The latest killings on Saturday came as Hamas also announced retrieving the remains of an Israeli soldier from a tunnel near Rafah in southern Gaza.
The Ministry of Health in the coastal enclave announced that the total number of people killed in Gaza since October 7, 2023, had risen to 69,169, after more of the dead were identified and more bodies were recovered from the rubble.
It also added that Israeli soldiers have killed more than 240 Palestinians since the ceasefire accord came into effect on October 10.
Despite some progress in delivering food to Palestinians in the besieged territory – ravaged by Israeli bombardment and racked by hunger – remains in urgent need of humanitarian assistance, the United Nations has said.
The UN and its partners have been able to get 37,000 metric tonnes of aid, mostly food, into Gaza since the October 10 ceasefire, but much more is needed, UN Spokesperson Farhan Haq told reporters on Friday.
“Despite significant progress on the humanitarian scale-up, people’s urgent needs are still immense, with impediments not being lifted quickly enough since the ceasefire,” Haq noted, citing reports from the UN’s humanitarian service, OCHA.
Haq was critical that entry of humanitarian supplies into Gaza continues to be limited to only two crossings – the Al-Karara (also known as Kissufim) and Karem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) crossings.
There is no direct access to Northern Gaza from the occupied territories or to Southern Gaza from Egypt, while NGO staff are being denied access, he continued.
Earlier this week, the UN stressed it had distributed food parcels to one million people in Gaza since the ceasefire, but warned it was still in a race to save lives.
The UN’s World Food Programme stressed all crossing points into the Gaza Strip should be opened to flood the famine-hit territory with aid, adding that no reason was given for why the Northern crossings with Israel remained closed.
Palestinians across Gaza continue to face shortages of food, water, medicine and other critical supplies as a result of Israeli restrictions.
Many families also lack adequate shelter as their homes and neighbourhoods have been completely destroyed in Israel’s two-year military bombardment.
