Israel Tightens Siege of Gaza City as Dozens Killed and Famine Deepens; Ceasefire Push Stalls
Gaza City woke up to another day of smoke and sirens on Tuesday, with Israeli warplanes pounding densely packed neighborhoods while troops tightened a siege on the enclave’s largest urban center. Local authorities said more than 50 people were killed in Gaza City alone, among at least 105 Palestinians reported dead across the Strip in the past 24 hours. Aid workers said many of the dead were cut down not in combat zones but while searching for food and water.
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‘No safe place’: Strikes follow the displaced
Residents described a night of relentless explosions in and around the al-Sabra neighborhood, which has been under sustained bombardment for days. The toll included at least 32 people killed while trying to obtain assistance, according to Gaza’s civil defense. In Khan Younis’s coastal al-Mawasi area—long labeled a “safe zone” by Israel—an Israeli drone struck a line of people queuing at water containers, killing at least 21, including seven children, Palestinian officials said. Images shared by first responders showed water jugs toppled and stained red, a grim tableau of scarcity turning lethal.
“People are moving with whatever they can carry—water cans, a blanket, sometimes nothing at all—and the strikes seem to follow them,” a journalist in central Gaza told me by phone, asking not to be named for safety. “You can survive the blast or the hunger. You can’t survive both.”
Gaza’s Health Ministry does not distinguish between civilians and fighters in its death tolls, but says women and children make up the majority of those killed. Israel’s military says it targets Hamas operatives and infrastructure and accuses the group of embedding among civilians. The Israel Defense Forces did not immediately respond to specific questions about the strikes in al-Mawasi and al-Sabra.
Hunger deaths mount as aid corridors shut
The war’s other front is quiet and invisible: empty cupboards, brackish water, a failing sanitation system. Local authorities reported at least 13 people died of starvation in the last day, bringing the hunger-related death toll since the war began to 361. Eighty-three of those deaths have been recorded since a U.N.-backed global hunger monitor confirmed famine conditions in parts of Gaza on August 22. Aid groups say the siege of Gaza City has intensified in recent days, with even limited convoys denied entry.
With bakeries shuttered and markets bare, families have turned to boiling weeds and grinding animal feed into makeshift flour. “We are seeing the architecture of famine—blocked routes, attacks near aid queues, and sheer scarcity,” said a humanitarian coordinator for an international NGO operating in central Gaza, who shared satellite images showing flattened blocks where distribution centers once stood.
Ground operations expand; dissent at home
Israeli Army Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir told reservists the campaign would “deepen,” as thousands were called up amid a drive to seize full control of Gaza City. The mobilization comes despite reported dissent: Israeli media said at least 365 soldiers have refused to report for duty, a figure the military has not confirmed.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whom the International Criminal Court’s prosecutor sought to have arrested in 2024—a move Israel rejects—framed the fighting as a decisive phase. “We are working to defeat Hamas,” he said in a video message. Israel accuses Hamas of using civilians as shields; Hamas denies endangering civilians and says Israel is waging a war of annihilation, a charge Israeli officials reject.
Ceasefire diplomacy drags
A day that began with flickers of diplomatic movement ended with stalemate. Qatar’s Foreign Ministry said Hamas had accepted a ceasefire proposal on the table, but that Israel had not responded. “There has been no Israeli response yet,” spokesperson Majed al-Ansari told reporters, warning that plans to occupy Gaza City “pose a threat to everyone,” including Israeli captives.
The talks—brokered by Qatar, Egypt and the United States—have seesawed for months. Every day without agreement exacts a higher price: more funerals in Gaza, more anxiety for the families of Israeli hostages, greater risks of regional spillover.
War ripples: Drones, ports, and shipping lanes
Those ripples were visible Tuesday across the region. In Yemen, the Houthi movement said it launched four drones toward Israeli targets near Tel Aviv, Ben Gurion Airport, a power station, and the port of Ashdod, days after a strike in Sanaa killed senior Yemeni officials. The group also claimed a missile-and-drone attack on a cargo ship in the Red Sea, part of a months-long campaign to disrupt vessels linked to Israeli trade.
Maritime insurers have hiked premiums, and shipping lines continue to reroute around Africa—a detour that adds weeks and cost to global supply chains. The longer the Gaza war grinds on, the likelier the Middle East’s conflicts are to braid together: Yemen’s coastline, Lebanon’s borderlands, Iraq’s skies, Syria’s south. Each new strike narrows the space for diplomacy.
Recognition and isolation
Amid the bloodshed, the Palestinian Foreign Ministry welcomed Belgium’s decision to recognize the State of Palestine and urged other capitals to follow. Several European governments have moved in that direction this year, a shift supporters say aligns with international law and could create political pressure to end the war. Critics argue recognition without a negotiated settlement is symbolic at best and dangerous at worst.
At the same time, Palestinian officials condemned what they called international “indifference” to Gaza’s economic collapse and Israel’s seizure of Palestinian tax revenues. The Palestinian Authority has struggled to pay salaries and keep basic services alive in the occupied West Bank, where violence has also surged.
Journalists targeted in the deadliest conflict for media
Two more journalists—Rasmi Salem of al-Manara and freelancer Eman al-Zamli—were killed in the latest strikes, bringing the number of media workers killed since October 7, 2023, to more than 270, according to press freedom groups. That makes Gaza the deadliest conflict for journalists on record.
In a world saturated with disinformation, the loss is not only personal but civic. Each silenced reporter dims the public’s ability to see what is happening in real time—and to judge claims made in their name. What does accountability look like when the storytellers themselves are being killed?
The questions that remain
The war in Gaza has become a bleak ledger of numbers—105 killed Tuesday, 32 at aid lines, 21 at a water queue, 10 from a family in one strike. But the numbers are only the frame around a larger picture: a city under siege, a famine unfolding, a region on edge, and a diplomatic process that cannot seem to catch a hold.
If there is any clarity today, it is this: the longer Gaza City is encircled and starved, the more civilians will die of causes that are both violent and preventable. The longer talks stall, the more likely the war will spill outward. And the longer the world debates legalities and labels, the more families will keep moving with their water cans, hoping the next line is not their last.
It is worth asking, as policymakers meet and militaries mobilize: What would it take to move Gaza off a war footing and onto a humanitarian one? Who will guarantee that aid routes stay open, that civilians are protected at water taps as much as at hospitals, that those held captive come home, that alleged crimes are independently investigated? The answers now are not theoretical. They are the only path out of the cycle that makes today’s dispatch feel like yesterday’s and tomorrow’s, too.
By Ali Musa
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
