The crisis is Gaza is only growing. Here’s what to know

JERUSALEM (AP):

The crisis in Gaza has reached one of its darkest periods, as Israel blocks all food and supplies from entering the territory and continues an intensifying bombardment campaign.

Humanitarian officials caution that famine threatens to engulf the strip. Doctors say they are out of medicine to treat routine conditions.

Israeli leaders are threatening an even more intense ground offensive. The military is preparing for a new organisation with US backing to take over aid delivery, despite alarms raised from humanitarian groups that the plans won’t meet the massive need and could place restrictions on those eligible. It’s unclear when operations would begin or who would fund them.

“This is the deadliest and most destructive phase of Israel’s war on Gaza, yet the world has turned away,” said Bushra Khalidi, policy lead for Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory at the humanitarian nonprofit Oxfam. “After 19 months of horror, Gaza has become a place where international law is suspended, and humanity is abandoned.”

Here’s what to know about the state of affairs in Gaza.

CASUALTIES SOAR

Israel ended a six-week ceasefire in mid-March and resumed its attacks in Gaza, saying military pressure against Hamas was the best way to push the militant group into freeing more hostages. But ceasefire talks remain deadlocked, and scores of civilians have been killed in Israeli airstrikes.

On Friday, Israeli airstrikes killed 108 – raising the death toll over the past three days to more than 200 Palestinians. Those numbers come from the Palestinian Health Ministry, a body directed by the Hamas government that does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.

The strikes – often at night, as people sleep in their tents – have directly targeted hospitals, schools, medical clinics, mosques, a Thai restaurant-turned shelter. The European Hospital, the only remaining facility providing cancer treatments in Gaza, was put out of service.

Israel says it targets only militants and accuses Hamas of using civilians as human shields.

But the death toll has reached the same level of intensity as the earliest days of the war, when Israel pounded Gaza with airstrikes in the aftermath of the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack, said Emily Tripp, executive director of Airwars, an independent group in London that tracks recent conflicts.

She says preliminary data indicate the number of incidents where at least one person was killed or injured by Israeli fire hovered around 700 in April. It’s a figure comparable only to October or December 2023 – one of the heaviest periods of bombardment.

In the last 10 days of March, UNICEF estimates that an average of 100 children were killed or maimed by Israeli airstrikes every day.

Almost 3,000 of the estimated 53,000 dead since October 7, 2023, have been killed since Israel broke the ceasefire on March 18, the ministry said.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised last week to use even more force against Hamas, against the objections of families of hostages begging him to agree to a deal instead.

An Israeli official said the strikes Friday were preparatory actions for a larger operation, intended to send a message to Hamas that it will begin soon if there isn’t an agreement to release hostages. The official was not authorised to brief media and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The war began when Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people in an October 7, 2023, intrusion into southern Israel. Hamas still holds 58 of the roughly 250 hostages it took during its attack, with 23 believed to still be alive, although Israeli authorities have expressed concern for the status of three.

FOOD, WATER BLOCKED

Israel has blocked food, water and supplies from reaching Gaza – where the UN says the entire population is reliant on aid – for more than two months. Most community kitchens have shut down. The main food providers inside Gaza – the UN’s World Food Program and World Central Kitchen – say they are out of food. Vegetables and meat are inaccessible or unaffordable. Palestinians queue for hours for a small scoop of rice.

Food security experts said in a stark warning Monday that Gaza would likely fall into famine if Israel doesn’t lift its blockade and stop its military campaign,

Nearly half a million Palestinians face possible starvation – living in “catastrophic” levels of hunger – and one million others can barely get enough food, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, a leading international authority on the severity of hunger crises.