Gaza’s Health Ministry said on May 24 that the bodies of 79 people killed by Israeli strikes were brought to hospitals over the previous 24 hours, as the war in Gaza continued to produce heavy civilian losses and deepen the enclave’s humanitarian crisis.
Among the dead were nine of the 10 children of Alaa Najjar, a pediatrician at Nasser Hospital, according to colleagues and health officials quoted by the Associated Press. Najjar was on duty when the strike hit her home in Khan Younis, and the AP reported that she rushed back to find her house on fire. Her husband was severely wounded and their only surviving child, an 11-year-old son, was in critical condition.
The deaths came as Israel pressed on with its renewed military offensive and maintained a severe squeeze on aid access. The AP said Gaza had been under an Israeli blockade for nearly three months, with experts warning that the territory’s more than 2 million residents were at high risk of famine. International pressure on Israel has grown as images of long lines at charity kitchens and desperate families seeking food have circulated widely.
The humanitarian picture is made even more complex by disputes over how aid should be delivered. The AP reported that Israel’s government has sought a new distribution system through a newly established U.S.-backed group, while the United Nations and partner organizations have rejected the plan, saying it would allow Israel to use food as a weapon and would violate humanitarian principles. Israel has accused Hamas of diverting aid, a claim the U.N. and aid groups deny is happening at any significant level.
The health ministry said the latest deaths brought the war’s toll to 53,901 since the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which sparked the conflict. It also said 3,747 people had been killed in Gaza since Israel resumed the war on March 18 in an effort to pressure Hamas into accepting different ceasefire terms. Those ministry figures do not separate civilians from combatants.
Israel said its air force struck more than 100 targets across Gaza over the same day and said it would continue operations until Hamas releases the remaining Israeli hostages and disarms. Fewer than half of the 58 hostages still held in Gaza are believed to be alive, according to the AP report.
The war has increasingly centered on a political standoff as well as military pressure. Hamas says it will only release the remaining hostages in exchange for more Palestinian prisoners, a lasting ceasefire and Israeli withdrawal from the territory. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected those terms and said Israel will keep control over Gaza while also facilitating what he calls the voluntary emigration of much of its Palestinian population.
The AP report also said hospitals in Gaza continued to face direct pressure, with 11 security personnel trapped at the European Hospital after heavy gunfire and airstrikes. That broader pattern has left the health system under strain just as casualty counts continue to rise.
The day’s death toll, the loss of a doctor’s children and the continuing argument over food access together show how the Gaza war is now being fought on two fronts at once: through airstrikes and ground pressure, and through a humanitarian crisis that has become inseparable from the military campaign.
