Gaza City, July 8, 2025 — At least 78 Palestinians were killed in Israeli airstrikes across the Gaza Strip since dawn, as relentless bombardment continues to batter the besieged enclave, reported by Al Jazeera News. Among the dead are war-displaced civilians sheltering in tents, targeted in what witnesses describe as indiscriminate missile attacks.
The new wave of violence has pushed Gaza’s death toll to a staggering 57,575, with another 136,879 wounded since the war began, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The civilian death toll continues to climb amid Israeli operations that show no sign of abating. More than 200 people remain held captive in Gaza following the October 7, 2023 attacks, which killed 1,139 people in Israel.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) has voiced deep alarm over the deteriorating conditions, with its Commissioner-General, Philippe Lazzarini, condemning the humanitarian aid distribution system now in place under the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). Speaking at the Caux Democracy Forum, Lazzarini accused Israel of “weaponising humanitarian assistance” and warned that “nowhere [in Gaza] is safe.”
He described the GHF as a deeply flawed mechanism that has replaced the previously United Nations-led effort, forcing desperate civilians to traverse miles in blistering heat and stand for hours in fenced enclosures to receive basic aid — only to be met with violence. “They are shot at,” Lazzarini stated grimly. “Hundreds have been killed and injured while waiting for food and water.”
UNRWA itself has suffered catastrophic losses, with over 320 staff members killed and the vast majority of its buildings reduced to rubble. Lazzarini called the situation “a moral failure” and warned that without international accountability, the world risks setting a “dangerous precedent.”
In the same breath, he urged global leaders to champion a “meaningful political pathway” to address what he termed the “longstanding question of Palestine.”
Meanwhile, tensions in the broader region continue to simmer. In the Red Sea, Yemen’s Houthi rebels struck another commercial vessel with rocket-propelled grenades — the second such incident in as many days — threatening vital shipping lanes.
Amid this regional turmoil, former U.S. President Donald Trump met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House. Both leaders touted a controversial proposal to resettle Palestinians into neighboring countries — a plan critics denounce as forced displacement.
As Gaza plunges further into chaos, the international community faces mounting pressure to act — not only to halt the bloodshed but to restore the principles of humanitarian law that now lie buried beneath the rubble.
