Famine, massacres, and relentless strikes turning Gaza to 'wasteland'
Hospitals in Gaza report mounting casualties and shortages as Israeli strikes, famine, and mass displacement leave Palestinians in urgent need of aid and shelter.
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Palestinians inspect the rubble of a residential building after an Israeli military strike in Gaza City, Sunday, Sept. 14, 2025 (AP)
Hospitals received the bodies of 68 martyrs and 346 injuries in 24 hours, the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza announced in its daily report on Sunday. Many victims remain trapped beneath debris and along roads, unreachable due to continued bombardment.
Since October 7, 2023, as of September 14, 2025, the death toll of the Israeli genocide in Gaza has surged to 64,871 Palestinians, in addition to 164,610 injured.
Since March 18, 2025, the total toll has risen to 12,321 killed and 51,569 wounded.
Moreover, as the Israeli-made famine ravages Gaza, 10 starved Palestinians were killed and over 18 were injured since early morning while trying to receive aid at designated "aid distribution sites" and were later transported to hospitals, as per the Ministry's report.
The total number of Palestinians killed while seeking food aid in designated distribution zones has now climbed to 2,494, with more than 18,135 others wounded, according to the report.
The report added that the death toll from starvation and malnutrition in the besieged Strip, with the death of two Palestinians, has risen to at least 422, among them 145 children.
Israeli genocide ongoing
At least 48 Palestinians were killed on Sunday in relentless Israeli bombardment across the Gaza Strip, including 23 in Gaza City alone, marking one of the deadliest escalations since the Israeli genocide began on October 7, 2023.
Al Mayadeen's correspondent reported that since early morning, at least 12 strikes have targeted residential buildings, shelters, and high-rise towers across western Gaza City.
In southern Gaza City, Israeli warplanes struck Al-Kawthar Tower, the city’s oldest residential high-rise in Tal al-Hawa, with five missiles, leveling the building. Another strike hit the nearby Mhanna Tower, while an additional residential block was bombed, leaving multiple casualties. Al-Quds Hospital reported receiving 12 bodies and 77 wounded since morning.
Videos circulating on social media capture the moment Israeli occupation forces bombed and destroyed Al-Kawthar Tower in #GazaCity.
— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) September 14, 2025
The tower, according to #AlMayadeen's correspondent, is the oldest tower in Gaza City, and "Israel" destroyed it with five highly explosive… pic.twitter.com/MpH5NJyAy4
Israeli jets also destroyed the Greek Orthodox School and its church in Gaza City. Near Al-Shifa Hospital, one Palestinian was killed and others were injured when a civilian vehicle was targeted. Further west, an airstrike hit the Bakr family’s guesthouse on Aydiyah Street, while drone strikes injured several people in the al-Tuffah neighborhood.
لحظة قصف الاحتلال الإسرائيلي بنايةً سكنيةً بجوار مدرسة بطريركية الروم الأرثوذكس في حيّ تلّ الهوى، جنوب غربي مدينة غزة.#الميادين pic.twitter.com/47IYqxGRC7
— قناة الميادين (@AlMayadeenNews) September 14, 2025
The bombardment extended to the Islamic University, where a building sheltering forcibly displaced families was demolished. Israeli occupation forces then launched a second strike on the Islamic University building in western Gaza City after Palestinians had gathered following the first attack, causing a massacre.
لحظة قصف طيران الاحتلال مبنى في الجامعة الإسلامية بمدينة غزة. pic.twitter.com/4ylfCbM36k
— شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) September 14, 2025
In the central Gaza Strip, at least two people were killed and others were wounded in a strike near the market in the al-Maghazi refugee camp.
As heavy Israeli artillery fire also pounded Khan Younis in the south, one Palestinian was killed near Abu Hamid Square amid Israeli shelling and gunfire. In northern Rafah, four starved Palestinians were killed and 25 others wounded as they waited for humanitarian aid.
Most violent strikes since October 7
Al Mayadeen’s correspondent described today’s attacks as the most violent since October 7, noting intense shelling in Tal al-Hawa aimed at accelerating forcible displacement. Strikes also targeted Gaza City’s al-Zaytoun and al-Shujaiyya neighborhoods, as well as several western districts.
In Deir al-Balah, central Gaza, an Israeli airstrike on a tent sheltering forcibly displaced civilians killed six people, including women and children, according to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.
It is worth noting that Israeli airstrikes on Saturday demolished three UNRWA-run schools in Gaza City, forcing thousands of forcibly displaced Palestinians to flee again after months of bombardment, according to Anadolu.
Witnesses said the attacks targeted the Sit Sura, Al-Alya, and Shaheiber schools in Gaza’s al-Shati' refugee camp, where many Palestinians had been sheltering after escaping earlier strikes.
Gaza’s Nasser Hospital warns it can’t cope with new influx of wounded
Doctors and staff at Gaza’s largest remaining hospital warn they will be unable to handle an influx of patients if hundreds of thousands of Palestinians flee the north amid an escalating Israeli genocide, The Guardian reported.
Dr Mohammed Saqr, director of nursing at the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, said the facility is already stretched, with too few staff and dwindling medicine and fuel supplies.
“We have been working for more than 23 months in an emergency situation so we are all exhausted,” Saqr said in a voice note from the hospital on Friday. “Some of us are still in Israeli jails and others were killed inside the hospital and outside and others had to leave [the] Gaza Strip to escape death, so our numbers are not like before the war.”
Gaza is a "wasteland"
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) warned on Sunday that the Gaza Strip is turning into a “wasteland” amid an intensifying Israeli genocide.
“#Gaza is being completely obliterated. It's becoming a wasteland, and seems to become more and more unfit for human living.” - @UNLazzarini
— UNRWA (@UNRWA) September 14, 2025
Children are starving.
Families are forcibly displaced.
People are terrified.
With the large-scale Israeli military operation happening… pic.twitter.com/hjIrlIx8NG
In a post on X, the agency said: “Gaza is being completely obliterated. It’s becoming a wasteland, and seems to become more and more unfit for human living.”
It added: “Children are starving. Families are forcibly displaced. People are terrified,” stressing that as the large-scale assault continues, “political will and decision-making is needed more than ever.”