Weeks-Old Baby Dies of Starvation As Israeli Attacks Kill 116 in Gaza

Hospital director Muhammad Abu Salmiya confirmed the infant's death to Al Jazeera.

Another patient also died of starvation at the same facility on the same day.

Gaza’s Health Ministry warned that emergency departments are overwhelmed, with at least 17,000 children suffering from severe malnutrition.

Israeli forces continued widespread bombardments across the Strip.

Medical sources reported that 116 Palestinians were killed since dawn, including 38 shot while attempting to reach aid distribution points operated by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

Civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal stated that Israeli gunfire caused deaths near aid locations southwest of Khan Yunis and northwest of Rafah.

The Health Ministry said nearly 900 Palestinians have been killed near the so-called GHF aid sites since the group began its operations in late May.

These sites replaced hundreds of United Nations-run centers that were previously responsible for aid distribution.

Eyewitness Mohammed al-Khalidi told Al Jazeera the shooting at aid seekers was deliberate.

“Suddenly, we saw the jeeps coming from one side and the tanks from the other, and they started shooting at us,” he said.
Mohammed al-Barbary, who lost a cousin in the incident, called the GHF locations “death traps”.

“He went to get food. He wanted to live,” he said.

Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Deir el-Balah reported that families searching for food are now burying relatives instead.

The GHF denied involvement, claiming the killings occurred “several kilometres away” and “hours before our sites opened”.
The Israeli military said it was reviewing the incident.

Jagan Chapagain, Secretary-General of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said Palestinians face “an acute risk of famine”.

“No one should have to risk their life to get basic humanitarian assistance,” he said.

Jan Egeland, head of the Norwegian Refugee Council, rejected claims from EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas that aid was improving.

“For NRC and many others no relief has entered for 142 days. Not one truck. Not one delivery,” Egeland said on X.

He noted that 85% of aid trucks fail to reach their destination due to looting and instability caused by the siege.

The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) said food for the entire population of Gaza is waiting at the Egyptian border.

“Open the gates, lift the siege and allow UNRWA to do its work,” the agency said.

Israel has barred UNRWA from operating in Gaza and occupied East Jerusalem.

The wave of attacks continued on Saturday with widespread strikes on residential areas and displacement camps.

Four bodies were recovered from Bani Suheila, according to Nasser Hospital sources.

An Israeli drone attack killed at least one person in a displacement tent in Khan Yunis.

Further north, a residential strike in az-Zawayda killed Nuseirat police director Colonel Omar Saeed Aql and 11 family members, Gaza’s Interior Ministry said.

Three people were killed in airstrikes on the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City, according to al-Ahli Hospital.

Five others died in an Israeli strike on Tal al-Hawa, the Palestinian Red Crescent reported.

Two additional deaths occurred in Jabalia an-Nazla due to Israeli shelling, medical sources said.

Israeli naval forces also fired on and detained three Palestinian fishermen off Gaza’s coast.

The blockade has been in place since 2007 and was tightened further after the Israeli genocidal war began in October 2023.