Disease stalks hungry Gazans

Israel pounded the length of the Gaza Strip yesterday, killing families in their homes despite intensifying international calls to reduce civilian casualties from its bombardment as a surge in deadly diseases sweeps through displaced residents.

The war, now in its third month, has left besieged Gaza in ruins and killed at least 18,787 people and injured 50,897, according to Gaza's health ministry.

Ashraf al-Qudra, the spokesperson of the Health Ministry in Gaza, said at least 179 people have been killed in Israeli attacks over the past day.

A UN assessment on Tuesday showed that nearly 40,000 buildings or about 18 percent of all pre-conflict structures have been damaged or destroyed in the Gaza Strip.

Nearly 85 percent of the  population of 2.3 million has fled their homes, many sleeping rough, leaving them vulnerable to illness.

At Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, where the trauma ward has been overwhelmed with the wounded, sick babies were also crammed several to a bed in the children's ward, reports Reuters.

"A number of patients come with cases of extreme dehydration, some of which can get to the point of kidney failure or weakening kidney function," said Dr Ahmed al-Farra, head of paediatrics.

There had already been up to 30 cases of hepatitis A, which takes up to a month to incubate, he said.

The coastal strip is now facing a public health disaster due to the collapse of its health system and the spread of disease, the UN humanitarian office said.

"We've got a textbook formula for epidemics and a public health disaster," said Lynn Hastings, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said an increasing number of people in bombarded and besieged Gaza "haven't eaten for one, two or three days".

In central Rafah, in the south of the coastal enclave, 24 people were killed in an Israeli strike that hit two houses, Hamas media said yesterday.

In the occupied West Bank, which has also seen a surge in violence since October 7, the Palestinian Authority said 11 people were killed in Israeli strikes in the city of Jenin.

Despite international condemnation, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed that "nothing could stop" his country from continuing the war until it achieves victory against Hamas.

Meanwhile, Israel's Defence Minister Yoav Gallant during a meeting with US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, who is visiting Israel, said that the fight in Gaza would "last more than several months", according to his office.

"It will require a period of time -- it will last more than several months, but we will win and we will destroy them,"  he reportedly told Sullivan.

According to a US intelligence assessment reported by CNN, about 40-45 percent of the 29,000 air-to-ground munitions Israel has used have been unguided and the rest have been precision-guided munitions.

Fears of the conflict spreading in a volatile region remain.

A tanker in the Red Sea off Yemen's coast was fired on by gunmen in a speedboat and targeted with missiles, maritime sources said on Wednesday.

It is the latest incident to threaten the vital shipping lane after Yemeni Houthi forces, which are backed by Iran, warned ships not to travel to Israel.