Israeli strikes on displaced Palestinians kill 25; death toll in Gaza rises to 51,025

A wave of Israeli air strikes hit multiple encampments for displaced Palestinians across the territory, killing at least 25 people, Gaza's civil defence agency reported on Thursday. 

As per the agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal, an overnight strike targeted several tents in the Al-Mawasi area of the southern city of Khan Yunis, resulting in 16 deaths.

"At least 16 martyrs, most of them women and children, and 23 others were wounded following a direct strike by two Israeli missiles on several tents housing displaced families in the Al-Mawasi area of Khan Yunis," Bassal told the news agency AFP. 

Bassal said that two additional strikes on other encampments of displaced people killed eight and wounded several more. 

Seven were killed in a strike on tents in the northern town of Beit Lahia, while another attack near the Al-Mawasi area killed a father and his child who were living in a tent. 

Meanwhile, Hamas accused Israel on Thursday of attempting to starve the population of Gaza. This comes after Israel’s renewed declaration the previous day that no humanitarian aid would be allowed into the Palestinian territory.

"This is a public admission of committing a war crime, including the use of starvation as a weapon and the denial of basic necessities such as food, medicine, water, and fuel to innocent civilians for the seventh consecutive week," the Palestinian militant group said in a statement. 

The death toll of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip had climbed to 51,025 since the outbreak of the latest round of the Israel-Hamas conflict on October 7, 2023, the Gaza-based health authorities said on Wednesday.

In a press statement, the health authorities said that 116,432 others have been wounded in the ongoing Israeli military assaults.

During the past 24 hours, 25 Palestinians were killed and 89 others wounded by Israeli airstrikes and artillery shelling in various areas in the enclave, the health authorities said.