‘Last lifelines’ are collapsing in Gaza

• 15 Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes across enclave
• Israeli military attacked staff residence: WHO
• Staff, doctors fainting from hunger: UNRWA

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has condemned the "accelerating breakdown of humanitarian conditions" in Gaza after more than 21 months of Israel's offensive in the Palestinian territory.

"The last lifelines keeping people alive are collapsing," his spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement on Monday evening. The United Nations chief "deplores the growing reports of children and adults suffering from malnutrition."

"The Secretary-General notes that the intensification of hostilities in recent days comes as the humanitarian system is being impeded, undermined and endangered," Dujarric said.

"A new evacuation order in parts of Deir el-Balah -- home to tens of thousands -- pushes people into more desperate conditions and further displacement and restricts the United Nations' ability to deliver life-saving aid."

The head of Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City said yesterday that 21 children had died across the Palestinian territory in the past three days "due to malnutrition and starvation". A Gaza health ministry spokesman said 33 people, including 12 children, have died in the past 48 hours.

The World Health Organization decried Israeli attacks on its staff residence and its main warehouse in the central Gaza city of Deir el-Balah.

"WHO's staff residence in Deir el-Balah, Gaza, was attacked three times today as well as its main warehouse," the UN health agency's chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X.

Tedros said that 32 WHO staff and family members had been evacuated to the agency's office once access became possible.

The head of the UN Palestinian Refugee Agency said yesterday that its staff members as well as doctors and humanitarian workers are fainting on duty due to hunger and exhaustion, reports Reuters.

"Caretakers, including UNRWA colleagues in Gaza, are also in need of care now, doctors, nurses, journalists, humanitarians, among them, UNRWA staff are hungry. Many are now fainting due to hunger and exhaustion while performing their duties," UNRWA commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini said in a statement, shared by his spokesperson at a press briefing in Geneva.

OCHA said nearly 88 percent of the entire Gaza Strip was now either under evacuation orders or within Israeli militarised zones, forcing the population of 2.4 million into an ever-shrinking space.

Meanwhile, Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli strikes killed 15 people in the Palestinian territory yesterday, as the military expanded ground operations to the central city of Deir el-Balah.

Agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that Israeli strikes on the Al-Shati camp west of Gaza City killed at least 13 people and wounded more than 50. Bassal also said two more people were killed in Deir el-Balah.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimated that between 50,000 and 80,000 people were living in the area, which until now had been considered relatively safe. Some 30,000 were living in displacement sites.

AFP footage from central Gaza showed a large plume of smoke rising over Deir el-Balah yesterday while a surveillance drone was heard buzzing overhead.