Gaza City has been put under heavy aerial bombardment, the territory's Hamas administration civilian defense agency reported, as Israeli soldiers move in to take over the city.
Spokesman Mahmud Bassal reported Zeitoun and Sabra residential neighborhoods had for three days been subjected to bombing and drone attacks that "caused massive destruction to civilian homes," with residents being unable to recover dead and wounded.Meanwhile, the UK, EU, Australia, Canada, and Japan issued a statement warning that “famine is unfolding before our eyes” and urged immediate action to “reverse starvation.”
They called for "immediate, permanent and tangible steps" to enable the passage of aid into Gaza. Israel refuses to acknowledge there is starvation in Gaza.
It has blamed UN agencies for failing to collect aid at borders and distribute it.
The joint statement also called for an end to the deployment of lethal force around aid delivery points and lorry convoys, where the UN claims over 1,300 Palestinians have been killed, the majority by the Israeli army.
In another development, the World Health Organisation on Tuesday called on Israel to allow it to pre-position medical supplies to cope with a "catastrophic" health crisis before taking control of Gaza City.
"We all read about 'more humanitarian aid is coming in' - well it's not here yet, or it's coming in at a way too slow a rate," said Rik Peeperkorn, the agency's representative in the Palestinian territories.
"We want to stock hospitals up fast," he continued. "We can't do that at present. We need to be able to bring in all the essential medicines and medical supplies."
Israel's cabinet voted on Monday to occupy Gaza City, which was denounced in an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council later on the day. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) stated on Tuesday that it was "at the start of a new state of combat".
The Israeli government refused to give an exact timeline on when its troops would enter the territory. On Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Israel's troops had been ordered to level the "two remaining Hamas enclaves" in Gaza City and a central hub near al-Mawasi.
He also laid out a three-step solution to boost aid in Gaza, including the establishment of safe corridors for the delivery of aid, and additional air drops by Israeli troops and other allies.
On the streets, however, Gaza City residents said they had been relentlessly attacked in the air. Majed al-Hosary, a Zeitoun resident in Gaza City, said the attacks had been "extremely intense for two days.".
"With each blow, the earth trembles. There are martyrs beneath the rubble that nobody can reach because shelling hasn't ceased," he stated.
"It was as if war was resuming," said Amr Salah, 25, to Reuters. "Shells were fired by tanks into homes, and multiple homes were targeted, and the aircraft executed what we would call fire rings, where multiple missiles hit some of the roads in eastern Gaza."
The Gaza health ministry, which is Hamas-controlled, reported 100 bodies had been delivered to hospitals throughout Gaza in the last 24 hours, including 31 who were killed at the aid locations. Five additional individuals had perished from malnutrition, it said.
Israel has come under increasing pressure over the 22-month conflict with Hamas, as UN-supported experts have warned of mass famine unfolding in the blockaded territory.
On Tuesday members of a global panel of ex-leaders called "The Elders" for the first time labeled the Gaza war an "unfolding genocide" and accused Israel of creating famine among its people.
After a trip to the Gaza border, Helen Clark and Mary Robinson, a former New Zealand prime minister and former president of Ireland, issued a joint statement: "What we saw and heard reinforces our personal belief that there is not only an unfolding, man-made famine in Gaza. There is an unfolding genocide."
The claim is echoed by top Israeli rights organizations, among them B'Tselem, which stated it had made an "unequivocal conclusion" that Israel was trying to "demolish Palestinian society within the Gaza Strip".
Israel resoundingly denies the allegations, stating its troops are targeting terrorists and never civilians, and that the agony of Gaza was on the hands of Hamas.
On Sunday, the IDF assassinated five Al Jazeera reporters in a targeted assault on a media tent in Gaza City, and it evoked international outrage. It claimed to have assassinated prominent reporter Anas al-Sharif, claiming he "served as the head of a terrorist cell within Hamas," and did not mention the others.
Media freedom organizations stated that it had presented little evidence to support its allegations. Al Jazeera’s managing editor said that Israel was trying to “silence any media outlet reporting from inside Gaza.”
Hamas killed over 1,200 individuals and hostages 251 in its 7 October 2023 attack on Israel. Israel's retalizations in Gaza have killed a minimum of 61,599 Palestinians, per the health ministry, whose total the UN finds to be credible.
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