Gaza, 23 June 2025 – During more than 20 months of ongoing genocide, Israeli forces have deliberately and systematically targeted Palestinian civilians and civilian infrastructure across Gaza. Homes, displacement shelters, and tents in densely populated areas have continued to be bombed; entire families have been obliterated. Starving civilians seeking humanitarian aid have been consistently attacked at distribution points. These crimes persist alongside ongoing forced displacement orders, the blockade of essential goods, and the use of starvation as a weapon of war. Medical facilities, civil defence teams, and communications infrastructure have also come under direct and repeated attack.

Israeli forces have carried out repeated mass killings against civilians in Gaza in recent weeks. Among the major attacks this month was the airstrike on 6 June 2025 on the home of photojournalist Abdulrahim Khader, killing 38 Palestinians, most of them women and children. On 18 June 2025, a strike on the Al-Zeitoun neighbourhood in Gaza City killed the entire family of Inas Farhat, including her seven children. Just two days later, on 20 June 2025, seven civilians were killed while charging their phones on Al-Labbabidi Street in Gaza City. 

According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, between October 2023 and 22 June 2025, at least 55,959 Palestinians have been killed and 131,242 injured. Between 27 May 2025 and 21 June 2025, over 450 Palestinians, including women and children, were killed while waiting for humanitarian aid, and 3,466 were injured.

On 10 June 2025, Israeli forces struck the main communications line supplying Gaza City and northern Gaza, causing a complete shutdown of internet and telecommunications services across Gaza. This attack compounded Gaza's isolation from the outside world, obstructed the coordination of humanitarian operations, and intensified the media blackout. Although services were gradually restored in parts of Gaza, connectivity remains fragile due to continued infrastructure damage and logistical challenges.

The communication blackout coincided with the launch of Israel’s military attack in Iran on 13 June 2025, which diverted global attention and allowed Israeli forces to intensify attacks on Palestinians in Gaza. During this period, civilians seeking humanitarian aid at distribution points were repeatedly targeted. Between 13 June and 19 June 2025, Gaza’s hospitals reported 671 deaths and 3,157 injuries, among which 55 deaths and 497 injuries were of people seeking aid.

Israel continues to impose a total siege on Gaza, obstructing the entry of food, medicine, fuel, medical supplies, and international medical missions, all of which exacerbate the suffering of the sick and wounded. Over 10,000 hospital patients, including 4,000 children, remain in urgent need of medical evacuation. The healthcare system, particularly in areas receiving high numbers of displaced people, is on the verge of total collapse due to the high number of casualties, especially near aid distribution points, and the depletion of medical supplies and fuel. On 18 June 2025, the Palestinian Ministry of Health warned that hospital services would be forced to completely shut down soon unless international agencies were able to supply Gaza’s hospitals. Fuel shortages have brought critical services across Gaza to a halt, including hospital services, water supplies, sewage systems, and refuse collection. This signals a worsening health catastrophe and the potential outbreak of diseases and epidemics, especially in overcrowded displacement camps infested with insects and rodents. Municipalities in Gaza and the central governorates have announced a total shutdown of their essential services. Meanwhile, Israeli forces continue to target civil defence teams, bringing the death toll among emergency responders to 121 as of 22 June 2025.

Israel has further escalated its use of starvation as a weapon of war. The blockade and a militarized aid mechanism have turned distribution points into death traps, where civilians are routinely targeted. People simply seeking food risk being killed. Malnutrition is rapidly increasing, especially among children. The Ministry of Health has confirmed the deaths of 60 Palestinian children due to starvation. The spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Jeremy Laurence, said: “Palestinians have been presented the grimmest of choices: die from starvation or risk being killed while trying to access the meagre food that is being made available through Israel’s militarized humanitarian assistance mechanism. This militarized system endangers lives and violates international standards on aid distribution.”

On 18 June 2025, Dr. Ahmad Al-Farra, Director of Paediatrics and Maternity at the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, stated: “We may soon begin losing the lives of hundreds of premature and newborn babies in the neonatal units of Nasser Hospital due to the complete lack of infant formula. This milk is unavailable in hospitals, in markets, or even through international agencies. These infants have no time – and no voice.”

New displacement orders were recently issued in the North Gaza Governorate, Gaza City, and Khan Younis, forcing thousands into increasingly overcrowded areas without food, clean water, or basic sanitation. Many displaced families had cultivated farmland under siege conditions, but repeated displacement has destroyed crops and livelihoods, pushing more families into hunger and poverty.

Simultaneously, Israeli naval forces have escalated their attacks on Gaza’s fishermen, destroying fishing boats and equipment and enforcing a maritime siege. On 16 June 2025, Israeli forces killed one fisherman, seriously injured another, and a third remains missing off Gaza’s coast.

On 21 June 2025, the Palestinian Ministry of Education and Higher Education began administering high school (tawjihi) exams across Palestine. While more than 50,000 students inside the country and 2,000 abroad participated, students in Gaza were excluded for the second consecutive year due to the ongoing Israeli genocide.

Al Mezan strongly condemns Israel's escalating attacks on Gaza. The continued mass killings, destruction of civilian infrastructure, deliberate starvation, and communication blackout are deepening the already catastrophic humanitarian crisis. Al Mezan warns that the Israeli government is exploiting regional conflict to commit atrocities with impunity and without international oversight.

Al Mezan calls on the international community to fulfil their legal obligations and take immediate action to halt the ongoing genocide. Decisive steps must be taken to end the Israeli siege on Gaza, prevent the use of collective punishment and starvation as weapons of war, and compel Israel to comply with the provisional measures issued by the International Court of Justice aimed at preventing genocide.

Al Mezan further urges urgent efforts to enable relevant humanitarian agencies – particularly the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) – to resume lifesaving operations. Protecting ciaid andives in Gaza requires lifting the siege, ensuring the continuous flow of humanitarian aid, and activating effective accountability mechanisms to guarantee that perpetrators of war crimes do not go unpunished.