Main events on April 26th
- Israel’s relentless bombardment of Gaza continues, with at least 40 Palestinians killed in attacks across the Strip on Saturday, medics say.
- Palestinians in Gaza are facing starvation, with the World Food Programme (WFP) warning that its food stocks have been depleted by Israel’s total blockade on the Strip.
- A Hamas delegation is in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, as mediators scramble to restore the ceasefire in Gaza.
- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has appointed his close aide, Hussein al-Sheikh, as vice president, according to the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).
- Thousands of Israelis are rallying in Tel Aviv, demanding that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu end the war on Gaza and secure the release of captives.
Israeli forces killed 40 in Gaza on Saturday, medics say
Here are some of the attacks:
- A civil defence official told the AFP news agency that an Israeli attack on the al-Khour family home in the Sabra neighbourhood killed at least 10 people.
- Our colleagues on the ground say four Palestinians were killed and several others wounded in an Israeli air strike on the city of Deir el-Balah in central Gaza.
- Three others were killed in an Israeli drone attack on the so-called “safe zone” of al-Mawasi in southern Khan Younis.
People surround the bodies of the Khour family in the yard of the sl-Shifa hospital after their house was hit by an Israeli strike in Gaza City’s Sabra neighbourhood on Saturday
Top UN official warns of ‘full-scale famine conditions’ in Gaza
Jonathan Whittall, the head of the UN’s humanitarian agency (OCHA) in Gaza, says Israel’s “total and complete blockade” of the Strip, which is nearing the end of its second month, is causing “endless suffering”.
“The coming days in Gaza are going to be critical. Today, people are not surviving in Gaza. Those that aren’t being killed with bombs and bullets are slowly dying,” Whittall told journalists at a news conference in Gaza City.
“As humanitarians, we can see that aid is being weaponised through its denial,” he said. “There’s no justification for the denial of humanitarian assistance.”
Whittall also confirmed that the WFP’s stockpiles in Gaza are exhausted and said “there are no meaningful food distributions currently happening in” the Strip.
He warned that Gaza is on the verge of “full-scale famine conditions” but said such a declaration will need to be based on evidence. OCHA will be working with other organisations to determine whether the hunger crisis in Gaza constitutes a famine, he added.
Let's argue some more about the terminology while people are already dying from starvation, ffs.
