UN experts demanded action on Wednesday to avert the “annihilation” of Palestinians in Gaza, as rescuers said Israeli strikes across the territory killed dozens of people.
A planned expanded offensive revealed by the Israeli military has drawn international condemnation, after UN agencies previously warned of humanitarian catastrophe in the Palestinian territory already devastated by 19 months of war.
More than 20 independent United Nations experts said the world faced a “stark decision” to “remain passive and witness the slaughter of innocents or take part in crafting a just resolution”.
The experts implored the international community to avert the “moral abyss we are descending into”.
Israel’s broader offensive, approved by the government amid a two-month aid blockade on Gaza, would include displacing “most” of its residents, the military has said.
France’s President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday called the situation in Gaza “the most critical we have ever seen”.
Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said Madrid would present a draft resolution at the UN General Assembly aimed at “proposing urgent measures to stop the killing of innocent civilians and ensure humanitarian aid” in Gaza.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer told parliament the situation in Gaza and the occupied West Bank was “increasingly intolerable”.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas on Wednesday said that Brussels had made an offer to Israel “to distribute the humanitarian aid if they don’t trust the other actors there”.
Rescuers in the Palestinian territory said Israeli bombardment on Wednesday killed 59 people — 48 of them in Gaza City.
“Civil defence crews, paramedics and volunteers transported at least 33 martyrs and more than 80 injured, about half of them children and some women, as a result of the Israeli air strike” in the Al-Rimal neighbourhood of Gaza City, spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP.
‘World stands by’
The strike is one of the deadliest since the resumption of Israel’s offensive on Gaza after a two-month ceasefire in the Palestinian territory collapsed on March 18.
Bassal earlier reported 15 dead in strikes on the Tuffah district east of Gaza City and 11 killed elsewhere in the territory.
One strike hit a house in the southern city of Khan Yunis, killing eight Al-Qidra family members and wounding 12, he said.
The dead were aged between two and 54, he added.
AFP footage from Khan Yunis’s Nasser Hospital showed wounded children crying on hospital beds while bodies covered in blankets arrived in ambulances.
“They were sleeping and the house collapsed on them,” said Abir Shehab, adding that her brother had been killed.
“We die of hunger, we die of war, we die of fear, we die of everything, and the whole world stands by and watches us die,” she said.
Israel’s military did not immediately comment on the strikes.
World Central Kitchen (WCK), which ran one of the last bakeries still operating in Gaza, late Wednesday announced it no longer had the supplies to cook meals or make bread in Gaza.
“Additional food and equipment are ready to be shipped to the border from Jordan and Egypt. Our vital work cannot continue without permission from Israel for this aid to enter,” the charity said in a statement.
‘Desperate attempts’
Hamas reiterated its call for a “comprehensive” agreement to end the war earlier on Wednesday.
“Hamas and the resistance factions insist on reaching a comprehensive agreement and a full package to end the war and aggression, along with a roadmap for the day after,” political bureau member Bassem Naim told AFP on Wednesday.
“There are desperate attempts ahead of (US President Donald) Trump’s visit to the region… to force through a partial deal,” he said.
Trump is due in the Gulf next week for talks with the powerful monarchies.
Saudi Arabia, one of the stops on the US president’s visit, on Wednesday voiced its “categorical rejection” of Israel’s plan to expand its offensive.
An Israeli official said this week the expanded Gaza offensive would entail the “conquest” of Gaza.
Before it begins, a senior Israeli security source had said the timing of troop deployments would allow a “window of opportunity” for a possible hostage deal coinciding with Trump’s visit.
“We want to try and get as many hostages saved as possible,” Trump said at the White House, without elaborating.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Wednesday at least 2,545 people have been killed since Israel resumed its campaign, bringing the war’s overall toll to 52,653.
Hamas’s October 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Militants also abducted 251 people, 58 of whom are still held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
