While negotiations for a comprehensive cease-fire and hostage deal in the Gaza Strip are reportedly underway between Israel and the Palestinian armed group Hamas, a US-led proposal has not been officially accepted by either side. At the same time, the carnage and humanitarian catastrophe on the ground continues as the war entered its ninth month, with people dying across Gaza from Israeli attacks, starvation, or lack of basic resources.
According to the UN, Israeli bombardment from the air, land, and sea continues to be reported throughout much of the Gaza Strip, resulting in further mass civilian casualties, displacement, and destruction of homes and civilian infrastructure. Air strikes are reported to have been particularly intense in central Gaza, particularly in the Al Bureij, Al Maghazi and An Nuseirat refugee camps and eastern Deir Al Balah.
Ground incursions and heavy fighting also continue to be reported, particularly in Rafah. This is despite the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling that ordered an immediate halt to the military offensive in the Rafah Governorate. The United Nations Security Council has not enforced the Court's May 24 ruling, in a further breakdown of the international rule of law.
Since the beginning of May, more than 1 million Palestinians - up to half the population - have been forcibly displaced from Rafah, Gaza's southernmost town, by Israeli evacuation orders or attacks. Most of those fleeing have been displaced several times before, exacerbating the humanitarian crisis and severely destabilizing aid flows. Fewer than 100,000 people remain in Rafah governorate.
On Saturday, more than 270 civilians, including children, were reportedly killed in intensified attacks by Israeli forces in and around the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central part of the war-torn enclave. More than 690 were injured, with hospitals overwhelmed.
Israel claimed its forces were targeting Hamas militants in the attacks, but civilians were reportedly targeted or killed indiscriminately on a large scale, which would amount to grave war crimes.
The UN Under-Secretary-General and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Martin Griffiths, said the images of death and devastation following Israel's military operation in the Nuseirat refugee camp on Saturday prove that each day the war continues, it only grows more horrific.
In a social media post on Sunday, Griffiths said Nuseirat was the epicenter of the “seismic trauma” that civilians continue to suffer in Gaza.
"Seeing shrouded bodies on the ground, we are reminded that nowhere is safe in Gaza. Seeing bloodied patients being treated on hospital floors, we are reminded that health care in Gaza is hanging by a thread," he said.
The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports that the Israeli military operation in the Nuseirat refugee camp has overwhelmed the already limited capacity of hospitals, particularly Al Aqsa and Al Awda in Deir al Baleh and the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis.
A UN inter-agency mission to Al Aqsa hospital on Saturday found that the facility was hosting about 700 patients – nearly five times its capacity for in-patient services. Just one generator at the hospital is still running.
Following intense bombings by Israeli forces in the Middle Area of Gaza Saturday, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF, Doctors Without Borders) teams were working alongside medical staff at Al Aqsa and Nasser hospitals to treat the overwhelming number of severely injured patients, many of whom women and children.
"It's a nightmare at Al Aqsa,” said Samuel Johann, MSF coordinator in Gaza, in a statement. “There have been back-to-back mass casualties as densely populated areas are bombed.”
“It’s way beyond what anyone could deal with in a functional hospital, let alone with the scarce resources we have here. How many more men, women and children have to be killed before world leaders decide to put an end to this massacre?”
Saturday's carnage followed an Israeli attack on a UN school-turned-shelter in the same area on Thursday.
On June 6, a UN school housing some 6,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the An Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza was struck overnight, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). Gaza officials reported that the strike killed 40 people, including 14 children and nine women, and injured 74 others, with some victims still under the rubble.
The school was hit by Israeli forces without prior warning to the displaced people or the UNRWA staff in the building.
The UN Human Rights Office in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) on Friday expressed deep concern “that this strike suggests a failure by the IDF to ensure strict compliance with international humanitarian law (IHL), particularly the basic principles of distinction, proportionality and precaution in attack.”
“While Israel has claimed that armed Palestinians were using the school as a base of operations, which itself would amount to a violation of IHL, this would not allow or justify violations of these principles. We note with concern that this attack follows a strike last week on an IDPs camp in Rafah that left at least 45 Palestinians dead.”
UN Secretary-General António Guterres condemned the Israeli airstrike on the shelter in the Nuseirat refugee camp.
Meanwhile, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) reports that the ongoing conflict and restrictions in Gaza are preventing families from meeting their children's food needs. Nine out of ten children in Gaza experience severe food poverty, surviving on two or fewer food groups per day, based on data collected between December 2023 and April 2024.
In addition, the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) said in an analysis released on May 31 that the Israeli military operation in Rafah has disrupted food distribution channels and reduced access to food.
FEWS NET also said it was possible, if not likely, that all three IPC thresholds for famine - food consumption, acute malnutrition and mortality - were met or exceeded in northern Gaza in April. The IPC Famine Review Committee said on June 4 that it could not endorse the findings due to a lack of data.
FEWS NET stressed that regardless of whether famine thresholds have been met or exceeded - an accurate assessment of which is not possible due to restrictions on humanitarian access and data collection - child malnutrition is extremely high and "people are dying of hunger-related causes across Gaza".
Cindy McCain, Executive Director of the UN World Food Programme (WFP), recently emphasized that “once a famine is declared, it is too late - many people will have already starved to death”, commenting on the "Hunger Hotspots" early warning report released on Wednesday.
The military operations in Gaza have severely destabilized the flow of humanitarian aid, forcing aid agencies to reorganize their entire operation. Currently, aid convoys must navigate through active hostilities, barely passable roads, unexploded ordnance, and frequent delays.
The closure of the Rafah crossing since May 7 has further reduced fuel supplies, affecting trucks, hospitals, sewage and desalination plants, and bakeries.
On May 26, the International Court of Justice had also ordered Israel to keep the Rafah crossing open for the unimpeded delivery of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian aid at scale. As of June 9, however, the Rafah crossing remained closed because of Israel's failure to comply. Its government has also failed to comply with the Court's orders of January 26 and March 28.
According to OCHA, obstructions, delays and denials of access through the open crossings continue to limit and undermine the ability of humanitarian organizations to reach affected communities in Gaza and provide essential assistance and services.
Fuel is critically scarce in Gaza. Humanitarians working in the water, sanitation and hygiene sector report that only 20 percent of the fuel needed for vital water and sanitation facilities was received during the week of May 26.
These shortages, compounded by power cuts and damage to infrastructure, are severely disrupting operations and limiting people's access to water. As of June 2, daily water production was only 26 percent of pre-conflict levels.
OCHA reports that escalating hostilities are crippling health services across Gaza, with shortages of supplies and reduced bed capacity. The situation is particularly serious at Al Aqsa Hospital.
Since the start of the military operation in Rafah and the closure of the Rafah Crossing more than a month ago, all medical evacuations out of Gaza have been suspended, increasing the suffering of chronically ill and seriously wounded patients, including amputees in need of rehabilitative care.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), as of May 30, more than 1,200 patients have been unable to leave Gaza for treatment abroad. The WHO estimates that at least 14,000 patients need medical evacuation to medical facilities outside Gaza, and this number is expected to increase due to dwindling hospital bed capacity.
Since October 7, Israeli attacks in Gaza have killed more than 37,000 Palestinians and injured more than 84,400 others, many with life-changing injuries that will leave them permanently disabled, including more than 1,000 children who have lost one or more upper or lower limbs.
Among the dead are at least 272 aid workers, 197 members of the UN staff, 498 health care workers and 150 journalists.
More than 10,000 people - including thousands of children - are missing and presumed dead. In total, Israel's air and ground operations in Gaza since last October have killed, wounded or left missing more than 130,000 people, or more than 5 percent of Gaza's population.
Up to 70 percent of the deaths are reported to be children and women. It is estimated that at least 3,000 women have been widowed, 10,000 children have been orphaned, 17,000 children have been left unaccompanied or separated, and more than one million people have lost their homes.
As of Sunday, only 17 of Gaza's 36 hospitals and 38 of 97 primary health care facilities were partially operational and able to receive new patients, although services are limited. All three hospitals in Rafah are currently inoperable, leaving more than 90,000 people without access.
Meanwhile, influential world leaders continue to ignore the plight of 2.3 million civilians. Israel's closest allies - including the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany - are still providing political and military support for a war against civilians that has been marked by serious war crimes and other grave violations of international humanitarian law committed by Israeli forces.
These include collective punishment of civilians, use of starvation as a method of warfare, denial of humanitarian aid, indiscriminate killing of civilians, deliberate killing of civilians, disproportionate attacks, forcible transfer, torture, enforced disappearances and other atrocity crimes as defined under international humanitarian law.
On May 20, the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Karim Khan, announced that he is seeking arrest warrants for the leaders of Israel and the Palestinian armed group Hamas for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in connection with the war in Gaza. Arrest warrants have been requested for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and three Hamas leaders.
Based on evidence collected and reviewed by the Office of the Prosecutor, Khan said he has reasonable grounds to believe that Netanyahu and Gallant bear criminal responsibility for multiple war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Gaza, as prohibited by the Rome Statute of the ICC.
These alleged crimes include starvation as a method of warfare, wilfully causing great suffering, causing serious injury to body or health, cruel treatment, wilful killing, murder, directing attacks against a civilian population, persecution and other inhumane acts.