Israeli strikes on Rafah kill children, UN warns half of Gaza is starving

The residents of Rafah and the one million Palestinians who sought refuge in this southern city of Gaza Strip faced a harrowing night as a series of Israeli air strikes obliterated three homes in a densely populated neighborhood. 

Reports indicate that at least 22 people were killed in the attacks, among them seven children and at least five women.

Al Jazeera media network has reported there have been new air attacks on Rafah, a city where Israel has told people to move for their "safety."

Hunger is worsening among Palestinians in the besieged Gaza strip, aid agencies said, as the United Nations General Assembly prepared to vote on an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in the two-month-old war between Israel and Hamas.

Hundreds more civilians have died in Israel's assault on Gaza since the U.S. vetoed a Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire.

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Most of Gaza's 2.3 million people have been driven from their homes and residents say it is impossible to find refuge or food in the densely populated coastal enclave. The UN World Food Programme has said half of the population is starving.

"Hunger stalks everyone," UNRWA, the UN body responsible for Palestinian refugees, said on X.

Gazans said people forced to flee repeatedly were dying of hunger and cold as well as the bombardments, describing looting of aid trucks and sky high prices. 

Israel says its instructions to people to move are among measures it is taking to protect civilians as it tries to root out Hamas fighters who killed 1,200 people and took 240 hostage in an October 7 cross-border attack on Israel, according to Israeli tallies. About 100 hostages have since been freed. 

Israel's retaliatory assault has killed 18,205 people and wounded nearly 50,000, according to the Gaza health ministry.

UN officials say 1.9 million people - 85 percent of Gaza's population - are displaced and describe the conditions in the southern areas where they have concentrated as hellish.

Martin Griffiths, the UN humanitarian affairs coordinator, says his organization hoped and was told that once the war moved to southern Gaza, there would be a different, more precise, approach to the fighting.

"[But] what's happened is the assault on southern Gaza has been no less than the north. It's raging through Khan Younis at the moment, and it is threatening Rafah," he told Al Jazeera. 

"The compression of the population is greater. We cannot be sure of any of our points of operation to be safe."

Prolonged checks at border

To increase the amount of aid reaching Gaza, Israel said it would add shipment screening at the Kerem Shalom border crossing, even though it was not opening the crossing itself.

Most trucks entered the strip at this crossing before the war. Two Egyptian security sources said inspections would begin under a new deal between Israel, Egypt and the U.S.

The head of the World Health Organization said he was concerned about the prolonged checks of medical supply convoys in the Gaza Strip and the detention of health workers after such an incident led to the death of a patient in critical condition. 

In a post on X, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said a WHO-led mission to Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza was stopped twice at the Wadi Gaza checkpoint, run by the Israeli Defense Forces, on the way to north Gaza and on the way back.

Meanwhile, Israeli forces have raided Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza after besieging and shelling for several days, a health ministry spokesman said.

In a post on Telegram, Ashraf al-Qudra added that Israeli forces were gathering males - including the medical staff - in the hospital courtyard, who he feared may then be arrested.

'Deeply disturbing' images of Palestinian men

Israeli bombing continued into the night, residents and health officials said. Medics said Israeli air strikes killed at least 15 people in separate strikes in the central and southern Gaza strip.

Another commercial tanker in the Gulf was struck by a land-based cruise missile launched from Houthi-controlled Yemen, the U.S. military said. Iran-aligned Houthis have stepped up attacks on vessels in vital shipping lanes and firing drones and missiles at Israel itself since the war started.

Washington found images circulating on social media showing Palestinian men detained in Gaza in their underwear "deeply disturbing" and asked Israel to clarify the circumstances around the photographs, a U.S. State Department spokesman said. Israel has said the men were stripped to make sure they were not hiding explosives or weapons.

The White House also said it was concerned about reports Israel used U.S.-supplied white phosphorus munitions in an October attack in southern Lebanon and was seeking more information. The munitions, which can be legally used on battlefields to make smoke screens among other uses, can cause serious burns. 

Israel said an allegation by Human Rights Watch that it uses white phosphorus munitions in Gaza and Lebanon was "unequivocally false."

Israeli soldiers killed in friendly fire

The 193-member General Assembly is likely to pass a draft resolution that mirrors the language of one that was blocked by the United States in the 15-member Security Council last week. 

Some diplomats and observers predict the vote will garner greater support than the assembly's October call for "an immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce."

Israel's defense minister has pushed back against international calls for a ceasefire, saying the current phase of what Israel says is an operation against Hamas will "take time."

According to new data released by the Israeli army and reported by local media, 20 out of the 105 Israeli soldiers killed in the Gaza Strip during the ground offensive were killed by friendly fire and in shooting accidents. 

Israeli media added that some soldiers were killed after being mistakenly identified as Hamas fighters.

A report in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz suggests that the Israeli army is running a Telegram channel named "72 Virgins - Uncensored," which allegedly shares graphic images of bodies claimed to be Hamas members. 

The channel, established two days after the October 7 attack, promotes "exclusive content from the Gaza Strip" and encourages its 5,300 followers to share images and videos depicting the destruction in the enclave.

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