Health personnel in Gaza said Israeli attacks on homes and shelters across central and southern areas killed at least 17 Palestinians. The dead included 10 children and three adult women. The strikes hit families in Zawaida, Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis while international governments intensified calls for a ceasefire.
Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital reported that an early-morning attack in Zawaida destroyed a tent and a house, killing at least 12 people. The victims included a married couple, five of their children and three other children. Relatives said another child remained missing beneath the collapsed structure.
A separate strike on a tent in Deir al-Balah killed a girl and injured seven other people, the hospital said. In Khan Younis, an apartment building was hit, killing a man, his pregnant wife, their 10-year-old child and another female relative, according to Nasser Hospital. The supplied evidence did not include an Israeli military explanation for these particular attacks.
The deaths occurred as Israel pursued a major ground offensive in Gaza City, where famine conditions had been identified by experts. More than 300,000 residents had fled, while as many as 700,000 remained, including people unable to afford relocation. Humanitarian conditions in northern Gaza had deteriorated after Israel stopped deliveries through its northern crossing on September 12 and increasingly denied UN requests to move supplies northward from southern Gaza.
The UN humanitarian office said military activity forced many charity kitchens to close, cutting free food distribution by half to 59,000 meals daily. It also warned that closing the Allenby Bridge connection linking Jordan and the Israeli-occupied West Bank could seriously impair relief operations. One quarter of aid in the UN-led Gaza response had passed through that route in the previous month. Israel closed it after an attack that killed two Israelis.
At the United Nations General Assembly, French President Emmanuel Macron defended France's recognition of Palestinian statehood as a means of isolating Hamas and creating a political route to peace. He said total warfare was producing civilian casualties without defeating the group and urged President Donald Trump to press Israel for a truce. Other European countries, along with Canada, Australia and Portugal, had also recognized a Palestinian state that week.
US officials described a 21-point peace proposal presented to Arab leaders but released no details and did not say whether Israel or Hamas accepted it. Netanyahu rejected international recognition of Palestinian statehood and was due to address the General Assembly before meeting Trump.
The supplied evidence established at least 17 Gaza deaths on the event date, not the higher total in the event lead. Those casualties unfolded alongside worsening aid constraints and diplomatic efforts that had yet to secure an accepted ceasefire.
