The humanitarian toll in the Gaza Strip is rapidly rising, amid a systematic escalation by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF).
On Friday, July 4, 2025, at least , including women and children, were killed in airstrikes targeting shelters and aid distribution points. Meanwhile, the health system is completely collapsing, and there is no effective international response to stop the ongoing genocide.
In the Al-Mawasi area in the southern Gaza Strip, Israeli aircraft bombed a shelter housing displaced persons, killing 15 civilians, most of them women and children. Israeli forces also targeted civilian crowds gathering near aid distribution centers in Khan Yunis and Rafah, killing 20 others — continuing a recurring pattern of targeting civilians amidst conditions of hunger and displacement.UN data shows that more than 613 Palestinians have been killed near aid convoys and centers since late May.
Israel continues to deny direct responsibility for these massacres, claiming that it fired ‘warning fire,’ despite field evidence indicating the deliberate and systematic use of lethal force.In a related development, the IOF issued new evacuation orders for large areas of Khan Yunis, forcing thousands of civilians to flee to densely populated coastal areas without any safe passage or basic humanitarian needs, exacerbating the catastrophe that has been ongoing for more than eight months.
Field data demonstrates the complete collapse of the health system. Palestinian doctor Marwan Sultan, director of the Indonesian Hospital in Jabalia, was killed in a shelling that targeted his apartment.
His death sparked a wave of deep grief in the medical community, as hospitals have become overwhelmed emergency wards, lacking medicine, equipment, and staff, and are besieged by Israeli fire from all sides.
Amid these conditions, civil defense teams in Gaza issued an urgent appeal for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, stressing that a large number of civilians were trapped under the rubble and unreachable due to the prevention of rescue teams from moving and the lack of basic resources.In the first clear human rights position, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of the Palestinian people in the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, described what is happening in Gaza as a ‘campaign of genocide.’ She called on the international community to impose comprehensive sanctions and an immediate arms embargo on Israel, noting that continued military support for a state committing such crimes constitutes direct complicity in international criminal responsibility.
The Arab Organisation for Human Rights in the UK affirms that these escalating crimes constitute a crime of genocide under international law and require immediate international action to activate accountability mechanisms, halt the aggression, and preserve what remains of civilian life in the besieged Gaza Strip.
