On Saturday, August 16th, 2025, day 680 of the ongoing Israeli slaughter of the Palestinian civilian population of 2.3 million people in the Gaza Strip, as well as the wholesale destruction of homes, schools, hospitals, shopping malls, restaurants, grocery stores, markets and every other aspect of life, Israeli forces continued their systematic demolition of the al-Zaytoun neighborhood for the sixth straight day.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said that most of the children in Gaza being examined by its medical teams are emaciated and weak, and are at risk of death if they do not receive the urgent treatment they need .
In a post on the X platform on Saturday, she noted that more than 50,000 children in Gaza have been killed or injured since October 7, 2023, calling on Israel to “stop this war on children .”
In another post, UNRWA stated that one million women and girls in the Gaza Strip face mass famine due to the Israeli blockade and the ongoing war of extermination, which has increased in severity since March 2025 when all humanitarian aid into Gaza was stopped, and Israeli forces began enforcing the order given by Israeli government officials to starve the people of Gaza to death.
Since October 7, 2023, the Israeli occupation forces have launched a genocidal assault against the entire Gaza Strip, resulting in the killing of at least 61,897 citizens, the majority of whom were children and women, and the injury of 155,660 others, in a preliminary toll, as a number of victims remain under the rubble and in the streets, and ambulance and rescue crews are unable to reach them.
11:30 pm
A number of citizens were killed and injured on Saturday evening in an Israeli airstrike in the central Gaza Strip.
A Wafa news correspondent reported that the raid targeted a house in the Nuseirat camp, in the central Gaza Strip.
7:20 pm
Three Palestinians were killed and others injured on Saturday evening in Israeli shelling of Gaza City.
A Wafa news correspondent reported that an Israeli drone targeted a gathering of civilians in the Asqaula area of the Zeitoun neighborhood east of Gaza City, killing two civilians and wounding several others.
He added that a citizen was killed and three others were injured when the occupation targeted a house near Al-Alami Mosque on Al-Zarqa Street, east of Gaza City.
6:15 pm
Two citizens waiting for aid were killed on Saturday evening by Israeli occupation forces (IOF) gunfire in Rafah and Khan Yunis, north and south of the Gaza Strip.
A medical source in the Gaza Strip reported that at least two civilians were killed and others wounded by Israeli occupation forces’ fire near an aid center south of Khan Yunis and north of Rafah.
In Gaza City, a number of citizens were injured after Israeli aircraft bombed the Zarqa area east of the city.
12:30 pm
Nine Palestinians were killed and others injured on Saturday by Israeli occupation forces (IOF) gunfire in the northern Gaza Strip.
Local sources reported that Israeli occupation forces opened fire on aid workers in a distribution area in the northern Gaza Strip, killing nine civilians and wounding others.
10:00 am
Israeli tanks storm the vicinity of an alleged aid distribution point near the Wadi Gaza Bridge in the central Gaza Strip.
9:30 am
A fisherman was killed and another injured on Saturday by Israeli occupation forces (IOF) gunfire in the Gaza Strip.
Local sources reported that Israeli naval forces fired machine guns at a fishing boat in the Gaza Strip, killing one fisherman and wounding another.
8:00 am
Multiple injuries were reported in the Israeli bombing of a group of Palestinians near the Abu Helo school in the Al-Bureij refugee camp, central Gaza Strip.
HUMANITARIAN CRISIS EXPANDS:
UNICEF spokesperson Kazem Abu Khalaf warned of a serious deterioration in the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, noting that the rate of children entering the malnutrition cycle has reached 112 children per day.
Abu Khalaf said in a statement on Saturday: “The number of children who have entered the stage of severe malnutrition has increased by 180%, when comparing the months of February (during the truce) and last June, stressing that “the occupation does not stop at this point, but rather continues to rise at an alarming rate.”
He added, “The lucky ones now are the children who fall into the cycle of malnutrition but still survive. There are tens of thousands of children suffering from varying degrees of malnutrition, which poses a direct threat to their lives and futures.”
He pointed out that the crisis is not limited to children alone, but also affects pregnant women, many of whom suffer from severe malnutrition, leading to the birth of babies with critical health conditions from their earliest moments.
The UN human rights office says at least 1,760 Palestinians were killed in Gaza while waiting for aid at GHF sites and Zikim, Kisofem, and Morag trucks’ entry locations since late May, a jump of several hundred since its last published figures at the beginning of August.
Amid the Israeli imposed blockade of food and lifesaving aid from entering the Gaza Strip, children pick up food remains from the ground in desperate attempts to ease their hunger.
