For 679 relentless days, Israel’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip has continued unabated, marked by merciless airstrikes, artillery bombardments, and the deliberate targeting of starving civilians and displaced families.

Backed by unwavering U.S. political and military support, Israel’s campaign has plunged over two million Palestinians into a deepening humanitarian catastrophe, exacerbated by famine and a shocking absence of international intervention.

Local sources reported a surge in Israeli airstrikes and massacres across Gaza on Friday, intensifying the suffering of displaced communities already grappling with starvation. Medical sources confirmed multiple casualties, including aid seekers, as Israeli forces shelled residential areas and detonated booby-trapped robots in central Khan Yunis. In Al-Sabra, southwest of Gaza City, artillery fire devastated the “Abu Share’a” area, while tanks unleashed heavy barrages in northwestern Khan Yunis.

Among the victims was four-year-old Ali Hammam Hassan, who succumbed to injuries sustained in an Israeli airstrike on his home in Deir al-Balah days earlier. In a separate attack, two Palestinians were killed and others injured when Israeli forces struck a tent sheltering displaced families near the communications junction in Al-Rimal, west of Gaza City. A chilling video from May also surfaced, showing Israeli forces targeting three Palestinians attempting to recover a martyr’s body in Al-Shuja’iya, eastern Gaza, underscoring the brutality of the ongoing assault.

The Gaza Ministry of Health reports a staggering toll: 61,722 Palestinians killed, 154,525 injured, and over 10,000 missing, presumed dead under rubble or in mass graves. Since Israel’s breach of a ceasefire agreement on March 18, 2025, an additional 10,201 Palestinians have been killed and 42,484 injured. The escalation since May 27, when Israel began ambushing aid distribution points, has claimed 1,859 lives and injured 13,594, with 45 people unaccounted for. The so-called “Gaza Humanitarian Foundation,” an Israeli-American initiative rejected by the United Nations, has been implicated in these deadly ambushes, weaponizing aid delivery to enforce surrender and death.

Famine has gripped Gaza, with 227 deaths from hunger and malnutrition, including 103 children. Israel’s targeting of humanitarian workers has further crippled relief efforts, with 1,590 medical workers, 115 civil defense members, and 754 humanitarian aid personnel killed. Over 15,000 massacres have been documented, including the targeting of 14,000 families, 2,500 of which have been entirely erased from civil records.

Israel’s campaign has obliterated 88% of Gaza’s buildings, with estimated losses exceeding $62 billion. Israeli forces now control 77% of Gaza’s territory through invasion and displacement. The destruction of institutions is staggering: 149 schools and universities completely razed, 369 partially damaged, 828 mosques demolished, and 167 partially destroyed. Even cemeteries have not been spared, with 19 desecrated.

As Gaza’s people face starvation, displacement, and relentless violence, the international community’s silence remains deafening. The Palestinian people continue to resist and endure, calling for global action to halt Israel’s genocidal war and hold its perpetrators accountable. (ILKHA)