Latest update March 30th, 2026 5:45 PM
64 killed, Palestinian families displaced
…as Israel pushes deeper into Gaza City
A Palestinian woman carries a child, as they inspect the site of an overnight Israeli attack on a house, in Gaza City, August 26 [Ebrahim Hajjaj/Reuters].
(AL-JAZEERA) The Israeli army is pushing deeper into Gaza City, destroying entire residential neighbourhoods and leaving Palestinian families with nowhere to go as it seeks to seize the city. Gaza’s health ministry says three more hunger-related deaths have been recorded in the past 24 hours, raising the total number of people starved to death since October 7, 2023, to 303, including 117 children.
At least 64 Palestinians were killed in the attacks across Gaza since dawn on Tuesday, hospital sources told Al Jazeera. That includes 13 people who were killed seeking desperately needed aid.
Several Palestinians and international activists have been wounded after a group of Israeli settlers attacked residents in Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron in the occupied West Bank, the Wafa news agency says.
Wafa cited the Palestine Red Crescent Society as saying its teams treated four people – three foreign women and a young man – who were beaten, before transferring them to a nearby hospital.
Activist Osama Makhamreh said the settlers stormed the Khirbet Aqwawis area east of Yatta, assaulting Palestinians and their supporters. Several people suffered injuries.
Settler attacks in Masafer Yatta and other parts of the West Bank are often carried out under the protection of Israeli forces.
They have intensified since Israel’s war on Gaza began and come amid an effort by Israel to forcibly displace Palestinians from their homes as it expands its illegal settlements in the occupied territory.
Mustafa Barghouti, secretary general of the Palestinian National Initiative, says Israel is pursuing three processes simultaneously as Netanyahu pushes to “remap” the entire Middle East.
The first is an effort “to eliminate and annihilate the Palestinian people by conducting not only genocide, but also ethnic cleansing”, Barghouti told Al Jazeera from Ramallah.
The second is an attempt to “annex the lands of other countries” in the region.
“At this moment, they have already invaded big parts of Syria and Lebanon, and the proposals they are making, with the help of the American administration, are about ripping away from Syria any form of sovereignty,” Barghouti said.
And the third process, he explained, is creating Israeli dominance in the region, which includes “economic hegemony, political hegemony [and] intelligence hegemony over the whole Middle East”.
Reham Mahdi Al Jarrah, communications coordinator with the Women’s Affairs Center, a Palestinian non-profit group, says Israel’s expanded assault on Gaza City has not stopped for a “single moment”.
“Whole neighbourhoods are being completely wiped out … Families have nothing left. They’ve lost their homes, their jobs, their money, their savings, their dreams,” she told Al Jazeera.
“Have you ever heard of that white light that people say they see before they die? Since the ground invasion into Gaza City, I see it every single night,” said Al Jarrah, adding that nights are dominated by the roar of artillery and drones.
“The ear-splitting sound of bombing is so terrifying that me and my colleagues are unable to sleep … I cannot find the exact word to describe how horrifying the sound of bombing is as they are moving deeper into the city as they are levelling houses.”
She urged the United Nations, the international community and all people of conscience to act immediately, before Gaza is “crushed before the eyes of the world.”
The UN has said Israel must not only follow through on its pledge to probe the deadly hospital attack that killed civilians, including journalists and medics, but ensure those probes yield results.
“The Israeli authorities have in the past announced investigations in such killings … but these investigations need to yield results,” UN rights office spokesman Thameen Al-Kheetan told reporters in Geneva.
“There needs to be justice. We haven’t seen results or accountability measures yet,” he added.
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