TEHRAN — Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip killed dozens more Palestinians on Saturday, intensifying the already dire situation in the besieged territory. Hospital sources in Gaza told Al Jazeera that the death toll from strikes on Rafah has risen to 90, including about three dozen people who were trying to access aid.

The deadly bombardments come amid soaring hunger levels, as Israel’s blockade has forced many in Gaza—especially children—to dig through piles of rubbish in search of food.
The World Food Program (WFP) has warned that thousands of Palestinians in Gaza are on the “verge of catastrophic hunger,” with one in three residents going without food for days at a time.

In an urgent appeal issued Saturday, Gaza’s government media office called on the international community to open safe, permanent humanitarian corridors and end what it described as the deliberate politicization of aid. The statement, reported by Anadolu, also demanded an immediate lifting of the Israeli blockade that has pushed the population to the brink of starvation.

The media office appealed to “all countries, UN agencies, international organizations, human rights and legal bodies, and political entities worldwide to intervene without delay.”
It called for the “establishment of internationally supervised humanitarian corridors to guarantee unrestricted delivery of food and medicine across Gaza,” and urged that “aid distribution be free from manipulation by Israeli occupation forces or their collaborators.”

Describing the blockade as a “collective crime” against civilians, the media office demanded its immediate end and called for “intense international pressure on Israel to halt its genocidal policies of starvation and forced displacement.” It also urged a swift international investigation into “the crime of starvation with those responsible held accountable in courts of justice.”

Since the war on Gaza began in October 2023, Israeli military operations have killed approximately 58,800 people and wounded more than 140,000, as the enclave reels under the combined weight of displacement and hunger.