Death toll in Israel’s war on Gaza surpasses 60,000

Israeli forces have killed at least 60,034 Palestinians since the war on Gaza erupted in October 2023, according to the enclave’s Ministry of Health, reports Aljazeera.

The grim milestone was reached on Tuesday, as the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a global hunger monitoring system, warned in a new report that the “worst-case scenario of famine” was unfolding in Gaza.

Medical sources told Al Jazeera that at least 83 Palestinians, including 33 aid seekers, have been killed since dawn, despite “pauses” in fighting to deliver essential humanitarian aid.

Local accounts indicate that Israel used booby-trapped robots, as well as tanks and drones, in what residents describe as one of the bloodiest nights in recent weeks, said Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza.

“This is a sign of a possible imminent Israeli ground manoeuvre, although Israel has not yet confirmed the objectives of the attack,” he said.

Food consumption has sharply deteriorated, the IPC said in its report, with one in three people going without food for days at a time.

“Latest data indicates that famine thresholds have been reached for food consumption in most of the Gaza Strip and for acute malnutrition in Gaza City,” it said.

“Amid relentless conflict, mass displacement, severely restricted humanitarian access, and the collapse of essential services, including healthcare, the crisis has reached an alarming and deadly turning point.”

Malnutrition rose rapidly in the first half of July, with more than 20,000 children being admitted for treatment for acute malnutrition between April and mid-July. More than 3,000 of them are severely malnourished.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, citing the IPC report, demanded that aid deliveries no longer be blocked or delayed._Agencies.