When Israel launched its war on Gaza, following the October 7, 2023 cross-border attack by Hamas — which killed at least 1,200 people — it declared two objectives: the destruction of Hamas and the release of the 251 hostages taken by the Palestinian militant group. Twenty-two months later, both goals remain largely unmet. Hamas is far from being destroyed. Of the hostages, 148 were released and 56 bodies returned during two short ceasefires — in November 2023, and between January and March 2025. Israeli troops rescued eight hostages, while around 50 remain in captivity.

On the other side, Israel’s war has devastated Gaza, a 365 sq. km territory, home to 2.3 million people, sandwiched between Israel and the Mediterranean Sea. At least 64,000 Palestinians have been killed since the war began — that is 2.8% of Gaza’s entire population. Of the dead, more than 18,000 are children. Thousands more remain missing. More than 1,60,000 people, over 7% of Gaza’s population, have been wounded. These figures make Gaza one of the deadliest battlefields in the 21st century. Nearly the entire population of Gaza has been displaced, most of it multiple times. Since March, when the second ceasefire collapsed, Israel has tightened its blockade of the enclave, triggering a mass starvation crisis. On August 22, 2025, a UN body officially declared a famine in Gaza.

According to the UN, at least 1,300 Palestinians were shot dead at aid centres while seeking food since May. Dozens of children have died from starvation and malnutrition. The scale of death, starvation and displacement has intensified accusations that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has rejected these charges, insisting that Israel is fighting Hamas. Efforts to reach a ceasefire have stalled, as there is no consensus on the “day after” in Gaza. Hamas demands a full Israeli withdrawal, while Mr. Netanyahu insists on “total victory”. As the war grinds on, the suffering in Gaza deepens, with no end in sight.

Palestinian man Moein Abu Odeh searches for clothes through the rubble of a house destroyed in the Israeli military offensive, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, on November 18, 2024
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Israeli military strikes across the Gaza Strip killed 20 Palestinians on Monday (November 18, 2024), including six persons who were killed in attacks on tents housing displaced families, medics said.

Four persons, two of them children, were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a tent encampment in the coastal area of Al-Mawasi, designated as a humanitarian zone, while two were killed in temporary shelters in the southern city of Rafah and another in drone fire, health officials said.

Also read | Gaza civil defence says 30 dead after Israeli air strike

In Beit Lahiya town in northern Gaza, medics said an Israeli missile struck a house, killing at least two persons and wounding several others. On Sunday, medics and residents said dozens of people were killed or wounded in an Israeli airstrike on a multi-floor residential building in the town.

The Israeli military, which has been fighting Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza since October 2023, said it conducted strikes on “terrorist targets,” in Beit Lahiya.

An Israeli airstrike on a house in Gaza City killed seven persons and wounded 10 others, medics said. Later on Monday, an Israeli air strike killed four persons in the Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip, they added.

There has been no Israeli comment on Monday’s incidents.

The Gaza Health Ministry said Israeli military strikes had killed 76 Palestinians across the enclave in the past 24 hours.

In Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, relatives of Palestinians killed in an Israeli airstrike on tents housing displaced families sat beside bodies wrapped in blankets and white shrouds to pay farewell before walking them to graves.

Child malnutrition growing, hospital director says

“My brother wasn’t the only one; many others have been martyred in this brutal way — children torn to pieces, civilians shredded. They weren’t carrying weapons or even know ‘the resistance’, yet they were ripped apart into fragments,” said Mohammed Aboul Hassan, who lost his brother in the attack.

“We remain steadfast, patient, and resilient, and by the will of God, we will never falter. We will stay steadfast and patient,” he told Reuters.

The Israeli army sent tanks and soldiers into Beit Lahiya and the nearby towns of Beit Hanoun and Jabalia, the largest of the Gaza Strip’s eight historic refugee camps, early last month in what it said was a campaign to fight Hamas militants waging attacks and prevent them from regrouping.

Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya, said the hospital was under siege by Israeli forces and the World Health Organization had been unable to deliver supplies of food, medicine and surgical equipment.

Cases of malnutrition among children were increasing, he said, and the hospital was operating at a minimal level.

“We receive daily distress calls, but we are unable to assist them due to the lack of ambulances, and the situation is catastrophic,” he said. “Yesterday, I received a distress call from women and children trapped under the rubble, and due to my inability to help them, they are now among the martyrs (dead).”

Israel said it had killed hundreds of militants in the three northern areas, which residents said was cut off from Gaza City, making it difficult and dangerous for them to flee. The armed wings of Hamas and militant group Islamic Jihad said they have killed many Israeli soldiers in anti-tank rocket and mortar fire attacks during the same period.

The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 43,800 people have been confirmed killed since the war erupted on Oct. 7, 2023. Hamas militants killed around 1,200 people in attacks on communities in southern Israel that day, and hold dozens of some 250 hostages they took back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.