Israeli occupation forces have killed 53 Palestinians since dawn on Thursday, Al Mayadeen's correspondent reported. Seven Palestinians were martyred and several others were injured by Israeli fire near aid distribution centers north of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, our correspondent added.

He also stated that an Israeli airstrike on a house in the al-Tuffah neighborhood, east of Gaza City, killed six people and wounded several others.

The Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza reported that, in the 24 hours leading up to its latest update, the number of casualties brought to Gaza hospitals had reached 84 killed and 338 wounded Palestinians.

Gaza death toll surges past 64,000

The Ministry also noted that 401 additional fatalities had been added to the cumulative death toll after their records were completed and verified by the judicial committee responsible for documenting reports of the missing and the killed.

This brings the total number of people killed in the Israeli war on Gaza to 64,231, with 161,583 injured, since October 7, 2023. Since the resumption of the war on March 18, the number of fatalities has reached 11,699, in addition to 49,542 injuries.

On the issue of starvation, Gaza's hospitals recorded three more deaths, bringing the total number of people who have died from malnutrition to 370, including 131 children.

Meanwhile, 17 people killed and 174 wounded while seeking aid have been brought to hospitals in the enclave since dawn yesterday, bringing the total number of people killed while seeking sustenance to 2,356, with more than 17,244 wounded.

Alarm sounded on labs, blood donations

Meanwhile, the Gaza Ministry of Health warned that under the Israeli siege, medical laboratory services and blood transfusions are facing a catastrophe that puts the lives of thousands of wounded and sick people at risk.

According to the Ministry's statement, blood and plasma transfusion services for the injured and sick are at risk of completely shutting down due to a critical shortage of the essential supplies required for drawing and transporting blood.

Additionally, supplies for 65% of essential laboratory testing materials have now been depleted, severely hampering the medical teams' ability to diagnose and monitor patients, while 53% of laboratory consumables and supplies have also reached zero stock, drastically worsening the crisis and causing laboratory services to halt in most hospitals.

The report further added that essential testing supplies used in emergency rooms, intensive care units, and neonatal incubators have been completely exhausted from laboratory and blood bank stockpiles.

Adding more to the catastrophe, testing and diagnostics for infectious diseases have been unavailable since the start of the war, threatening a major epidemic outbreak and making it extremely difficult to contain infections within hospitals and health centers.

Concluding its statement, the Ministry urgently called on all international and humanitarian bodies to intervene immediately to supply the critical necessities for laboratories and blood banks and to ensure the continuation of essential health services to save the lives of thousands of patients.