PEOPLE IN GAZA “feel that nobody is paying attention”, as another 10 people were killed by Israel today in Khan Yunis.

There are 2.1 million Palestinians in Gaza who are progressively being squeezed into a smaller amount of land as the bombardment continues.

The United Nations has decried the impact of ongoing strikes on civilians, finding that a large percentage of fatalities from recent strikes are children and women.

Out of 224 Israeli strikes between 18 March and 9 April 2025, 36 strikes killed women and children exclusively.

John White, Deputy Director of the United Nations Relief Work Agency (UNRWA), said it’s been difficult to remain hopeful after the two-month ceasefire ended on 18 March.

“As international staff we have to give hope to these people where there is very little hope on the ground, and we are committed to doing so … we’re not naive.

He told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland that the situation is “almost overwhelming” and “entirely unprecedented”.

“There’s 2.1 million people relying on us and the international humanitarian system to help them at what is their darkest hour. And for sure, they feel alone in the world. They feel that nobody is paying attention.

In spite of this being almost live-streamed on a daily basis, nothing has changed.

Asked whether political gestures such as recognising Palestine as a state make any difference, he said it’s a “good question”.

He said, however, that UNRWA supports any move that advances the peace process.

“We’ve seen during the ceasefire what could be achieved: literally thousands of drugs were brought in to Gaza – more than 4000 on a weekly basis. And that can easily be done once there is dialogue, once there is a commitment to trying to have a stable peace.”

The 10 people killed today were all members of the same family.

The Israeli military said it was looking into the attack, adding in a separate statement that it had struck approximately 40 “terror targets” across Gaza over the past day.

Efforts to restore the truce have so far failed.

“Ten people, including seven children, were brought to the hospital as martyrs following an Israeli air strike that targeted the Farra family home in central Khan Yunis,” agency spokesperson Mahmud Bassal told AFP.

Footage of the house showed a heavily destroyed structure, with mangled concrete slabs and twisted metal strewn across the site.

Witnesses reported continuous and intensive Israeli tank fire in Khan Yunis.

The civil defence agency also reported two people killed in an Israeli strike in the Al-Atatra area in the northern city of Beit Lahia.

Early on Friday, the Israeli military issued an “urgent and serious” evacuation warning to residents of several areas east of Gaza City.

“The IDF is operating with great force in your areas to destroy terrorist infrastructure. For your safety, you must evacuate these areas immediately and move to the known shelters in western Gaza City,” Avichay Adraee, the military’s Arabic-language spokesman, said on X.

“Overnight, the troops deepened ground activity in the Morag Corridor, while continuing operational activity in the area,” a military statement said, referring to a new buffer zone between the southern cities of Rafah and Khan Yunis.

The health ministry in the Hamas-run territory said on Thursday that at least 1,522 Palestinians have been killed in the renewed Israeli operations since March 18, taking the overall death toll since the start of the war to 50,886 since war erupted on 7 October.

With reporting by – © AFP2025