On Tuesday, August 19th, day 683 of Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza, at least 60 people have been killed in the bombing of various parts of the Gaza Strip by occupation warplanes. This includes 31 aid seekers, killed by Israeli soldiers and US mercenaries while trying to obtain food for their families. In addition, 3 Palestinians died of starvation over the past 24 hours. In addition, 343 Palestinians have been injured, many with severe injuries, over the past 24 hours. Of those, 197 were injured while seeking aid at the US mercenary sites.
The United Nations Office for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that about 86% of the area of the Gaza Strip is currently subject to evacuation orders or military zones, and that hospitals in the southern Strip are operating at twice their capacity, with all hospitals in the north out of service.
The UN office confirmed in a statement on Monday that forcing hundreds of thousands in Gaza to flee is a recipe for disaster and amounts to forced displacement.
The United Nations has said that at least 1.9 million people, about 90% of Gaza’s population, have been displaced during the war. “Many have been displaced repeatedly, some 10 times or more,” according to UNRWA.
UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric stated that a “significant number” of humanitarian aid workers have been killed in Gaza.
Speaking during the daily press briefing at UN headquarters in New York on Tuesday, Dujarric noted that the date marks World Humanitarian Day, observed globally on August 19 each year.
He highlighted the killing of numerous aid workers in Gaza, which has been subjected to what many describe as a campaign of genocide carried out by Israel, the occupying power, against Palestinians for over 22 months.
Dujarric confirmed that at least 390 humanitarian workers lost their lives while performing their duties worldwide in 2024, including 181 killed in Gaza alone.
“The world cannot look away,” he said, “at a time when attacks on aid workers and those trying to help have become disturbingly routine.”
He emphasized that humanitarian workers in Gaza are risking their lives with extraordinary courage to keep others alive, while struggling to feed themselves and their families.
Medical sources reported that the total number of victims of starvation has risen to 266, including 112 children. The vast majority of these starvation deaths occurred since May 27th, when the US company GHF took over aid ‘distribution’ in Gaza, shutting down the 400 established aid sites and replacing them with just 4 gladiator style arenas where Palestinians must fight each other for small amounts of food. The scarcity of food has led to a severe famine across all of Gaza.
Since March 2, 2025, the occupation authorities have closed all crossings with the Gaza Strip, preventing the entry of most food and medical aid, causing famine to spread within the Gaza Strip. The World Health Organization confirmed that malnutrition rates in Gaza have reached alarming levels, that the deliberate blockade and delay in aid have caused the loss of many lives.
The Ministry of Health in Gaza issued a grave warning about the collapse of laboratory and blood bank services amid the ongoing war. Nearly half (49%) of laboratory testing materials are entirely out of stock, while over 60% of the remaining essential supplies will last less than a month. Critical tests, including CBC, blood gas analysis, and drug level monitoring for transplant patients, are either depleted or will run out within days.
The shortage of materials for blood safety testing (HIV, HBV, HCV) poses a severe risk of unsafe transfusions. Additionally, 45% of the lab equipment is damaged or nonfunctional, and major services, such as PCR testing and newborn screening, have been completely halted since the war began. This dire situation threatens the safety and survival of thousands who rely on Gaza’s healthcare system.
The funeral of Palestinian national basketball player and local Khidmat Al-Bureij Club star Mohammad Sha‘lan was held today, after he was shot dead by Israeli occupation forces while trying to get humanitarian aid in Khan Younis. He was one of three Gazan athletes killed seeking aid in the past 24 hours.
In addition to Sha’lan, two other club athletes: the Head of equipment at Shabab Rafah Club, Salem Al-Shaer (26), and Former player of Al-Salah Sports Club, Ahmed Al-Jourani (40), were killed while waiting for humanitarian aid in front of distribution centers in the Moraj and South Nuseirat areas.
The death toll among the Palestinian sports community has risen to over 670, due to the ongoing Israeli war on the Gaza Strip. The number of Palestinian athletes killed since the beginning of August alone has reached 12, including football and baseball players, in addition to the destruction of hundreds of sports facilities.
The following attacks by Israeli forces were documented on Tuesday:
3:30 pm
Five Palestinians killed and others injured in Israeli artillery shelling targeting Jabalia al-Nazla, north of Gaza.
3:00 pm
Al Zeitoun, one of the largest neighborhoods in Gaza City, located in the southeastern part, is witnessing an ongoing military operation and displacement for the past week. Residents, who have endured constant bombing and forced evictions throughout the war, now face growing fears that the Israeli threats may extend beyond this neighborhood to the entire city.
2:00 pm
Sabra neighborhood in Gaza City faces relentless bombardment with continuous attacks more than five times within an hour, as part of ongoing shelling and systematic destruction aimed at reaching Gaza city center.
10:30 am
A number of citizens were killed and others were injured as a result of the Israeli occupation’s bombing of the Abu Sharia area in the Al-Sabra neighborhood in Gaza City.
In another bombing, Wafa news reported that 8 citizens were killed in the Israeli bombing of tents filled with displaced people in the Mawasi area of Khan Yunis city in the south.
Two citizens were killed and others were injured when the Israeli occupation forces targeted aid seekers near the Netzarim axis in the central Gaza Strip.
7:30 am
At least 18 citizens were killed, including children and women, and dozens were injured, at dawn on Tuesday, as a result of Israeli occupation aircraft and artillery bombing various sites and neighborhoods in the Gaza Strip.
In the vicinity of the university college west of Khan Yunis, two citizens, one of them a child, were killed after a tent for displaced people was targeted.
Later, medical sources at the hospital reported that 4 killed and a number of wounded arrived at the hospital as a result of the Israeli occupation bombing a tent housing displaced people near “Fash Farsh” in the Al-Mawasi area, west of the city. The killed were identified as: the child Youssef Muhammad Eid, his brother the child Saif Muhammad Eid, their mother Nour Majed Salem Al-Mashoukhi, and Saeed Taha Al-Aidi.
In the city of Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital announced the arrival of five killed and a number of injured as a result of a bombing that targeted a tent housing displaced people in the Al-Bassa area. They are:: The child Dana Ahmed Muhammad Al-Hajj (13 years old), the child Raghad Muhammad Musmah (12 years old), Muhammad Ahmed Saleh Musmah (36 years old), Safinaz Mahmoud Musmah (34 years old), and the child Fawzi Muhammad Ahmed Musmah (one year old).
The same hospital also reported the arrival of five other people killed as a result of the occupation targeting groups of citizens near the “Kisufim” site, southeast of Deir al-Balah, and they are: Abdullah Abu Amra, Ali Ahmed Al-Saaida, Anas Abdul Karim Bashir, Adham Abu Raya, and Hassan Muhammad Harbak.
In this context, Al-Shifa Hospital, west of Gaza City, announced the arrival of two killed and 53 injuries, after the Israeli occupation forces bombed crowds of citizens who were waiting for food aid in the “Zikim” area northwest of Beit Lahia, north of the Gaza Strip.
At midnight last night, four citizens, including a journalist, were killed and others were injured as a result of shelling that targeted the Al-Sabra neighborhood, south of Gaza City, and other areas in Deir al-Balah
Medical sources announced, Tuesday evening, that the death toll in the Gaza Strip has risen to 62,064, the majority of whom are children and women, since the start of the Israeli occupation aggression on October 7, 2023.
The same sources added that the death toll has risen to 156,573 since the start of the aggression, while a number of victims are still under the rubble, and ambulance and civil defense crews cannot reach them.
Also on Tuesday, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said that humanitarian workers must be empowered to deliver humanitarian aid on a large scale in the Gaza Strip.
He added at the daily press conference at the organization’s headquarters in Geneva: “To avoid such deaths due to Israeli starvation, humanitarian workers must be able to deliver food on a large and continuous scale through all available crossings and roads to reach the Strip’s population of 2.1 million people, half of whom are children”.
He continued: “We are concerned about the Israeli authorities’ announcement of an imminent expansion of their military activities in Gaza City,” according to the United Nations News website.
Dujarric stressed that expanding operations to occupy the entire Gaza City “will lead to the displacement of thousands of people again to a crowded area in the southern Gaza Strip, which lacks the most basic infrastructure and services, including food, water and medical services”.
In a shocking investigative report, the BBC reveals how the Israeli army turned “humanitarian aid” into deadly traps, dropping supplies in hazardous areas to target civilians desperately seeking food amid a severe famine.
Mohamed Atta Al-Masri, who lost his legs after Israeli strikes, struggles to move as his child assists him with a wheelchair; his condition reflects the immense suffering faced by thousands of wounded during the ongoing genocide.
