Shafaq News/More than 200 Palestinians were killed or injured over the past 24 hours, the Gaza Health Ministry said on Saturday, as Israel escalated its military campaign across the besieged strip while reportedly using civilians as human shields in violation of international law.
In a statement, the ministry confirmed that at least 60 people were killed and 185 injured since Friday morning. The toll excludes casualties from northern Gaza, where access to hospitals remains severely restricted due to continued Israeli siege operations. Since dawn today alone, 16 Palestinians have been killed in airstrikes targeting homes and shelters, bringing the total death toll to 53,822 since October 7.
According to Arab media outlets, Israeli forces intensified air and drone attacks in multiple areas, including Khan Younis, Gaza City’s al-Tuffah neighborhood, and the al-Saftawi district. In one incident, nine children from a single family were reportedly burned alive in their home in Qizan al-Najjar following an airstrike, with their mother, Dr. Alaa al-Najjar, identifying their bodies at Nasser Medical Complex.
The assault comes on day 68 of renewed hostilities, with Israeli tanks reportedly besieging the Indonesian Hospital in Bait Lahia, firing on the facility and ambulances transporting patients. Medical teams said access has become nearly impossible, compounding an already “catastrophic health crisis.”
In a new report by the Associated Press, several Palestinians and Israeli soldiers described the widespread use of Palestinian civilians as human shields—dubbed “the mosquito protocol” within military ranks. Former soldiers admitted to carrying out such orders, claiming commanders approved or even issued them directly.
Rights groups have condemned the tactic as a gross violation of international law. “These are not isolated accounts; they point to a systemic failure and a horrifying moral collapse,” said Nadav Weiman, executive director of Breaking the Silence — a whistleblower group of former Israeli soldiers that has collected testimonies about the practice from within the military.
Meanwhile, Gaza’s humanitarian situation continues to deteriorate. Only 92 aid trucks entered the strip over the past three days, compared to an average of 500 before the war. “Clean water is scarce, and the territory faces acute shortages of medicine, baby formula, and flour,” the director of medical relief in Gaza told Al-Jazeera, warning that without urgent aid deliveries, countless patients could die in the coming days.
The United Nations has echoed those concerns. Secretary-General António Guterres called the aid flow “a teaspoon when a flood is needed,” urging Israel to immediately open humanitarian corridors. “Without rapid, reliable, and sustained access,” he said, “more people will die.”