Gaza's humanitarian crisis deepened on Monday as authorities reported rising fatalities from the Israeli aggression and aid groups warned that new Israeli restrictions could cut off life-saving assistance to hundreds of thousands of people. Gaza's health ministry said 12 Palestinians, including four newly reported deaths, were brought to hospitals over the past 48 hours, along with seven injured people, raising the number of fatalities recorded since the ceasefire to 405. The ministry said the overall death toll since the war began on Oct. 7, 2023, had reached 70,937, with 171,192 people wounded. It added that four people died after a building collapsed, bringing the number of victims killed in weather-related collapses during a recent low-pressure system to 15. Gaza's civil defence said the remains of Palestinians killed during more than two years of fighting are increasingly being discovered across the territory as destruction spreads. Civil defence spokesperson Mahmoud Bassal said in a recorded statement that workers recovered the remains of an unidentified Palestinian on Monday from the courtyard of the Baptist Hospital in eastern Gaza City during excavation work. It was the second such discovery at the site in two days, after remains were found there on Sunday. Bassal said similar findings have become common, with residents uncovering skulls and other human remains while digging near their homes or carrying out agricultural work. Many of the remains cannot be identified due to the lack of DNA testing equipment in Gaza, he added, calling on the international community to help establish the identities of the dead. Concern has also grown among humanitarian organisations operating in the territory. Doctors Without Borders said on Monday that new Israeli procedures for registering international organisations working in Gaza and the occupied West Bank could seriously disrupt humanitarian operations. The group warned that the rules, which could lead to the revocation of registrations from Jan. 1, risk leaving hundreds of thousands of people without access to life-saving healthcare by 2026. Separately, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) said it has faced a coordinated disinformation campaign for more than two years aimed at dismantling the agency, describing the effort as unprecedented. In a post on X late on Sunday, UNRWA rejected claims that it perpetuates Palestinian refugee status, saying refugees remain refugees in the absence of a just and lasting political solution. The agency warned that dismantling UNRWA would not end refugeehood but would instead hit the poorest Palestinians hardest, particularly those living in camps who rely on the agency for basic services such as education and healthcare. On the political front, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said in Damascus that Ankara expects the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement to begin at the start of the new year, according to Reuters. Meanwhile, the head of the World Health Organization warned that more than 100,000 children and 37,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women in Gaza could suffer from acute malnutrition by April 2026. He said efforts to avert famine remain extremely fragile after more than two years of war and a tightened Israeli blockade that has restricted access to food, medical supplies and other essential goods.
