Carnage in Gaza escalates as world watches Iran

Israeli gunfire and airstrikes have massacred at least 140 Palestinians in Gaza in the past 24 hours alone, according to local health officials quoted in a Reuters report — a staggering toll that has barely registered internationally as global attention veers toward Israel’s military exchanges with Iran.

In addition, the airstrikes have left 560 wounded. Many victims reportedly remain trapped under debris or lying in the streets, unreachable by rescue teams.

Gaza’s health ministry reported that at least 40 people were killed on Wednesday alone, victims of near-constant Israeli bombardments and gunfire. These included Palestinians gunned down while desperately seeking food — the latest in a horrific pattern of deadly assaults targeting aid seekers since Israel marginally eased its total siege of the enclave.

Israeli warplanes pounded homes across Gaza yet again. At least 21 civilians were obliterated in strikes on the Maghazi refugee camp, the Zeitoun district, and Gaza City. Another five were killed in an airstrike on a makeshift encampment in Khan Younis. Fourteen more lives were lost when Israeli forces opened fire on a group of displaced people waiting for food along Salahuddin Road — a supposed aid corridor.

In response to inquiries about the slaughter on Salahuddin Road, the Israeli military offered its routine defence: that people had “approached troops” in a threatening manner despite warnings. Soldiers fired warning shots, the IDF claimed, while insisting they were unaware of any casualties. Regarding the other bloodshed, the military stated it was working to “dismantle Hamas military capabilities” while allegedly taking “feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm”.

Feasible? Nearly 400 Palestinians trying to collect aid have been killed and over 3,000 wounded since deliveries resumed in late May, Gaza’s health ministry said on Tuesday. This isn’t precaution — it’s calculated cruelty.

Meanwhile, many Gazans fear their agony is being erased from the global conscience as the world obsesses over Israel’s five-day confrontation with Iran. “People are being slaughtered in Gaza, day and night, but attention has shifted to the Iran-Israel war. There is little news about Gaza these days,” Adel, a Gaza City resident, told Reuters.

“Whoever doesn't die from Israeli bombs dies from hunger,” he added. “People risk their lives every day to get food, and they also get killed and their blood smears the sacks of flour they thought they had won.”

'Forgotten...'

Rather than addressing the humanitarian collapse, Israel now funnels aid through the US- and Israeli-endorsed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation — a coalition that operates distribution points guarded by Israeli forces and staffed by private American firms. Aid under armed watch. Hunger policed by those complicit in its creation.

Israel claims this process ensures aid doesn’t reach Hamas. Hamas, in turn, denies intercepting any supplies and accuses Israel of wielding hunger as a weapon of war.

Philippe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, condemned the current distribution system as “a disgrace & a stain on our collective consciousness”.

This unrelenting genocide was unleashed after the October 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel, which left 1,200 dead and saw 250 people taken hostage, according to Israeli officials. Since then, Israel has exacted a devastating toll: nearly 55,600 Palestinians killed, almost the entire population of 2 million displaced, and famine looming, though some would say it has already set in.

The accusations levelled against Israel — genocide and war crimes — are mounting. Israel denies them. But denials cannot erase mass graves, razed neighbourhoods, or the children buried beneath rubble and bureaucracy.

Even as Israel launches airstrikes against Iran, itself a long-time supporter of Hamas, Palestinians in Gaza remain acutely aware of where they stand — in the crossfire and out of sight.

“We are maybe happy to see Israel suffer from Iranian rockets, but at the end of the day, one more day in this war costs the lives of tens of innocent people,” said Shaban Abed, a 47-year-old father of five in northern Gaza quoted by Reuters. “We just hope that a comprehensive solution could be reached to end the war in Gaza, too. We are being forgotten,” he said.

With agency inputs