In the dusty ruins of Khan Younis, I watched emergency workers pull small bodies from beneath concrete slabs yesterday afternoon. This scene has become distressingly familiar across Gaza, where Israeli military operations continue to exact a devastating civilian toll despite mounting international pressure for restraint.
At least 28 Palestinians, including several children, were killed in a series of Israeli airstrikes targeting what the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) described as “Hamas militant infrastructure” in central and southern Gaza. The highest casualty count came from an apartment building in the Nuseirat refugee camp, where multiple families had sought shelter after fleeing previous bombardments.
“We were sleeping when the building shook violently. There was no warning,” said Mahmoud al-Najjar, a 44-year-old teacher whose nephew was among those killed. “How can anyone claim these children were combatants?”
The IDF maintains that Hamas deliberately embeds its operations within civilian infrastructure, making civilian casualties unavoidable despite precautionary measures. “We take extensive steps to minimize harm to non-combatants,” an IDF spokesperson told me via telephone. “But Hamas cynically uses civilians as human shields, placing command centers and weapons caches in residential buildings.”
This explanation offers little comfort to Gaza’s medical personnel working in catastrophic conditions. At Al-Aqsa Hospital, Dr. Khalil Suleiman operated for fourteen hours straight on victims from yesterday’s strikes. “The injuries we’re seeing are consistent with powerful explosives in densely populated areas,” he explained while washing blood from his hands. “Most victims today were women and children with traumatic amputations and crush injuries.”
According to the Gaza Health Ministry, the death toll in Gaza since October 7th has now surpassed 38,000, with approximately 70% being civilians according to United Nations estimates. These figures remain disputed by Israeli authorities, who question the methodology behind the counts.
The humanitarian situation deteriorates further with each passing week. World Food Programme officials report that famine conditions now affect much of northern Gaza, with critical shortages of clean water, medicine, and food throughout the territory. I spoke with families in Khan Younis who described sharing a single meal daily between eight people.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has called the situation “catastrophic” and emphasized that humanitarian aid deliveries remain woefully insufficient despite agreements to increase access. “The logistics of delivering aid under active combat conditions are extraordinarily challenging,” explained Maria Sanchez, a UNRWA field coordinator I interviewed at the Rafah crossing.
This latest round of casualties comes amid stalled ceasefire negotiations. Egyptian and Qatari mediators continue shuttling between parties, but fundamental disagreements persist about hostage releases, Israeli military withdrawal timelines, and future governance arrangements for Gaza.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken acknowledged the deteriorating humanitarian situation during a press briefing yesterday but reiterated America’s support for Israel’s right to defend itself while urging greater protection for civilians. “We continue to work intensively with all parties to bring this conflict to a close and secure the release of all hostages,” Blinken stated.
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell took a stronger stance, calling the civilian death toll “wholly unacceptable” and demanding “immediate humanitarian pauses” to allow aid delivery and evacuation of the wounded.
For ordinary Gazans, diplomatic statements offer little immediate relief. In a partially destroyed school now serving as a shelter in central Gaza, I met Samira Abed, a mother of four who has been displaced three times since October. “We don’t sleep anymore,” she told me, her youngest child clinging to her. “The children jump at every sound. They’ve seen things no child should witness.”
Medical professionals warn of long-term psychological trauma affecting an entire generation of Gaza’s children. “Even if the bombing stopped tomorrow, we’re facing a mental health catastrophe that will last decades,” said Dr. Yasser Abu Jamei, executive director of the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme, speaking via a patchy internet connection.
As night fell over Gaza yesterday, more airstrikes illuminated the horizon. The cycle of violence shows no immediate signs of abating, despite growing calls from international humanitarian organizations for an immediate ceasefire to address the civilian catastrophe unfolding in real time.
For now, Gaza’s civilians remain caught between Hamas’s continued rocket fire into Israel and the Israeli military’s determination to eliminate what it sees as an existential threat—regardless of the mounting humanitarian cost.
