Israeli strikes kill 59, many of them women and children

WFP says all its food stocks depleted in Gaza

FE Team | Published: April 25, 2025 22:09:08

GAZA CITY (Palestinian Territories), Apr 25 (AFP): At least 59 people, including children, have been killed in a barrage of Israeli attacks across the besieged Gaza Strip.
Rescue teams and medics in the enclave said at least 12 people belonging to the same family were among those killed on Thursday when their home in northern Gaza's Jabalia was targeted. Six members of another family - a couple and their four children - were killed when an air strike levelled their home in Gaza City, the civil defence said in a statement.
Ahmed Arar, a first responder in Gaza City, said there were "large quantities of body parts and remains", including those of many children, after the attack.
"There are only hands, legs, and heads. They are all severed and torn," Arar told Al Jazeera.
Another 10 people were killed and several others wounded in a strike on a former police station in the Jabalia area of northern Gaza, according to a statement from the Indonesian Hospital, where the casualties were taken.
"Everyone started running and screaming, not knowing what to do from the horror and severity of the bombing," 23-year-old Abdel Qader Sabah, from Jabalia, said of the attack that hit the station that is located near a market. At least 26 people were killed in other Israeli attacks across the territory, according to medics and the civil defence agency.
Al Jazeera's Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from Deir el-Balah, said there is "an ongoing surge in the rate of Israeli attacks on the entire Gaza Strip". Israel resumed its military assault on the Gaza Strip on March 18, ending a two-month ceasefire that had brought a temporary halt to fighting in the blockaded territory.
The military is continuing to seal vital border crossings for the eighth week in a row, denying the entry of much-needed humanitarian aid, including medical supplies and fuel, worsening an already deep humanitarian crisis amid relentless bombardment.
Israel's army chief, visiting troops in Gaza on Thursday, threatened a "larger" offensive if captives seized in the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, are not freed.
"If we do not see progress in the return of the hostages in the near future, we will expand our activities to a larger and more significant operation," Eyal Zamir said.
The Israeli military, meanwhile, ordered Palestinians living in the northern areas of Beit Hanoon and Sheikh Zeid to evacuate in advance of an attack.
The United Nations has warned that Israel's expanding evacuation orders across Gaza are resulting in the "forcible transfer" of people into ever-shrinking areas.
Since Israel resumed its offensive on March 18 after the collapse of a two-month ceasefire with Hamas, at least 1,978 people have been killed in Gaza, bringing the overall death toll of the war to 51,355, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry.
Meanwhile, the UN's World Food Programme on Friday warned it has depleted all its food stocks in war-ravaged Gaza, where the entry of humanitarian aid has been blocked by Israel since March 2.
"Today, WFP delivered its last remaining food stocks to hot meals kitchens in the Gaza Strip. These kitchens are expected to fully run out of food in the coming days", WFP, one of the main providers of food assistance in Gaza, said in a statement.
After 18 months of war, the UN's humanitarian agency OCHA on Tuesday said the situation in Gaza "is probably the worst" now.
Israel blocked the entry of all aid into the Palestinian territory of around 2.4 million people days before it resumed its aerial and ground offensive after the collapse of a two-month ceasefire with Hamas.
"For weeks, hot meal kitchens have been the only consistent source of food assistance for people in Gaza. Despite reaching just half the population with only 25 percent of daily food needs, they have provided a critical lifeline," the WFP said Friday.
The UN agency added that all 25 WFP-supported bakeries in Gaza were forced to close on March 31 as wheat flour and cooking oil ran out.
"No humanitarian or commercial supplies have entered Gaza for more than seven weeks as all main border crossing points remain closed", it added.
"This is the longest closure the Gaza Strip has ever faced, exacerbating already fragile markets and food systems."
At least 1,978 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel resumed its assault in mid-March, bringing the overall death toll of the war to 51,355, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry.