During Israel's month-long Israeli blockade, seven people were killed in Israel's attacks on the Gaza Strip, deepening the humanitarian crisis in the war-torn coastal areas.
Palestinian news agency WAFA said Israeli fighter jets blew up the tent in a tent near Sabra in Gaza City on Saturday morning, killing five members of the Tlaib family.
“Three children, their mother and her husband sleep in a tent and are one [Israeli] Occupy the plane,” family member Omar Abu al-Kass told AFP.
Abu Al-Kass added that the strike was “no warning, nothing wrong”, said Abu Al-Kass, who said he was the grandfather of the child.
Meanwhile, a drone attack on the Gaza city of Tuffah killed one person.
WAFA goes south, saying Israeli gunboats opened a “heavy fire” on the coast of Rafah, killing a man identified as Mohamed Said Bardavir. Two other civilians were injured in the attack on the Al-Mawasi humanitarian zone west of Rafah.
At least 23 Palestinians have been killed in the past 24 hours, and 124 people were injured in Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip.
Israel blockade
Since March 2, Israel has continued to refuse to allow important supplies to Gaza, which has caused the attack to take place, which has relied on a reduced number of charitable kitchens that have been running out of food in recent days.
“There is almost no food… the bakery we're talking about isn't operating, we're talking about zero distribution points, we're talking about a few hot-dining kitchens that can still run,” Al Jazeera's Hind Khoudary reported in Deir El-Balah in central Gaza.
Those who line up for hours usually return empty-handed, with the remaining kitchen reaching out to the food that previously fed 100 people up to 2,000 people, Hodari said.
“We're seeing more deaths, we're seeing more children dying due to malnutrition and lack of food. But it's not only lack of food, but also lack of medical supplies, lack of fuel, cooking gas, and everything,” she said.
Amid the charity closure, the U.S.-based World Central Kitchen said Wednesday it was forced to close because it no longer needs to bake bread or cook meals.
The United Nations Office for Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs calls for lifting the lockdown.
“The kids are starving and dying. The community kitchen is closing. Clean water is running out.”
“Human failure”
The lockdown also has devastating effects on people with chronic diseases, depriving Palestinians with diabetes, cancer and rare diseases, life-saving drugs.
“The doctors here say it's not a tragedy that happened, but it's preventable,” Al Jazeera's Hani Mahmoud said in a report in Gaza.
He added: “There is a treatment for these diseases, but Gaza people no longer have access to them, and they say it is not only a failure of logistics, but also a failure of humanity.”
Mahmoud talks to the father of a 10-year-old boy with diabetes, who says insulin is not available in northern Gaza.
“I spent a whole day searching for the pharmacy, hoping to find it. Sometimes we heard that individuals might have it, so I went to their home to barter.”
“Most of the patients are struggling to find their essential medicines. Without them, their health can worsen and potentially life-threatening,” Al-Soudy, emergency director of the Department of Oncology at Al Helou International Hospital in Gaza told Al Jazeera.
Pharmacist Rana Alsamak told Al Jazeera that Palestinians do not have access to drugs for “multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, hepatitis, chronic diseases and … immune-related diseases.”
“These conditions are no longer treated now,” she said.
On Friday, the United States said it was establishing the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation to coordinate aid to Gaza and Israel provides military security for its operations. The United Nations rejected the move, saying it would help weapons, violate the principle of neutrality and lead to mass displacement.
