Fierce street fighting and Israeli bombardment continue in Rafah a day after tanks rolled into the centre of the southern Gaza city sheltering hundreds of thousands of civilians. Israeli strikes kill at least 37 Palestinians, most in tents.

      Israel’s military says it seized control of the entire length of Gaza’s border with Egypt – known as the Philadelphi Corridor – signalling it has deepened its ground invasion despite international condemnation.

      The war on Gaza could last another seven months to achieve “the destruction of Hamas’s power”, Israel’s National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi says.

      Israel’s air force bombs and kills two paramedics with the Palestine Red Crescent Society as they attempted to rescue wounded people in Tal as-Sultan, west of Rafah.

      At least 36,171 Palestinians have been killed and 81,420 wounded in Israel’s war on Gaza since October 7. The death toll in Israel from Hamas’s attack is at least 1,139 with dozens of people still held captive in Gaza.

      ‘Genocide by attrition’: Int’l community must end Israel’s ‘man-made famine’ in Gaza

      A legal think tank focused on the global prevention of genocide has reiterated its condemnation of Israel’s use of “starvation as a weapon war”, pointing out that man-made famine is known as “genocide by attrition”.

      The US-based Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention said that engineering a famine to “weaken or destroy a group” is a genocidal act.

      “We are devastated that innocent civilians, including thousands of children, have already lost their lives in a situation that has been – and continues to be – predictable and preventable,” the institute said on social media.

      “We call on the international community to end the blockade of humanitarian aid entering into Gaza and to initiate a permanent ceasefire throughout Israel and Palestine,” it said.

      Children suffer ‘acute malnutrition’ as Israeli blockade slashes aid to Gaza: UN report

      Many women and children were reported among the 121 Palestinians killed and 394 injured in Israeli attacks on Gaza between Monday and Wednesday afternoon, according to the latest situation report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

      OCHA also reports that the flow of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip has plummeted by almost 70 percent since May 7, and what was entering the Palestinian territory prior to that date was “already insufficient to meet the soaring needs”.

      Since mid-January, more than 93,000 Palestinian children aged between six months and under five years have been screened for malnutrition, OCHA reports, with 7,280 diagnosed with acute malnutrition, including 1,676 with severe acute malnutrition.