother of six sheltering at a UN-run facility told UNRWA that bread was all her family had left. “The State of Israel must lift the siege,” the agency posted on X, calling for urgent international intervention to prevent further catastrophe.
Egypt and Qatar, alongside the US, have reaffirmed their efforts to reach a ceasefire. In a joint statement Wednesday, the two countries said attempts to disrupt their efforts “will not succeed,” and pledged continued negotiations to alleviate civilian suffering.
However, prospects for peace remain bleak. Israel has warned of a harsher military campaign if a ceasefire isn’t reached, while Hamas declared the talks pointless amid ongoing “hunger and extermination wars.”
“There is no sense in engaging in talks while the war on Gaza’s population continues,” said Hamas official Basem Naim.
The war has now entered a devastating new phase, marked by escalating violence, mounting civilian deaths, and a deepening humanitarian emergency that international agencies warn could spiral into an unprecedented crisis without urgent action.
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