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GAZA CITY/GENEVA: Israeli strikes killed at least 52 people across Gaza on Thursday, the territory’s civil defence agency and hospitals said, including an employee of the French charity Doctors Without Borders.
The civil defence agency, a rescue force which operates under Hamas authority, said the deaths were caused “by continuous Israeli bombardments on the Gaza Strip since dawn,” specifying that 10 people, including at least one child, were killed in Gaza City.
Several hospitals said that they had received 10 bodies in Gaza City, 14 in central Gaza, and 28 in the territory’s south. They reported that some were killed in air strikes, others by drone fire and shootings. Asked for comment, the Israeli army said it was looking into the matter.
The Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis reported nearly 30 deaths, including 14 killed by “Israeli gunfire” targeting Palestinians waiting for food distribution in the Al-Tina and Morag areas.
Nearly 42,000 people have ‘life-changing injuries’ in the besieged territory, says WHO
The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah said it had received nine bodies after several strikes on nearby areas. A photographer saw several corpses, some wrapped in white shrouds, in the hospital morgue as relatives mourned nearby.
Among the dead was 26-year-old Omar al-Hayek, a Doctors Without Borders (MSF) staff member. He was killed in a strike on a group of civilians in central Deir al-Balah, according to the hospital and his family.
“We received word that some of our staff had been injured and taken to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital,” said Karin Huster, head of the MSF medical team in Gaza. “When we arrived, we discovered that one of our colleagues had been killed, and four others wounded,” she said. “The consequences will be tragic for their families and for our team. Enough killings — whether targeted or not, this is unacceptable.”
‘Life-changing injuries’
Nearly 42,000 people, a quarter of them children, have suffered “life-changing injuries” including amputations, and head and spinal cord injuries in Israel’s war on Gaza, the World Health Organisation said on Thursday.
A fresh analysis from the United Nations’ health agency found that a quarter of those hurt over the two-year conflict have injuries that will seriously impact the rest of their lives. “Life-long rehabilitation will be required,” Richard Peeperkorn, the WHO’s representative in the Palestinian territories, told a press conference. Drawing on data from 22 WHO-supported Emergency Medical Teams, the health ministry and other health partners, Thursday’s report estimated that 41,844 had suffered life-changing injuries.
More than 5,000 had faced amputations, it said, cautioning that that number could be “undercounted” since it excluded so-called traumatic amputations which occur at the time of injury, outside of the health facility.
“Children appear to be disproportionately vulnerable to amputations,” Pete Skelton, the report’s main author, told journalists.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said “the most common injuries requiring rehabilitation are blast injuries to legs and arms”. Other life-altering injuries including spinal cord injury, traumatic brain injury and major burn injuries, he said, adding that “severe facial and eye injuries are also common, resulting in significant impairment and disfigurement”.
The WHO stressed the dire need for rehabilitation. But Tedros warned that “just when they are needed most, attacks, insecurity and displacement have put them out of reach”.
Published in Dawn, October 3rd, 2025
