What You Should Know About Gaza Right Now as Israel’s Offensive Intensifies

Gaza (Quds News Network)- Hunger and disease continue to stalk Palestinians in Gaza, with aid organizations warning that children are at greatest risk of starvation. These warnings come as Israeli attacks intensify across the Gaza Strip, particularly in Gaza City ahead of stated plans to occupy the area. Civilians, already suffering from severe hunger, are now being forced to flee.

Here is a brief summary of the situation in Gaza:

1. How many Palestinians in Gaza have been killed since the start of the Israeli genocide?

The Palestinian Health Ministry said on Tuesday that Israeli forces have killed 62,064 people, including:

• 10,518 killed since Israel violated the ceasefire agreement and resumed its assault on Gaza in March 2025
• 1,996 killed while seeking aid near or at the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation since May
• 266 died from starvation and malnutrition

156,573 others have also been injured.

UNICEF estimates that 17,000 children are among those killed since the start of the genocide, with another 33,000 injured.

Speaking at a U.N. Security Council meeting on July 16, UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said the toll is like “a whole classroom of children killed every day for nearly two years.”

The Ministry confirmed that over 18,400 children have been killed.

“These children are not combatants,” Russell said. “They are being killed and maimed as they line up for lifesaving food and medicine.”

2. How many have been displaced?

The United Nations said that at least 1.9 million people, about 90% of Gaza’s population, have been displaced during the war. “Many have been displaced repeatedly, some 10 times or more,” according to UNRWA.

According to the UN, as of 13 August, 86.3 percent of the Gaza Strip remains within the Israeli-militarized zone, under displacement orders, or where these overlap, with the remaining areas of the territory still only accessible to Palestinian civilians.

780,358 people have been displaced since Israel violated the ceasefire with 12,530 being displaced between 29 July and 12 August, 68 percent of which originated from Gaza governorate, according to the UN.

3. How much access to water and food is there in Gaza?

Even before the assault, an estimated 97% of Gaza’s drinking water was contaminated by the sea, sewage and farm runoff and was therefore considered unsafe. Since October 2023, Israeli airstrikes against critical infrastructure such as wells, desalination units, sewage pumps, tanks and pipelines have caused the system to collapse, according to Human Rights Watch.

The United Nations humanitarian agency (OCHA) warned that preventable diseases in Gaza are on the rise and killing civilians due to the lack of desperately needed medicine and clean water.

The outbreaks of diseases are “directly linked to the lack of clean water and sanitation in Gaza, underscoring the urgent need for fuel, medical supplies, and water, sanitation and hygiene items to prevent further collapse of the public health system,” the agency added.

Recently, UNICEF warned that Gaza faces a grave risk of famine, with one in three people going days without food.

Over 100 humanitarian organizations, including Amnesty International, Doctors Without Borders (MSF), and Oxfam, warned that “mass starvation” is spreading across Gaza, with their colleagues in the enclave wasting away from hunger.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said Gaza City has been the area “worst-hit” by malnutrition in the Gaza Strip, with nearly one in five children under five there now acutely malnourished.

The World Food Programme (WFP) has warned that thousands of Palestinians in Gaza are “on the verge of catastrophic hunger,” with one in three people in the enclave going days without food.

Health officials in Gaza issued a stark warning lately: Hundreds of severely emaciated Palestinians are on the verge of death, their bodies too weak to resist any longer.

The Director of Al-Shifa Hospital said hospitals are dealing with hundreds suffering from severe hunger and malnutrition. “We don’t have enough beds or medicine,” he said. “We’re seeing symptoms like memory loss, exhaustion, and collapse from extreme hunger.” He added: “We have 17,000 children suffering from severe malnutrition. This is a generation being starved to death.”

According to the Government Media Office in Gaza, over 650,000 children under the age of five face an imminent and severe risk of acute malnutrition in the coming weeks, out of a total of 1.1 million children in the Gaza Strip.

Currently, around 1.25 million people in Gaza are living under catastrophic hunger conditions, while 96% of the population is suffering from severe levels of food insecurity, including more than one million children, according to the Office.

UNRWA warned, “The Israeli Authorities are starving civilians in Gaza. Among them are 1 million children.”

Jagan Chapagain, the secretary-general of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said Palestinians in Gaza face “an acute risk of famine”.

“No one should have to risk their life to get basic humanitarian assistance,” he said.

According to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) in late July, two out of three famine thresholds for food consumption have been breached across most of Gaza, with acute malnutrition levels in Gaza City confirming aid agencies’ repeated warnings.

“Mounting evidence shows that widespread starvation, malnutrition, and disease are driving a rise in hunger-related deaths,” the IPC assessment maintained.

“The worst-case scenario of Famine is currently playing out in the Gaza Strip.”

“It’s clearly a disaster unfolding in front of our eyes, in front of our television screens,” said Ross Smith, UN World Food Programme (WFP) Director of Emergencies.

“This is not a warning, this is a call to action. This is unlike anything we have seen in this century,” he told journalists in Geneva.

The last IPC analysis on Gaza, issued on May 12, forecast that the entire population would likely experience high levels of acute food insecurity by the end of September, with 469,500 people projected to likely hit “catastrophic” levels.

Michael Fakhri, the UN special rapporteur on the right to food, said: “Israel has built the most efficient starvation machine you can imagine. So while it’s always shocking to see people being starved, no one should act surprised. All the information has been out in the open since early 2024.”

“Israel is starving Gaza. It’s genocide. It’s a crime against humanity. It’s a war crime. I have been repeating it and repeating it and repeating it.”

On Monday, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) warned that as of July 2025, more than 320,000 children – the entire population under the age of five in Gaza – are at risk of acute malnutrition.

Families are surviving on the bare minimum of basic foods, with almost no dietary diversity, WFP said. The agency called for an immediate ceasefire to allow large-scale delivery of humanitarian aid.

Stephane Dujarric, the spokesperson of United Nations chief Antonio Guterres, also warned that the humanitarian crisis in Gaza is “beyond catastrophic”.

“Hunger-related deaths continue to be reported, including among children,” Dujarric told reporters.

He cited UN agencies as saying that the amounts of food entering Gaza are insufficient to meet the needs of the population amid the Israeli blockade.

Dujarric stressed that in order to prevent hunger-related deaths, “humanitarians must be able to deliver food at scale and consistently through all available crossings and routes to reach the population of 2.1 million people”.

4. Is Humanitarian Aid Reaching Gaza?

On March 2, Israel announced the closure of Gaza’s main crossings, cutting off food, medical and humanitarian supplies, worsening a humanitarian crisis for 2.3 million Palestinians, with human rights organizations accusing it of using starvation as a weapon of war against Palestinians.

After more than 80 days of total blockade, starvation, and growing international outrage, limited aid has allegedly been distributed by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a scandal-plagued organization backed by the US and Israel, created to bypass the UN’s established aid delivery infrastructure in the Gaza Strip.

Most humanitarian organisations, including the UN, have distanced themselves from GHF, arguing that the group violates humanitarian principles by restricting aid to south and central Gaza, requiring Palestinians to walk long distances to collect aid, and only providing limited aid, among other critiques. They have also said the model would increase forced displacement in Gaza.

Moreover, mass killings of aid seekers near and at GHF aid sites have become a grim daily reality amid chaotic scenes, as desperate Palestinians are given only a narrow window to rush for food and are targeted by Israeli forces and American mercenaries. Testimonies and evidence from US mercenaries working with GHF, as well as from Gaza civilians, reveal that aid seekers are being directly and deliberately targeted, despite posing no threat.

Palestinians in Gaza and the UN described these sites as “mass death traps” and “slaughterhouses”.

According to the UN human rights office, at least 1000 people have been killed while seeking food near or at the GHF sites since the GHF began operating in late May. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said: “Most of these killings were committed by the Israeli military.”

More than 514 were also killed by Israeli forces along the routes of food convoys, OHCHR added.

Human Rights Watch stated that Israel’s killing of aid seekers at GHF sites amounts to war crimes.

With starvation across the Strip spreading, international outcry over images of emaciated children and increasing reports of hunger-related deaths pressured Israel to let more aid into the Gaza, the Israeli military announced in July 27 a “tactical pause” in military activity in some areas of Gaza which it claimed would make it easier to send in UN convoys. However, attacks and killings have been reported across most of the Strip.

A UN worker said the “last minute” aid windows may not be enough to treat malnourished children.

The UN confirmed that Israel is still blocking food from reaching starving Palestinians with only a few trucks of aid having reached Gaza.

Two weeks ago, the WFP said it is not getting the necessary volumes of humanitarian assistance into Gaza despite Israel claiming it issued new measures to enable more supplies to enter the enclave.

“We have not gotten the authorisation, the permission to move in the volumes that we’ve requested,” Smith said.

Smith said the disaster unfolding in Gaza is “unlike anything we have seen in this century”, adding that it was reminiscent of famines seen in Ethiopia and Biafra, Nigeria, in the 20th century.

The Gaza Government Media Office and aid groups confirmed that Gaza requires at least 600 aid and fuel trucks daily to provide for the essential needs of its health, public service, and food sectors.

The Office noted: “We confirm that there are more than 22,000 humanitarian aid trucks currently parked at the Gaza Strip crossing gates, most of which belong to UN and international organizations and various entities.”

Israel has also deliberately engineered famine and chaos in Gaza, the Gaza Government Media Office said, as most of the aid trucks that entered Gaza were looted in a “systematic disorder fostered by the Israeli occupation”.

“What is happening in Gaza is a clear and deliberate model of how the Israeli occupation is consciously fostering chaos and engineering starvation,” the Media Office said, adding that aid is being intentionally prevented from reaching warehouses or intended recipients.

Gaza’s Ministry of Interior and National Security has also accused Israel of pursuing a policy of targeting its staff “carrying out their duty of securing aid trucks distributed by international organisations, preventing them from reaching those in need safely”.

It also accused Israeli forces of sponsoring “networks of thieves and thugs to seize control of aid trucks, depriving more than two million citizens of safe access and perpetuating famine in the Strip”.

“This is a blatant attempt by the occupation to absolve itself of legal responsibility for using starvation as a weapon in times of war,” the Ministry said in a statement.

This strategy forces Palestinians to travel long distances for aid, putting themselves at great risk, the statement read, adding that this has led to the “destruction of some of the aid supplies due to stampede and overcrowding”.

“Meanwhile, the occupation directly targets them and commits massacres, killing dozens daily near the routes leading to the entry of aid.”

5. Has Israel Began its plan to occupy Gaza City?

Israel’s security cabinet two weeks ago approved plans to seize Gaza City and forcibly displace hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to concentration zones, despite international condemnation from the United Nations and states.

The plan reportedly involves forcing around one million residents southwards before surrounding the city and launching incursions into residential areas, followed by an expansion into refugee camps in central Gaza.

Now, Israel’s military has stepped up attacks on Gaza City as part of its plans, forcing tens of thousands of starving Palestinians to flee again.

The Gaza City neighbourhoods of Zeitoun, Sabra, Remal and Tuffah have particularly borne the brunt of the Israeli bombardments in recent days as a spokesperson for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Israel’s plans to forcibly displace Palestinians to southern Gaza would increase their suffering.

Thousands of families have fled Zeitoun, one of Gaza City’s largest neighbourhoods, and Sabra, where days of continuous strikes have left the neighbourhood devastated.

The two neighbourhoods have faced continuous bombardment and demolitions since last week.

Civil Defence officials said entire families were killed when their homes were blown up without warning using high-explosive bombs that also levelled surrounding buildings.

They added that rescue crews have been blocked from reaching the wounded or recovering bodies, worsening the humanitarian situation.

Mahmoud Basal, spokesperson for Gaza’s Civil Defence, stated last week:

“A catastrophic reality is unfolding in Gaza City. The city is under intense and relentless Israeli bombardment. High-rise buildings are being targeted, even though civilians remain inside.”

Residents told Quds News Network that Israeli forces appeared to be in the preparatory stage of the expanded invasion, hitting multiple neighbourhoods.

Already displaced Palestinians are pleading for global intervention: “Where are we supposed to go?”