Half of the victims on Friday died in Israeli air strikes in Gaza City, while 13 others were killed near GHF aid sites.
Israel’s military has killed dozens more Palestinians across Gaza in its latest attacks, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised to “finish the job” against Hamas during a speech at the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
Medical sources told media that 60 people were killed across the besieged and bombarded Palestinian territory on Friday.
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At least 30 of the victims were killed in Gaza City, where Israel has escalated its attacks since launching a ground operation on September 16.
Locations including al-Wehda Street, the Shati camp and the Nassr neighbourhood were struck on Friday. One attack also hit the residential Remal neighbourhood in the west of the city.
From Remal, media’s Ibrahim al-Khalili reported that the attack happened without prior warning, and that Palestinian civilians were searching through the rubble of a building looking for survivors while medical teams took away the bodies of the dead.
“This residential neighbourhood is still packed with many people who have chosen to stay,” al-Khalili said.
“The situation has gone from bad to worse in light of the escalation of Israeli attacks targeting different sites and locations,” he added.
Amid the increased bombardment, Israel carried out “an air strike every eight or nine minutes” over the past 24 hours, with “devastating consequences for civilians”, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said at a news conference on Friday, citing the Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
Added to the deaths from Israeli strikes, Palestinian medical sources confirmed that 13 people were killed on Friday as they attempted to get aid from sites run by the controversial Israel- and United States-backed GHF.
Netanyahu defiant
The deaths came as Netanyahu delivered a defiant speech at the UN headquarters, hitting out at the countries that have recognised Palestinian statehood this week.
Even before he began speaking, groups of delegates left the room in protest at the atrocities being committed by Israel in Gaza.
During his speech, he said his words were being broadcast by loudspeakers across parts of Gaza.
The Israeli prime minister even claimed his speech was being transmitted to the phones of Gaza residents, before he issued a warning to Hamas members to lay down their weapons and release the remaining captives.
However, Randa Hanoun, 30, a displaced Palestinian living in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, told the AFP news agency that this was not true.
“It’s a lie – we haven’t received any messages or anything on the phone, and we didn’t hear any loudspeakers,” Hanoun said.
As fighting on the ground continues, and despite Netanyahu showing no signs of stopping the offensive, US President Donald Trump claimed on Friday that he was close to forging a deal to end the war and bring the captives home.
“It’s looking like we have a deal on Gaza. I think it’s a deal that gets the hostages back. It’s going to be a deal that ends the war,” Trump told reporters at the White House. He offered no details and gave no timetable. Trump is expected to meet Netanyahu on Monday.
‘Encircled by Israeli forces’
Elsewhere in the Strip, a medical source told media that a 17-year-old boy had died from Israeli-induced starvation and lack of treatment at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza.
Doctors say the boy’s death underscores the worsening humanitarian and health crisis in Gaza, where at least 440 malnutrition-related deaths have been recorded, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, which said 147 of the victims were children.
On Friday, the charity Doctors without Borders (known by its French acronym, MSF) announced that it had been forced to suspend lifesaving medical work in Gaza City because Israeli tanks and air strikes near its clinics were causing an “unacceptable level of risk” for staff and patients.
“Our clinics are encircled by Israeli forces … This is the last thing we wanted, as the needs in Gaza City are enormous,” said Jacob Granger, MSF’s emergency coordinator in Gaza.
The group said it had carried out more than 3,640 consultations last week, treating patients for malnutrition and trauma injuries as well as maternal care.
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians remain trapped in Gaza City, while hospitals across the enclave are overwhelmed and lack staff and supplies, MSF warned.
Tom Fletcher, the UN’s humanitarian chief, also spoke of the dire conditions in Gaza, where many Palestinians are starving.
“We’re still facing these terrible obstacles, impediments to delivering aid, coming from the Israeli authorities,” Fletcher told media.
“We can reach hundreds of thousands of people if we have a genuine commitment to end the starvation,” he added.
