Hamas-run civil defence agency has said that Gaza City has come under intense air attack, as Israeli forces prepare to occupy the city.
Hamas spokesman, Mahmud Bassal, said the residential areas of Zeitoun and Sabra had for three days been hit by bombs and drone strikes that “cause massive destruction to civilian homes,” with residents unable to recover the dead and injured.
The UK, EU, Australia, Canada, and Japan issued a joint statement saying “famine is unfolding in front of our eyes” and urged action to “reverse starvation.”
They demanded “immediate, permanent and concrete steps” to facilitate the entry of aid to Gaza.
The joint statement also demanded an end to the use of lethal force near aid distribution sites and lorry convoys, where the UN says more than 1,300 Palestinians have been killed, mostly by the Israeli military.
Israel, however, denies there is starvation in Gaza.
It has accused UN agencies of not picking up aid at the borders and delivering it.
“We all hear about ‘more humanitarian supplies are allowed in’ – well it’s not happening yet, or it’s happening at a way too low a pace,” said World Health Organisation’s (WHO’s) representative on Palestinian territories, Rik Peeperkorn.
On Monday, Israel’s war cabinet voted to occupy Gaza City, a move condemned at an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council later that day. On Tuesday, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said it was “at the beginning of a new state of combat.”
The Israeli government has not provided an exact timetable on when its forces would enter the area. On Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel’s forces had been instructed to dismantle the “two remaining Hamas strongholds” in Gaza City and a central area around al-Mawasi.
