Gaza City, May 10, 2025 — A minimum of 23 Palestinians, three children, and their parents were killed last night and this morning in Israeli airstrikes, per Gaza’s Health Ministry. A tent housing the family was struck in the latest attack in Gaza City’s Sabra district, heightening alarms as the crisis in the embattled enclave worsens.
The shelling is amidst increasing global outrage at Israel’s ongoing blockade of Gaza, now in its third month, and at its proposal to increase restrictions on humanitarian aid allowed into the enclave.
UN Rejects Israeli Aid Plan Amid Blockade
As the humanitarian crisis worsens, UN agencies and international humanitarian groups have strongly opposed Israeli plans to manage and limit aid deliveries. Among the contentious aspects of the plan is coordination with a U.S.-based private consortium of former military officers and security contractors, raising concerns over impartiality and access.
“The initiative goes against humanitarian principles and threatens the safety and neutrality of aid activities,” a UN spokesman said, reaffirming that such a move would amount to a breach of international humanitarian law.
Airstrikes Target Residential and UN Facilities
Among the casualties over the past 24 hours were five relatives who had a tent shelter bombed in Gaza City. In yet another attack on Friday night, an UNRWA warehouse for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees was attacked in northern Jabaliya and claimed four lives. Video showed that the building went up in flames, said by residents already to have been overrun and cleared from earlier Israeli actions.
The Indonesian Hospital in Gaza’s north confirmed that it received the bodies of the victims and reported conditions as “dire,” with medical supplies running low and an increasing number of civilian casualties.
Israel Reports Soldier Wounds, Re-Starts Offensive
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reported that nine soldiers were lightly injured by an explosive device in Shijaiyah, a Gaza City neighborhood, while conducting a ground sweep operation. They were all taken to Israeli hospitals.
Israel relaunched its Gaza war effort on March 18, bringing to an end a fragile two-month truce with Hamas. Israeli ground troops have since taken over more than half the territory, making wide sweeps in northern Gaza and Rafah, the southernmost city. Large swaths of both areas have been reduced to rubble by constant bombing.
Blockade Sparks Starvation Crisis
On the tight Israeli blockade, charity-sponsored community kitchens now provide the bulk of food to Gaza’s 2 million citizens. But according to aid organizations, numerous kitchens have closed from a shortage of supplies, and more closures loom. Human rights groups condemned the blockade as a “tactic of starvation”, potentially an act of war.
Israel asserts the blockade aims to force Hamas to free any remaining hostages and surrender weapons. Israel has also blamed Hamas and other extremist groups of stealing aid, but no credible evidence has been publicly disclosed. The UN has refuted such accusations, stating that it strictly supervises the delivery of aid.
Death Toll Mounts Amid Unending Conflict
The 19-month war in Gaza has claimed more than 52,800 lives, with over half of the casualties being women and children, the Gaza Health Ministry reported. More than 119,000 have been wounded, although the numbers do not specify whether they were civilians or combatants. Israel claims that the majority of those killed were Hamas fighters, although it has not offered independent confirmation.
Israel initiated the campaign to destroy Hamas after the October 7, 2023 attack, where Hamas-led combatants killed approximately 1,200 Israelis, the majority of whom were civilians, and took more than 250 hostages. As of today, 59 hostages are still alive, with an estimated one-third reported to be alive.
On Saturday, Hamas released a second hostage video with Elkana Bohbot and Yosef-Haim Ohana, who were both kidnapped during the attack on a music festival that claimed more than 300 lives. Hostage families have called for a renewed ceasefire, holding protests in Tel Aviv.
“Can you understand this?” Michel Illouz, father of hostage Guy Illouz, asked at the rally. “The Israeli government is preparing military action that could put the very lives of the hostages we’re trying to rescue at risk.”
