Gaza’s Health Ministry has announced that 47 Palestinians were martyred and at least 205 others wounded in the last 24 hours of relentless Israeli bombardment across the besieged enclave, underscoring the catastrophic scale of the war now in its 23rd month.

In its daily report on Saturday, the ministry warned that many of the dead remain trapped under rubble or in streets rescue teams cannot access because of ongoing airstrikes and artillery fire. Ambulances and civil defense crews say they are overwhelmed by the scale of destruction, with many areas still under “active fire zones” declared by the Israeli occupation forces.

The latest figures raise the overall death toll of what Palestinians and human rights groups describe as an ongoing genocide to 64,803 killed and 164,264 wounded since October 7, 2023. The ministry added that 12,253 people have been killed and 52,223 injured since March 18, 2025 alone, a period marked by intensified Israeli ground operations and deliberate targeting of civilian infrastructure.

In one of the most harrowing developments, five more Palestinians were killed and 26 injured while attempting to collect desperately needed humanitarian aid, bringing the number of so-called “livelihood martyrs” to 2,484 dead and more than 18,117 injured since the beginning of the war.

Palestinian officials say the targeting of aid seekers – often standing in line at UN distribution points or rushing to trucks carrying flour and medicine – is part of a systematic campaign to starve Gaza’s 2.2 million residents into submission.

Hospitals in northern Gaza also reported seven new deaths due to starvation and malnutrition in the past 24 hours, including two children. That raises the total number of famine-related deaths to 420, among them 145 children, since the UN’s Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) declared famine earlier this year. At least 142 of those deaths, including 30 children, occurred after the famine alert was issued, fueling accusations that Israel is deliberately blocking aid in defiance of international law.

The Health Ministry repeated its urgent call for safe corridors for ambulances, rescue teams, food convoys, and medical aid deliveries to prevent a total humanitarian collapse.

Human rights organizations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have repeatedly accused the Israeli occupation of systematic war crimes, including collective punishment, targeting civilians, use of starvation as a weapon of war, and large-scale destruction of civilian housing and infrastructure. (ILKHA)