GAZA CITY: The health ministry in Gaza said on Wednesday that Israeli strikes killed 51 people in the Palestinian territory in the past 24 hours, taking the overall death toll to 45,936 as international mediators stepped up efforts to reach a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.
The ministry also said in a statement that at least 109,274 people had been wounded in more than 15 months of Israeli bombardment campaign following Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack.
Many women and young children were among the 51 Palestinians killed in Israel’s attacks on Gaza in a single day.
The dead included at least five children killed by Israeli strikes on tents sheltering displaced people in al-Mawasi – a desolate coastal area in southern Gaza designated a “humanitarian safe zone” by the Israeli military.
Despite hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinian civilians crammed into makeshift tent camps in al-Mawasi, Israel’s military has continually attacked the site, claiming, without providing evidence, that it’s targeting Hamas.
US President-elect Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff has said he hopes to have good things to report about Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza by the time Trump is sworn in as president on January 20, Reuters reported.
Witkoff, at a press conference held by Trump in Palm Beach, Florida, said: “I’m really hopeful that by the inaugural we’ll have some good things to announce on behalf of the president.”
Children deaths in Gaza
Meanwhile, Israel has intensified attacks in Gaza. The United Nations children’s agency said that during the first seven days of 2025, at least 74 Palestinian children have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza City, Khan Younis, and al-Mawasi, an Israeli-designated “safe zone” in the south.
“For the children of Gaza, the new year has brought more death and suffering from attacks, deprivation, and increasing exposure to the cold,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell. “A ceasefire is long overdue. Too many children have been killed or lost loved ones in a tragic start to the new year.”
UNICEF also said in a statement that apart from the bombardment, the continued lack of basic shelter – combined with winter temperatures pose serious threats to children.
“With more than a million children living in makeshift tents, and with many families displaced over the past 15 months, children face extreme risks,” it said. “Since December 26, eight infants and newborns have reportedly died from hypothermia – a major threat to young children who are unable to regulate their body temperature.”
Aid access to freezing Gaza
The Red Cross has called for safe and unhindered access to Gaza to bring desperately needed aid into the Palestinian territory wracked by hunger and where babies are freezing to death.
Heavy rain and flooding have ravaged the makeshift shelters in Gaza, leaving thousands with up to 30 centimetres (one foot) of water inside their damaged tents, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said.
The dire weather conditions were “exacerbating the unbearable conditions” in Gaza, it said, pointing out that many families were left “clinging on to survival in makeshift camps, without even the most basic necessities, such as blankets”.
Citing the United Nations, the IFRC highlighted the deaths of eight newborn babies who had been living in tents without warmth or protection from the rain and falling temperatures.
Those deaths “underscore the critical severity of the humanitarian crisis there”, IFRC Secretary-General Jagan Chapagain said in a statement.
“I urgently reiterate my call to grant safe and unhindered access to humanitarians to let them provide life-saving assistance,” he said.
“Without safe access — children will freeze to death. Without safe access — families will starve. Without safe access — humanitarian workers can’t save lives.”
A trickle of aid
Chapagain issued an “urgent plea to all the parties… to put an end to this human suffering. Now”.
The IFRC said the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) was striving to provide emergency health services and supplies to people in Gaza, with an extra sense of urgency during the cold winter months.
But it warned that “the lack of aid deliveries and access is making providing adequate support all but impossible”.
The IFRC stressed that the closure of the main Rafah border crossing last May had had a dramatic impact on the humanitarian situation.
“Only a trickle of aid is currently entering Gaza,” it warned.
The Doctors Without Borders (MSF) charity warned that access to healthcare had also become “seriously compromised” in parts of the West Bank. It was seeing “a dramatic decline in children’s mental health”, it added.
It pointed in a statement to the drastic increase in restrictions imposed by Israeli forces since the start of the war in Gaza. In particular, it highlighted the situation in the Jaber neighbourhood inside the H2 area of Hebron City, which is under full Israeli military control.
MSF, which said it had been forced to suspend its operations for five months from December 2023, urged Israeli forces to “stop implementing restrictive measures that impede the ability of Palestinians to access basic services, including medical care”.
MSF project coordinator Chloe Janssen warned that “although we are now able to provide care in the MSF clinic in Jaber neighbourhood, access remains challenging as our staff can be searched and delayed at the checkpoints to enter the H2 area.
