UNITED NATIONS: Uni­t­ed Nations chief Antonio Guterres on Friday said “Palestinians in Gaza are enduring what may be the cruelest phase of this cruel conflict” as Israel ramps up its military offensive.

“For nearly 80 days, Israel blocked the entry of life-saving international aid,” he said in a statement. “The entire population of Gaza is facing the risk of famine.

“The Israeli military offensive is intensifying with atrocious levels of death and destruction.

“Today, 80 per cent of Gaza has been either designated an Israeli-militarised zone or an area where people have been ordered to leave.”

More than 50 Palestinians dead or missing in Israeli strike on Jabalia

Aid also began trickling into the Gaza Strip on Monday for the first time in more than two months, amid condemnation of the Israeli blockade that sparked severe shortages of food and medicine.

“Israel has clear obligations under international humanitarian law,” Guterres said. “As the occupying power, it must agree to allow and facilitate the aid that is needed,” he said.

More than 50 Palestinians were killed or went missing after an Israeli air strike on a residential building in the Jabalia al-Balad area of northern Gaza, Palestinian Civil Defence sources say.

Israeli drones targeted more than five locations near the entrance to Deir al-Balah in central Gaza on Friday morning, the official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.

When people rushed to help the victims, Israeli forces attacked them again, injuring several more Palestinians.

Separately, three people, including a young girl, lost their lives in an Israeli airstrike on an apartment near Abdel Aal junction on al-Jalaa Street in Gaza City.

Two siblings were killed, and their father suffered critical injuries when an Israeli strike hit a home in the western camp area of Khan Yunis in southern Gaza.

In eastern Khan Yunis, several casualties are reported after Israeli forces struck a home in the town of Abasan al-Kabira.

Israeli air strikes also killed at least six Palestinians guarding aid trucks against looters, Hamas officials said, underlining the problems hindering supplies from reaching hungry people in Gaza following Israel’s 11-week-long blockade.

The Israeli military claimed 107 trucks carrying flour and other foodstuffs as well as medical supplies, entered the Gaza Strip from the Kerem Shalom crossing point on Thursday. But getting the supplies to people sheltering in tents and other makeshift accommodations has been fitful.

So far, an umbrella network of Palestinian aid groups said, 119 aid trucks have entered Gaza since Israel eased its blockade on Monday in the face of an international outcry.

But distribution has been hampered by looting by groups of men, some of them armed, near the city of Khan Yunis, the network said.

A Hamas official said six members of a security team tasked with guarding the shipments were killed. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

The aid groups network also said the amount of aid coming into Gaza was still inadequate and only included a narrow range of supplies. It said Israel’s agreement to allow trucks to enter the war-shattered enclave was a “deceptive manoeuvre” to avoid international pressure calling for the lifting of the blockade.

Published in Dawn, May 24th, 2025