At least 50 killed, missing after Israeli attack on Gaza building

More than 50 Palestinians were killed or remain missing after an Israeli air strike on a residential building in northern Gaza.
Gaza’s Health Ministry says 29 children and elderly people who died in recent days in Gaza have been registered as “starvation-related deaths”, and thousands more are at risk of starving.WHO says 94 percent of hospitals in Gaza damaged, destroyed
According to the World Health Organization:

At least 94 percent of all hospitals in Gaza are damaged or destroyed.
Only 19 of 36 hospitals remain functional, “although only partially”.
Four major hospitals have closed in the last week “due to attacks, evacuation orders, and increasing hostilities”.
Northern Gaza “has been stripped of nearly all healthcare”.
The few remaining hospitals in the south are “overwhelmed [and] at imminent risk of shutting down”.
“Hospitals must never be militarized and are #NotATarget,” the UN organisation said in a post on X, calling for an immediate ceasefire.Aid trucks into Gaza ‘too little, too late, too slow’
The number of aid trucks that Israel has allowed into Gaza is insufficient and must be expanded, a spokesperson for the German government has said

“This is far too little, too late and too slow,” the spokesperson said. “Now it’s a matter of increasing it significantly … and ensuring that these aid supplies reach the people so that the suffering in the Gaza Strip comes to an end.”Hamas welcomes international statement stressing dire situation in Gaza
Hamas has welcomed the joint statement issued by 80 countries, which affirmed that Gaza is facing “the worst humanitarian crisis” since the beginning of the Israeli aggression in October 2023.

“This position affirms the growing international rejection of the ongoing crime of genocide and ethnic cleansing perpetrated by” Israel, a Hamas statement on Telegram said.

Hamas also said the position taken requires the 80 countries to exert effective pressure to provide relief to the Palestinian people, end the crime of starvation and break the brutal siege imposed on them.UN rights office says Israeli attacks killed hundreds in houses and tents
The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) says 629 Palestinians have been killed in the last week in Gaza.

At least 358 of those were killed in attacks on houses and tents for displaced people, with children and women comprising at least 148 of the victims, it added.

“The high number of strikes on shelters, in the context of the existing destruction of infrastructure in Gaza, raises grave concerns that not all strikes were targeting military objectives,” OHCHR said.

Nine Palestinian journalists were also killed last week, making it one of the deadliest for the profession since the conflict began in October 2023, the agency added.

Although journalists have a deep sense of duty to their work, “they, too, are displaced, tired and hungry like the rest of the population of Gaza.”Nearly 1,000 film figures sign petition condemning Gaza war
More than 900 figures from the cinema world have signed an open letter denouncing “genocide” in Gaza and the movie industry’s failure to speak up about it.

The list of signatories includes the likes of Mark Ruffalo, Richard Gere and Susan Sarandon.

The petition began circulating during the buildup to the Cannes Film Festival and had garnered about 380 names, including Schindler’s List star Ralph Fiennes, when the event kicked off on May 13.

The initiative, called “Artists for Fatem”, was prompted by the killing of Palestinian photojournalist Fatima (“Fatem”) Hassouna, who was the subject of a documentary that premiered at the week in Cannes.

Hassouna, 25, was killed in an Israeli air raid along with 10 relatives in her family home in northern Gaza last month, the day after the documentary was announced as part of the ACID Cannes selection.

“As artists and cultural players, we cannot remain silent while genocide is taking place in Gaza and this unspeakable news is hitting our communities hard,” the group’s open letter states.Bombing near Gaza City kills one
One person was killed in an Israeli bombing of a house in the Shujayea neighbourhood, east of Gaza City.If you’re just joining us
Here’s a recap of some recent developments:

The Israeli army said it is preparing to demolish the occupied West Bank homes of two Palestinian men it accused of assisting in the killing of an Israeli settler earlier this month.
A number of bakeries supported by the World Food Programme are up and running again in Gaza.
Israeli operations have killed 91 Palestinians since January in the occupied West Bank’s refugee camps.
More than 50 Palestinians were killed or missing after an Israeli air raid on a residential building in the Jabalia al-Balad area of northern Gaza.
The death toll since dawn from Israeli attacks across Gaza has gone up to 28.‘Disaster’ looms in Gaza if aid blockade continues
The lack of aid in Gaza is a “disaster” that will only worsen, warns Dr Ahmed al-Farrah, Nasser Hospital’s paediatrics and obstetrics department head.

“This disaster will be dire if there is a continuation in the blocking of food supplies,” al-Farrah told Al Jazeera. “I predict there will be many victims because of food insecurity. Most people now live off food scraps of what they had in stock.”

At least 29 children and elderly people have died from “starvation-related” deaths in the Gaza Strip in recent days, the Palestinian health minister said yesterday, warning that thousands more are at risk as limited aid begins trickling into the bombarded enclave.Gaza’s needs are immense: Red Cross officer
Tommaso Della Longa of the International Federation of the Red Cross says the situation is “simply a nightmare” for people in Gaza.

“The news of aid entering the Strip is good news, but it is less than a drop in the ocean,” he said.

Longa said even if some aid trucks recently entered the enclave, it did not mean aid was delivered to people.

“Until now, people did not get anything, and we need to have a humanitarian operation that scales [with people’s needs].

“If before the conflict started, we needed 500 to 600 trucks a day in Gaza, that means that number is now doubled as the needs are immense.”