The Israel Defence Forces ( IDF) claimed they had conducted a “precise strike” on a “terrorist” headquarters adjacent to a hospital. On October 6th nearby Jabalia, a refugee camp, was surrounded by an armoured division.

There was no official response from the Israeli government, a day after the United States threatened consequences if it didn’t let more relief into Gaza within 30 days.

Dozens of NGOs accuse the Israeli army of forcibly displacing, starving and exterminating 400,000 Palestinians under the guise of ‘evacuation orders’

The novelist Howard Jacobson has argued that too much press coverage of dead Palestinian children is a new form of “blood libel” against Jews.

Israel has allowed almost no food aid into north Gaza for two weeks. Humanitarian groups say it leaves 400,000 people with the choice of eventual starvation or fleeing their homes to the south.

Israel must not implement a “policy of starvation” in Gaza, the US warned its ally on Wednesday, saying such an outcome would be horrific. Washington is stepping up pressure on Israel as it encircles parts of northern Gaza and ramps up attacks in what observers fear is a siege aimed at starving Hamas fighters into submission.

Israel launched a new offensive in northern Gaza earlier this month, making it even more difficult to get aid in, and the UN’s human rights office warns that the IDF “appears to be cutting off North Gaza completely.