At least 140 people were killed in the Gaza Strip after another night of Israeli airstrike, according to the local Hamas government.
The group also reported “hundreds of injured” and “dozens of homes destroyed”. On Monday, in its latest overall report, the Hamas government announced that more than 5,000 people, including more than 2,000 children, had been killed since the start of the war on October 7.
On Tuesday morning, France’s President Emmanuel Macron arrived in Tel Aviv to express his country’s “full solidarity” with Israel after the attack by Hamas which left more than 1,400 dead on October 7.
Macron also called to “preserve the civilian populations” in Gaza as Israel strikes the territory in its attempt to destroy Hamas.
On Monday evening, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) announced that six more employees of the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) had been killed in Gaza in the space of 24 hours.
This brings to 35 the number of UNRWA personnel killed since the war between Israel and Hamas began on October 7.
“We are lost for words”, declared the agency on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“We pay tribute to our 35 colleagues who have been killed in Gaza since October 7. We grieve and we remember. These are not just numbers. These are our friends and colleagues. Many were teachers in our schools. UNRWA mourns this huge loss”, added UNRWA.
In its daily report, OCHA highlighted the difficulties faced by humanitarian agencies in delivering aid to the people of Gaza “due to ongoing hostilities, restrictions on movement and shortages of electricity, fuel, water, medicines and other essential items.”
Since Saturday, international aid has started to trickle in via Egypt into the small territory where 2.4 million Palestinians are crowded together.
Around fifty trucks entered the Gaza Strip in three days via the Rafah crossing, the only exit from the territory not controlled by Israel.
