ISRAELI strikes on the Gaza Strip killed at least 23 people yesterday, including a family of 10, local health officials said. 

The strike, in the southern city of Khan Younis, killed five children, four women and a man from the same family, all of whom suffered severe burns, according to Nasser Hospital, which received the bodies. 

Strikes in northern Gaza killed 13 people, including nine children, according to the Indonesian Hospital.

Israel ended its ceasefire with Hamas last month and renewed its bombardment, killing hundreds of people and seizing large parts of the territory.

The Israeli military claims it avoids harming civilians and blames their deaths on Hamas because it operates in residential areas. There was no immediate comment on the latest strikes.

The United Nations meanwhile has raised an alarm over the mounting impact of Israel’s six-week-old blockade, which is preventing all food and other supplies from entering the territory.

The UN humanitarian office, known as OCHA, said almost all of Gaza’s more than 2 million people now rely for food on the only 1 million prepared meals produced daily by charity kitchens supported by aid groups.

Other food distribution programmes have shut down for lack of supplies, with the UN and other aid groups sending remaining stocks to the charity kitchens.

“The Gaza Strip is now likely facing the worst humanitarian crisis in the 18 months since the escalation of hostilities in October 2023,” Ocha said.

Most people in Gaza are now down to one meal a day, said Shaina Low, a spokesperson for the Norwegian Refugee Council. “It’s far lower than what is needed,” she said.

Omar Shatat, an official with a local water utility, said people have access to six or seven litres per day, well below even the emergency level of 15 litres that the UN estimates is needed to meet minimal needs.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz admitted on Wednesday that preventing humanitarian aid is one of the “central pressure tactics” being used against Hamas, which Israel accuses, without evidence, of siphoning off aid to maintain its rule.

In neighbouring Lebanon, the country’s military said it has detained a group of people linked to firing rockets into Israel last month.

In a statement issued late on Wednesday night, the army said it had detained several people, including a number of Palestinians, who were involved in firing rockets in two separate attacks toward Israel in late March that triggered intense Israeli air strikes on parts of Lebanon.